Well everyone, as I mentioned before, we are about to the end of the James Bond marathon. Before we review the last film of that franchise, until 007: No Time To Die is released, we are going to review what started off as a Disney+ exclusive, but has been expanding to he other streaming platforms as of recently. This film, in particular, is one of Disney’s live-action remakes that was originally supposed to hit theaters back in late March of this year. However, because of a certain pandemic hitting the US, this film got postponed to late July, and then to late August. Finally, Disney just decided to release this film as a Disney+ exclusive, but making subscribers pay $30 to see this remake. Supposedly, this film is supposed to be free even on Disney+, come around early December of this year. Yes, that’s right. Today, we talk about the latest Disney live-action remake, 2020’s Mulan.
Plot: Set in Imperial China, The Emperor of China (Jet Li) orders that a man from every family serve in the Imperial army, after the ruthless Böri Khan (Jason Scott Lee), a witch named Xianniang (Gong Li), who is Böri Khan’s assistant, and their army of Rouran warriors invade the country. Mulan’s father, Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma) is assigned to serve, as he only has two daughters. Realizing that her father will most likely die in battle, Mulan (Yifei Liu) decides to disguise herself as a man, and take his place in the army. Can Mulan help defeat the army by being true to herself, and bring honor to her family in the end?
Regardless of whether this film was going to skip the theaters at least in the US, or not, I just confess that while I was somewhat excited for this film, I didn’t find myself quite as excited for this film as I was for previous remakes like Aladdin, or The Lion King (both of which were released last year). As a result, I decided to watch this film with some friends, one of whom has a Disney+ account, and watch this with an open mind, like I have tried to do with some of the other recent remakes. So, was this remake good in the end? Well, while not quite in the same league as recent remakes like Beauty & The Beast, 2020’s Mulan does have a lot of good things to like about it. First of all, one should give the executives at Disney credit for being so bold as to create a remake that would be given a PG-13 rating. Considering the amount of violence that occurred throughout this film, it should come as no surprise that this film was rated PG-13. If Disney gets off the ground with remakes of Disney films like The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, and/or even Atlantis: The Lost Empire, will those films be violent enough to be rated that as well? Time will tell, I suppose. Next, the newer Mulan does well with acting as realistic as this film is supposed to be. The film shows movements of people, or even the culture of that region being portrayed as accurately as it can be. Not to mention that the people act the way that people would probably act in real life, whether it would be farmers, people in the army, you name it. Honestly, if this film had been made by any other studio, and the storyline had stayed close, if not quite the same, Mulan could have still been really enjoyable. Who knows, maybe this film might have been better than it was as well. One can only speculate. Additionally, the Phoenix is a cool character too. Granted, for those of us who have been so attached to the dragon, Mushu, from the 1998 animated film, we will definitely miss him. However, having the Phoenix as a character that’s a guardian for Mulan, or any other in this film, is a cool concept for the context of this film. It’s also interesting how there are times when this film pays homage to the 1998 film. For one, this film makes references to some of the songs from the 1998 film, whether it be through musical score, or even incorporating some of the lyrics of those songs, and using them as spoken dialogue at certain points in this film. What’s more is that people will probably be interested to find that some of the characters got changed from the 1998 film, and put into different roles this time around. It’s also cool to see Böri Khan’s hawk be in a bigger role this time. The fact that the hawk is the witch Xianniang, that was a very creative way to handle that character. As for the villain, Böri Khan, while he possibly could have been a better villain, he is very well-developed for the most part. Oh, and there are some changes from the 1998 film that, let’s just say could be very interesting changes this time around. The dynamic between Mulan, and Xianniang is also very well handled too. You might be surprised to find how much the two may have in common with each other. As a result, you at least also understand why Xianniang started helping Böri Khan, and his army in the first place. Overall, the characters are developed really well too. As for Harry Gregson-Williams’ score, you will most definitely like the score that he incorporates in this film. Finally, the acting is really good. You have Jet Li as the Emperor, Yifei Liu as Mulan, Donnie Chen as Commander Tung, Yoson An as Chen Honghui, and Tzi Ma as Mulan’s father Hua Zhou. Man, can you believe that Tzi Ma would go from playing a villain like Cheng Zhi in the 24 TV series to playing a more friendly role in this film? Definitely a cool change, for sure.
Now, even though all of these things sound great, it’s good to point out that 2020’s Mulan is probably not quite one of the best remakes that has been released as of recently. Sure, it did a very good job of trying to differentiate from the 1998 film, and trying to stick closer to the Ballad Of Mulan that was written centuries before. For one, there were newer characters, like Mulan’s sister, who seemed to serve little purpose to this film. I mean at least with newer characters like Dahlia from the Aladdin remake, that one seemed to serve more of a purpose in that film. Here, however, that doesn’t seem to be quite the case. In addition to this, there were some scenes that felt a little rushed. Okay, I’m not sure if Disney decided to restrict this film to just around a hundred and twenty minutes, or something like that. Still, in order to not have some scenes rushed, this film probably should have been an extra fifteen to twenty minutes, if not more than that. Same goes with the aspect of not having one, or two potentially bland characters. Also, I know that it might sound a little annoying to make comparisons to the 1998 animated film. However, it might be good to do so, in terms of comparing Mulan’s character in both films. You see, in the 1998 animated film, Mulan seems to grow, and develop very well as a character in that version. However, here, while you may see some of that growth there, it doesn’t seem to be quite as evident as it was in the 1998 film. As for character arcs with characters such as the shape-shifting witch Xianniang, while you may foreshadow arcs for characters such as hers, it may feel a little forced, and a little out of place, or even given wrong-timing, given the circumstances for that arc. One other thing to mention is that you don’t seem to have quite the same emotional feel that you may have felt for moments that occurred in the 1998 film. Finally, one can’t help but wonder if Böri Khan’s motivations for attempting to overthrow the Emperor, and taking over China were exactly the best. Maybe they were, but I say definitely decide that for yourselves.
And that’s my review for the new 2020 Disney live-action remake of Mulan. Yes, this did end up being a very good remake overall. However, there were points where this particular could have been better. Would it have done well in theaters? Probably? However, when compared to other remakes like Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, or even The Jungle Book, the new Mulan seems to fall a little short in comparison to remakes such as those ones. The visuals are great, the cinematography is phenomenal, and some of the characters are well written, no doubt. However, having said that, there are still those aspects, that I mentioned before, where this film could have been better. I would say that if you have a Disney+ subscription, probably wait until it’s a lower price, or is even for free to watch this film. Or if you want to watch this on one of the other streaming services, wait until the pricing for renting, or buying this film, is lower than it is right now. It’s a good film, but has some areas upon which it could have improved. Hopefully, with remakes of Little Mermaid, and Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs coming out fairly soon, let’s hope that the makers of those respective films learn from this film, and improve, so that they can be as good, if not better than most of the remakes that were released before Mulan.
Final Grade: B
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 