Even though this is a strong lead, the remake suffers from bad pacing, boring characters, and VFX problems that doesn’t make it anywhere as good as the superior 1998 original animated film.
Directed by Niki Caro, “Mulan” has a wide Asian cast. From the start of production on the remake, the movie was supposed to borrow from the legend of the character than how the 1998 original told the story.
The remake is targeted to the young woman audience that is supposed to be very familiar with. The basic story of “Mulan” has been the same since the original Ballad of Mulan Chinese poem: the young woman who disguises herself as a man to replay her old and handicapped father. The 2020 remake starts off the same, telling the Emperor of China’s (Jet Li) order that one man per family must enlist in the Imperial Army. Taking her father’s (Tzi Ma) sword and armor, Mulan goes off into the unknown and sees herself while saving her country. On this simple level, “Mulan” is the exact same film as the original animated film, but it separates itself a lot from here.
Niki Caro’s “Mulan” takes a lot from the original folktales and not from the animated film, but it also introduces new characters and elements. Many characters that are in the animated film were either written out, replaced, or broken into separate characters. Maybe the largest deletion of the film is not having Mushu, the comedic relief of the animated film. Fans of the original will miss the character, who brought a lot of light to the story and have Mulan a great person to think ideas back and forth.
Even though Yifei Liu plays Mulan well, it feels like she did not have a lot of lines in this film. Sheraz Farooqi said in his review, “Of course, the nature of the plot, as Mulan is under the cover of a man’s appearance leads her to be quiet for most of the film, it would have been nice to have her speak more often. The omission of Mushu once again plays into this as Mulan is alone throughout most of the film.” The second deletion fans will miss are the songs. Farooqi said, “While some notes and instrumental versions of the original songs find their way into the remake, the lack of ‘I’ll Make a Man Out of You” was definitely felt.” The character who sang that song, Li Shang, was broken into two characters, Commander Tung (Donnie Yen) and Honghui (Yoson An). Farooqi noted, “While the reasoning behind it made sense, unfortunately, the film itself did not serve either character well. Both felt very one-dimensional versions of a three-dimensional character in the original.”
Other than that, the villains were also poor in the remake compared to the animated film. Now I know that Shan Yu, the villain in the original animated version, will never be ranked amongst some of the best Disney villains at the time, but the two villains in the live action remake, Xian Lang (Gong Li) and Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee) were not in any way better. Farooqi mentioned, “Each felt very one-note and character development for one them happened in a blinding second, to the point where their arc’s conclusion came off as puzzling, yet predictable. While the actors who played them did well with what they had, better writing and extra breathing room could have gone a long way.”
Farooqi continued, “On the topic of pacing and breathing room, something about 2020’s Mulan felt off. The film moved from scene to scene at a lightning pace, character development for the side characters happened in a more cartoony way than the cartoon itself and things felt disjointed in the plot in the third act. One could imagine there is a longer cut of Mulan that would have let the film breathe, specifically in the final half of the film.”
All these flaws aside, “Mulan” is still enjoyable. The film does by a good cast, specifically, it’s lead Liu. The production design of the film was nice and the choreography was well done too. Technically speaking, the film’s visuals are beautiful and it has a nice soundtrack. Farooqi said, “When comparing it to the recent Disney live-action releases, the film does not really reach the pulp feel of Aladdin or the 1:1 remake of The Lion King.” Even though I do applaud “Mulan” for being different from the original animated movie, I think it could have depended on the original a little more, like with the comic relief characters like Mushu, or have the iconic songs in the film.
In the end, “Mulan” is another one of the better live-action remakes that Disney has done. Even though the pacing and some pointless characters really detract from the strong acting performances, the film does get credit for being a more serious look at the Mulan story.
As I mentioned before, even though I like the beautiful visuals and look of the film, and the fight choreography was enjoyable, and cast and performances were nice, it really lacks with having a little forced humor that causes a slight chuckle and not having any of the iconic songs from the original. Also, I really don't think the runtime of the movie really needed to be close to two hours. For a film that was originally supposed to have a theatrical release, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it only got released in theaters in countries that don’t have Disney+ and others where subscribers had to pay Disney+ a premium fee to buy, I think I will let you decide if you want to watch it. I don’t think it was worth having a premium fee to watch the film and even though it is decent and one of the better live-action remakes, I don’t see myself re-watching this after a first viewing. Like I said, it’s a decent, ok film, but I would prefer to watch the original animated film like always. However, it’s not nearly as bad as some of the others, like “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin” and “The Lion King,” so I give it credit there.
Thank you for joining in on my review tonight. I’ll see you next Friday for the next installment in “Ip Man Month.”
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