Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Mulan (2020)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

Mulan (2020)

Mulan is the latest of Disney’s live action remakes and the last one I will likely review for this blog.  Notable for many reasons mostly because it was due to come out a few weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic hit and was delayed 6 months.  When it finally came out it premiered in theaters and on Disney+ Premiere Access.  As a guinea pig for the Premiere Access it showed people were willing to spend extra money to get first run films at home.  Whether the experiment was a success or not is still to be determined, but they must have felt pretty confident about it since they released their newest film Raya and the Last Dragon the same way.  

Even prior to the chaos caused by the pandemic the movie had a troubled production.  As with Aladdin Disney felt pressure to have an ethnically correct cast and director.  Starting in 2010 Disney began trying to get a cast and crew together.  Noted director Ang Lee was asked to direct but turned it down.  Eventually Disney went with New Zealand director  Niki Caro who previously directed the acclaimed Whale Rider.  While they failed to find an Asian director the cast was prominently Asian.  Chinese Actress Yifei Liu was cast as Mulan and other notable Asian actors were cast including Donnie Yen, Gong Li, and Jet Li (Ming-Na Wen the voice of Mulan from the animated film also had a small cameo).    

The basic story sticks pretty close to the animated film.  To stop her father from having to go to war she pretends to be a man and enlists herself.  There she must not only learn how to be a warrior but also how to hide she is a girl and her true talents.  The details of the story are a bit different.   It is shown early that Mulan is special and revealed that her Chi allows her to be a powerful warrior.  Also, the invading army uses a witch to help win their battles.  It is in a battle with the witch that Mulan finally unveils exactly how powerful she is.  Once the troops know she is a woman she is kicked out of the army and left alone.  But seeing that the invading army is not defeated she heads to the Impereal City to warn everyone about the invasion.  

The biggest difference from the animated film is the elimination of the songs and Mushu the dragon sidekick.  In an effort to make the movie more realistic it was decided that both of these aspects would take the viewers out of the suspension of disbelief.  Oddly enough the addition of the witch and this story about Chi took away from the realism for me.  They also changed Mulan's love interest to a new character so she wasn’t falling in love with her superior officer but with a fellow enlisted man.  While they took the songs out of the movie they did incorporate the music as part of the score.  

The best part of the film is the action.  There are some really cool action scenes that reminded me of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which is a movie I love.  Unfortunately the film falls flat with the character development.  I think the Chi explanation of Mulan’s powers takes something away from her as a character.  The romance in the film never feels fully earned.  I didn’t realize till almost the end that it was supposed to be a romantic interest and just felt like it was a friendship.  

Overall: Some cool action, timeless story, and good acting. Unfortunately the story doesn’t entirely work and the romance aspect feels forced.  I was happy that there was no Mushu in the movie since I found him pretty annoying.  

Disney Movie Challenge: Mulan (1998)

 Disney Movie Challenge

Mulan (1998)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021. 

As far as the later half of the Disney Renaissance goes the movie that gets the most talked about is Mulan.  This not a princess “Princess Movie” is actually a fun action movie.  When Disney originally started developing the film it was going to be a more traditional rom-com, but someone at Disney realized it will be better if they make it more closely follow the Chinese legend of Mulan.  

The movie starts with Mulan (Ming-Na Wen) trying to fit in as the typical Chinese girl by learning all the traditional roles in hopes the Matchmaker will match her up with a good man.  But despite all she does everything goes wrong and she is told she is a dishonor to her household.  When the Huns attack China the Emperor (Pat Morita) declares that each family will send one man to fight in the army.  Mulan’s father who was injured in a previous war is the only man in the house and agrees to go to war.  Mulan doesn’t want to see her father go off to war secretly cuts her hair, steals his armor and pretends she is a man to fight in the army.  The ancestors want to send the "Great Stone Dragon" as a protector but instead of waking the dragon Mushu (Eddie Murphy), a small dragon, destroys the Stone Dragon. Mushu decides to go himself to earn the respect of the ancestors.  With Mushu's help Mulan begins training with other soldiers and tries to keep her identity a secret.  Once on the battlefield she proves herself worthy but when the troops find out she is a girl they kick her out of the army.  But when she realizes the Hun army isn’t defeated and still getting ready to attack she heads to the  Imperial City to protect the Emperor.  

For the longest time I didn’t know this was a musical.  While it technically is a music it doesn’t feel like the musicals of the early Renaissance era.  That might be because for the first time in almost 10 years the music wasn’t done by Alan Menken.  In this one the score was done by another legend Jerry Goldsmith known for movies like Patton, The Omen, Alien, and Gremlins.  There were also 5 songs in the movie and they were written by Matthew Wilder (best known for the 80’s song “Break My Stride”) with lyrics by David Zippel.  None of the songs are as memorable as previous Renaissance films, and while the score seemed to have some odd choices overall it was pretty good.  The ending song "True to Your Heart" by 98 Degrees definitely makes the film feel very 90's.

As a fan of action films this movie hit the sweet spot for me.  Great action good story, and who doesn’t love a good underdog movie. Mulan doesn’t start out as a great fighter; she trains with the rest of the recruits and learns how to become a warrior.  She proves herself worthy and we see her struggle for he success. The love story, while thin, somehow works.  My biggest complaint (and unpopular opinion) is that Mushu drags the story down.  While Eddie Murphy's energy works really well for Donkey in Shrek I find the Mushu mostly annoying and an unnecessary distraction to the story.

Overall: A fun action and adventure movie.  I feel the movie would be better without Mushu who is just annoying.  Also confused why they consider this a Princess movie since Mulan is not a princess?

Random Facts:

To help promote the film McDonald’s released a special Szechuan sauce for its Chicken McNuggets.  This became a gag in the cartoon Rick and Morty and the demand for the sauce was so great that McDonald’s released it again.  

Stephen Schwartz was originally hired to write music and songs for the movie, but after Jeffrey Katzenberg left Disney for Dreamworks he hired Schwartz to write the music for Prince of Egypt.  Disney then cut ties with him and the 4 songs he wrote for Mulan were discarded.

Mulan was the first ever Disney Film to get released on DVD. The film almost got a PG rating because it used the term cross dresser. Christina Aguilera had her first hit with the song Reflection from the film.

Disney Movie Challenge: Hercules (1997)

Disney Movie Challenge

Hercules (1997)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020. 

After facing criticism for themes of racism in Pocahontas and murder, lust, and discrimination in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney decided to go back to making family friendly lighthearted comedies with Hercules.  The story of Zeus’ son isn’t quite like how the Greeks told it (they took out the part that Hera is Zeus’ sister and that Zeus tricked a mortal into having sex with him and Hercules is the result of their tryst) but it’s what you expect from a Disney film.  

The movie starts with Zeus and Hera having a birthday party for their baby Hercules.  But uninvited guest Hades shows up and makes a scene. Hades is determined to take over Mount Olympus and after consulting the Fates decides the only way to have that happen is to kill Hercules as a baby.  Hades has his two sidekicks, Pain and Panic, kidnap Hercules and give him a poison that will kill him.  But due to their incompetence they don’t give him all of the poison and it takes away his immortality but leaves him with his god-like strength.  Not being immortal gets him kicked out of Mount Olympus because apparently you have to be immortal to live there.  Abandoned to Earth an elderly human couple adopts him.  Feeling like he doesn’t fit in he eventually learns that he is a descendent of the Gods and to regain his place on Mount Olympus he must prove he is a true hero.  He heads out  to find Philoctetes who can train him to be a hero.  After a training montage they set out to Thebes to put all his training to the test.  It’s there he meets Megara who he saves but really foiled her con.  It turns out Meg is working for Hades and when Hades finds out Hercules is not really dead he sets out to use Meg as a trap for Hercules.  While Hercules does a lot of hero work he is not considered a true hero till he risks his own life to save Meg.  

For a fairly simple movie that recap seemed to go on really long and I left out a lot of detail.  But what it boils down to is a love story between Meg and Hercules. Meg initially was used by Hades to trick Hercules but of course she falls in love with him and must prove she isn’t really evil (oddly enough The Hunchback of Notre Dame II steals the exact same plot).  Most  of the set up goes by pretty fast and is entertaining.  Actually the whole movie feels breezy, light, and short.  The standout in the film is James Woods as Hades.  He seems to be having the most fun.  If I would have to categorize the film I would say it’s an action comedy with more emphasis on the comedy.  You got the antics of Pain and Panic (Bobcat Goldthwait and Matt Frewer), Danny Devito provides great comedy as Phil, and Susan Egan plays a fun Meg.  The action scenes are ok but besides the fight with a hydra there not really memorable.  

When developing the film the writers looked to combine screwball comedies of the 30’s and 40’s with modern pop culture references.   Screwball comedies were known for their witty dialogue and strong headed females.  Directors Musker and Clements cited movies like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Lady Eve, and Meet John Doe(1941) as influences for the film.  As odd as that sounds it worked really well and you can see that as part of the DNA of the film.

Overall: If you had to split Disney films into categories of Great, Good, Fine, and Bad this would be at the lower end of good.  It’s a fun movie but also predictable and unoriginal.  Best part of the film is James Wood having a blast as Hades.  Also be warned you might get "Go the Distance" stuck in your head. It's not a great song but it's catchy and couldn't get it out of my head for 3 days.

Random Facts

The Spice Girls were originally thought of to play the Muses 

Ricky Martin does the voice and singing of Hercules for the Latin American dub. 

The last Disney Film that composer Alan Menken worked on till Home on the Range (2004)

Jack Nicholson was offered the role of Hades but because he wanted too much money and a cut from the merchandising Disney went with James Woods.