Disney gets down to business with the live-action remake of their animated Mulan, but is it
as powerful, pleasurable, and indestructible as the original?
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and today I'm explaining the 14 biggest differences
between the new movie and the 1998 classic.
Some spoilers ahead, so take care if you haven't seen it yet.
He may be a fan favourite but that didn't save the much-loved Mushu from being cut from
the new film.
"Dishonor!
Dishonor on your whole family."
Brilliantly voiced by Eddie Murphy, the travel-sized dragon with a larger-than-life personality
brought a wealth of memorable moments and hilarious comic relief to the animated movie.
"I am the powerful, the pleasurable, the indestructible Mushu."
However, his comedic tone didn't fit the style of the live-action film which leans more towards
epic martial arts war movie.
And, crucially, while many western Disney fans love Mushu, according to producer Jason
Reed, his silly shenanigans didn't play well to audiences in China
where dragons are important symbols of power, strength and good fortune, in contrast to
Western mythology where they've often been seen as dangerous and aggressive creatures
to be defeated.
The new Mulan does still have a "mythological sidekick of sorts" though.
This time her guardian is a phoenix, a silent character that guides her on her journey to
duty, honour, and being true to herself.
In Chinese tradition, the phoenix is often regarded as a symbol of female power and together
with the dragon the pair of mythological creatures sit on either side of the emperor.
There are some beautiful shots of the phoenix appearing at crucial moments in Mulan's story.
And although it is sad to lose the iconic character of Mushu, his replacement with the
phoenix does better suit this more serious version of the tale.
The remake introduces several brand new characters and my favourite of these is the sorceress,
played by Gong Li, who's an ally of the movie's main villain Böri Khan.
She's a powerful and intriguing figure and the way she shapeshifts into birds creates
some truly arresting visuals and is also a hat-tip to villain Shan Yu's falcon in the
original movie.
Of course, she's much more crucial to the plot than the 1998 film's bird-of-prey,
with her shapeshifting and magical ability to take over another human body proving integral
to the villains' strategy.
And her character also adds an interesting parallel with Mulan, balancing the protagonist's
story as she knows what it feels like to be ostracised for being different and powerful,
and her arc enhances the themes of identity and belonging so crucial to the film.
When it came to Mulan's lucky sidekick Cri-Kee who communicates via chirps
(CHIRPS) "What you mean, a loser?"
rather than cutting him out of the new film entirely, Disney took a different approach,
keeping his spirit alive by adding a brand new human character, who's appropriately called
Cricket.
Cricket is a fellow army recruit whose mother says he's a good-luck charm.
And just like the animated bug unwittingly got Mulan into trouble, the new Cricket also
accidentally causes a minor ruckus at the garrison as the new recruits line up.
And like his animated insect counterpart, this Cricket also helps Mulan out at some
key moments.
He's a sweet new character who adds some nice comedic touches to the film, which makes the
movie's fake-out at the end all the more unbearable!
Like Mushu, one character that fans may find themselves missing is Army Captain and love
interest Li Shang.
For the live-action version, his character has been split in two, with Donnie Yen playing
Commander Tung, Mulan's superior and mentor; and actor Yoson An taking on the role of Honghui,
a trainee soldier, who, after a rocky start, "sees that there's something different about
Mulan" compared to the others, and ends up a close ally.
According to the film's producer Reed, the filmmakers felt it was inappropriate for Mulan's
commanding officer to be her love interest in the remake,
so they removed the power differential between them making Honghui her equal in the army.
And similar to the animation, there are some hints at something more between them.
"What if she doesn't like me?"
"She will."
"I mean I think she will, you know.
You never know with women."
Interestingly, the film's hair and make-up designer has said they
"went for a young, clean-shaven look that was both feminine and masculine" for Honghui
so that "Mulan would fit in better when she joins
up and pretends to be male" and also because his
"character has a fragility to him" that they wanted to keep.
When Reed was asked whether his character would be regarded as a potential LGBTQ icon
in the way Li Shang is, he said "it'll play the same way as it does in the
animated film" as they used that as their model.
Given the way the live-action movie ends though, it feels like the romantic connection between
the two is downplayed compared to the original.
"Would you like to stay for dinner?"
"Would you like to stay forever?"
"Dinner would be great."
The new film sticks to the main story beats of the 1998 one, but unlike some other Disney
live-action adaptations, it isn't a shot for shot remake, so expect some well-known scenes
to get the chop.
For example, the animation's iconic scene of Mulan slicing off her long locks to disguise
herself as a soldier doesn't make it into the live-action movie.
For many Western audiences, cutting her hair short was an empowering moment, symbolising
her leaving behind her old life and its rigid gender-based expectations.
However, that moment rang false to audiences in China as in their culture "male warriors
wore their hair long".
So, the new film takes the animated scene and gives it a twist, creating its own new
empowering moment for our heroine when she decides to let her hair loose and
willingly reveal her true identity.
This moment comes just after Mulan's one-to-one encounter with the sorceress who accuses her
of hiding who she really is: "Your deceit weakens you.
It poisons your chi."
Seeing her tresses flow free as she fights fiercely on the battlefield is a moving moment
because Mulan has made her own choice to unmask herself to the world.
By contrast, in the animation, she's forced out of her male disguise and unintentionally
reveals herself as a woman after being injured in battle.
In the new version, Mulan gets to take back her power, embrace her full identity, and
make her own decision as to when it's time to reveal who she really is.
Another memorable moment in the animated movie comes after Li Shang tells our heroine she's
not good enough to be a soldier and orders her to go home.
Dejected, she begins to leave but then decides to retrieve the arrow from the pole that everyone
has so far failed to climb.
Using her smarts, she repurposes the heavy weights to help her scale the pole and reach
the arrow.
In the live-action, the pole is gone, but the incredibly difficult task this time is
to walk all the way up an enormous mountain carrying heavy pails of water.
The interesting difference between the two movies is that, in the animation, it's more
Mulan's ingenuity and determination that help her succeed in the seemingly impossible task.
Whereas in the live-action, it's her chi that powers her up the mountain summit.
Overall, the new movie emphasises the power of Mulan's chi as making her special, which
isn't to say that this Mulan isn't smart, but it is a notable difference between the
two films.
The animation's big bad, the Hun Army and their leader Shan Yu, have been replaced by
Böri Khan and his Rouran fighters from the North.
Khan's described by director Niki Caro as someone who it looks like everybody has tried
to kill but nobody has succeeded.
And he's played by Jason Scott Lee who's starred in Disney live-action adaptations before,
having brought Mowgli to life in the 1994 version of The Jungle Book.
Another new character introduced in the latest version is Mulan's younger sister.
The filmmakers felt "it added a broader emotional context and more motivation for [our heroine]",
especially at the end of the film.
On top of that, the differences between the two sisters helped to highlight just how different
Mulan is to other young women.
But adding a new relative to the story meant the wise-cracking grandmother from the animation
"Who spit in her bean curd?" got the boot as they wanted to keep the focus
on Mulan's parents and sister instead.
In a change from the animated movie where Mulan is already a young woman at the start,
the remake opens with her as a child.
This new way of introducing her gives us some backstory for her character, demonstrating
her athleticism and agility, and her strong connection to her chi from an early age.
Mulan's striking difference to the other children in the village
and the way the rest of her neighbours view her gives us an insight into how society treats
women who don't fit its norms and the problems it creates for her parents.
"It is Mulan I worry about.
They'll call her a witch."
As producer Reed says, "She has all these great qualities [...] but she doesn't do things
the way a young girl is supposed to.
And it isn't until she's dressed as a boy that people encourage those things in her."
This new opening to the story brings some comedy to the film as well
and also includes a cool call-back to the scene in the original movie where Mulan's
dog Little Brother helps with her chores looking after the chickens.
This time though it's a young Mulan herself who energetically chases around with the chickens
and races through the temple, where a pile of fruit takes a tumble rather
than in the animation where it's her father's tea cup that hits the floor.
That fun little sequence does mean there's no canine character this time, but that's
understandable as this really isn't the type of Disney film where animals performing household
tasks fits in.
As for Mulan's horse, he's got very similar colouring to her animated horse Khan;
but given the more realistic feel of this film, don't expect the same expressive body
language or facial expressions!
"I'm working on it."
Oh, and his name in the new movie is actually "Black Wind" because calling him Khan would
be very confusing given the main villain is named Böri Khan.
In a bold move, the creative team behind Mulan chose to move away from the musical genre,
in complete contrast to many other recent Disney remakes such as Beauty and the Beast,
Aladdin, and The Lion King.
Although the new film does have fantastical elements, it leans more heavily into epic
war territory so the filmmakers wanted to keep the world "more grounded" and "realistic".
And they felt that Mulan bursting into song to reflect on her situation or the imperial
soldiers busting out a tune while getting down to business during a training
montage wouldn't set the right tone.
While we don't get any show-stopping musical numbers, we do get some instrumental tributes
to the classic songs in the movie's score and also in its dialogue.
And if you want to know where they all appear, the details are in my Mulan easter eggs and
things you missed video.
Tap here to watch that or follow the link in the video description.
I'll add here it as soon as it's ready.
On top of that, during the end credits, we hear two new versions of Reflection,
one by Christina Aguilera who also performed the song for the animation and one in Mandarin
by Mulan star Yifei Liu.
Plus, Aguilera also performs a brand new song, Loyal Brave True, written specially for the
remake and inspired by the virtues engraved on Mulan's sword.
So, what do you think about the new Mulan movie and how do you feel about the changes?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!