Yesterday, the official teaser trailer for Disney’s latest film Raya and the Last Dragon was unveiled. Kelly Marie Tran and singer Awkwafina will voice the titular characters.
The film was first announced during the 2019 D23 Expo. The official synopsis of the film is as follows:
“‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ takes us on an exciting, epic journey to the fantasy world of Kumandra, where humans and dragons lived together long ago 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.”
Raya and the Last Dragon is the first Walt Disney Animation Studio’s film to be developed remotely due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. The director and animators finished the film from home and even used Zoom to communicate.
The film was originally supposed to be released in theaters on November 25th, 2020. Not surprisingly, this release date was pushed back to March 12th, 2021. On Disney’s Investor Day in mid-December, it was announced that Raya’s debut would be pushed up a week to March 5th.
How to Watch:
Fans will have multiple ways to watch Raya and the Last Dragon come March 5th. The film will be simultaneously released in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access.
Premier Access for the film will likely cost $29.99 in addition to the monthly fee for Disney+ subscribers. When the live-action Mulan moved to a Premier Access release in 2020, the price tag was $29.99.
This decision is a similar move to WarnerMedia. WarnerMedia announced that whey would release all of their 2021 movies in theaters and on their streaming service HBO Max at the same time.
With the pandemic, theaters and film companies have had to make adjustments to their distribution patterns. Hopefully sometime soon things will go back to normal and fans can go see films in theaters again.