So far it sounds like the live action remake of Mulan is going to be holding true to the cartoon, which could be extremely intense if you look at how active the cartoon movie was. It was just brutal enough to leave the viewer feeling the sense of loss and horror that the invading army brought with them, but thankfully, being a Disney film, it left only images and the implication that the army had left only a trail of dead and broken bodies behind them. The burned villages, the discarded doll, all of it left a huge impression that people could relate to in some way.
What’s going to be really interesting to see however is if the director of the live action remake is going to pull straight from Disney, which would be a little odd, or go off of the play by Xu Wei that speaks of the legend of Mulan and how she really was. The differences are pretty astounding but not too surprising.
Her family didn’t suddenly find out that she was going to war. She let them in on the whole idea and they knew that they couldn’t possibly stop her so they let her go, lamenting her decision but knowing that to stop her would take something they did not possess. She was also a skilled warrior before joining the army, courtesy of her father, who had indeed been soldier when she was younger. Mulan also had a little brother, not just a dog that carried the name of Little Brother. But that brother was simply too young to go and her father was too infirm, so she decided to take his place and serve their country.
As you might have already guessed she didn’t have any animal sidekicks, no cricket, no red-scaled family guardian, but it would appear from the pictures that Disney will be allowing Mushu back anyway. It seems safe to assume though that Eddie Murphy won’t be reprising the role since that would be a little out of character for a live movie. How they’re going to pull of Mushu if they are in fact using him however is something we’ll have to wait and see.
On another note, Mulan was away from home for 12 years. In that time her fellow soldiers had no idea that she was a woman, which is extremely hard to believe but isn’t completely out of the realm of feasibility I guess. After all no one in the cartoon found out that she was a woman and there were plenty of chances. In fact no one in the army found out she was a woman until she requested that she be allowed to go home and see her family again. Then the reveal still wasn’t a big deal as the men had to admit that she’d performed admirably. Once she put on her feminine clothes again she went right back to being a woman without so much as a hitch in her step.
So yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see how a live action Mulan plays out. So far all we really know is that it will be similar to the cartoon and will begin filming in January 2018.
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