Disney's live-action "Mulan"

[Schlosser85]

Decided to slap down that thirty dollars and give this a whirl. Will be back in a while.

 

[Schlosser85]

So, overall, I thought this was pretty good. It not being a scene-for-scene cosplay of the original set it a bit apart and made it fresher and more engaging than the rest of the Disney live-action remakes. In fact, it was a couple bits of awkwardly-integrated bits of slapsticky comedy that didn't quite work and felt like obligatory pandering to Disney comedy. I did kinda like how the score occasionally paid homage to the original's songs.

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD

Visually sumptuous, picturesque landscape shots, colorful costuming, etc.

I thought Liu Yifei was fine. Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, and Gong Li were cool, though Gong Li's about-face kind of felt like it just happened and was insufficiently-developed. Her whole character felt like it needed a bit more to it and was a bit half-baked. So did the kinda sorta love interest and his semi-romance (?) with Mulan that didn't really amount to anything. Tzi Ma was good as the father. I probably dug he and Donnie Yen the most in the supporting characters.

The battle scenes were well-done and avoided the overly watered-down feeling that sometimes results when Disney tackles large-scale battle scenes (except for the suspiciously "clean" lack of casualties on the good guy team in the climactic battle).

Overall a pretty engaging adventure, IMO.

 

[Iceman]

Nice. I look forward to checking it out when it’s free on Disney +.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Well I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it Schlosser85 and hopefully Iceman does as well whenever he sees it. I'm not going to pretend that its a great film or anything, but it really didn't deserve to dragged through the mud as much as it did, although I just can't defend the actions of Disney on this one either.

Its such a poorly handled mess on both ends, but hopefully Disney and other studios learn from it and don't make the same mistakes in the future.

 

[Legendver2]

I'm not one to cheer on a films demise, but this is exactly the bitter dose of medicine that Disney needed to take. Not just as a reality check to their lack of creativity, but also to the types of films they are making and who they are making them for.

It is kinda hilarious to think that Tenet will make more money in China than this.

But in all seriousness, I really hope the company actually learns from this. Their live action remakes have been soulless endeavours from day one, and their focus on recycling their own stuff was eventually going to comeback to haunt them. We don’t know what would have happened without the virus, but if the reception from China is any indication it would have failed one way or another, at least over there. The reality is Western and Eastern audiences have different tastes, and this misguided desire to please both ended up pleasing no-one. Disney, and really Hollywood in general, need to start working out which audience they want to please, because you’ll never satisfy both.

Lol let's be real, this is one bomb in China out of how many $800m-$1b remakes they already did? Disney's not gonna learn anything except to better handle PR regarding human rights and keeping their leads on a tighter leash in terms of PR (if it ever happens again), and if we're all being honest, if Liu Yifei never said anything, I doubt half the stuff that are being brought up will even be brought up. Liu Yifei speaking out put a microscope on all the morality stuff that had nothing to do with the actual film. It just generated a black hole of bad PR. Throw in the handicapped release due to the pandemic, there's no way you can really tell if this would've done well or not without all those obstacles.

People ***** and complain all through the internet on all the remakes, yet all the ones based on a popular original made bank. So obviously we aren't the targeted demographic. Add the fact that a good majority in here actually enjoyed the movie, there's really no way to tell if the movie itself would've done better without all the noise and pandemic. If anyone thinks Disney is going to learn from this, then I got a bridge to sell you.

 

[Arachnerd]

People ***** and complain all through the internet on all the remakes, yet all the ones based on a popular original made bank. So obviously we aren't the targeted demographic. Add the fact that a good majority in here actually enjoyed the movie, there's really no way to tell if the movie itself would've done better without all the noise and pandemic. If anyone thinks Disney is going to learn from this, then I got a bridge to sell you.

The reason is quite obvious why they've made bank, regardless of whether one enjoys these or not.

 

[DarkKnight88]

 

[Detective Conan]

Data: Disney+ scored big financial windfall with 'Mulan' streaming release

 

[MadVillainy]

The article is a lot of guess work, lot of assumptions spouted as facts, doesn't provide proper sources, and has a clickbait ass title.

I for one am shocked that Yahoo did this

EDIT: Like there's no link to the actual 7Park data. Just that chart in the article. The link just leads to the data firm's homepage

 

[metaphysician]

That man was vicious. Killed Quasi's mom, kept him hidden from the world playing mind games on him, doing all that evil using the Bible to justify it. He's right up there with Bambi's mother's killer and Scar. LOL.

Was the hunter in Bambi really even a 'villain' in any meaningful dramatic sense? Yes, it was tragic that Bambi's mom died, but the movie did really frame this as an act of evil, or even an act of intention. The influence on Bambi's character was about the loss of a parent and the loneliness this induces, not the tragedy of an injustice done.

Basically, the hunter always struck me more as an impersonal catastrophe, tragic but not evil. They aren't an agent doing wrong, but something that just happens.

 

[sueb1863]

The presence of "Man" in the forest

That man was vicious. Killed Quasi's mom, kept him hidden from the world playing mind games on him, doing all that evil using the Bible to justify it. He's right up there with Bambi's mother's killer and Scar. LOL.

And in the original novel, Frollo isn't a judge - he's a priest!! Which makes him all the more despicable.

I agree that Hellfire is one of Disney's best songs, I really admire the guts they had to do a song that is openly and blatantly about lust. Tony Jay isn't the best singer but he still really sold it.

 

[Micromind]

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

The presence of "Man" in the forest


And in the original novel, Frollo isn't a judge - he's a priest!! Which makes him all the more despicable.

I agree that Hellfire is one of Disney's best songs, I really admire the guts they had to do a song that is openly and blatantly about lust. Tony Jay isn't the best singer but he still really sold it.

Frollo also gets an unusual amount of screentime for a Disney villain. The story is as much about him as it is any of the other characters.

Changing the villain to a judge was also done in the classic RKO live-action film version.

 

[Detective Conan]

 

[jmc]

Numbers have been thrown around every which way for the last week saying completely different things about this films success or lack there of. All I know is Disney hasn’t said **** about it one way or another, which indicates to me this didn’t perform anyway like they hoped.

 

[Schlosser85]

"By avoiding a scene-by-scene regurgitation, Mulan avoids the feeling of an expensive cosplay that befell Disney's other live-action remakes and stands on its own as an engaging adventure"

My review:

https://www.jestersreviews.com/reviews/6908

 

[psylockolussus]

Nice. I look forward to checking it out when it’s free on Disney +.

Its my favorite movie during this pandemic.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Numbers have been thrown around every which way for the last week saying completely different things about this films success or lack there of. All I know is Disney hasn’t said **** about it one way or another, which indicates to me this didn’t perform anyway like they hoped.

Exactly this.

 

[Prison Mike]

I’m sure they’ll comment during their earnings call probably in November

 

[DarkKnight88]

I’m sure they’ll comment during their earnings call probably in November

They will of course, but I think what's being said is that if this did some "record breaking VOD", they would've released a statement after the first week ala Universal with Trolls 2. Their initial silence on the matter is more telling.

 

[DarkKnight88]

The Failure of "Mulan" Is More Bad News for Hollywood

 

[MadVillainy]

The only problem is, Mulan didn’t actually make $261 million in 12 days. Yahoo had misinterpreted numbers from an analytics firm that estimated Mulan’s viewership, and the firm’s co-founder clarified that grosses were more likely $60 million to $90 million—well below the movie’s reported budget of $200 million.

Hmm...

 

[Legendver2]

The Failure of "Mulan" Is More Bad News for Hollywood

What's that even mean? All these doom and gloom articles should all come with an asterisk (*due to pandemic), because once things return to normal, no matter when that is, even 2022, none of these doom and gloom would matter a zilch, unless we get biennial pandemics or something.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I do expect things to return back to normal eventually as well. It's just when is the question, but these studios need to be patient and stop just throwing movies out there randomly and expecting any kind of profitable returns, because 2020 is pretty much a lost cause now. It's time to move on to 2021/2022 and hope for the best then and I'm glad these results for Mulan have given them a wake up call on that.

 

[jmc]

What's that even mean? All these doom and gloom articles should all come with an asterisk (*due to pandemic), because once things return to normal, no matter when that is, even 2022, none of these doom and gloom would matter a zilch, unless we get biennial pandemics or something.

The thing is the virus has exposed some pretty big flaws about the industry, flaws that were already starting to show before hand. The virus merely accelerated us to a point we would have gotten to eventually.