Mulan

[Night Fury]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disneys-live-action-mulan-gets-934976

Mulan is getting the live action treatment too with a Nov 2018 expected release!

Pretty stoked for this!

[Fynn]

I mean, sure, okay. bring it on. I'm not super excited personally, though. The only one of those live action reboots I've seen was Maleficent and it wqas pretty okay, but it didn't really do much to raise my expectations for all these live action reboots. I'm really not sure how I feel about them remaking Beauty and the Beast, but this is cool, I think. For the people who like this, at least.

I'm happy they're casting a Chinese actress. I'm wondering if the entire movie is going to be in Chinese now. That would actually be pretty awesome.

[charliepanayi]

It's obviously not going to be in Chinese. Even Disney would struggle to get audiences to go and watch a subtitled film.

[Fynn]

Well that sucks, then

[Bubba]

I don't know, it seems Disney are fast running out of original ideas. They're obviously going to make a lot of money from any live action remake. They'll get round to them all eventually.

Confession: I've never seen Mulan!

[charliepanayi]

I don't know, it seems Disney are fast running out of original ideas. They're obviously going to make a lot of money from any live action remake. They'll get round to them all eventually.

Confession: I've never seen Mulan!

Running out of original ideas? They've made two original animated films this year, and they also made Queen of Katwe this year.

[Bubba]

I would hardly call their recent releases original.

[charliepanayi]

What do you define as 'original'? Zootopia and Moana aren't sequels or remakes, so I'm calling them original.

[Bubba]

What do you define as 'original'? Zootopia and Moana aren't sequels or remakes, so I'm calling them original.

I agree that they're original in that sense. I just don't think you can call them truly original when you're just rehashing the same basic story in a different skin.

[Jinx]

What do you define as 'original'? Zootopia and Moana aren't sequels or remakes, so I'm calling them original.

I agree that they're original in that sense. I just don't think you can call them truly original when you're just rehashing the same basic story in a different skin.

Literally every story has been done to death. Every story had been done to death by the time Shakespeare was around--even Romeo and Juliet was a rehash of another story.

This is a silly complaint, Bubba.

[Bubba]

This is a silly complaint, Bubba.

I respectfully disagree.

[Formalhaut]

I can sorta see where he's coming from? I remember maybee having a similar complaint about a character archetype being used way too often (the jerk with a heart of gold one, I think) in Disney lately. And in the case of these live-action remakes, I'm both excited and sceptical. Excited, because they appear to be remaking my favourite movies, but sceptical because it seems like a cash grab and implies a lack of creativity, though granted, they do have other projects. Never heard of Queen of Katwe, though.

Like Jinx said though, pretty much every story has been done before in some way or another. Heck, it's why TV Tropes exists. Having said that, what makes new stories fresh is updating it to another setting, giving it a twist, going off-script and surprising us. I don't mind if a story is 'similar' as long as it feels fresh. Plus, it is Disney. If I wanted groundbreaking experimental story-telling I would go elsewhere! :p

With Disney, you can usually predict a plot twist coming a mile away (which is quite fun to do, actually), and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Mulan's based off of a Chinese legend, but you didn't need to know the legend to guess what happens throughout the film. Despite this, I still loved Mulan. I guess it helps that she's a kickass female. But still.

Having vocalised scepticism, it does makes sense to cash in on the Disney renaissance years of the 1990's. Which'll be good, because I'm not really feeling Moana, to be honest.

[Fynn]

Honestly, completely agreed with Jinx. What stays the same in Disney is what really makes those movies recognizable to us. There is literally nothing that hasn't been done before. It's like saying every FF is the same as the other because they have a common core concept, but they're not.

And damnit, Zootopia is seriously such an important movie that is groundbreaking in many ways, even if at its core it's just another buddy cop comedy. Because when you get right down to it, everything can be summed up as the same as everything else. It's the nuance that makes stuff have its own identity.

[Crop]

Well that sucks, then

Huh? It's an old Chinese story, but I don't see why it would be better being made in Chinese. If Disney made every film in the language that it's originally based on, they probably wouldn't have so many iconic films. As a child I probably wouldn't have wanted to watch Aladdin in some sort of Arabic language, for example.

I hope this film is more Cinderella than Maleficent though, I hated Maleficent.

[Fynn]

Well that sucks, then

Huh? It's an old Chinese story, but I don't see why it would be better being made in Chinese. If Disney made every film in the language that it's originally based on, they probably wouldn't have so many iconic films. As a child I probably wouldn't have wanted to watch Aladdin in some sort of Arabic language, for example.

I hope this film is more Cinderella than Maleficent though, I hated Maleficent.

I know, it would have just been cool to see them go that extra mile for once. Not saying it's a necessity, just that it would have been neat.

[charliepanayi]

You never know, maybe there'll be a version dubbed in Chinese for China!

[Bubba]

Maybe I'm just bored with the Disney formula.

- Character is separated from family/friends
- Character rediscovers meaning of family/friendship
- Character finds identity from re-uniting with family/friends

I could be just expecting too much from them because after all, they are for kids!

This is why I can't get on with romantic comedies due to the whole boy meets girl - they date - something breaks them up - they get back together.

[Formalhaut]

Jackie Chan did some of the voices for the Chinese dub for the animated Mulan, I think.

To be honest, I can totally get where Bubba's coming from, and he makes a fair enough point. Were you to inspect the core premise of every Disney movie, what he outlined wouldn't be too far from the truth, though there are exceptions, obviously. I think Fynn said it best though: what makes Disney distinct is that the formula is (usually) subtlety changed for every film. It's still unmistakably Disney, but there's a nuance, either in the characters, or the plot. Which is why I partially agreed with maybee about the lack of nuance lately with certain male archetypes.

I can get being tired of it though. I went through a phase of 'ugh, not another Disney film'. Somewhere in like, 2007. Whenever the first Cars film got made (and yes, I know that's Disney/Pixar). Then Cars 2 came out which really sunk me with the studios. I'm back now to enjoying Disney though.

[Fynn]

Cars was pretty legitimately terrible, though

[Jinx]

Maybe I'm just bored with the Disney formula.

- Character is separated from family/friends
- Character rediscovers meaning of family/friendship
- Character finds identity from re-uniting with family/friends

I could be just expecting too much from them because after all, they are for kids!

This is why I can't get on with romantic comedies due to the whole boy meets girl - they date - something breaks them up - they get back together.

Yeah, I see where you're coming from, and ultimately I just have to agree with you that it's because the movies are for kids.

[Shauna]

I hate it when people simplify things down to the most basic points. You can do that to anything and make it sound like everything is terrible. I mean, how many movies can be described with this blurb?


The protagonist sets out to defeat an antagonistic force which threatens the protagonist and/or protagonist's homeland.

Literally millions of hits. But hey, you'll probably find that you really enjoyed that one movie that follows this basic plot despite it being completely overdone. :p

[Fynn]

I hate it when people simplify things down to the most basic points. You can do that to anything and make it sound like everything is terrible. I mean, how many movies can be described with this blurb?


The protagonist sets out to defeat an antagonistic force which threatens the protagonist and/or protagonist's homeland.

Literally millions of hits. But hey, you'll probably find that you really enjoyed that one movie that follows this basic plot despite it being completely overdone. :p

Exactly my point.

[Old Manus]

I think from this discussion we can conclude that Disney may or may not be in the habit of re-using similar moviemaking formulae and said movies may or may not be good movies (and such a trend may or may not be reflective of movies in general?)

[Bubba]

I think from this discussion we can conclude that Disney may or may not be in the habit of re-using similar moviemaking formulae and said movies may or may not be good movies (and such a trend may or may not be reflective of movies in general?)

Exactly my point.

[Shauna]

So you're just tired of movies in general then, Bubba? :3

[Formalhaut]

Well, ur...

On the subject, do you think they're just going to CGI Mushu? Actually, a live-action Mulan won't be so jarring because he's literally the only non-human in the film. Oh, and Cri-kee. Besides that, it'll just be live-action. I hope they maintain the lighter feel though of the animation. I mean, sure, it was heavy in places, but it was still Disney. A Live-action remake of what is essentially a war film with swords and armies could get dark quick if they're not careful.

[Shauna]

I don't think they'll shy away from making it a little bit more brutal, while also keeping the relative lightheartedness of other sections.

If the Jungle Book is anything to go by, the relatively lighthearted King Louie section was made a lot more perilous in the remake. Made all the more terrifying by the fact that Christopher Walken was singing "I Wan'na Be Like You" throughout.

[Night Fury]

Well, ur...

On the subject, do you think they're just going to CGI Mushu? Actually, a live-action Mulan won't be so jarring because he's literally the only non-human in the film. Oh, and Cri-kee. Besides that, it'll just be live-action. I hope they maintain the lighter feel though of the animation. I mean, sure, it was heavy in places, but it was still Disney. A Live-action remake of what is essentially a war film with swords and armies could get dark quick if they're not careful.

There is actually a dark live action Mulan that is in Chinese I believe! Dunno how good it is though.

[TheKeybasHKey]

The Mulan Remake sounds promising though. It´s going to be kinda dark though also i want to see how Mushu looks in this. I grew up watching this movie, however i don´t have any high expectations.

[Denmark]

how could disney
make a live action remake
out of muuuuuuuuuuuuuuu(lan)