Title: Mulan
Directors: Niki Caro
Starring: Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen, Tzi Ma, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Ron Yuan, Gong Li, and Jet Li
Movie length: 1 hour 55 minutes

Disney’s Mulan live action remake is coming free for existing Disney+ subscribers starting December 4th.

The wait is finally over if you were waiting for this movie to bypass the pay wall. Starting December 4th you can stream MULAN in 4K Dolby Vision or HDR depending on your setup. 

So I thought I would share my review on the movie. Hi, my name is Leonid Urevich, I am new here so I hope you will like my writing style. 

In an effort to suck all the joy, fun and excitement out of their animated movies for the live-action remake, here comes another entry. It feels like they didn’t try as hard with this one.

We heard from the beginning that the live-action will not include songs, Mushu or a love interest, you know things that made the original so good. But what I didn’t realize is that not only are the songs missing, the emotional scenes with those songs are also missing. For example, the song she sings (Reflection), I think would work perfect nowadays and it could adopt a new meaning. Being perceived as one thing but being something completely different on the inside. Also when Mulan gets ready to go instead of her dad, there is this very impactful song when she cuts her hair none of which are in this movie. Granted she doesn’t cut her hair in the original Chinese fable, and they said they were going to make this movie more realistic but what’s funny is that the animated movie is more realistic than this movie. Let that sink in, the animated movie is more realistic than this live action movie that was said to be a more realistic depiction.

If you want to take out the songs fine I’m not in favor of it but I do agree busting into songs is not realistic. But when they are singing A Girl Worth Fighting For, I feel like in a real-world they would have sang that song because in war people sing to lift their spirits, it’s not uncommon. You pass the time and you lift your spirits. Then the song ends because you see the village and everyone’s dead it’s a very impeccable scene. When Li Shang sees his dad’s helmet and the little girls doll, that’s realistic. yet none of that is in the movie, they just come to the village and they’re like yeah whatever stuff happens people die no big deal and they just walk past, such a meaningful scene and they just brush it off like nothing .  

I guess having a witch that can turn into a bird or a million birds that can also transform into any character and possess any form to move the plot along that’s realistic right Disney? A witch whose whole job in the movie is to move Mulan from plot point to plot point, It felt like a video game. What’s happening, what she should do, if she wants to find what she is looking for, where she must go to find it, almost like her Fairy Godmother only evil and against her for some reason but also helps her.  

The witch in this movie is like a baker who hates cake but always bakes them. Mulan also takes off all her body armor in the middle of battle and rides in on a horse in a dress and starts fighting because that’s more realistic and practical on the battlefront right Disney?

Now despite what you might think I didn’t hate this movie, I could see myself watching it again but the number one issue I have with this movie is that they took an iconic Chinese fable and made it in to a superhero movie, and not a good one at that. Which in theory sounds cool, you take a Chinese fable make it into a superhero movie because that makes money nowadays and boom, but you need more then that.

The issue is Mulan was never a superhero, she was an ordinary girl that used her smarts, dedication, determination and cunning to become a great warrior. That’s relatable, somebody who is born perfect with superpowers or gets then later, can be relatable just look at Spider-Man or Smallville it can be done if it’s done right which Mulan wasn’t.  

They give Mulan basically Star Wars’ the force but just like Rey without any kind of practice she’s just amazing, she’s Maybelline (Maybe she’s born with it Maybe it’s Maybelline), she’s Neo from the Matrix. What message is that going to send to kids? Kids you don’t need to work to be good just hope that you’re born with it and if you’re not born with it too bad. This trend of writing perfect female characters is not realistic, interesting, compelling or relatable. It’s almost like Disney thinks if they don’t make their female characters a Mary Sue, people won’t like her and I think it’s the flaws that make people unique. And before you call me a sexist, I would have had the same issue with any character that is just amazing and great off the back without ever having to train or work for it. 

In conclusion if you want to watch a real live action Mulan watch the Chinese version you can watch it on Funimation or Amazon, warning now that is a real live-action dark and gritty version of the real story that takes place over 12 years not two months or maybe a year at the most as it is portrayed in the cartoon and the live-action Disney movie.  

Also I would highly recommend watching Whale Rider, it’s a similar story and it’s made by the same director that made Disney’s live action Mulan but you know actually good haha.

I give the Disney live-action MULAN a C for cash cow.

What did you think of the movie? Let me know in the comments below or chat with me on Instagram or Twitter.

 Thank you for reading.

MULAN is now on Disney+ with an extra fee, but will be available for free on December 4th.