EXCLUSIVE: Malaysian Adele Lim on writing 'Raya And The Last Dragon's South-East Asian-inspired Disney princess

raya adele

“You know, I used to write for The Star, ” Malaysian screenwriter Adele Lim reminisced happily at the start of our Zoom interview.

As far as international movie junket interviews go, this was definitely a good way to start.

More than two decades ago, a teenage Lim used to write a column for StarLifestyle (known as Section 2 back then). Today, she is an established screenwriter in Hollywood who co-wrote Crazy Rich Asians, and is now the co-writer of the latest Disney Princess film, Raya And The Last Dragon.

Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran) is a Princess of the Heart, one of five lands that once formed the land of Kumandra. A strong spirited warrior princess skilled in martial arts, she is also a guardian of the Dragon Gem, a mystical object that was used by the titular last dragon, Sisu (voiced by Awkwafina) to save the world from a “mindless plague” of shapeless blobs called the Druun that was sweeping across the land turning people and dragons into stone statues.

Lim is proud to be part of a movie where the princess is such a heroic female warrior figure. Photo: Walt Disney Company

That event also tore Kumandra into five lands – Fang, Talon, Spine, Heart and Tail – and when the Dragon Gem is broken and the Drunn return once again, Raya has to go on a quest to search for Sisu in order to save the world.

Kumandra may be fictional, but it is also hugely influenced by the cultures of South-East Asia. But it didn’t start out that way, according to producer Osnat Shurer, who was also on the call with Lim.

“At the time, we knew that we had these lands that were divided along a dragon river, we knew that the dragon would be an Asian dragon connected to water, ” Shurer said.

Then, during a research trip around South-East Asia, Shurer and the team “fell in love with the culture and the ideas” that they came in contact with within the region.

“There are so many countries and so many cultures, and yet people find a way to work together.

“We wanted to include all the beauty that comes with it, and the warmth and the greatness of the people. And so we felt like the fit was perfect, ” Shurer explained.

The next piece of the puzzle came when Shurer convinced Lim to join the project in 2018.

At the time, the story already had the fractured lands of Kumandra. Lim and co-writer Qui Nguyen were then given the freedom to focus on using South-East Asia as the inspiration for the rest of the story.

Besides her name, Raya, which means “celebration” in Malay, Malaysians will undoubtedly recognise that the weapon she wields is inspired by the keris.

The character, and indeed, much of the movie, is like an amalgam of the various South-East Asian cultures.

Raya uses pencak silat when fighting weaponless, but also fights using Filipino martial arts arnis as well. Her arch-nemesis Namaari (Gemma Chan) fights using a style resembling Thailand’s muay thai.

"(At the beginning) we knew that the dragon would be an Asian dragon connected to water, ” Shurer said.

However, both Lim and Shurer were keen to stress that the movie doesn’t attempt one-to-one portrayals of each country.

“There really isn’t one thing where like, ‘OK, this land is Laos, this land is Indonesia’

“Growing up in Malaysia, there were so many things about South-East Asia I didn’t know, but when you look at all of it, there are commonalities that Malaysia shares with the rest of Asia, ” Lim said.

“It’s how we live, it’s how we eat there are all these different influences that may be specific to Malaysia, but at the same time, can also be specific to Indonesia or Thailand and a lot of other South-East Asian countries.”

“Within our crew we had Adele from Malaysia, Qui, who has Vietnamese heritage, Fawn (Veerasunthorn, Head of Story) from Thailand, and others members from other parts of the region, ” said Shurer.

“You’d hear one of them go, “Hey, we do it this way do you do it too?’, and another would reply ‘Yeah, we do the same thing let’s use that’, and the production designers are already drawing.

“So there are these commonalities that are appearing in the film.”

Lim was instrumental in the heroine being called Raya.

“We had a lot of names on the board, but I was definitely the one championing ‘Raya’ early on, because it has a very auspicious meaning, like a celebration or also something big and grand. It feels epic, and it feels original. And Fawn and I thought it would be a fantastic name for a Disney Princess.”

Ultimately, Lim is proud to be part of a movie where the princess is such a heroic female warrior figure.

“Growing up I used to watch a cartoon about (Chinese boy deity) Nezha. I would take all these sticks at home and pretend to attack my sister with them! I didn’t know he was a boy at the time, but yeah, we don’t have a lot of female heroines like that, ” Lim said with a laugh.

“So I wanted THAT for Raya. There’s a certain charm and confidence that comes with that kind of character.

“You don’t think ‘Disney Princess’ when it comes to that sort of female warrior character. And that was what I wanted in Raya.”

Also, Lim said that growing up in Malaysia, we don’t see a lot of our culture reflected in big Hollywood movies, so the idea of writing something as iconic as a Disney Princess, which every young girl aspires to, and be imbuing her with our culture was irresistible.

“And she’s not only a princess – she’s also a warrior!

“I have a daughter, and the idea that she can look at this Disney princess and see herself in it and qualities she can aspire to, it’s great!”