Family Movie Night
Restore the World
Sisu and Raya become friends.
BY BONNIE L. HARRIS
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ISNEY RACKS UP ANOTHER winner with Raya and the Last Dragon, a colorful animated extravaganza filled with zany characters, a quest to save the world, and a young girl’s mission to reunite with her father. Add one more Disney “non-princess” heroine who battles seemingly overwhelming forces and a RAYA Walt Disney Pictures, Rated PG Streaming on Disney Plus, Amazon & in select theatres
brigade of secondary characters who help her internalize important life lessons. The jaw-dropping animation and the super action-packed plot quickly shift attention away from the film’s Achilles heel, an extremely complex backstory that takes almost the entire movie to retell. We enter mid-crisis when the country of Kumandra has endured six years of civil war without the benevolent presence of dragons. Raya, a lone warrior, shares her history in voice-over and we learn that her tribe, Heart, was betrayed by rival tribe, Talon,
and the sacred Dragon gem was shattered. This spiritual object brought the dragons together against an evil force called the Druun. The Druun now decimates the country turning humans into stone and only a restored Dragon gem can defeat it. Stay with me here. At Raya’s side is Sisu, the very last dragon, whose character combines clumsy, graceful, helpless, powerful, naïve, and intuitive into a strangely appealing force that can shape-shift from dragon to human. As Raya gathers the Dragon gem pieces from each of the other four
tribes, Sisu regains her sibling’s magical powers. When they finally reach Fang, Raya must face a friend who betrayed her tribe and caused the mayhem. For a family film, there’s an extraordinary amount of swordplay and physical fighting, which makes for an exciting story, but sometimes pushes the envelope. The predictable happy ending returns everyone to their families, but the false sense of peace rings slightly hollow given so much human hostility. Making room for the sequel, I suppose. Pop some popcorn and enjoy! ✦
FOR the PARENTS
Beneath Our Feet THE DIG Magnolia Mae Films, Rated: PG-13 Streaming on Netflix
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OVIES ABOUT ARCHEOLOGY usually involve dinosaurs, treasure hunters, or a mummy’s curse. But The Dig, directed by British newcomer Simon Stone, veers away from Hollywood fantasy and calmly takes its audience into a wonderful true story about the remarkable excavation of Sutton Hoo in 1939. We learn that Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England, contains unusual burial mounds, and as WWII looms, Edith Pretty hires excavator, Basil Brown, to unearth the mounds on her estate. What they find astounds the scientific community and dates to the 6th century Anglo Saxon period, which upends conventional archeological theory. Of course once discovered, everyone wants credit and Edith must weigh her options while Basil struggles with snobby academics who dismiss him. Add a clandestine love story in the digging, along with the preparations for the coming world war,
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The first discovery. and you have a deeply poignant metaphor for human connection to the past. Director Stone uses Edith’s son, Robert, to lighten the drama and insert youthful optimism as the situation in the dig, as well as in Britain, becomes increasingly dire. Finally, war comes and the digging stops, but not before each character resolves their worst fears and realizes that life will inexorably continue for the next generation.
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