Ok so look, I had no idea Mulan was so popular with Disney lovers out there and I feel a tiny bit badly about admitting this now, but Mulan has never been my even close to one of my favorites. And before you fiery little Millennials out there bite my head, let me tell you why…
But first let me address the elephant in the room…I’m pretty sure you’ve heard by now that my favorite multi-billion dollar movie/entertainment power house of mouse has run afoul of some pretty serious controversy with this movie. I can’t pretend to understand EVERYTHING that has gone wrong on the Mulan train in the last month, and I certainly do not have the kind of PR skills it must take to deal with both the Chinese government AND a global pandemic simultaneously, but at this point in 2020, I am willing to cut Disney some slack! But let’s not pretend that Disney is the only movie company that begs to film on location in the most lucrative movie market on the planet. Was it worth the less than two minutes of screen time they to film in the notorious human rights oppressed Xinjiang province? Nope. It has hurt this movie a thousand times over when Disney can afford it the least. They definitely has a long road to recovery there is no doubt about it. But whether you have pre-purchased or you are awaiting the free version to come in December, try to block out all of the extra controversial noise for a couple of hours and just watch and enjoy because guess what?
MULAN IS A GOOD MOVIE!!!
Released in 1998, 8th in line of the “New Era” of Disney Movie Animation that began with the Little Mermaid, Mulan followed the by then well-oiled machine of gorgeous animation and fantastic music the new age of Disney had become well known for.
Over-seen by the powerful Michael Eisner, Disney was on a roll, churning out musical-fused animation almost yearly. ’97 had wrapped with the self-effacing, gospel-singing Hercules and the year before my friends and I had spent the summer of ’96 glued to our movie theatre seats, obsessed with the gorgeous, moody and surprisingly violent Hunchback of Notre Dame. I was itching for another movie just like it.
And then Disney came through, giving the world a trailer that was dark and serious, nothing like the colorful sidekick infused musicals we had been treated to over the last couple of years. Mulan’s rather dark, almost realistic, trailer looked promising!
Oof what a let down.
Don’t get me wrong – Mulan is as solid, if not formulaic, a Disney princess film as many of its predecessors. No better or worse than Pocahontas or Little Mermaid. Movies with all-star casts singing the hell out of Broadway caliber tunes written by Broadway worthy composers do not get many complaints from me! Some of the best music in Disney history comes from those movies!
But Mulan always disappointed me. The promise of that dark trailer against Donnie Osmond’s singing and Eddie Murphy’s sidekick dragon Mushu just wasn’t good enough for me.
But the live action film, much like the recent Aladdin, has made several much needed updates.
They axed the music.
Disappointing but necessary (and a tip the directors of The Lion King should have taken into account). But most of us knew this was coming so we have had time to prepare ourselves for the absence of one of the greatest Disney songs of all times. Besides, Donnie Osmond is a grandfather now, and I don’t know if Chinese action star Donnie Yen (Commander Tung in this version) has added singer to his extensive resume just yet. But with a more serious version of Mulan we have to make some sacrifices, and the music, most of which leans towards the frivolous and often silly side, had to go. Listen closely however, you will catch the underpinnings of plenty of you other favorites from the original score by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel floating about at just the right moments.
Mulan has a sister!
The top of the film shows us a brief glimpse of Mulan as a child, a rough and tumble little tom-boy of course, doing none of the things little girls are supposed to do. This tiny addition goes a long way. We get a nice little contrast right off the bat for Mulan. Her traditional mother has the perfect child in the younger sister who is certain to be everything a proud mother would want from a daughter, and dad, even though he has no son, has a daughter who is more than interested in learning everything he has to teach!
And so our next several scenes make so much more sense! Mulan, as the older sister, is first to make a match, as just as in the cartoon she bungles it in a magnificent scene reminiscent of the animated feature. And yet, somehow, this Mulan, by way of her hard won skills, manages one very impressive trick, even if the rest of the visit with the Matchmaker goes poorly. When Mulan is already a powerful, strong and adventurous so when the time comes to steal her fathers sword and armor and take his place in the Imperial army the scene works, as do so many of the scenes later at the camp. We have a much easier time believing she can pull this off because she is better at running, jumping and riding then anything else.
And she does it without the help of Mushu. Sorry Eddie Murphy.
There are no ghostly ancestors looking after Mulan, only one red Phoenix, which can be problematic in that it at times looks a bit too much like Fawkes from the Harry Potter Franchise.
The writers have split the role of the army commander in two.
What was once only General Shang, Commander of the Imperial Army, fast friend of Mulan and budding romance has been broken down into two different men: the previously mentioned Commander Tung and another army recruit/rival named Honghui. The writers seem to be a little wishy washy on where they stand on Mulan’s love interest’s or lack there of. Which is a shame I think. I had hoped that Mulan would remain open-ended at least on the question of her sexuality. But alas, that might have been a step to far for Disney.
Two Villains:
The largest change Disney has made to its film is the addition of a second villain. Bori Khan (Shan Yu in the cartoon) is the man intent on taking the Emperor’s throne. On his shoulder, just as in the cartoon , is a hawk. But as I’m sure you’ve seen in countless trailers, this hawk transforms into a sorceress. When I saw this character in trailers I was nervous. It looked like the writers were adding in a female foil for Mulan just for the sake of having a second leading lady in the movie!
Cheesy. And I’m not going to lie, her first few lines of dialogue were just as eye-rolly as I was dreading they would be. But be patient, it gets better. And the character, whose name is Xianniang, is a more subtle surprise than I was expecting. It is this character that forces Mulan to “come out” if you will. In the cartoon, it is an accident that her identity is discovered, but in this re-telling, Xianniang, puts Mulan in a position where she has to choose…its better, stronger all around and I sighed with relief that I was wrong about all of those trailers!
Mulan really is a fairly strong movie, with one or two way over the top action sequences I could have done without. And this time I am invested in our leading lady. I know she can succeed because I have already been presented with evidence that I never had in 1998. What was so disappointing about the cartoon was Mulan’s utter lack of ability to do anything! I assumed after she was unable to poor tea and walk in heels, that she would be instantly able to lift a sword and shoot an arrow! I was waiting for that moment! It was so obvious it would be the turning point of the movie! The center sequence! What the movie was all about right?! But when she was equally bad at everything the men had to do as well I was not amused. What a let down!
This version more than makes up for what the original lacked. And taking some cues from the new live action Aladdin, it updates its female lead to a level that makes me not just want to show my young nieces these movies, but gives me a damned good reason to NEED to show them. Because they all want to be Disney princesses of course. I mean who doesn’t??
As long as they know how to kick some ass at the same time, they can be any Disney princess they want.
** In all of the clamor and noise of controversy I had completely not heard that this film was directed by a woman. Niki Carro is only the 2nd woman in Disney history to have been given the reigns to a project that cost the studio over 100 million dollars. The first being Ava DuVernay.
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