Disney’s latest animated movie got help from a Stanislaus State professor. What he did
Disney created “Raya and the Last Dragon,” its first animated film with a Southeast Asian heroine, with help from an anthropologist in Turlock.
Associate Professor Steve Arounsack consulted on the production over about two years, while continuing to teach at California State University, Stanislaus.
Arounsack helped to assure that Raya’s fictional story was true to the region that inspired it. He was born in Laos himself and fled at 4 with his refugee family in 1980, eventually coming to Modesto. He has taught at Stan State since 2005, often helping students from various immigrant backgrounds tell their own stories.
“Raya” premiered March 5 and had grossed about $110 million worldwide as of Sunday, according to boxofficemojo.com. Critics praised it for adding a Southeast Asian to a Disney pantheon of heroines dating to Snow White in 1937.
Arounsack discussed the project in a video interview with Kristina Stamper, director of communications and creative services at Stan State.
“My daughter and the kids from the region now have a hero that looks like them,” he said. “That’s incredibly powerful.”
Research involved voyage on Mekong
The film takes place in the fictional realm of Kumandra. Raya is a chieftain’s daughter who joins forces with a dragon to restore peace.
Kumandra was inspired by a region that stretches from Laos on the north through Indonesia on the south.
Arounsack joined the directors on a research trip, which included a voyage on the Mekong River. The waterway forms much of the border between his native land and Thailand, where his family had lived in a refugee camp.
Arounsack specializes in visual anthropology at Stan State, knowledge that shows up in details in the movie. Raya’s hat and sword have details specific to the region. The film also conveys the importance of blessing people on the head with Mekong River water.
The research trip also included an archaeologist from Cambodia, a linguist from Indonesia and dancers and musicians from Bali.
“They are scholars and community leaders who not only study this for a living, they live it,” Arounsack said. “That’s what made it, I think, a much more vibrant experience, because we got to speak from a place you could never access just from reading it from a book.”
Interest in film dates to Downey High
Arounsack’s interest in visual storytelling dates to his years as a Downey High School student, where he wielded an early-model VHS camera. His family returned to visit Laos when he was 17, a trip that helped him appreciate his roots.
Arounsack went on to study at Stan State and eventually earned a doctorate in ecology at UC Davis.
In 2013, he founded the Keck Visual Anthropology Lab at the Turlock campus, named for a key donor. It teaches students to use video to preserve the memories and traditions of Central Valley immigrants, including their own families.
The professor has made two documentaries of his own that have screened on PBS, “Next Gen Asian American Art” and “Getting Lao’d: The Rise of Modern Lao Music and Films.”
The work on “Raya and the Last Dragon” led to Arounsack becoming part of the Southeast Asia Story Trust. It aims to promote interest in this region beyond the exploits of the latest cartoon heroine.
“I’m getting messages from all over the world, especially from young people,” Arounsack said of the reception to the movie. “Those messages really resonate with me, because we can’t let the past swallow the future. We can create worlds like Kumandra, and show them they are seen and that they are validated.”
