Disney's Mulan Disappoints

 “Dishonor! … *points at cricket* Take a note of this.”
Disney’s Mulan Disappoints

by: Raine T. Riley, September 6, 2020

            Disney’s live-action adaptation of the legend of Mulan had an unorthodox release amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Mulan (2020) was released on Disney+, Disney’s relatively new streaming platform, on Friday, September 4 for a $30 “premier access” fee. It may seem that the unorthodox release along with the access fee people would have to pay on top of their monthly Disney+ subscription would have been enough to lead to some hot takes across the over 534k* posts on social media – not to mention the lack of singing, absence of General Li Shang, and devastating erasure of Mulan’s beloved dragon sidekick Mushu all present in Disney’s 1998 version. While the conversations about access were certainly present, larger and more heavy conversations surrounded the release of this live-action version of Mulan.

            One of the most prominent parts of the conversation across social media was surrounding the call to boycott Mulan. The hashtag #boycottmulan was one of the top-used “words” across social media all weekend long, as people shared why they were boycotting Disney’s remake. The most prominent reason why people were boycotting the new adaptation was that Liu Yifei, the main actress who plays Mulan, came out and openly supported the Hong Kong police in 2019 amid overt police brutality against protesters. Another reason why people were boycotting the film is that very few people involved in the production of the film were Chinese.

            In response to the lack of Chinese filmmakers, many people took to Twitter to share information about other live-action Mulan adaptations produced by Chinese filmmakers. One Tweet [https://bit.ly/324Evp7] was shared so many times (over 10k retweets) that the words within the tweet showed up as most of the top words surrounding Mulan over the weekend (other than the expected “Mulan” and “#mulan”). The Tweet brings attention to another adaptation of Mulan called “Matchless Mulan” that was released in August 2020 and completely made by Chinese filmmakers. The composer of the Tweet also draws attention to the fact that the film is free to watch on YouTube.

    The overall conversation on social media around Disney’s live-action Mulan was unsupportive. People criticized the main actress, the production’s ignoring of “cultural genocide” in their filming location, and the lack of POC in the writing and production. Many of the posts that read positive were still lacking support, either sharing links to other adaptations or showing their support for the #boycottmulan movement. Not all was lost, however! Some people seemed genuinely excited to watch the movie, and others seemed to really enjoy the film. The cinematography and post-production effects were what people praised the most. As well, everyone got an exciting surprise Friday morning when liking Tweets related to Mulan with a special MULAN graphic, reminding us that we are never too far from Disney’s advertising reach.

    Whether you watched the movie, intend to watch the movie, or swore it off completely, Disney had a stimulating weekend. It will be interesting see how the film does over the next couple of weeks, and if the reception will be similar on December 4, the day it will be released for free on Disney+.