So I watched the new live-action remake of Disney’s Mulan recently. And I have some thoughts. I was excited to see this remake, as the original animated Mulan was one of my favourites growing up. Mulan was a brilliant role model for young tomboys, such as myself. Moreover, it is quite a testament that Mulan was added to the Disney Princess list, when she is technically not a princess. She was and is many people’s favourite Disney princess, as it doesn’t matter what gender you are born into. Its about who you are. The live- action remake pushed for this exact theme in the film, but failed to comprehend what made the original so special and ruined the magic of the original. In this post, I want to discuss my problems with the Mulan live-action remake, how it coincides with the problems of other Disney live-action remakes, and the failure of Disney products as a whole.
Some positives about the movie; it looked and felt fantastic. They put a lot of work into the backdrops of the film, the costumes and the colours. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. The music of the film was great too. Even though they cut a lot of the classic songs from the original, they kept them as instrumentals in the live-action. Other than that, my praises for the film ends there.
Since Beauty and the Beast, Disney’s live-action remakes dip in quality. They always feel like water downed versions of the original. The Lion King didn’t provide the same magic as the original and the photo-realistic nature of the film made it hard to connect with the material. With 2020’s Disney Mulan, they wanted to follow the same realistic take on the tale. They wanted to tell a more faithful and gritty version of The Ballad of Mulan. They removed the dragon, Mushu from the story and the Disney songs, to create that realism. They sent their costume designer to different parts of China, to get a feel for Chinese culture. They filmed in China and casted only Chinese actors. It seemed they were going in the right direction.
So imagine my surprise when I ended up watching a hyper-realistic Disney-fied fantasy film. Honestly, I’m not surprised that the film still had their Disney quality to it, but don’t tell me that it is a more realistic depiction of The Ballad of Mulan. Because it’s not. Some of the battle sequences are stupid, and the choreographed fight scenes are laughable at best. The editing is downright awful at times, and the acting can be abysmal. But that wasn’t my biggest issue with the film. My biggest issue with the film was what Lindsey Ellis stated in one of her videos,
“Woke Disney”
For several of the Disney remakes, they wanted to fix the “problems” of the originals. Questions that weren’t answered and make their new versions more progressive than their previous renditions. For Beauty and the Beast, they made Belle more active and made LeFou gay. In The Lion King, they had the girlboss fight between Nala and Shenzi (didn’t need this scene). In Aladdin, they gave Jasmine her own girlboss song and she became Sultan in the end. In Mulan, they stepped up their game for this one. Remember when I said that they got rid of Mushu from the original. They also got rid of Li Shang, because it would have created a power imbalance between Mulan, a solider and Li Shang, the commanding officer. I get that. However, by removing Li Shang, you get rid of a brilliant emotional subplot from the original. Who else remembers that excellent transition from the song, A Girl Worth Fighting For, to the massacred village.
It was such a memorable cinematic moment from the animation. Whereas in the live-action, Li Shang is split into two male characters, the commander and one of Mulan’s comrades. We don’t end up caring about either of them. So when that moment in the film comes where you come across thousands of dead soldiers, it just doesn’t hold the same emotional weight. We don’t care about these men. We don’t even know them. There was no realization that Li Shang’s father was dead, because Li Shang was cut out the film. Also Li Shang presented Disney with a bisexual lead, to be proud of. However with the worry of the Me Too movement, they got rid of a great relationship from the original, and wouldn’t take a risk with that representation.
Speaking of the men, they add nothing to the story. Instead of being Mulan’s comrade in arms, friends like in the original, they only serve to show how amazing Mulan is. They have no memorable character traits. I don’t even remember any of their names. And as for the comrade who replaces Li Shang, they try to push a relationship between them. There’s a little sexual tension, but they never allow it to grow towards that. Because Mulan is a powerful woman and she doesn’t need a man. No, the marrying for honour in the family goes to Mulan’s sister (yeah, they replaced Mulan’s grandmother with a sister).
But I can forgive the changes. Okay, they got rid of Mushu. That’s fine. They got rid of the classic songs. Its a huge change, but that’s fine. What I despised most out of this new remake, was what they did to Mulan, herself. 2020’s Mulan is the very definition and the worst form of a Mary Sue I have seen. Mulan is such a famous female character in Chinese folklore. Due to the Disney animated version, she became a role model for so many 90s girls. Why? It wasn’t because she is the prettiest or the strongest. Mulan was a good woman who sacrificed her life to save her father. She succeeds in the army, not because of strength and discipline which the traditional form of masculinity values, but through her wit, intellect and problem-solving. Instead of showing who Mulan is as a character in the live-action, the first few minutes of the film shows Mulan as a gifted swordsman at 9. It follows it up with a scene of young Mulan parkouring on the roofs of her village. The film places Mulan above everyone else. She is no longer just an ordinary girl, therefore, you separate her from the audience. She doesn’t have to work to get better in the army. She is already excellent.
This takes away the special quality of Mulan from the original. As a young girl, I looked up to Mulan, because she wasn’t special. She wasn’t a gifted prodigy at a young age. I connected with the woman who had flaws. The woman who couldn’t portray the standards for women at that time. She fails at her duties with the matchmaker. She’s clumsy and too witty. She’s selfishless, which leads her to go to the army. She doesn’t have the strength of a man, but she uses her mind and wit to excel in the army.
But oh no, 2020’s Mulan has the power of chi on her side. Yes, the live-action Mulan has superpowers now. Im not going to try and explain how inaccurate Disney’s portrayal of chi is, because I am not Chinese. But from what I have seen in debates and reviews, they grossly misrepresented chi. Moreover, it gave this impossible quality to their female heroine and made her unstoppable.
No young girl will feel connected to a woman who can do everything. Impossible standards to present a young girl who feels she cant do anything. At least in the original, Mulan was ordinary who managed do great things. That’s a message that people can get behind. Not a woman who has superpowers. Disney’s 2020 Mulan presented a thing I despise recently in female driven films; women can do anything. Women are better than men. They present with a female character who has no flaws and is above her own society in every way. The Mary Sue angle that they took, led me to be sick of every line in the film that attempts to bash women, and the central message of the film feels bland.
Yes, the original had female empowerment. Maybe was exaggerated at times. But that was an animation. In the live-action, we shouldn’t be basically spoon-fed this information all the time. Especially when all I heard throughout the film was Mulan was an amazing powerful woman.
You can have a female empowerment movie, without it being the central theme of your film. A great example would be The Hunger Games. Katniss was a great female character that represented female empowerment. But the films were so much more than that. It was about war, politics, a horrible dystopia. There was layers to those films. Whereas, I felt like I was bashed over the head constantly in 2020’s Mulan. Yes, this film has female empowerment. Look at our strong, unrealistic heroine. Cool, anything else.
The only scenes I accepted this spoon feeding were the scenes with the witch and Mulan. The witch was a new addition to the film, and I actually liked her. This was a great addition, and she creates a great duality with Mulan. It shows where Mulan could have ended up. But it ended up being skewed in the end. Instead of Mulan saving the Emperor from the Ronans (the Huns) because it was right, she did it because it was her duty to fight for the emperor. So is the overall message of the film is to protect the patriarchy? The witch is presented to the viewer as someone who went down the bad path. Mulan attempts to “save” her and bring her to the good side. Yeah, the side of patriarchy which shunned the witch in the first place. In Disney’s attempts to be progressive, they went backwards. I loved the witch character. Another positive for the film, but she was wasted in this story.
Disney attempts to be progressive in their live-action renditions of the beloved classics. But they end up losing the magic of the originals and butchering what made them great. Mulan was brilliant, and 2020’s Mulan fails in every way. This will be the last of the Disney remakes I will watch. If you cant create an amazing, compelling and magical story in your films, I don’t want to see it. I dont want to see anymore bland remakes that attempt to be progressive. Just tell a great story with great new additions and stay true to the heart of the originals. Maybe the remakes wouldnt be panned so much as they are, if Disney went down that route.
My final thought would be, dont watch this film. Watch the original. You will get better enjoyment out of it, and you get to experience the masterpiece that is “Make a Man Out of You.” Hope you are well and staying safe. I shall see ye in the next post.
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