Top 4 Best Movies Like Raya and the Last Dragon (Ranked & Where to Stream)

Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook's 1998 classic remains a staggering feat of kinetic animation, blending minimalist watercolors reminiscent of traditional Chinese silk paintings with thunderous, scale-defying action set-pieces like the iconic mountain avalanche. Ming-Na Wen supplies steely vulnerability to a young woman who defies societal rigidness to save her ailing father, backed by an immaculate Jerry Goldsmith score that ratchets up tactical tension during wartime skirmishes. For anyone hunting down movies like Raya and the Last Dragon, this remains the gold standard: both pictures sidestep typical romance in favor of filial devotion, swordplay excellence, and a sharp-witted female fighter uniting a fractured nation through sheer willpower.

John Stevenson and Mark Osborne craft an affectionate, gorgeously animated homage to Shaw Brothers kung fu cinema that treats its discipline with immense sincerity beneath the belly laughs. Jack Black voices Po, a rotund noodle-shop worker whose passion for martial arts collides with destiny under the stoic mentorship of Master Shifu, voiced with brilliant gravitas by Dustin Hoffman. The hand-to-hand combat scenes boast fluid camera sweeps, weight, and inventive staging that rival live-action wirework classics. Fans drawn to Kumandra's fierce combat and sacred relics will feel right at home here, as both narratives honor ancient fighting philosophies while building unlikely fellowships around prophecy, self-belief, and community defense.

Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson took the comedic bones of the original and forged a strikingly dark, emotionally ambitious sequel driven by genocidal villainy and lingering adoption trauma. Gary Oldman's peacock despot Lord Shen brings genuine menace, weaponizing early gunpowder artillery across sprawling, lantern-lit pagoda towns animated with hypnotic verticality and vibrant crimson hues. The choreography feels even tighter, trading slapstick for razor-sharp staff battles and emotional catharsis. It fits cleanly on this roster because it deepens the martial fantasy tone, matching Raya's underlying exploration of historical loss, broken trust, and the painful path required to make peace with the past.

Chris Wedge's debut feature thrives on stark environmental survival, following an unsociable woolly mammoth, an abrasive ground sloth, and a scheming sabre-toothed cat who form a fragile alliance to escort an orphaned human baby through a freezing tundra. The film’s strength lies in its quiet dramatic beats, notably a cave painting sequence that unearths genuine sorrow without speaking a word of dialogue. While structurally lighter than epic fantasy quests, it mirrors the heart of Kumandra's journey: a fractured group of natural enemies discovering that survival requires setting aside generational hatred, learning mutual trust, and leaning on an unexpected makeshift family.