Many people overlook Southeast Asians by grouping them in with East Asian people, which disrespects their specific culture and identity. However, most of the cast comes from East Asi a, a subregion of Asia that can be defined geographically and culturally it includes countries like China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia. There is a general lack of Southeast Asian actors in Hollywood and this movie could have been a great opportunity to change that. Although the movie is supposed to reflect Southeast Asian culture, there isn’t much Southeast Asian representation in the movie.

Some members of the Asian community feel concerned about the casting of Raya and the Last Dragon.

Though Raya and the Last Dragon has been a long-anticipated Asian-themed Disney movie, it has sparked a great fire of controversy over proper representation. The Druun have reappeared and Raya must find the last dragon, unite the five diverse clans of Kumandra, and take down the menacing beasts. The setting for the movie takes place 500 years later. The peaceful dragons rose up and managed to subdue the threat, but they paid a terrible price for victory: all but one of them died in battle. According to Kumandran lore, long ago, a group of sinister monsters, the Druun, attacked the realm. Disney d rew inspiration for this fictional place from Southeast Asian countries like Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. Raya and the Last Dragons is set in the fantasy land of Kumandra, a place where humans and dragons live together in harmony. The movie features Raya, a young heroine who fights to protect her people from a resurgence of powerful monsters. This is one example of the outrage that has followed since the premiere of Raya and the Last Dragon, an action-packed family film produced by Walt Disney Pictures.

Raya and the last dragon movie cover