Mulan (2020) Review

So this film has been available on Disney+ for an extra fee for months but I am really cheap so I have waited till it is free with the streaming service to watch it and that day is today so here is my review for the 2020 version of the film Mulan. The premise of the film sees a young Woman disguise herself as a man in order to take her fathers place in the Chinese army. 

Main Character

Chinese actress Yifei Liu plays the titular character and I mean she is fine in the role, she feels appropriate for the role and does a decent job in the action scenes which is important for the role and she does an okay job in some of the emotional scenes. But I just don't really know why I did not care about Mulan much in this film, I just couldn't find anything to attach myself too and I found her character to be quite dull and not offering much to stand out in terms of a lead role. 

Supporting Characters

This film doesn't have a particularly great supporting cast but the one who stands out to me is Donnie Yen, his character isn't the most compelling but he does a fine job and you can tell he is easily the best actor in the action scenes and he is a highlight in these scenes. I also thought the actor that played Mulan's father did a good job and sold the emotion of their scenes well together. But the rest of the cast didn't do much at all, I mean Jason Scott Lee plays the main villain but similar to the animated film, he is just a bad guy Mulan has to defeat with no character and no depth to him. Different to the animated film there is an evil witch added here and it seems they tried to give her some character but they failed and she becomes an addition that feels out of place here. Like the animated film Mulan has some allies in the army and they were charming in that film but it doesn't work here and these characters are dull and you really won't care at all. 

Story

In these Disney live action remakes I feel like they are damned if they do damned if they don't. If they keep the story the same they are accused of being lazy and if they change it people go against it so this film kind of does a bit of both. Characters like Mushu are missing and I honestly think this story doesn't work and I will explain why, in the animated film the reason it works is that Mulan goes from this normal girl who becomes a warrior but this film completely changes it and attempts to make her some sort of superhero and it feels cheap and like the film loses all of its heart. The other issue is that I didn't care about any of the characters here, not even Mulan and the film really banks on you doing that which hurt its plot. 

Script  

The film has some okay dramatic moments in it that actually works which is better then most things here. It is just, I am not saying this film should be a comedy, but it takes itself so seriously and becomes a drab watch as the seriousness makes you care less and less about this pretty dull execution. 

Style

One thing the film has going for it, is that it looks amazing. In terms of its visual this is one of the best of the year in my opinion, the backgrounds look great and if the film was scored on the way it looks only it would be a much better score. But it isn't and here we go with another criticism but it is actually a technical one, when the action scenes were taking place there are just so many cuts, the film is cutting all over the place and it becomes so jarring, it is hard to explain unless you watch the film. The only time it doesn't do this when Yen is doing action and it seems like the rest of the cast weren't as strong in the action or the director was just poor at filming them. 

Overall

Overall, this is a below average film that actually upsets me. If people remember back at the beginning of the year, this film was high up in my most anticipated films of 2020 and it just fails to hit those levels and leaves it one of the biggest let downs in recent years. 

Rating - 4/10 

Mulan (1998) Review 

So the 2020 Live Action version of Mulan hits Disney+ at no extra charge tomorrow and because I am cheap I haven't watched it yet so I thought I would watch the original animated film and here is my review for it. The premise of sees a young Woman attempt to save her Father from dying in the military by taking his place secretly by pretending to be a man. 

Main Character 

So obviously Mulan is the main character and for those that criticise Disney's animated films back in the 90s of not portraying strong female characters then go back and watch Mulan as this is a fantastically strong character. It only came to my attention today that the fantastic Ming-Na Wen who I know from Agents Of Shield and The Mandalorian voices Mulan and she is a perfect fit for the role, she is known for her action prowess and she just really fits into the character of Mulan. 

Supporting Characters

There is a good group of characters that Mulan allies with in the film, the main one being Mushu played by Eddie Murphy and he is great and adds plenty of life and energy to the film. I mean it is funny that his voice role here is basically the same as when he voices Donkey in the Shrek films, but it does work here and as I said adds plenty of life to a film that needs it. BD Wong plays Shang her Captain in the army and I thought he voiced the character well and I thought his character fit well with Mulan's story and I thought their dynamic was a highlight of the film. The characters in the army are fine and are good with Mulan, but you can't help but see the stereotypes and generic nature of them kind of makes them a bit paper thin. But when you get to Paper thin we get to the villain of this film, I mean these animated films have great villains such as Scar, Jafar & Ursula but this guy is just really generic, he is a Hun and just wants to take over China. We are not given any interesting and thought provoking reason, he is just a bad guy for the sake of the film having a bad guy which does hurt the film a bit. 

Story  

The story is good, it does a great job showing its main protagonist in a great light and making you care about Mulan and wanting to see her succeed and it does that in an appropriate way, the story also doesn't shy away from some pretty sexist moments and I think it makes Mulan's story better that the film doesn't hide from that. But I feel like this film maybe has an overly simple story, compared to other Disney films I felt like this film had the potential to have more shades of grey in it, like I said the bad guy is just simply a bad guy and I think there could have been more done there, especially when you consider some of the attitudes of the Chinese empire that are pretty bad in this film. 

Script

The script is really good, you have to remember that this is meant to be a family film so it has some of that family humour but it feels appropriate and the film knows when to have its dramatic moments and it is effective in doing so. 

Style 

This film looks fantastic, back in the 80's and 90's Disney had great looking animated films but this one is right up there, it looks stunning and the Chinese backdrop really adds to it and the style of the film. For a family film it does have some exciting moments and some darker moments which sells its war like feeling. It is a really short film barely clocking at 90 mins but that is part of its charm, you can turn it on and watch this quickly and feel like a complete story has been told in the time that is given. 

Overall

Overall, this is a great animated film that maybe is a bit underrated. I feel like when people mention the great Disney animated film Mulan is never mentioned and I am not saying it is as good as The Lion King or anything but I think it is a really great film that deserves to be watched. 

Rating - 8/10