Mulan! Today is the day we Disney lovers have all been waiting for. The anticipated movie has officially hit TV screens everywhere well… sort of.
The live-action movie would have actually hit theaters earlier this year. Unfortunately due to everything going on with COVID 19, Disney had to take a different approach. The streaming platform Disney+ released Mulan today with Premier Access. In other words, buy the movie for $30.00 or wait until December 4th to stream it for free. For my family, it was a no brainer we would pay the cost. We had been waiting so long to see this movie and generally speaking had the four of us gone to a theater we would of pretty much paid the same price.
But for others, this was not the case. Some disappointed in that $30.oo price tag. But when you realize it cost $200 million just to make the film that little oh I see light bulb might come in their brain. So we gathered up our 4 and 6 year old and watched the entire movie from start to finish. So how was it?
Mulan The Review: Warning SPOILERS!
As I started watching the live-action movie off the bat I knew things were different. I have always been a huge fan of Mulan since I was a little girl. I was ready for this new movie, but I wasn’t prepared for how many things would change. Unlike the original, the movie was missing some very important characters. Amongst those were the beloved Mushu, and also Shang. Finding out those two would not be in the movie I was kind of taken back. Especially Mushu because he was such a fun character. Nevertheless, I continued to give it a chance.
The movie started off with Mulan as a fearless young child chasing a chicken. In the original movie if I remember correctly we never saw Mulan as a child. As the movie progressed the storyline stayed the same somewhat. The emperor requires one man from each family to go to war. Mulan leaves posing a man to take her father’s place, you know the story. As Mulan begins to train with the other men she begins to feel guilt, even almost outing herself as a woman but she doesn’t just yet anyway and continues her journey.
Mulan and the others meet the Huns for the infamous fight scene when Mulan separates from them. That is when she meets Xian Lang who actually is a witch that has the abilities to shapeshift. She was very evil, though I was happy to finally see another girl in the movie. After Xian Lang attempts to kill Mulan it’s that moment that Mulan realizes she must return to the others and confess who she really is. The same plot continues with the avalanche and Mulan saving the day, the men finding out she is a woman, kicking her to the curb, and all of that. After another run-in with Xian Lang, Mulan returns back to the others to warn them about them, emperor. A bunch of badass fighting scenes later Xian Lang dies, Mulan kills Bori Khan saves everyone again, makes her dad proud. The end.
Basically in a nutshell the movie was the same for the most part with more adult touches. Though my 4 and 6 year old loved it. Their favorite parts were “when Mulan beat up everyone” or “when Mulan saved the day“. They did not even notice that the movie had zero singing or love scenes.
I personally loved the movie too. I was not happy at the beginning but my mind was changed after watching how raw it was and how realistic it felt. It’s sort of funny because as a child I had a cartoon version of Mulan. Now as an adult I have a grown-up version, which is pretty cool.
As a mom of two girls, I also love the amount of girl power in the movie. Mulan is an amazing role model for little girls! My 6-year-old cried when she thought Mulan had died. Another thing I may add was that I enjoy that everyone can enjoy it as a family. Don’t get me wrong, there are killings and whatnot. However nothing too graphic or wild. All in all, I’d say that this new Mulan is definitely worth the $30.00 and I will more than likely grab a copy of the DVD when it hits the store. Disney nice job!