Disney’s Raya & the Last Dragon Originally Had R-Rated Style Violence
Despite coming from the family-friendly Disney, upcoming release Raya and the Last Dragon almost had R-rated levels of violence. Walt Disney Animation's first original release in nearly five years will arrive in two months and introduce audiences to the fantasy world of Kumandra. Star Wars actress Kelly Marie Tran will voice Raya, a young warrior who sets out to find a dragon who can save her world from utter destruction. Tran will be joined by Awkwafina, who lends her voice to the water dragon Sisu. Sisu needs Raya's help just as much as Raya needs Sisu's, and the two team up for an epic adventure.
Raya and the Last Dragon was once scheduled for release in late 2020 but soon became one of the many films displaced by the coronavirus pandemic. As 2021 is looking equally dicey for theatrical releases, Disney has opted to make Raya and the Last Dragon its latest streaming release. Much like last fall's Mulan, Raya and the Last Dragon will be available through Disney+'s Premier Access program in March. At the same time, it will be released in theaters on the very same day.
With Raya and the Last Dragon drawing ever closer, new details about the behind the scenes process have begun to emerge. Raya's directors Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada spoke to Empire magazine and revealed a rather surprising tidbit: An early version of the film could've been rated R for its violence. It was said that there is a cut of Raya and the Last Dragon "with broken bones and stuff."
Considering how notoriously wholesome Disney is, this is rather surprising. It also begs the question: What exactly was going on in those action sequences? It's hard to picture a Disney movie getting bloody and gruesome, but that is the picture being painted by Hall and Estrada. While it's unlikely that Disney will ever allow this mythical R-rated Raya and the Last Dragon to be released, one might wish to someday see the more extreme cut, if only to understand how it came about.
Though it won't have any drastically broken bones, Raya and the Last Dragon will surely still be filled with plenty of excitement. The first trailer for Raya and the Last Dragon hinted at a unique story with hints of Indiana Jones-style adventure, and it'll be nice to see Disney Animation return to original tales after a few years of sequels. Now, audiences can watch this movie and try to guess where things might've gotten a bit more extreme. Then they can decide which cut they might've enjoyed better.
Source: Empire