Mulan Review

 

Film Title: Mulan 

Director: Niki Caro

Release Date: 4th September 2020 (Disney +)

Cast: Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen, Gong Li, Jet Li, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Tzi Ma and Rosalind Chao

Now it is hard to review this film without looking back and comparing it to the original Disney animated film with this version being a live action remake of that classic film, but the latest remake in Disney's ongoing quest to remake its original animated content, but this version makes a lot of changes to the original film adding it's own ideas and personal touches to the film but not all for the better. 

The film itself is well shot and looks visually pleasing highlighting the bright colours of traditional Chinese culture and as a film holds up visually grounding the film in live action form especially Mulan's village and the training camp. The film does a good job at conveying the war aspect of the film with some good action sequences throughout of the film. Now the original animated film managed to capture the impending war, with comradeship with that classic Disney magic, where I personally think the new remake certainly manages to capture the impending conflict but without that Disney magic. 

For me personally the film goes along retelling its story without the heart and soul that carried the original film, the notion of family and honour is touched upon during the original moments of the film but overall feels rushed and doesn't allow you to really connect to the family or the impending situation when Mulan leaves to fight in the war. The charm of the original film comes from its characters and essentially the musical nature of the original film which is completely missing from the remake with the odd musical cue here and there but feels rather bland compared to how the musical beats in the classic films captured the heart of the story whilst creating a sense of friendship and comradeship between the new recruits training before the war. 

Whilst the film does introduces new aspects with the inclusion of a witch style character who can turn into the villains eagle and whilst this character is mainly used in action sequences, the character does not add anything particularly interesting to the story and is added at the expense of removing Mushu a dragon played by Eddie Murphy in the original film who brings a lot of comedy to the original film and acts as a mentor to Mulan is completely missing from this film and the effect of his removal is certainly felt as the film goes on. 

Overall, this certainly is a more serious and grounded interpretation of the character and the overall story but the film comes nowhere near close to capturing the magic of the original film that I was so hoping it would. 

Verdict: 2.5 / 5 Stars