What is supposed to be an intense fight scene between the young Raya and the mysterious, masked Chief Benja culminates into... Benja harmlessly booping the girl on the nose with his sheathed weapon. And then it turns out that Raya is his daughter, meaning this was all just a training montage.
When meeting the other four tribes, Chief Benja's first thought on breaking the ice between them is to crack a Dad Joke. Thankfully, Raya shoots down the idea, feeling they won't be impressed.
So what's the next best thing? Raya awkwardly asks them all "Who's hungry?" In response, a random member of Spine way in the back eagerly raises his hand.
If it's to be believed, Namaari later shares with Raya that her own mother Virana is guilty of telling "mom jokes". Let that sink in: Virana, Mrs. Stoic-and-Pragmatic herself, tells Mom Jokes. What those mom jokes are is never explored upon.
When now large Tuk-Tuk gets stuck on his back and Raya barely pushes him back on his feet.
Raya: You're getting a little too big for this, bud.
Sisu's desert-shaking yell upon learning what happened to the Dragon Gem: "YOU BROKE IT?!?" Raya tries to defend the outcome by saying that she still has a big chunk of it. Sisu isn't impressed.
Sisu: Oh, you definitely chose the right hat for that.
When Raya gushes over how she's never seen a dragon before, Sisu goes into a long, awkward topic about how she's a great swimmer. All the while, Raya has a blank look that arguably reads, "Wow, my biggest hero is a dork."
The film doesn't forget to have some fun with dragon anatomy when Raya and Sisu retrieve the gem piece in Tail.
When Raya tries to swing over a pit, she does so assuming that Sisu will hold on all the way and go along with her, but didn't count on Sisu failing to realize that she must too cross the pit and keeping her legs planted on the starting side. So when Raya tries to swing over, she pulls Sisu's long body along, but since she kept her feet anchored to the starting side, she ends up accidentally stopping Raya from making it over to the other. Her ensuing response is priceless:
Sisu: Oh, we were doing a jumpy thing? So sorry. My bad. I get it now.
And then after they successfully obtain the gem fragment, Sisu suddenly turns into a human and somehow finds it amusing how her buttocks, distanced by her serpentine body, are now much closer.
Sisu: Look how close my butt is to my head!
During the chase in Tail, Sisu reveals she's not much of a cat person.
Boun's spiciest selection is called "Boun Goes the Dynamite," named after an infamous viral moment in which a sports broadcaster used the words "Boom goes the dynamite" while recapping a play in a basketball game. You get the feeling that Disney named the character Boun just to make this joke.
Raya's paranoid insistence that they shouldn't eat Boun's food because he may poison them. She's so set on believing it that she would rather subject herself to eat tough and bitter jackfruit-jerky when she could be having a piping hot bowl of shrimp soup. Sisu and Boun even questionthe logic of poisoning one's customers.
Also borders on hypocriticalprojecting, as a young Raya wanted to poison the other four tribes. In other words, she thinks Boun will try to poison them because it's what she would've done.
Noi throwing one of her diapers at Raya when she chases Noi and the Ongis through the Talon market.
Sisu goes on a shopping spree by buying things on "credit," which here basically means taking stuff and promising to pay later.
There's something darkly funny about Raya planning to ambush the Chief of Talon for his piece of the dragon gem... only to run into his servant instead, who anticlimactically reveals he was turned to stone a long time ago. And he's reduced to sitting in a hallway like a mere decoration!
Boun's face when he says ongis have nine stomachs.
Despite that it borders on sobering, there's something pleasantly entertaining about Tong putting up this facade as a gristly, dreaded sadist who claims he'll torture Raya and human!Sisu for their intrusion and attempt to steal Spine's gem shard. Even though he denies he's not alone, the fact he hasn't done anything to our heroes by now transparently indicates he's just stalling so he can have some company.
Until this point, the real Namaari has been presented as stoic and deadpan even in her happier moments, but the animators clearly had fun with Sisu’s interpretation of her for this sequence (where she speaks with Sisu’s voice), gleefully squealing like a giddy school-girl as she instantly accepts the gift and immediately gives Sisu the Gem piece.
The sequence is topped off with Namaari and Sisu (still in her dragon form) holding hands as they prance off into the sunset shouting “best friends forever!”, right before we cut back to the other character’s hysterically flabbergasted reactions.
The Running Gag of how Tuk-Tuk keeps getting food snatched away just as he is about to dig in. He does get a bite of food in at one point... after Boun's dynamite sauce gets on it! Poor guy.
Also, the Running Gag of Sisu commenting how terrible Raya's homemade jackfruit jerky is.
Tong is the first one to refer to Noi by her name because he's the only member of the gang who bothered to take a closer look at the baby and saw that her name is embroidered on her shirt collar.
Tong (to Noi): And they think of me as the ruffian.
Although it's supposed to be an intense scene, Noi using her shard of the dragon gem to protect a Fang couple from the Drunn. The look on their faces clearly says "Did we just get saved by a baby from Talon?"
Boun rejoicing that they saved the world... only to topple over because his legs are still stone, taking a moment to catch up with the rest of him.
In the end credits, the look on Sisu' face when she tries out spicy food is priceless.
Another funny bit in the end credits. Due to the 2020 pandemic, most of the work on this film had to be done from the homes of the animators, voice actors, etc. An acknowledgement is made to the extra work everyone put into the film followed by this parenthetical: (Dude, you're still on mute!)
