Movie review
March 3, 2021 · 107 min · PG
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
The movie keeps pushing girl power the whole way through with Raya as the tough warrior princess who leads and learns to trust a team of strong females. The story constantly lectures about trust and unity to fix the broken divided tribes and heal the world. Female friendship with Sisu the dragon and rivalries with other female warriors drive the entire plot from start to finish. Representation and empowered women are front and center in the narrative and marketing.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Raya and the Last Dragon.
Woke representation / casting
Visible marketing and production emphasis on Asian/SEA rep and strong female leads; casting naturally fits the SEA-inspired fantasy world with no mismatches or swaps.
Woke political dialogue
Occasional generic lines about trust and unity; no explicit modern activist rhetoric or identity politics speeches.
Identity-driven story themes
Core arcs center on female warrior Raya, her friendship with female dragon Sisu, rivalries with other strong women, and uniting tribes through trust/cooperation; empowerment and female bonds are recurring and central to the narrative engine.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Pure fantasy tribal division vs external evil; no modern activist framing of patriarchy, colonialism, systemic oppression, or institutional critique.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Fringe and weak; no major or sustained claims of being too woke—most pushback was progressive complaints about insufficient authenticity.
Creator track record context
Producer Osnat Shurer’s Moana pattern plus writers’ and one director’s rep/social-issue backgrounds provide supporting context for emphasis on representation and empowerment.
Production
