Mulan
***Prairie Grown Reviews does not support the views of the actors nor condone the choice of the location of filming. We are reviewing the film based on its content, not the choices made by Disney or its actors.***
There’s No Shame In Being Fearful Before Battle.
Commander Tung
Summary:
Mulan follows Mulan’s journey to becoming a strong young woman. Living in a time where men were sent to war and women stayed home and acted like a lady, Mulan struggles to find her place. Her wild Chi proves to be more than she can control, and many view her as rambunctious and a poor daughter. The straw that broke the camel’s back is when Mulan is deemed a poor daughter by the village matchmaker and dishonor is brought to her family. Mulan feels she needs to redeem herself and her family, and when the Emperor sends an order that every family must provide one man, she gets her opportunity.
Characters:
Mulan is a young woman who has had strong chi though she is told to hide it from a young age as it is meant for warriors. Mulan is told that as a daughter she is meant to bring honour to her family through marriage but Mulan does not fit what her society believes to be a good woman or bride as she has many of traits of a warrior and is told that she brings dishonour to her family. One day the Imperial soldiers of China come to find one man from each family to fight in a war and as the only man in his family Mulan’s father enrolls. As her father is past his prime and would not return home Mulan decides to steal her father’s armour and sword to take his place disguising herself as a man. With the army Mulan proves to be brave, strong-willed, determined as she tries to fight to protect her father and hopefully use her chi for good. Chen Honghui is a fellow soldier with Mulan and her closest equal as a warrior. He develops a relationship with Mulan as a friend but upon discovery that she is female his emotions change. Commander Tung is the commander of the army and he proves to be somewhat of a mentor to Mulan as he notices her chi and her strength as a warrior.
Sebastian: 9.0/10
So, to be honest I do not have the childhood memories associated with the original Mulan that I do with most animated Disney movies and I’m pretty sure I have only seen it once as it was not part of my Disney movie cycle growing up. That being said I was excited for this remake when it was announced to see a new take on the story as I still knew the basic premise and having seen and enjoyed the other live-action remakes for the most part I wanted to check this out. However, I was not going to spend thirty dollars to watch the film in September so, like many of you, I assume, this was my first chance to watch the film. I thought that this was a pretty good movie with some great action and some good characters. I felt that the character of Mulan ( as played by Yifei Lui) does a good job showing the character’s journey and the emotions that she would feel both before she joins the army when she is told that she is not a good daughter and also the struggle of hiding herself with the army. I felt that camaraderie shown between the soldiers really showed a bond that is formed when you are in that type of group and constantly being with each other and this is where a lot of the comedy comes from which I thought was well done. Of course, the story is already based on a movie and an old legend is not necessarily the most original but I still thought it was well told and the additions such as the aspect of chi and the character of the witch I thought were good additions to the movie that helped make the movie its own thing. The action scenes in the movie were quite well done with many different types of fights using a variety of fighting techniques and in some cool locations as well. The end fight was pretty good and had a cool location.
All in all, I thought this was a cool, and fun action movie that creates its own identity that can stand on its own compared to its animated counterpart. I would definitely recommend it to families and anyone looking for a good Disney action film.
Austin: 8.9/10
If you are like me, you just watched this for the first time on December 4th. If you were such a huge Mulan fan that you bought it for $36 back in September, good on you. After finally watching it, I don’t think it was worth that price tag. Don’t get me wrong, I loved this movie and in certain aspects, it is better than the original. The characters have that classic feel to them, but the writers did a good job of making this feel like its own movie. We’ve seen remakes, live-action or not, that lean on the original script and end up feeling like someone remastered the movie and try to pass it off as new material. This didn’t do that. It felt different, with a slightly different storyline than the animated original. We see the same main cast of characters, but there are a few new characters that come in later that end up having a huge impact on the movie.
It was touches like those that made me appreciate this movie. The addition of new characters and a slightly different story almost made up for removing Mushu. Almost. I can understand why he had to be removed from the live-action version, but he was by far my favorite character growing up. That being said, the comedy doesn’t drop one bit. It is a little bit of a different style of humor, but the situational irony we see is fantastic.
I enjoyed this movie, arguably one of the best live-action remakes we have seen yet. I liked the direction the writers took with an already classic story and made it their own. Now that this movie is free on Disney +, I recommend you go grab the family and check Mulan out!
Nathanyal: 8.0/10
A quick side note before the official review begins. This review is written based on the movie itself and does align itself behind any of the decisions made behind the screen.
This version of Mulan is way different from the traditional, animated one. For one, the whole plot was remade for this movie, as this movie follows more of a bildungsroman style. In this movie, more characters were added while some other key characters were removed. Overall, I found this movie entertaining to watch, with good fight choreography.
Now, for those familiar with Chinese dramas, they will find that the whole movie is pretty much a Chinese drama set in that era. There are many that I have seen before that feature similar fight choreography, such as the flipping, slow motion and impossible jumps, and giant wars waged between two armies. As I have grown up watching these shows, the fight choreography is impressive, but also very predictable. There were many moves that I have seen in past shows featured in this film. It was very interesting to see this style of fighting represented in this movie, as it is not typically the scenes shown in a Disney movie. As a whole, the movie felt more like a Chinese drama than a Disney movie. It missed that happy spark usually present in other Disney movies. Although I appreciate the changes and the references, it didn’t capture my attention as much.
Most of the changes made to the plot and characters were pretty good. Overall, it made the tone of the story more mature, and gave more weight from all the action on screen. For example, the war scene when the enemy soldiers were firing catapults carried more weight since you knew that soldiers were going to die and that it won’t be censored like in other kids’ movies. The addition of new characters also helped develop Mulan’s character. Her development seemed more natural and it flowed much better.
Overall, this was a fun movie to watch. It is nowhere similar to the traditional Mulan, however, there were a few musical cameos from past songs. From just the movie itself, it was an enjoyable movie to watch and gives a fresh taste to the old classic.
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