If you don’t know me personally or if you haven’t read any of my previous articles, you should know that I am a big Disney fan. I grew up with Disney and I am still a kid at heart, so I enjoy almost everything Disney has to offer. I love Disney so much that I even enjoy many of their live-action remakes. While I know many fans are tired of hearing anything about live-action movies, I love to see all of my favorite childhood movies come to life and enjoy seeing how Disney expands on the stories. However, just because I am a big Disney fan who enjoys many of the live-action remakes doesn’t mean I like every single one of them. Some of the remakes, like Snow White (2025) and Peter Pan & Wendy (2023), weren’t my favorites. However, the film that I will discuss in this article is the one that I despise most of all, and that live-action remake is none other than Mulan (2020). This is the one film where I actually agree with critics: I can’t stand it. I don’t understand why Disney thought that people would enjoy this movie, but they needed a reality check. And with the sixth anniversary of Mulan coming up on Sept. 4, I thought this would be the perfect time to talk about this. This piece is not me trying to be hateful toward the cast and workers of the movie; this is just my honest opinion about why this live-action movie does not work.
Story
First and foremost, the issue with the story of the live-action Mulan was that they completely changed the plot from start to finish. It was nothing compared to the animated version of Mulan, which is why I say it shouldn’t even count as a remake. Disney was trying to make the movie more like the original story of Hua Mulan. I’m not saying that it’s a bad idea, but I feel like another company could have done that and it would have been okay to have two different movie versions of the story — one more bound to the folk legend and the other a Disney iteration. The whole point of a remake, whether it’s animated or live action, is that it’s supposed to mirror the same story, but make it only slightly different so it isn’t an exact copy-and-paste. I don’t know if Disney listened to people saying that they wanted some changes with the live-action remakes, but they took that advice a little too far in this case. People want to talk about all the changes in Lilo & Stitch that Disney made, but trust me, the changes weren’t as exhaustive as they were with Mulan.
Music
So, with the Cinderella (2015) live action, they got rid of all of the songs that were in the original animation, but it honestly made sense because of how they altered the story for the remake. They were still able to portray emotions and the growth from the characters that made it a wonderful Cinderella story. However, Disney really messed up with the decision to remove the music from Mulan. The point of all of the Mulan songs is to show the growth of Mulan. Sure, there are four songs the directors decided to not have any more due to the darker tone of the movie, but those four songs show the person Mulan is. She first starts out, of course, wanting to make her family proud even though the standards for women in her culture are very complicated. Mulan struggles to show her true self and all she wants is to be able to show what she sees in the mirror to everyone else. Then, when it comes to her training, it shows Mulan learning the expectations of a man, but as a woman, she is still able to succeed in becoming a good warrior. With the last song, it was the soldiers fantasizing about their dream girl and the song ends with the reality of war when they arrive at a destroyed village, with Mulan realizing how the expectations that the men have of women do not connect with her. All the songs tell the story of Mulan and how she grows as a character to find her true self. The live-action movie didn’t even bother to show the growth of Mulan and removing the songs didn’t help at all, especially since they play a huge role in the story.
Character Removal
This right here was where I drew the line. What do you mean you basically took out all of the characters that we grew to love, Disney!? Mushu, the cricket, Li Shang, Yao, Ling, Chien-Po — all of the characters that make Mulan the beloved movie we know. Not to mention, they changed the villain and created two new ones, which made me really confused while watching the movie. These characters that Disney removed literally helped Mulan embody who she was hiding on the inside, and helped her grow. Even the villain from the original was important for her because when she revealed that she was the soldier that caused the avalanche, he didn’t see her as a woman, he saw her as a soldier, stating, “The soldier from the mountains.” Not a woman, a soldier. That’s why he went after her and tried to kill her instead of Li Shang. Removing all of these characters really just ruined the movie and all of the development and growth of a strong woman that many little girls look up to.
I won’t lie, some of the other live-action movies that Disney has made weren’t the best, but at least those live actions didn’t ruin the whole message from the originals. My main issue with the Mulan live action is that they took away the character growth and the message that resonated with a lot of people. Mulan is supposed to express that women don’t need to live up to the expectations of their society and don’t have to pretend to be something they’re not. It’s okay to be yourself and be able to do what you want no matter what gender you are. You can be confident, strong, and do anything a man can do. This movie missed all of this, which is why this is the most intolerable live action. While there are rumors about a possible chance of another movie or series based on the original animation, Disney has not confirmed anything. If this is true, I really hope they step it up with that project to make up for this live-action film. Disney should be grateful that this movie was released during COVID, otherwise it most likely would’ve done poorly in theaters. I hope that Disney learned from this experience and doesn’t make the same mistakes in future live-action films, since there will definitely be more coming out in the future.