A young girl rides atop her trusted animal companion through the apocalyptic desert of her shattered world. What is she looking for? What happened to this world? Will she be the one to save it?
When I first saw the early trailer for Avatar: Seven Havens, in which Pavi rides her cat-monkey Geet through the Harshlands, I was immediately reminded of Raya and the Last Dragon. (That’s due in part to the fact that my eldest daughter has watched the Disney movie dozens of times over the last year or so.) The opening images are strikingly similar, right down to how they’re framed: Both heroes cross the desert from left to right in a wide shot. Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) rides Tuk Tuk (Alan Tudyk), a cheerful, bear-sized creature with a hard shell that can curl into a rideable ball. The visual and cinematic similarities are only the beginning.
If Seven Havens has you eager for more animated epics about young heroes traveling through a broken world, Raya and the Last Dragon is a great movie to watch, and it’s easy to steam on Disney Plus.
Raya and the Last Dragon sends its hero across a fractured world
Long ago, the people of Kumandra lived in harmony with dragons. Then the Druun arrived: mindless storm spirits that turn every living thing in their path to stone. The dragons sacrificed themselves to stop the invasion, leaving behind a magical gem that saved humanity. The survivors’ fight over the gem split Kumandra into five lands: Heart, Fang, Spine, Talon, and Tail.
Five hundred years later, the gem is under the protection of the Heart tribe. Raya is the young daughter of Heart’s chief, Benja (Daniel Dae Kim). She’s trained her life to protect the gem and is essentially a warrior princess. Banja calls a meeting among the leadership of the various tribes in the hopes that they can restore peace to Kumandra. Raya is betrayed by Namaari (Gemma Chan), the warrior princess of Fang. A fight breaks out over the gem among the five tribes, and it shatters into five pieces, ushering in the return of the Druun — hence the apocalypse we saw in the opening scene, which occurs six years later.
Raya is on a quest to find Sisu (Awkwafina), the last dragon, and recover the pieces of the gem in the hopes that she can drive away the Druun once again. Their journey takes Raya and Sisu across Kumandra, where they meet people who have learned to survive by looking out for themselves. Along the way, she realizes she also needs help from people she has every reason to distrust.
That’s where Raya’s story becomes more than a tour through a fantasy map. Raya has a hard time believing in the dream for Kumandra that her father once had. Sisu, meanwhile, keeps insisting that people can be trusted. Their journey puts those beliefs to the test: Kumandra cannot be made whole by one hero collecting jagged pieces of a magic stone. The people who have spent generations treating one another as enemies have to choose to work together.
That theme resonates strongly in Avatar: Seven Havens. Its world, too, has been fractured by catastrophe, leaving people to survive in isolated pockets and plagued by storms. Raya and the Last Dragon imagines what it takes to mend a world broken in this way. It’s not about defeating an external force, but about overcoming the fear and mistrust that keep people divided. In Kumandra, the Druun can only be banished when Raya, Namaari, and members of other tribes choose to trust each other and bring the gem back together.
Seven Havens is still on its way to discovering this answer, but even the latest batch of episodes released Oct. 23 make it clear that breaking down the boundaries between fractured pockets of society is the key to healing the world. Even if you’re unfamiliar with Avatar or have no interest in the parallels, Raya and the Last Dragon still delivers a solid, self-contained fantasy adventure that’s fun for all ages. The only reason it remains so overlooked is that it was originally supposed to be released in late 2020, but the pandemic led to a delayed hybrid release in theaters and on Disney Plus.
At 107 minutes, Raya and the Last Dragon is a brisk adventure with colorful landscapes, entertaining action, and a likable cast. Awkwafina gives Sisu a goofy warmth that never undercuts her earnestness, and Raya’s chain sword is just plain cool. But the journey’s real payoff is watching Raya learn that she can’t put Kumandra back together by herself. That particular lesson is also crucial in Seven Havens, and the way it contrasts with the opening scene of both stories retroactively makes them that much more poignant. They both begin their adventure alone in the desert, but Raya ends her journey with friends and loved ones by her side. We assume that’s where Seven Havens is headed, too. After all, isn’t that most important thing anybody can do in the midst of an apocalypse?