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- The live-action Mulan remake brings honor to the Disney canon, even if it doesn’t surpass its animated predecessor. By Natalie Zutter | September 3, 2020 | | 0 Photo: Disney/Jasin Boland In Disney’s 1998 animated film Mulan, the titular heroine’s mantra is that she will “bring honor to us all,” even if she must do so by unconventional means.
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Sep 3, 2020 · The live-action Mulan remake brings honor to the Disney canon, even if it doesn’t surpass its animated predecessor.
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- The new live-action movie takes a lot of cues from the animated version, with some key changes.
- Different: Li Shang Is Now Two Characters
- Same: This Version Follows the Same Narrative Beats as the Animated Movie
- Different: There are Two Villains
- Same: There Is Still a Hawk Companion
- Different: Mulan Has a Sister, and No Grandmother
- Same: Mulan Goes to War to Bring Honor to Her Family
- Different: Mulan Won’t Cut Off Her Hair For Her Disguise
- Same: Mulan Leaves Behind Her Comb to Say Goodbye
- Different: This Isn’t a Musical, But...
By Terri Schwartz
Updated: Mar 6, 2020 11:28 pm
Posted: Mar 6, 2020 4:30 pm
Disney is once again bringing Mulan to the big screen, this time in live-action. Twenty-two years after the animated movie told the story of a young girl bringing honor to us all for the sake of protecting her family and country, director Niki Caro is retelling the classic story of Hua Mulan for a new generation.
Bringing one of its beloved animated movies back to life in a live-action (or photo-realistic) iteration isn’t new for Disney; it’s gone back into the vault for the likes of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King in just the past three years. With Mulan, Disney is making some key changes to bring this version a bit closer to the traditional Ballad of Mulan while still maintaining the elements that Disney fans will know and love.
Here are six big changes (that we know about) in Disney’s new Mulan, and five things it’s keeping the same as the animated film.
Li Shang, Mulan’s commanding officer and love interest in the animated movie, might not exist in the 2020 adaptation, but his spirit and function still do. Li Shang has been split into two characters: Mulan’s fellow army conscript Chen Honghui (Yoson An), and Commander Tung (Donnie Yen). The reason? It felt uncomfortable to have Mulan’s boss also be her romantic partner in a post-Me Too era.
“There was a little backlash online when we weren’t casting a character named Li Shang. It makes sense without a full understanding of what we were doing in our story,” producer Jason Reed said during a visit to the movie's set, which IGN attended. He described Commander Tung as Mulan’s “surrogate father and mentor,” while Honghui is “her equal in the squad.” “We used the animated movie as the model for that relationship,” he continued.
If all of this sounds a bit familiar, it’s because it is. Even though some key characters and story elements have been tweaked, the 2020 Mulan plays out largely the same way as the version directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook. “It follows a different story as the animated movie, [but] all of the major beats are sort of the same,” promised Reed.
Instead of the animated movie’s Shan-Yu (Miguel Ferrer), the leader of the invading Hun army responsible for mass genocide across China, 2020’s Mulan features two key villains: Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee), the leader of the invading Rouran army, and Xian Lang (Gong Li), the sorceress who is allied with him and his invasion. Their goal? To take on the Emperor of China (Jet Li).
“I think as it's playing out now, we're kind of an equal partnership, [on] equal terms,” Lee said. “Bori Kahn has a personal vengeance out for the Empire and taking on a kind of revenge factor, and Mulan is an issue that springs up in his plans to take back the land and the culture of Rourans.”
Though the villains themselves have been changed in this version of Mulan, one core element of Shan-Yu stays the same from animation to live-action: the evil army's leader will still have his hawk companion. The twist? That hawk is actually Xian Lang.
Because she is a sorceress, Xian Lang can transform into animals, and her transformation of choice is a hawk that looks remarkably similar to the one created for the 1998 animated movie. “That's how that guardian spirit animal is going to come into play,” said Lee.
In the original Ballad of Mulan, the titular heroine is an only child, like in the first Disney version. But in other Chinese versions of the story of Hua Mulan, a younger sister is added to the story. That sister is included in this new live-action Mulan, played by actress Xana Tang. This was intended to add more motivation for Mulan. Unlike in th...
One very important plot point remains the same: when the Emperor raises the Chinese army and sends out conscription notices, Mulan disguises herself as a man to take the place of her father, who otherwise would have had to enlist. Reed described how this key act of bringing honor to her family also melded with Confucian ideas important to Chinese society.
“Traditionally the story of Mulan is about a girl finding a way to do her duty, and it’s all about duty and it’s all about devotion to Confucian order. From what we found in our research that was for the [Asian] diaspora community, they read it as a young girl finding her way against her parents; that despite the rules and despite the traditions, she found her own way forward. Those are two completely different ways of reading the story,” he said. “Over the course of developing the movie and working with our partners in China and at the studio, we thought that they only seemed to be in conflict and that they’re actually a story of an individual finding their true self and finding their inner truth, but ultimately she is doing that in service of the Confucian ideal. She is finding a way to do her duty, but she can’t do it the way that young girls were normally expected to, so she finds her own way against the norms of society, but still ultimately fulfills her destiny.”
Notice that Mulan seems to be sporting long hair in all of the film's promotion? That’s because, historically, male warriors in China didn’t have close-cut hair. “In the Disney film, the famous scene of her cutting her hair off, it’s an anachronism,” said Reed. “For her to cut her hair off would make her look more like a woman in reality. Since we’...
While much of this article is discussing changes to the animated movie, it’s clear a lot of care is being taken to incorporate small but iconic moments into the live-action adaptation. Case in point: Mulan leaving behind her hair comb in a symbolic gesture to tell her family she intentionally left.
Yes, really, the iconic music from the 1998 Mulan isn’t going to be belted out by star Liu Yifei as she is training for the army or struggling with being true to herself. Disney and Caro are intending the live-action Mulan to be more of a martial arts war epic, and taking pauses to break into song would be incongruous with that tone.
“It will not be a traditional break-into-song musical," confirmed Reed. “I think it’s a little easier in animation to keep the tension and the reality in place and still have people break into song and sing to camera. We made the decision that we wanted to keep the world -- even though it’s a fantasy -- to keep it more grounded, more realistic, so those emotions really played and the threat was very real.”
Sep 3, 2020 · Kirsten Acuna. Updated. Sep 3, 2020, 9:00 AM PDT. "Mulan" brings honor to fans of the original Disney film in the live-action remake. Walt Disney Studios. "Mulan" is being released to all...
- Kirsten Acuna
- Henry Blodget
Dec 3, 2020 · While Disney's live-action Mulan remake faced several release delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, its long-awaited debut on Disney Plus in September felt perfectly timed -- and it still...
Mar 10, 2020 · Disney has produced a live-action reimagining of their 1998 animated feature Mulan, and the new version is more of a martial arts movie and not at all a musical. Also, Mulan’s sidekick Mushu is...
Sep 3, 2020 · Mulan is a remake that brings honor to the character that far outlives the history Disney has with her. It’s a standout for the studio that will hopefully inspire more originality for years...
Sep 3, 2020 · Mulan review - a Disney remake that is finally better than the animated original. It may not have songs, or Mushu, but its realism is what makes it soar.
