As time goes on, it would appear that live action remakes are becoming Disney’s bread and butter with Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and Lady and the Tramp all released in the last five years. The global coronavirus pandemic threw a spanner in the works for the hotly anticipated release of the live action remake of Mulan (1998), but it would seem that nothing can stop Disney with the film jumping from a planned cinema release to premiering instead on streaming Disney plus, for an additional fee.

With the original film based on the Chinese ballad of Mulan, this remake tells the tale of Hua Mulan, a young Chinese maiden who disguises herself as a male warrior in order to protect her ageing father from having to go to war. Where this live action differs from most others is that it is not a frame for frame remake like with The Lion King for example. Mulan’s talking dragon sidekick Mushu from the animated original is long gone, along with the lucky cricket and the movie’s famous songs.

Yifei Lui plays the role of Mulan, a young women who always wished to be much more than what her village’s matchmaker wanted her to be. When her father is called up to join the imperial army as he can offer no sons to the fight, Mulan takes it upon herself to take his place and bring honour to her family. A physically demanding role, and one that I assume must have come with a lot of pressure. Mulan is such a famous and iconic character, and without the music and well known plot line involving commander Shang, Lui is free is make the character her own. Mulan is powerful, intelligent and brave, a character who can inspire and Lui brings that all to life.

I’ll admit that it’s been many years since I last watched the animated movie so may not be able to pick apart all of the differences in the plot but I certainly don’t remember a witch/shapeshifter in the original or seeing so much of life and training in the army camp. For me, the most notable difference was the removal of the songs. We no longer see Mulan make her decision to with in the famous ‘Reflection’ scene, no hear the warriors sing of hopes of romance in ‘A Girl Worth Fighting For’. Even the much loved ‘I’ll Make A Man Out Of You’ faced a future on the cutting room floor. Whilst you can still hear the melodies played over the action, and hear some of the lyrics as dialogue instead, it’s just not the same.

This live action remake boasts a running time of 115 minutes, making it just under half an hour longer than the animated original. Whilst this does allow the time for us to be introduced too many different characters and to get glimpses into their own stories, it does all feel a little bit dragged out at times. When you know the general idea and plot points of the story, you realise that this film seems to take a while to get there.

Mulan (2020) is an enjoyable 2 hour escape, and with moments of escape from reality currently in high demand, it’s no surprise that it has done well in its Disney plus release, with viewers able to tune in from home. It’s full of adventure and snippets of pure power, but with its sometimes dragged out long action scenes and complete lack of songs, something about it just doesn’t feel very Disney.