Disney fanatics are excited for Raya and the Last Dragon, the newest Disney “princess” movie. But since the release of the trailer n October people were quick to draw comparisons between the movie and the Avatar: The Last Airbender series.
Raya and the Last Dragon, due out in March of 2021, features Star Wars actress Kelly Marie Tran as the titular character. The film takes place in Kumandra, a fantasy world, where the warrior Raya must find the last remaining dragon to save her kingdom. Upon the trailer’s debut, fans immediately took to social media and pointed out the many similarities between it and Avatar. These posts mostly compare young Raya and Korra, older Raya and Katara as the painted lady, and the mysterious masked man and the Blue Spirit.
Many fans point out the similarities out of a place of excitement and proclaim their eagerness to see Raya and the Last Dragon. However, others claim that the movie is a direct ripoff of the Avatar series.
While fans may mean no offense in drawing these comparisons, they actually do more harm than good; yes, the movie and the show are similar because they are based off of the same cultures. One is not a ripoff. They are not the same exact stories. Another instance of this phenomenon happening was when fans compared The Book of Life to Disney’s Coco back in 2017. Fans claimed the two movies were too similar, and the fact that Disney tried to trademark the phrase “Día de los Muertos” during the time didn’t exactly help the company’s case. Both movies feature a boy with a guitar who feels estranged by his family and seeks the help of his ancestors to return to the land of the living. They’re the exact same story, right? No, they just share some plot elements and are lovingly based on Mexican culture.
Picture this: a brave warrior must travel the land and fight monsters to help a princess. This could be The Legend of Zelda, The Witcher, The Princess Bride, Super Mario Bros., Shrek, and about half of the animated Disney princess movies, just to name a few. However everyone can agree that these stories are their own entities. Most of these movies, shows, video games, and books draw heavy inspiration from European cultures, but there is hardly controversy of whether one story is a ripoff of the other. On the other hand, the clash between Disney and Avatar fans brings to light how there is very little good representation of Southeast Asian cultures in Western media. Avatar was revolutionary in bringing a show that featured a variety of cultures, including that of the Inuits, to audiences, however it did not create these ideas. The concept of a brown girl with dark hair and blue clothing was not invented by Avatar, just like how the concept of elves, kingdoms, and magic spells was not invented by Lord of the Rings.
It’s important that there isn’t just one movie about Día de los Muertos or just one show that features Southeast Asian cultures. More than one is allowed to exist. To put the first culturally significant project on a pedestal and brush off anything else that takes inspiration from the same source inhibits diverse storytelling. Hundreds of stories have been told of chosen heroes slaying dragons, and we can also have hundreds of stories of brown girls with giant animal companions saving the world.
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