Lauren Cunningham

The 1998 version of Mulan is one of my favorite Disney movies of all time, so naturally, I was ecstatic when I found out that Disney would be remaking it live action. However, I didn't expect them to screw it up this bad. I seriously can't fathom how this movie got off of the idea board. This entire movie is just a massive missed opportunity. This remake could have easily been one of the best Disney Live-action remakes purely because of how amazing the original was. The original had some incredibly memorable characters and scenes that flawlessly conveyed themes of equality, justice, honor, and feminism. Not to mention the songs! The idea that a single person - nevertheless MULTIPLE PEOPLE - and by that I mean AN ENTIRE PANEL OF WRITERS AND DEVELOPERS supported the idea of cutting out MUSHU, and Li Shang, and all of the songs baffles me. This movie doesn't even compare to the original. It hardly resembles it. I'm all for a little differentiation when remaking movies, but they took it way too far. Now, about what they added in. What they added in was disappointing compensation for what they left out. They justified this insipid film by claiming "historical accuracy," and then proceeded to add a witch and a Phoenix that appeared in two scenes and was completely pointless. What angered me most about this film was the fact that Mulan was given powers of some sort, which COMPLETELY undermined the entire point of the original - which was supposed to show that women can be just as strong and courageous as men. But no, we have to give the woman magical powers to help her out. The only thing that was even remotely enjoyable about this film was the quality of the graphics and the special effects. It's clear that Disney spent a lot of money trying to perfect the effects - which honestly makes this movie even more sad. That was a lot of time, effort, and money wasted on a movie with a dry plot and a disappointing premise. This movie had so much potential that it's almost unbelievable how they managed to make it this bad. While a modernized version of the original would have been great, I still love the animated version, and maybe one day they'll decide to take another crack at it.