It’s very easy to view those differences as things that drive us apart. In responding to this critique of the pan-Southeast Asian depiction, Malyasian-born American scriptwriter Adele Lim ( Crazy Rich Asians) told Polygon: “We have so many different people in this culture space. While those cultures have and do influence one another, they are not the same and treating them as interchangeable in the creation of the fictional Kumandra perpetuates a reductive view of the region. Southeast Asia is a diverse region with many distinct cultures. Some people from the Southeast Asian and Southeast Asian American communities have understandable criticisms of this pan-Southeast Asian approach. In bringing this region of the world into its storytelling, the creative forces behind Raya and the Last Dragon went for a pan-regional strategy, which means Kumandra is not based on a specific country in Southeast Asia but rather draws from many of the distinct cultures of the region to create a fictional world. in the 1970s as refugees escaping a war and humanitarian crisis that the United States played a major role in-the conflict we call the Vietnam War. The United States has a notable Southeast Asian American population, many of whom emigrated to the U.S.

All of these countries are in a region of the world known as Southeast Asia, which has a population of over 670 million and makes up more than 8.5% of the global population.

The filmmakers drew from the cultures of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Malaysia in making the film. Of course, like How To Train Your Dragon (which has both Scottish and Norwegian influences), that doesn’t mean Kumandra isn’t based on a real place-or, in this case places. Officially, Raya and the Last Dragon takes place in Kumandra-if the dragons didn’t give it away, the setting is a fictional fantasy world. Where Does Raya and the Last Dragon Take Place? While this can be and is a slippery slope as Disney has a history of cultural appropriation and misappropriation, it is a generally positive trajectory and good news both for kids and adults who have never before seen characters who look like them in the “Disney Princess” world and for anyone who is hungry for new kinds of stories. Most Disney Princesses have hailed from Eurocentric stories and origins, but, with Southeast Asian Raya and Polynesian “Princess” Moana before her, Disney finally seems to be recognizing the wide world of real-life cultures from which they can (responsibly) draw. Raya and the Last Dragon‘s creation of a Southeast Asian-inspired fictional world 500 years since the presumed death of the last dragon isn’t without its issues, but, generally, it represents a bold new step for Disney animation when it comes to setting and authentic cultural inspiration.

The last dragon