I find it strange myself. So it's ok if you do too. Easter is only a few days away, and writing a movie review as a way to celebrate Easter just isn't done. I clearly know that Walt Disney movies are not spiritual truth personified, but this one, "Raya and The Last Dragon," speaks truth to me nonetheless. When is the right time to say hope is possible and trust, although it may be challenging to find, possible to practice. I have had too many discussions with community members in person and friends on Facebook that refuse to forgive. They refuse to trust someone of a different political persuasion. They chose instead to believe the worst. As a Christian woman, I've known Christians to say anyone who doesn't believe as they do is evil.
In the movie, Raya is the heroin. In the first part of the film, she says, "The world is broken. You can't trust anyone." The movie is about how different kingdoms distrust, dare I say hate, each other, and because of that, the real enemy, "Druun," is released. Sisu's, the heroin dragon's definition of the Drunn, is "A plague born from human discord. Waiting for a moment of weakness to attack. They are like a relentless fire that consumes everything in its wake until there's nothing left except ash and stone." How hard we have all become.
We find at the end of the movie Sisu talking about trusting, "It may feel impossible, but sometimes, you just have to take the first step, even before you are ready."
The real meaning of Easter is knowing Christ lives. He gives us the ability to forgive, to trust. To heal ourselves, our nation, we must first admit our own hard reactions. Maybe look for real motive, not just rhetoric after rhetoric. And follow up all that with forgiveness. In the movie, the Drunn are dark black creatures with no physical features other than they continue to boil and roll using their dark wisps to destroy life. I thought Disney did an excellent job of creating a physical picture of hate and how it consumes. It isn't unlike our conversations, our thoughts, our inability to go towards each other.
We learn to trust by trusting again. The concept of unconditional love is so difficult for us to receive. It isn't easy to believe that's the kind of love Jesus gives to us. And yet, he requires us to love unconditionally as well.
"It may feel impossible, but sometimes, you just have to take the first step, even before you are ready."
