Top 5 Things I Want from Disney's 'Mulan' Remake

So Disney is making a live action remake of every single animated movie ever. TheLion King just came out and a trailer for the 2020 Mulan was recently released. This is the only live action/CGI Disney remake that I am interested in, because I believe the original has a lot of potential for improvement. The original stuff like Lion King and Aladdin still holds up and does not need to be remade. But the original Mulan, while it has good ideas, they aren't always executed that well.

So here are the top five things I want to see in the Mulan remake:

1. A cool sword fight

The original Mulan had a great training montage, but we never really got to see Mulan use any of that training. I wanna see a straight up, cool-ass sword fight, ala Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Donnie Yen has been cast in the remake, which can only be a good sign. And from the trailer, there appears to be a lot of action and fight scenes. So far, we seem to be on track for this one.

2. A cool battle sequence

I want to see a Lord of the Rings-esq battle sequence at some point in the movie. The original Mulan tried to have a grand scale fight, but never fully committed to it. Like the scene on the mountain top is really cool, but then Mulan takes out the entire army with an avalanche. I know it's a kid's movie, but that scene always felt like such a cop out. I want a full on, Helm's Deep style battle sequence, with two huge armies just going at it. If you're giving Mulan the big blockbuster treatment, you might as well go big or go home.

3. Limit songs

The reason the Jungle Book remake worked was that they only used the two songs you remember from the original, "Bare Necessities," and "I Wanna Be Like You." Nobody remembers any of the other songs from the OG Jungle Book, or if there even was other songs. And that's the way to go. Mulan has four songs total, but there are only two that stand out/that you remember: "Reflection," and "Make a Man out of You." So just do those songs. They're classic, memorable, and are used at crucial parts in the story. Personally, I would be fine if they didn't have any songs, but if you have to do songs, stick to these two. They'll probably try to write a new song so they can win awards and stuff, but that is unnecessary and dumb.

4. Fix magic/mysticism

The original Mulan has some magic stuff in it, but it is never really necessary to the plot. Mushu the dragon is like Mulan's magical sidekick (like the Genie in Aladdin), but he never really does anything that significant to help Mulan or even effect the story, other than maybe giving Mulan someone to talk to. So I say either integrate the magic stuff into the story (like it is in Aladdin) or cut it out altogether. How much does the story really change if you cut out Mushu? Mulan is a pretty straight forward war epic. You don't really need magic to make the story compelling. Or on the reverse end, if you're going to use magic, maybe make the villain have magical capabilities. Which brings me to:

5. Stronger Villain

Shan Yu is pretty shit villain. This is disappointing coming from Disney since they usually have great villains even when the movies are mediocre. Shan Yu is just really boring, and doesn't have any strong motivation. Mulan's main conflict, is whether or not she can prove herself, both in the army and just as a useful member of society overall. So, what she needs is a villain that comes in direct opposition of that struggle, a true foil. Shan Yu doesn't cut it. He's just the head bad guy of the opposing army, and doesn't serve as any kind of major opposition for Mulan's story other than he is a bad guy. He also doesn't have a strong personality or anything very interesting about him. According to Wikipedia, the remake will have a new villain called Xian Lang who is a witch. That sounds cool to me. It also sort of fixes my problem with the magic, making the enemy force supernatural. This could make them more threatening and integrates magic into the story in a natural way. We'll see how it plays out, but I think this a good way to go about it. An evil witch could be an excellent foil to Mulan. Someone in the military, but much more powerful and threatening. Someone doing what Mulan is trying to do, but way better than her. I think that could be really interesting. I wonder if they will go the Marvel route, where the villain doesn't have a big part of the story, and is more just one of the obstacles the hero must overcome. Moana didn't even have a villain at all and that movie is great. So, I think as long as they integrate the villain more into Mulan's story as an integral obstacle that she must overcome, it will help to make Mulan's journey more compelling, and the movie more satisfying overall.

So those are the my top five wants from this remake, but with them come a few concerns:

So in the trailer, there are scenes of Mulan fighting with long hair, which looks cool but actually makes no sense if the story is the same. In the original, in the best scene in the movie, Mulan cuts her hair so she can disguise herself as a boy and join the army. That's the whole plot. So how does Mulan have long hair later? Does she not cut her hair? That's her entire disguise. IMDb states that the plot is still the same. So what is going on here? Maybe there will be context in the movie. I just hope they don't change too much from the one crucial emotional scene that already works perfectly. It's the entire essence of the narrative, and what makes Mulan unique as a character and a Disney princess. She doesn't just want "more" from her life. She doesn't fit in at all, but is willing to risk everything for her family in a time where failure means death. That's a big plot point in the movie, that they will straight up kill Mulan if they find out she is a girl. Kind of defeats the point if she's running around with long hair. I'm also worried that they're going to forget to give Mulan flaws. I feel like I've seen this trend a lot recently where movies will make a female character flawless in order to make them appear "strong." (Rey, Captain Marvel, Gwen from Spider-Verse, Wasp) Again, Moana works because she kind of sucks at the start, and spends most of the movie failing before she begins to succeed. It's the same with Mulan. In the original, she is super clumsy and bad at everything. She fails consistently until the end of the "Make a Man out of You" montage. That's what makes her character compelling.

But I do think that this movie has a strong chance of actually being good. While researching this movie, I found out that they spent almost a year casting to find the right person to play Mulan. Part of that is that they needed to find someone who is well-known to Chinese audiences, can speak fluent English, can sing, and do stunt work. But the other part seems to be that they are actually spending a lot of time trying to get this movie just right. They aren't just sticking to the usual Disney remake formula of Step 1: cast celebrities, Step 2: profit. I really like what they are going for with the colour and cinematography so far. Lots of visually rich shots. It's much more stylistic than the usual flat, boring, natural look of the other Disney remakes. I don't know that this movie will be good, and there is definitely more things that can go wrong compared to other Disney remakes. But because of that, they seem to be trying harder, and really going all out to make this movie worth watching. I really hope that this movie works out, as it by far has the most potential of any of the currently planned Disney remakes.

Bonus Idea: I know they've already begun filming, but I think it would be cool if they filmed the whole movie in both English and Chinese. I think it would be smart too, since Disney clearly wants this to do well in China, and actually filming it in the native language would go a long way. Plus, I just think it would be cool. I'd rather watch it in Chinese with subtitles to give it an old martial arts movie feel. Come on Disney, you have the money. Make it happen.