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Does Raya and the Last Dragon have a future in the Disney Parks?
- Thread starter Ghost93
- Start date
I think the Asia section of Animal Kingdom is what would make the most sense for an attraction, as long as Sisu was the focus.
Thematically it could fit in Fantasyland and the World Showcase at Epcot, but I don't think there's room for expansion at either of those areas in the park. So other than Asia, I think Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom would be the only other possible area for a Raya and the Last Dragon attraction.
Dan Deesnee
Well-Known Member
I certainly hope not. The movie was poorly written, poorly voiced, and felt more like something from DreamWorks. Story was a mess, completely forgettable.
Overall I don't know a single person who saw it and liked it. It's a solid 6/10.
Overall I don't know a single person who saw it and liked it. It's a solid 6/10.
I'm surprised some people on this website seem to really hate the movie. That's totally fine if you feel that way, I just completely disagree. In comparison to Disney movies of the past decade, I personally liked Raya better than Frozen II, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Wreck-it-Ralph, Brave, Winnie the Pooh, Finding Dory, Monsters University, the Cars sequels and The Good Dinosaur. While I think Soul and Luca are probably better-written films, I enjoyed the general concept and characters and setting of RatLD more.
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
Definitely better than Ralph breaks the internet, cars 2, and monsters u.
I’d put it pretty close to good dinosaur and brave. Some beautiful animation and plenty of potential, but not really all the way there. (Same as Brother bear).
GimpYancIent
Well-Known Member
It's a good movie, entertaining, enjoyable the grandchildren loved it. Yes, a meet and greet at MK would be fun but a ride, well, the jury is out on that.
DoleWhipDrea
Well-Known Member
I really enjoyed Raya and think it's one of the best animated Disney films to come out in a while - I also enjoyed Frozen II and Luca. From what I've read, the film went through a lot of changes and had quite a few hurdles besides the pandemic. I agree with the thought that it would have done better as a series - had major Avatar (not James Cameron) vibes, which is really hard to cram into one film. But the film has a lot of good things going for it.
Unfortunately, Disney execs tend to operate in the mindset that unless a film makes them a lot of money, it's not worth promoting. Disney+ premiere access numbers, streaming numbers in general and, most importantly, merchandise sales are what they're going to want to look at first. Cars films aren't the best films to come from Pixar, but the amount of merchandise from those films that's been sold are why we've seen them get a theme park presence.
Without knowing the numbers it's difficult to know how the company really feels about the films that have come out during the pandemic. I would have liked to see new face characters out to promote the films, but with restrictions being in place to avoid up-close meet and greets, perhaps that's something Disney hasn't been comfortable debuting.
If Disney felt that Raya was a success, I would expect to see an expansion of Asia in what would essentially be a revised vision of Beastly Kingdom with a focus on the dragons, primarily Sisu, and utilizing new water effects. It would be beautiful. But it does feel like Disney hasn't really been behind the film unfortunately. I think this world would translate very well into a theme park and would be very impressive.
Truthfully, I think Luca has potentially done the best in terms of people actually watching it (in terms of the animated Disney pandemic releases.) The film is (IMHO) excellent, and from what I've seen overall well-received. I'm curious to hear about anything related to the film during the next shareholder's meeting. If it's done as well as I'm thinking it has, I think that the Italy Pavilion at EPCOT might finally get a ride in the future.
Unfortunately, Disney execs tend to operate in the mindset that unless a film makes them a lot of money, it's not worth promoting. Disney+ premiere access numbers, streaming numbers in general and, most importantly, merchandise sales are what they're going to want to look at first. Cars films aren't the best films to come from Pixar, but the amount of merchandise from those films that's been sold are why we've seen them get a theme park presence.
Without knowing the numbers it's difficult to know how the company really feels about the films that have come out during the pandemic. I would have liked to see new face characters out to promote the films, but with restrictions being in place to avoid up-close meet and greets, perhaps that's something Disney hasn't been comfortable debuting.
If Disney felt that Raya was a success, I would expect to see an expansion of Asia in what would essentially be a revised vision of Beastly Kingdom with a focus on the dragons, primarily Sisu, and utilizing new water effects. It would be beautiful. But it does feel like Disney hasn't really been behind the film unfortunately. I think this world would translate very well into a theme park and would be very impressive.
Truthfully, I think Luca has potentially done the best in terms of people actually watching it (in terms of the animated Disney pandemic releases.) The film is (IMHO) excellent, and from what I've seen overall well-received. I'm curious to hear about anything related to the film during the next shareholder's meeting. If it's done as well as I'm thinking it has, I think that the Italy Pavilion at EPCOT might finally get a ride in the future.
You need to get out more and meet more people.
Rotten Tomatoes thumbs up: 94%
Critics score (RT & Metacritic): 68%
Audience Score (RT & IMDB, 130+K reviewers): 74%
Cinemascore: A-
I like it.
Dan Deesnee
Well-Known Member
And yet it flopped, in part by bad word of mouth. I don't care what review sites say and I know very few who do. I could post 50 awful movies with great scores.
Raya 2 will never happen, no ride will ever happen, and there's a .01% chance of a meet and greet. Why? Because the movie was mediocre and the average Disney fan already forgot about it.
I dislike it.
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
How did you come to that conclusion?
Almost like it was released in the middle of a pandemic where most movies flopped.
According to Nielson, Raya was viewed at least 15.7M times during it's premium access period. Even if only half of that was one time purchases, that's $235M from D+.
In theaters Raya made $122M. During a pandemic.
So, it was not a financial flop.
And by the way, you may not know this, but announcing that things you don't like are also hated by everyone else and couldn't possibly have been profitable, doesn't make it true. Asserting that as a fact when it isn't is a lie.
Oh, by the way, once Raya was "free" on D+, it got at least 35M more views.... I guess they were all hate-watching it?
Come on, it was beaten by the Croods sequel and barely beat Tom and Jerry in domestic and worldwide box-office, including streaming. It's not that people hated the movie, just not enough people wanted to see it. It was a bomb.
Dan Deesnee
Well-Known Member
Exactly. Just Google Raya flop and you'll see a lot of industry articles talking about it being...well...a flop.
Just because you like something and say It wasn't a flop, doesn't mean it didn't flop...
ImperfectPixie
Well-Known Member
LOLOL
Telling Google to search "Raya flop" GUARANTEES you will only see articles proclaiming it a flop.
I also think Disney simply did a poor job promoting Raya. I saw the trailers because I specifically looked for them, as I had been interested in the project ever since it was announced. But with Luca, I was bombarded with YouTube ads all summer. For whatever reason, Disney made sure Luca had more pre-release buzz.
aliceismad
Well-Known Member
It amazes me how many people on this site are rabid Disney fans but don't actually like any of the media that Disney makes now.
Raya is a good movie. It's no Frozen or Moana in terms of catchiness. I'd put it as solid mid-tier Disney. I don't see a big new ride themed to Raya.
I think in the long term, Disney+ will spawn a lot of interesting concepts because it's more accessible than the "straight to DVD" movies but doesn't demand everything be a blockbuster theater release. It's a great time for new, creative ideas.
Raya is a good movie. It's no Frozen or Moana in terms of catchiness. I'd put it as solid mid-tier Disney. I don't see a big new ride themed to Raya.
I think in the long term, Disney+ will spawn a lot of interesting concepts because it's more accessible than the "straight to DVD" movies but doesn't demand everything be a blockbuster theater release. It's a great time for new, creative ideas.