Binary System Podcast – Watch Party #31 – Raya and the Last Dragon

This week’s Watch Party is another mini-edition as Elizabeth and Kathryn sat down to watch Raya and the last Dragon.

(Warning: many many spoilers below.)

Kathryn
Ready to hit play!

Elizabeth
Playing!

Kathryn
Playing

Different

Elizabeth
Very

Kathryn
Who’s this actress?

Elizabeth
Don’t know, sounds familiar as heck though

Kellie Tran, Rose from Star Wars!

That little guy is the cutest freaking thing

Kathryn
So cute!

Is there a type of steampunk that’s mostly stone?

Elizabeth
Good question, I bet it has a name. Templepunk?

Kathryn
Oo, I like that

Elizabeth
It’s funny, the very earnest parts of a Disney movie are sort of my least favorite?

Kathryn
Kinda. Good expression work on the animation tho’

Elizabeth
Very, the details in this palace are pretty amazing too

Yay land of angry cats!

Kathryn
Of course she makes friends with someone from the land of angry cats

Elizabeth
Heh, bring on the angry cats!

Uh oh

Bets this is gonna go bad?

Kathryn
Uh oh, I sense this will cause problems

Elizabeth
Jinx

And there we go

Kathryn
I like that sword

Elizabeth
same!

Kathryn
Yikes

Gaah, Disney being Disney with the Dad.

Elizabeth
I mean he was already a single dad so that’s on brand for Disney

Kathryn
Jeez, 6 years

I wonder why that specific pose for the statues.

Elizabeth
Same here, maybe agonized fear was too dark for Disney?

I love that armadillo creature

Kathryn
Armadillo or anthropomoephic pillbug?

Elizabeth
Why not both?

Awkwafina is the voice of Sisu, but I’m less famliar with her

Kathryn
I am so enjoying the dragon’s expressions

Elizabeth
Yes!

CATS

Kathryn
Hee. So awkward

Elizabeth
I love her

Putting her in the big hat was a stroke of genius

Kathryn
“Look how close my butt is to my head!”

Elizabeth
Look how close my butt is to my head!

Jinx!

Hahah the farting noise from the bugs

Kathryn
So smarmy

Elizabeth
Yay dragon escape

Can’t tell you how much I want to have a cat steed

Kathryn
Same

Or a dragon best friend

“It’s haaaat.”

Elizabeth
hee

Kathryn
Message folks, here’s the message, make sure you don’t miss the message.

I love boat cities!

Elizabeth
Yay water market!!!

Kathryn
Trap!

Elizabeth
SERIOUSLY THAT’S A TRAP

Kathryn
Credit is a poisonous concept

Elizabeth
THIS IS ALSO A TRAP

Awww.

Kathryn
Cute

Elizabeth
Adorbs

Kathryn
Yikes, scary innocent old lady

Elizabeth
Oops

Kathryn
Fog!

Elizabeth
POOF

Kathryn
Especially babies!

Elizabeth
Here’s the message folks..

Cat land!

Kathryn
Definitely a video game kind of plot

“I can see how that makes me look like a liar.”

Hey, it’s Wong!

Elizabeth
Oh yay!

Aw, he’s the only one left

Heh, Princess Undercut

Kathryn
Yay

Elizabeth
GET EM DRAGON

They’re all thinking “…..this changes thing…”

Kathryn
Oooooo!

Elizabeth
So fun!

Kathryn
Water dancing in the sky!

Elizabeth
So cool, keeping to the myth that asian dragons don’t have wings

Heist music!

Kathryn
Hee. Rashamon-type planning.

Elizabeth
Hahahah “Best Friends Forever!”

Kathryn
So who are the statues we saw earlier.

Elizabeth
All the other dragons?

yep

Kathryn
The imagery is just stunning.

Elizabeth
Really lovely

Kathryn
The story’s definitely following a lot of the usual Disney beats.

Elizabeth
Yep, but with dragons and cats, so I’m good

Teeny baby mob, what a delightfully random choice

Kathryn
Super appealing squad.

Aw crap

Elizabeth
Eep, pause a sec

Elizabeth
Rewind a few seconds? I hit the space bar and somehow turned the subtitles on

Kathryn
Hang on

Sorry, paused at a really good image

Elizabeth
Hee

Kathryn

sisu 

Elizabeth
Awwwww

Kathryn
Lemmie rewind.

1:16:32

Elizabeth
Perfect.

Playing!

Kathryn
Playing

Elizabeth
I reiterate that “crap”

Kathryn
AAAAAAAA

Elizabeth
OH NO!!!!

Kathryn
Eep, this is bad

Elizabeth
Raya is out for blood

Kathryn
The cinematography man, knocking it out of the park

Elizabeth
Oh dear that’s namari’s mom

That baby is stupid cute

Uh, no she’s not.

Kathryn
I think Namaia has a little bit more in the blame department

Elizabeth
I mean yes taking responsibility but clearly Namari is a lying liar

Surprisingly nightmarish for a disney film

Kathryn
MESSAGE FOLKS

Elizabeth
Heh

But man that image of all the dragons handing her the gem is so pretty

Kathryn
So very very pretty

Now this is a very interesting storytelling choice.

Elizabeth
Getting choked up here

Yay!!

Kathryn
Wheeeeeee!

That long pause with the statues of the main characters and NO SOUND was super powerful.

Elizabeth
Yes!

Sort of echoes of Endgame after the blip idnit?

Kathryn
Quite

Elizabeth
YAY ALL THE DRAGONS

Kathryn
Hooray!!

I adore the way Sissu grins when she talks.

Elizabeth
“Not that hungry”

Awww, his town

Kathryn
All their towns!

Elizabeth
Hahah,. and that baby’s mom’s gonna have a handful on her hands

Kathryn
Right?

Heh. Came a long way to loop back to the beginning, didn’t we?

Elizabeth
Right??

Kathryn
Sweet!

Elizabeth
Woo!!

Music video time!

Kathryn
Wonder if they have an end credit scene?

Elizabeth
Hmm

Wouldn’t put it past em

Kathryn
Always worth it to watch the credits of a Disney movie, they always put some nifty music to them.

Elizabeth
Seriously

Kathryn
Hee. Nathan just caught Alan Tudyk’s name in the credits.

Elizabeth
HA, no way

who’d he play? Dude’s in EVERYTHING

Kathryn
Tuck tuck

Elizabeth
AAAAA

Of course

Kathryn
Didn’t he do the voice of the chicken in Moana?

Elizabeth
Hee, I think you’re right

Kathryn
Okay, I’m gonna fast forward now.

Elizabeth
I scanned forward a bit and I don’t think they’re gonna give us a PCS

Really good music for the whole thing

Man, it’s like ten minutes of just the credit scroll

I mean, it makes sense, the effects and animator folks would be in charage of the credits too and they’d be like “oh no you DON’T just blip past us in the credits you WILL be able to read our names.”

Kathryn
Yep. Now I’m off to read some imdb trivia!