Mulan

I haven’t jumped at every Disney live-action remake released over the last few years. Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella, yes. I surprisingly caught Dumbo in the theater. The cast overrode my desire not to leave the theater a blubbering mess. That scene, you all know the one I am talking about, in the animated version gets me. Every. Single. Time. But there have been others that didn’t inspire a need to see these reimaginings on the big screen-notably Lion King and Aladdin. I could put them on for free, and I have yet to pull the trigger.

After a considerable delay, audiences have Mulan to end the drought on new entertainment. I wasn’t going to pay the premium price on Disney+. I thought $30 bucks was a bit much. Adam was quick to remind me that we spend that much at the drive-in. Not to mention, with this option, we wouldn’t have a commute to watch it. Fine, fine. Sensemaking. You can probably guess that I broke down and consented to The Mouse’s price. 

I don’t know why I thought I could resist. The animated version of Mulan struck an emotional chord with my younger self. It struck a whole symphony of chords. Watching Mulan made me feel seen. It’s not a surprise that the two Disney Princesses I identify with the most are the two who keenly felt their awkwardness, Belle and Mulan. Release a new version of either, and yeah, my ass will be in the seat. 

There has been a lot of press surrounding Mulan’s new adaptation, including plenty of the differences audiences were going to get with this latest adaptation. The buzz for this film made it plain we were not going to get a shot-for-shot update of the 1998 version like we did with Beauty and the Beast. Shang, Mushu, and Crickey hit the cutting room floor like they were bad habits. 

In some camps, I guess Shang was a bad habit as he was Mulan’s commanding officer, and there was an emotional attraction between the two. I didn’t quite get the fear of encouraging workplace harassment. Shang and Mulan were entirely professional. Their dynamic only changed after the chain of command had been severed by her return to her village. But, fine. I can get behind the removal or at least the diminishing of the romantic aspects of the story. 

It’s Hollywood, so romance isn’t completely dead. If you have a female lead, there needs to be some romantic component, because…reasons. Enter stage right-Honghui. Shang but without the commission of General. Thus skirting whatever they were trying to avoid with a disproportionate army ranking. Rolls eyes.

I’m going to move away from the love interest switcharoo. There is probably more to say on this point, but enough of the original romantic arc still resonates for girls who are labeled odd or undateable.

I am about five hundred words into this review, and I am stuck. I would have liked to have worked myself up to saying I liked the live-action Mulan. But there is a lot still nagging at me, keeping me from committing to giving this film a genuine thumbs up. 

Was it entertaining? Yes. I could almost forgive the removal of the “Be a Man” montage. Was it well cast? Absolutely, right down to the horse and hawk. They went even as far as to tip their hats to the original animated film by having Ming-Na Wen appear at the end of the film. Well played. What about the technical components? All on point. The post avalanche scene, in particular, was gorgeous. It rivals a scene from Brotherhood of the Wolf that ended up on the cutting room floor in its stark, cold beauty.

But, something just didn’t entirely sell me. Honestly, it wasn’t one thing; it was several. As mentioned, Mushu hit the cutting room floor. Having a talking mini dragon prancing around scenes would be a smidge ridiculous. But instead, the villain’s hawk isn’t a hawk at all. The hawk is a woman who can turn herself into a hawk. This might be a shocker for some, but the woman is a witch. That old chestnut again. 

So, Mulan doesn’t get a weird pal, but the enemy does? The consistency there isn’t great. But worse, it just pulls in the woman-on-woman hate dynamic omnipresent in so many of the Disney Princess movies. Mulan was a very different story. She blatantly subverted the patriarchy with her quick thinking and perseverance. And saved all of China while she was at it. By personifying Khan’s hawk into a woman, we instead get slapped in the face with a cautionary tale. Ultimately, she does end up saving all of China, but it just didn’t have the same zing. I’d say spoiler alert, but I think everyone knew that going in.

The addition of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon style fighting didn’t really do anything for me either. It seemed to be a play at widening the audience for this particular vehicle. Let’s be honest, while other Disney movies are accessible to both genders, Mulan speaks almost exclusively to girls and women. And they didn’t go all in either, which is probably why I wasn’t crazy about it.

There were fighting and violence with no real emotional attachment to either. Sure, Mulan does go on this journey to protect her father from what is almost certain death. Later, we see Mulan’s hand shake in a single scene to demonstrate she is afraid but still willing to devote herself to the cause. But there is no near-death to any of the characters in the film. We get a prettily choreographed version of war. Careful, spoilers ahead.

Shang’s father is killed, albeit off-screen, but that rings’ emotional weight through the animated film. This is removed entirely from the live-action version because Shang doesn’t exist. Shang himself almost dies during the avalanche. We get a parallel scene in the latest adaptation, but the camaraderie and gratitude of that moment are not addressed at all. Mulan is never wounded in battle; she easily avoids getting pierced by two arrows while on horseback. 

I would have loved to say that these changes and the live-action update made Mulan more of a badass than she already was, but I think they missed the mark. I don’t know. Maybe this is a movie that will improve on a rewatch or two. That happens. But right now, I feel like it is missing something or a string of somethings to make it the movie it should have been.