I'm a couple weeks late on this, but I learned about Disney's upcoming animated feature, Raya and the Last Dragon from a friend on Facebook. And at first I thought "okay, ha ha, cute". Another Disney princess animated feature, it ought to do well.
But then, with the success of anime', and films like Mulan and Kung Fu Panda, it made me realize the size of the business prospects of the southeast Asia movie audience.
(copyright Disney, taken from polygon.com, taken from Twitter during D23 in Anaheim.)
Long ago, TV and movies have made me a fan of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Speed Racer, not to mention Osamu Tezuka and Hayao Miyazaki. Anime and Kung Fu action movies already have a foothold in the U.S. with a healthy fan base, and animated features like Kubo and the Two Strings, and The Princess Mononoke have shown positive and empowering examples of female characters.
While older anime' films and TV shows may have brought a distorted, and cliched view of Asian culture to me and the west, I hope that it has made Americans more aware of current events happening overseas. Not to mention giving Hollywood more cash flow. 'Nuff said!
Another factor seems to be the news of protests in cities like Hong Kong show a demand for democracy, although the
authoritarian governments there are clamping down hard on free speech
and human rights. In a backhanded way, Hollywood may be helping to bring democratic values and human rights to our tattered world.
And then, cliches and stereotypes may be scrapped, and new life may be brought to beloved Asian characters:
