Mulan Reboot Dishonors Disney’s Makeover Track Record

Creative bankruptcy; it’s a term that has been thrown around frequently in the past 10 years, especially where the House of Mouse is concerned. However, Disney has been following the trend of regurgitating past IPs into a different form since the late ’90s, with varying degrees of effect. 

The 2020 remake of Disney’s Mulan is yet another attempt by the studio to recapture the magic of its golden era of animation, and I will share with you whether or not this attempt was dishonorable.

Mulan is the tale of the titular young lady who masquerades as a boy to replace her ailing father during a war against invaders from Rouran Khaganate.

So, let’s get the positives out of the way — it’s an aesthetically pleasing film, with lots of brilliant colors and a variety of lavish set pieces on display. The music is decent with the soundtrack hosting two songs by Christina Aguilera; however, the film’s score is passable at best. 

But this film has a lot of problems, both on and off camera. Acting performances felt phoned in at best, with the likes of Donnie Yen and Jason Scott Lee being heavily underutilized. Liu Yifei however was an uncharismatic bore. I couldn’t care less about her wire fu performance because she felt so lifeless on screen, especially next to so many talented actors. Oh, Jimmy Wong is in this film but he’s completely inconsequential.

One thing that I absolutely could not stand was the fact that Mulan was now some sort of Kung Fu Jesus! In the original tale, she was just a regular girl who was trying to protect her father; and this is a sentiment the animated film conveys so much better.

And after doing a bit of research, I can see why Chinese audiences were so offended. The film’s setting and as well a variety of other cultural elements were a hodgepodge! They took concepts not only from different eras and regions of China, but the phoenix referenced constantly was based on the Western version of the mythical firebird, which comes off a little disrespectful.

Speaking of disrespectful, this film was directed and written by white people, and no I am not going to name them because there was no excuse for Disney to make such a tone-deaf decision.

And of course, I can’t end this review without pointing out the elephant in the room — this film had scenes shot in Xinjiang, the location of the re-education camps! I don’t have the words to express my disgust at that knowledge.

This movie was a special kind of bad — Disney plays it so safe that it insults everyone in the audience kind of bad. I understand that Hollywood has to lick China’s boots because of how much money they bring to studios in the west, but this ain’t how to do it chief.

Dishonor on Disney, dishonor on the director, and dishonor on the writers!

I give the 2020 reboot of Mulan (Walt Disney Pictures, PG-13, 1 hr 55 mins) a 2 out of 5.