Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mulan’ on Disney+, a Rousing, But Uneven Remake of the Animated Classic

And lo, the earth did rumble when Disney finally relented to the COVID-19 pandemic and announced that Mulan would forego theatrical release and debut on Disney+ for a $29.99 rental fee — on top of your usual subscription fee, of course. So I guess we can label the movie, the latest live-action remake of a Disney animated classic, the next step in the Great Streaming Experiment: Will it slake the Mouse House’s omnipresent financial thirst? Will it give the streaming platform a significant boost? Will it drive another nail in the coffin of movie theaters? And dare we even consider whether a typically calculated piece of Disney content also can be art?

MULAN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma) voices over in heavy tones about the qi — a kind of spiritual force, an inner strength — his daughter possesses. She is Mulan (LiuYifei), and she has the heart of a warrior. She wields a staff and sword with speed, grace, skill. She will chase a chicken across rooftops with single-minded intensity. These are not the traits of a typical woman in 15th-century China, but she tries to fit in anyway. She’s gussied up in a thick layer of makeup and a waist-cinching gown and herded to a rigid matchmaker woman who will determine if she is graceful, elegant and poised enough to subjugate herself to the whims of a future husband. The meeting goes poorly. Good for Mulan.

Elsewhere, invaders from the north threaten to take over the empire by crouching-tigering up stone walls, in defiance of gravity, and fighting viciously. The benevolent Emperor (Jet Li) must rouse an army — one man from every family. Zhou is a war hero, permanently hobbled by battle. He’s also the father of two daughters, so he must serve. It’s his duty. He drops his cane and vows to serve honorably. Mulan can’t stomach this. She burns from within, so much so, she’ll never even consider bursting into song or bantering with wisecracking dragons. Game faces only. She takes her father’s sword and armor, disguises herself as a man and follows a majestic phoenix guide, fluttering and soaring overhead, on an arduous journey to war.

As Mulan avoids showering in the same space with grunting and boastful male soldiers and frequently shows them up in the fight-training department, the bad guys, led by Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee), shore up their forces. Their ally is Xian Lang (Gong Li) a mysterious woman who can transform into an eagle. Men call her a witch, but she sheds such categorization; with its implications, who can blame her? A mighty clash is inevitable, as is the jettisoning of Mulan’s ruse — and if you howl spoiler, let it be known, this story is based on a centuries-old Chinese fable, so the statute of limitations has long since expired. Will she save the Empire? Will she earn her father’s forgiveness? Will she redefine the idea of honor? We sure hope so.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Director Niki Caro borrows a few elements of upper-tier Wuxia films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers, but it ultimately shows more influence from historical battle epics like The Last Samurai.

Performance Worth Watching: It’s not hard to love Yiu Lifei as Mulan, but her feminist-hero deck arrives pre-stacked. The film’s emotional tug hinges on Tzi Ma, who transcends his repetitious dialogue about honor and sacrifice and all that, and shows a deep inner conflict between tradition and progress, his head and his heart. Without the actor’s commitment to cultivating a strong relationship between Zhou and Mulan, the movie might be spiritually empty.

Memorable Dialogue: Zhou to his daughter: “You were always there. Yet I see you for the first time.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Free of the musical restraints, funny/cute talking animals and dated stereotypes of the 1998 animated film, this new Mulan is pretty good, although it doesn’t quite meet its potential as a rousing feminist fable or spare-no-expense swords-and-horses epic. Disney is in a good habit of strengthening and deepening its female protagonists here in the 21st century — Frozen is the biggie, but underrated gems like The Princess and the Frog and 2015’s live-action Cinderella remake more than ably carry the torch. The original Mulan may have kickstarted the trend 22 years ago, and the remake faces the task of improving upon already thoughtfully progressive subject matter. Caro’s approach to depicting Chinese culture is wiser and more respectful, but as far as the protagonist? Mulan’s as strong and smart as any man, as usual. It’s a wash.

The new film alters Mulan’s story significantly by rendering her a cracking warrior before her stint in the military; it’s more a story of development than discovery, and it smells slightly of chosen-one cliches. It’s a bland sidestep. The Xian Lang character is introduced to give Mulan a female foil, and a morally fraught one, as it turns out. Such complexity is welcome but underdeveloped, an afterthought to the spectacle and broadstroked coming-of-age-as-a-kickass-woman stuff. It’s as if being too provocative just isn’t part of Disney’s M.O. Imagine that.

One look at the film, and you’ll see why Disney balked and waffled and balked some more about releasing it for at-home consumption. Its mega-scale sweep looks too small on our big TVs. Which isn’t to say Caro’s skillfully choreographed and staged action sequences aren’t effective — she stokes our thrillbumpy gooseflesh quite nicely when Mulan puts her wit and skill to the test. But note, this response is an emotional one, rooted in our desire to see Mulan excel. Visually, the film has no true style; it borrows from elegant Wuxia films and cribs some oomph from Lord of the Rings, and finds a happy warm medium between them. It’s a functional approach, and no more than that.

Maybe it’s obvious to point out that art isn’t Mulan‘s ultimate goal — it’s sentiment, albeit of a richer variety than we saw in 20th-century Disney. The broader-context stuff falls away when Mulan is fixated on honoring her father in a way that defies stubborn and stagnant tradition, when Zhou looks in her eyes and truly understands and accepts who she is. It’s a personal story. Mulan is accused of deceit and dishonor, but she’s living her truth, and no one else’s. And we believe in it.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Mulan is satisfying but bumpy; it’s hard to shake the idea that shuffling the remake with the original would produce the perfect version of this story. Before you shell out 30 bones to watch it now, you may be wise to wait until the film is integrated into your regular Disney+ package in December.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Mulan on Disney+