First shot of animation: A lone rider passes through ruined land.

Welcome to the pandemic. Direct streaming releases with a nominal theatrical run to satisfy contracts. And we enter this era with a story of collecting allies across color-coded kingdoms, and a big hunk of lore. Gorgeous production design though, particularly costuming.

When it’s Raya, Sisu, and Namaari, it works. What’s cooler than a sword duel in the middle of the apocalypse, killing your rival before you die? But I do not care about the rest of the crew. I am not enamored with your comedy baby.

Animation gives directors such leeway in flashy framing for action. Take Spielberg’s Tintin, the events would be impossible to film in practical terms, but the camera setups theoretically wouldn’t be. In Raya, the camera has no size or weight and goes anywhere at any time. It takes all the stylization that would have gone into musical numbers, if there were any.