Raya and the Last Dragon: Awkwafina talks on development, what drew her to it

As we are coming close to Raya and the Last Dragon's release, the animated movie lovers are generating more curiosity over the web world to know what they can see in it. Read further to know more.

On October 21 this year, Walt Disney Animation Studios premiered a two-minute trailer-video on Raya and the Last Dragon. The trailer shows the warrior princess Raya venture into a temple with her trusty friend Tuktuk, who seems to be an armadillo-like creature.

Devdiscourse earlier notified you that Kelly Marie Tran joined Walt Disney's imminent Raya and the Last Dragon. This makes Kelly Marie Tran the first Southeast Asian actress to lead an animated Disney film.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi breakout star Kelly Marie Tran will be playing the role of Raya. She becomes the first actress of Southeast Asian heritage to lead a Disney movie. It will reportedly focus on the two characters – Raya, who is a daring warrior looking for the last dragon, and Sisu (played by Awkwafina), who is a water monster can change into a human.

Here's the synopsis of new teaser for Raya and the Last Dragon – Long ago, in the fantasy world of Kumandra, humans and dragons lived together in harmony. But when an evil force threatened the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Now, 500 years later, that same evil has returned and it's up to a lone warrior, Raya, to track down the legendary last dragon to restore the fractured land and its divided people. However, along her journey, she'll learn that it'll take more than a dragon to save the world—it's going to take trust and teamwork as well.

In a recent conversation with Style Caster, Awkwafina discussed what attracted her to Disney's Raya and the Last Dragon: "When I first heard about it, it was a concept that I never heard of and couldn't even imagine. Two strong, female characters, one a warrior princess. When I first heard about the idea and was introduced to the team and the director and the animators, I knew that this is going to be very special, especially with Kelly Marie Tran involved. I've seen some footage of it and I sometimes question if it's live-action or not because it's so real. The beauty about Disney is there's always this human element, something that's very greatly relatable to all the characters. I definitely relate to both Raya and Sisu, my character, who is a water dragon."

The work for Raya and the Last Dragon continued remotely during the coronavirus pandemic with the voice cast being able to work on the film. Awkwafina continued saying, "Toward the end, we were still recording into COVID. That led to a lot of impromptu setting up the mic in my own house with horrible acoustics, recording for a Disney movie. That's the cool thing with voiceovers. Unlike being on a set, you can kind of pick it up wherever you are. It was a process. You re-record scenes over and over again. Things would change. Characters would change. It's a constantly evolving process, which is new for me to witness how Disney works. There's so much hard work involved for the smallest details. It's a constantly evolving vision."

Raya and the Last Dragon is slated to hit the big screens on March 12, 2021. Stay tuned to Devdiscourse to get the latest updates on the computer-animated adventure fantasy films.

Also Read: Shrek 5 developments, plot revealed, previous characters to return, what more we know