49 Fun Facts About Raya and the Last Dragon

The actress who voices Raya played Rose Tico in which film franchise?

Star Wars. She played Rose Tico in the sequel trilogy, and when Raya was recast in 2020 the directors said they knew from her first recording session that she was their hero.

Who voices Raya?

Kelly Marie Tran. She took over the part in 2020 after the character was rewritten, and the studio billed Raya as its first Southeast Asian princess.

Who voices Sisu, the last dragon?

Awkwafina. Her Sisu is no dragon of legend but a self-deprecating C-student, who compares her part in saving the world to coasting through a group project.

What is the name of the fantasy land where Raya and the Last Dragon is set?

Kumandra. Its people once lived alongside dragons, but a power struggle over the Dragon Gem split them into five rival lands along a dragon-shaped river.

Chief Benja's soup, with an ingredient from each land, is modelled on which real dish?

Tom yum. Benja adds one ingredient from each land, shrimp paste from Tail and lemongrass from Talon among them, as a bowlful of his hope that the lands can be one again.

Raya's writers say her name means what in Malay?

Celebration. Malaysian-born writer Adele Lim said it evokes a joyful time when people come together, though Malay dictionaries gloss raya as 'great', as in Hari Raya, the great day.

Raya is a princess of which land?

Heart holds the Dragon Gem, guarded by Raya's father Chief Benja, who trains her as its next keeper and dreams of reuniting the lands.

The soldiers of Fang go to war alongside which giant animals?

Cats. Fang's Serlots are huge, fast and trained to attack on command, and the designers based them on two African wildcats, the serval and the caracal.

Who voices Namaari in Raya and the Last Dragon?

Gemma Chan. She voices the adult Namaari, while Jona Xiao plays the girl who bonds with Raya as a fellow dragon nerd and then betrays her that same night.

Who voices Chief Benja, Raya's father?

Daniel Dae Kim. His Benja is 'the baddest blade in the five lands', a chief who invites his rivals to a feast in the hope of reuniting them and is turned to stone that night.

What gift does young Namaari give Raya at the feast?

A dragon pendant. Namaari hands it over 'from one dragon nerd to another' just before betraying her, and years later Raya gives it back when she proposes an alliance.

What does Sisu claim is her own special magic?

Being a strong swimmer. It is a joke at her own expense: the glow she has just shown off came from a gem piece, and each new piece she touches lends her another borrowed power.

What does Benja notice repels the Druun, just before he is petrified?

Water. Benja throws Raya into the river to save her, and the weakness cuts both ways: when Sisu dies and the water drains away, the plague pours into Fang.

Which famous temple helped inspire the fortress that guards the Dragon Gem?

Angkor Wat. Like the Cambodian temple, the dome-shaped fortress is covered in intricate bas-relief carvings, here of dragons placed to protect the gem inside.

Raya's steed Tuk Tuk is named after what?

A three-wheeled taxi. Tuk-tuks are Thailand's famous motorised rickshaws, and Raya's is a vehicle too: he rolls up into a ball and she rides him at high speed like a wheel.

Which film genre inspired the look of Tail, the desert land where Raya finally summons Sisu?

Westerns. The designers called Tail the wild west of their world, and gave it red-rock canyons so that Raya would feel like a lonely wanderer in a strange land.

Sisu reveals the gem's magic actually came from whom?

Her four siblings, Amba, Pranee, Jagan and Pengu, poured their magic into the gem, and Sisu merely carried it; each recovered shard later lends her one of their powers.

Boun, the young entrepreneur who joins the quest, runs what kind of business?

A floating restaurant, the Shrimporium, serves congee from the deck of Boun's boat, which becomes the group's transport along the river.

Little Noi, the toddler con artist, was raised by which creatures?

The ongis. Part monkey, part catfish, the three took in the toddler after her family was lost, and now she distracts passers-by with her cuteness while they rob them blind.

Which actor voices Tong, the huge warrior from Spine?

Benedict Wong. His Tong looks like the fiercest warrior in Spine, giant axe and all, but he has lost his whole village and is a gentle giant with a soft spot for little ones.

Which actress voices Virana, chieftess of Fang?

Sandra Oh. Her Virana, Namaari's mother, rules by one maxim, smart decisions, not emotional ones, and hands her daughter the royal army to seize the gem pieces.

How is Sisu killed in Fang?

A misfired crossbow bolt kills her: Raya lunges at Namaari when she sees a finger tighten on the trigger, the weapon discharges in the struggle, and the bolt strikes Sisu.

At the climax of Raya and the Last Dragon, how does Raya show her faith in Namaari?

She hands over her gem piece. Raya gives Namaari her shard and lets herself be turned to stone; the others follow, and Namaari reassembles the gem before she is petrified too.

Which Degrassi star was first announced as the voice of Raya before the part was recast?

Cassie Steele. She was announced at the D23 Expo in August 2019, but a year later the part was recast: the stoic loner first planned had been rewritten with more humour and swagger.

Raya's co-director Don Hall had earlier won an Oscar for directing which animated film?

Big Hero 6. Hall was brought in to take over Raya in 2020 alongside Carlos López Estrada, a live-action director who had never made an animated film.

Raya's co-writer Adele Lim had earlier co-written which hit romantic comedy?

Crazy Rich Asians. Lim was hired to develop Raya, then joined in 2020 by playwright Qui Nguyen, who co-wrote the final screenplay and went on to write Strange World.

Which Hunger Games composer wrote the score for Raya and the Last Dragon?

James Newton Howard. He had scored three earlier Disney animated films, but said this one could not be a traditional orchestral score: it needed flutes, gongs and plucked instruments.

Who wrote and performed the end-credits song "Lead the Way"?

Jhené Aiko. She said the film meant a lot to her: she was born in 1988, a year of the dragon, has a big dragon tattoo on her back and had always dreamed of being a Disney princess.

"Gabay", recorded for a local dub of Raya and the Last Dragon, was Disney's first song in which language?

Filipino. KZ Tandingan sang it, a version of the end-credits song whose title means 'guide', and the studio's Manila office called it proof of its commitment to working with local talent.

Raya was the second film sold through Disney+ Premier Access; which remake had been the first?

Mulan. It launched the paid tier in September 2020 at $29.99 on top of a subscription, and Raya kept that price but, unlike its forerunner, opened in cinemas the same day.

Raya was the next Disney Animation feature after which sequel?

Frozen 2. After two sequels in a row the studio returned to an original story, and Raya's directors said the plan was a film that looked like no other Disney feature.

Us Again, the short shown before Raya in cinemas, tells its whole story without what?

Dialogue. An elderly couple dance through a rainy city and grow young again, the whole story told in dance and music, an idea its makers took from Fantasia.

Where was most of Raya's animation finished during 2020?

At the artists' homes over video calls. Production had barely begun in March 2020 when animators carried their computers out of the building, and the film was finished from more than 450 separate homes.

Sisu and the other dragons were inspired by which mythical beings?

The naga. These beings of Southeast Asian folklore can appear as serpents or as humans, which is why Sisu has a serpent's body, takes human form and has none of a Western dragon's bat wings.

The film's Dragon River was inspired by which real river?

The Mekong, which flows through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, shaped the Dragon River; the production team's research trips took in those countries as well as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

In the market of Talon, who lures the trusting Sisu into a trap to get the gem pieces?

A kindly old woman. Dang Hu rescues Sisu from a crowd of angry merchants, then threatens to leave her outside with the Druun unless she says where the other gem pieces are.

Which architectural style shaped the look of Fang, Namaari's homeland?

Brutalism. The designers borrowed its strong, monolithic shapes and straight angles to show how strict and rigid Fang's people are.

The snowy mountain land of Spine is covered in giant forests of which plant?

Bamboo. In Spine it is black and grows as big as redwood trees, and the co-director said a Spine warrior eats, wears, wields and lives in it.

Raya's Southeast Asia Story Trust followed the Oceanic Story Trust, set up for which earlier film?

Moana. Its makers recruited experts from across the South Pacific to vet the story, and Raya's team did the same with anthropologists, linguists, architects and martial artists.

The flashback that opens Raya and the Last Dragon gives its characters a flattened look drawn from what?

Shadow puppets. The directors chose the 2D look early as a big stylistic swing, but the sequence needed research and development well into production before it came together.

What became of the chief of Tail, whose gem piece Raya and Sisu go after first?

Caught in her own traps. Raya and Sisu find only her skeleton in the chamber she had rigged to guard her gem piece, and one of them drily admires her commitment.

Which Marvel hero did director Don Hall cite when describing Raya's added "swagger"?

Star-Lord. Hall said the team used the Guardians of the Galaxy hero as a model when Raya shifted from stoic loner to a warrior with more levity, the change that led to the part being recast.

Raya lost the Oscar for Best Animated Feature to which other film from the same studio?

Encanto. Disney Animation released both films in 2021, eight months apart, so the studio was competing against itself; it was Raya's only Oscar nomination.

Raya's sword can extend into which other kind of weapon?

A whip. A twist of the handle extends the blade so that Raya can hook onto things and swing; the designers based the sword on the kris, an ancient Indonesian dagger.

Raya's two-stick fighting style is based on which martial art?

Arnis. It shapes only her weapon work: for Raya's hand-to-hand fighting, co-writer Qui Nguyen drew on Pencak Silat and Muay Thai instead.

According to Sisu, what is the first step to winning a stranger's trust?

Bringing a gift. A gift says 'you can trust me, can I trust you?', she tells a baffled Raya, and it is her plan that later sends Raya to Namaari with a present instead of a sword.

Which Disney Animation regular voices Tuk Tuk, Raya's rolling steed?

Alan Tudyk. By Raya he had voiced a character in every Disney Animation feature since King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph, and Tuk Tuk, like his rooster Heihei, has no words at all.

With no money to shop in Talon, Sisu happily pays with which idea that Boun explains to her?

Credit. Boun calls it a promise to pay later, Sisu declares it an amazing concept and helps herself at the stalls, and she is soon surrounded by merchants demanding their money.

What colour is Sisu in her dragon form?

Blue. The designers carried elements of her dragon look over into her human disguise, so that the audience reads the awkward young woman and the dragon as one character.