Film Review: Mulan Is A Total Streaming Win For Disney

I was in total shock at how much I loved the live-action, 2020 version of Mulan. No Mushu! No Music! What version of my beloved Mulan was Disney about to give me? Well, little did I know, it was going to be the most badass version of her. Out on Disney Plus on September 4, Mulan  is Disney’s version of a war epic: colorful, empowering, and 100% feminist.

In some ways, Mulan 2020 is a love letter to the kids that were introduced to this character/ legend in 1998. As children, we loved the sweet songs, the talking dragon, the pack of funny guys who followed Mulan around, and, of course, fell for its love story. Yet, this modern retelling of the legend of HuaMulan is for those kids that are now young adults. In this version, she is a young woman trying to find her path while discovering that the one her parents swore she deserved, must comply to, and would make her happy never happened. It is a tale that many Milliennials/ Gen Z’ers understand.

Disney’s Mulan | Official Trailer

This version of Mulan is 100% about her. Even the love story is very small. While Yoson An is memorable, charming, and thoughtful as Mulan’s crush, Honghui, the story is actually about family, and what it means when they don’t share or agree with how you define your “best self.” From the beginning, director Niki Caro does a fabulous job of presenting Mulan as a strong, smart, and resilient person. Yifei Liu shines like a diamond as Mulan, and makes her drive feel natural and palpable, even to The Emperor (Jet Li). She makes her simultaneously magnetic and relatable; a young woman destined and aware that she is powerful but living in a society/ family that doesn’t believe women can be as such.

Christina Aguilera – Reflection (2020) (From “Mulan”)

One thing you will hear throughout the film is the word “Chi.” It is a vital energy that connects you to the surrounding energies and forces within people and nature. Liu makes Mulan hyper-aware of it all, which means she is also incredibly generous and compassion. Such devotion to goodness and love makes Mulan the star of her own film, which I can’t say was, necessarily, true about the animated version. I remember loving the “Reflection” song and Mushu. In this one, you LOVE Mulan, she is the total heart of the film and every character only shines depending on how they treat her.

Official MULAN (2020) Clips & Trailers

Tzi Ma as Zhou is Mulan’s father and a total emblem of “girldads” unsure of whether they should or could have raised their daughters to be as confident as men. It is an important point that is highlighted by  Li Gong  as Xianniang. Like Mulan, she is strong with the “Chi,” but her character is used as a counter to Mulan and the ying to the yang of a very hard question women music as themselves: can you change the system to honor/ respect women or do you have to destroy it? Their clashes and conversations lead to great fight scenes, which are comparable to The Matrix with choreography and visuals. Overall, the film is stunning, savvy, and, like most Disney films, carries a moral story made for families. So, if you can, on September 4, I say it is totally worth renting for an added 30 dollars to your  Disney Plus subscription of 6.99. It is made for kids and Disney lovers, and, once rented, is available to you until November 4. Click Here For Disney Plus.