Loyal, Brave, True: A Mulan Review

Disney’s current motto seems to be, if it ain’t broke- and if it was animated- remake it.

And remake it, they have. At this point, Disney has remade more of my favorite animated films than they’ve left alone. And honestly, to varying effect; some movies have been allowed to drift away from the source material to become their own thing (like Maleficent) while others have felt so similar to the animated original that it is hard to justify their existence (for example, The Lion King).

And that, frankly, is a balance that I think Disney has struggled to find. Of course, when reimagining our favorite classic movies, we want them to be familiar- there’s no sense making The Jungle Book if it doesn’t feel like The Jungle Book that we remember- but we want to have a reason to watch this new version instead of the original. Especially in a world where Disney+ exists and has both options side by side for $6.99 a month.

Personally, I think the best examples of balancing this line have been Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin; both were very well made, entertaining, and captured the look and feel of the originals without copying everything from them. Will Smith’s Genie, for example, was allowed to stray far from Robin Williams’ iconic character to make Genie his own, while still being recognizable as the same character. Likewise, Beauty and the…