Tag: mulan

directed by Niki Caro

This post will be full of pain, frustration and spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the new “Mulan”, I… don’t know what to tell you. I mean, I seriously wouldn’t like to recommend seeing it, because it’s simply a very bad adaptation, but on the other hand, I don’t want you to only read about it. So choose whatever is best for you. Okay, well… this was a nightmare for me. The only thing I found interesting is cinematography, because indeed, it looks amazing. But hey, Disney has money, great people and equipment, so no surprise. But the rest is literally a mistake, so here we go: uno – Mulan. In the animation, she was such a positive, energetic, bit sarcastic yet incredibly strong and proud woman. An absolute female role model. Here she’s got no personality and her funny way of being is gone. I’m not judging the actress, I’m judging the horrible character. Dos – Grandma, Mushu and Shang. What can I say? They are gone. Instead of grandma, Mulan has a sister, who does literally nothing. Instead of Mushu there’s a phoenix, which also does nothing. And instead of Shang there’s… nobody. Tres – Yao, Ling and Chien-Po. Do you remember those three adorable soldieries that were supporting Mulan? Well, there are some characters that should resemble them, but shortly speaking, they are gone as well. Mulan is absolutely alone. However, instead of all those wonderful characters, we get a witch. What for? No idea, except the fact that we’re living in the 21st century where people want to be overly politically correct so we have to have more women on the screen even if they absolutely don’t fit there. “Mulan” is about a woman surrounded by thousands of men and yet she’s the bravest and the smartest of them all. Isn’t that a wonderful story about the power of women? Naaaaah, let’s add a witch, who’s bad, then good, then dies and voilà, bye bye witch. Pointless! Okay, where was I… ah, cuatro – Mulan’s parents. They were the sweetest people ever in the animation and the father was incredibly crushed by his daughter’s getaway. In the adaptation, he’s like “oh she’s gone, but if we do something about it, she’ll be screwed even more, so yeah, whatever”. Horrible. Cinco (btw I’m counting in Spanish, so enjoy this free lesson with me) – almost no music from the original film. I watched “Mulan” (1998) as a child and I still remember the soundtrack, and I really hoped to hear it in the adaptation. Nope, not happened. I guess I could count with you till 10 or even more, but I guess those 5 points are the most frustrating for me, so I’ll stop. Anyway, I really wanted this film to be good, because I grew up watching animated “Mulan” and she’s my fictional role model, I swear. But instead, I got an emotionless story that is nothing like what I remember from my childhood. If you’ve seen it and you liked it, well, different tastes I guess. If you didn’t like it, let’s give each other a virtual hug. And if you haven’t seen it yet, better think twice. Mulan was born in 1998 and it should have stayed this way.

My rating: 2/10
S.