Raya and the Last Dragon

The latest film to receive the Disney Plus Premiere Access treatment, Raya and the Last Dragon is a story based on Southeast Asia featuring the voices of Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico in the latest Star Wars films) and Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians; Jumanji: The Next Level). The most recent trailer, released January 26th, uses an edit that places the dialogue front and centre, while balancing action with comic relief.

Curiously, the trailer seems to begin with Mozart’s famous “Lacrimosa”, albeit as we will find out, it is in fact electronic artist Apashe’s 2018 remix of the same name. This fake-out ties in well with what’s happening on screen, as we find out the toddler in the alley is more than doing okay—rather, she’s adept at martial arts and part of a con.

This opening makes way for the studio card at 0:36 and the second and final track for the trailer, an edit of “I’m That Good” by Tamara Bubble. Straddling the line between anthemic and laid back, the instrumental is pared back at times to simple hand claps. While that steady rhythm is a hallmark of many a modern trailer over the past few years, it also just so happens to be part of the original song under use. There’s ample use of pairing the picture to the rhythm through, such as at 0:39 with the landscape montage when the narrator, Raya, explains the lands in question.

Later, a drum fill handily mimics the motion of a dagger falling neatly into Raya’s hand before fading to black, and every other measure serves to transition us from moment to moment and scene to scene. The studio’s pedigree comes to the fore, with time taken to display the logos for Moana and Frozen. It makes sense, seeing as this is emphatically family fare that never veers too far on the side of the serious or dramatic.

Occasionally, there are additions to the soundtrack, such as the guttural vocal sound effects at 1:08 and 1:16. For every dramatic embellishment, however, there’s a monologue that leads to a punchline, much as you’ll find in any comedy trailer, such as at 1:34.

Just a beat later, at 1:36, we get the most dramatic synch point between image and sound in this trailer yet, as a line of guns rises in tandem with the percussion, which leads to some epic instrumentation—brass, strings—definitely not heard in the original track. The vocals finally come in at 1:48 once we get to the showdown scene; the fact that they’re saved for this point is a very effective exercise in restraint.

By 1:54, the third part of this trailer is in full swing, and we hear the return of the strings, though now in a style completely opposite to the “Lacrimosa”—fiery, frenetic, simply epic. Notice also the addition of harp on top of the arrangement as Awkwafina’s dragon character offers hope in her monologue. Tamara Bubble’s voice returns with one more refrain of “I am that good” to bring us to the main title card bursting forth. Lest we forget the lighter side of the film, however, the trailer ends with one more one-liner by Awkwafina.

In short, the editors have managed quite a balancing act in communicating the lighter and heavier emotional elements of Disney’s latest animated headliner. By assiduously decreasing and increasing the intensity of the arrangement, there’s ample room in this two-and-a-half-minute piece for a three-act structure that fits in lighthearted comedy with moments of dramatic fervor. Raya and the Last Dragon is out now in theaters and on Disney Plus.

— Curtis Perry