Mulan 2020 Review - The Mythology Guy

Mulan from the original: busts her ass to overcome training, uses her brain to out-think her opponents, is outed as female by accident due to sustaining injury, works to regain her comrades trust Mulan in the new one: has magic powers because... uh, uses her magic to win everything, only receives opposition from people explicitly framed as bad and/or wrong, outs herself on purpose because... be-because, is gifted a higher position because (What was the reason again? What do mean there was no reason given?) Original = compelling female badass New = Mary Sue

When I uploaded this video, it was immediately copyright claimed and blocked, which I had to dispute. I’m happy to see that YouTube has corrected that mistake.

"one was a male and one was a female. But you know, you can't really tell when they are running that fast" She says after having identified them as male and female while they were running that fast

To add on for the training thing compared to the animation, the animation also had a case where, while Mulan was the weakest link, the other guys were actually pretty bad themselves. They all struggled to keep up with the training and did poorly. It was only when Mulan pushed herself to prove that she is worthy that the other guys followed her and also began to improve. They were inspired because she was the weakest link that got better, inspiring them to also improve. Beyond gender equality, it was about self-improvement. Where even the men realized that they could be better.

Remember ladies according to this movie all you need to do to be better than a man is just have super powers

It's probably a good thing Mushu's not in this movie, they'd probably mess him up too.

I REALLY hate the, "I'd rather be executed." line, because in this situation death would have been a less humiliating result because being expelled means you have to live with the shame. Mulan asking to be executed would have been seen as very selfish and probably would have been met with imprisonment and torture/ public humiliation.

If they didn't want to make Li Shang her commanding officer, why not make him the same rank as her? Or someone who starts with a higher rank initially who she equals in rank before they get together. Either of those dynamics would have been so interesting to watch, which is probably why we didn't get them.

I agree about Mulans character development! Its so satisfying to see a protagonist go from rock bottom to the very top!! Why didn't 2020 do that?

One thing about woman empowerment movies is that they sometimes go out of their way just to make the men look bad and to show how the entire society was against women

Gives the main protagonist superpowers, giving off the message that women cannot be as powerful as men without some sort of boosting "HeR lOvE iNtErEsT cAnT bE iN pOwEr"

Mulan (1998) was special because Mulan didn't TRY to stand out. She desperately wanted to be like The Other Girls. She sullied herself over her difference and unladylike behavior. It was not until pushed to the limit that she actively tries to stand out and save her father from being conscripted. She did all of that to protect her father not because of any self-righteous reason or for a want to prove herself. In the end, she wasn't as strong as The Men. In fact, in the beginning, she was The WORST of The Conscripts. She was so bad that Li Shang personally told her to go home because she wasn't prepared for war. As a last ditch attempt, she tried to prove herself worthy by triumphing over The Climbing Challenge at Their First Day of Training. She then realized she's not strong enough to lift the weights up to the pillar. But by using her brain, she turned the burden into an advantage and managed to climb to the top. Proving to everyone that she CAN do it. Everyone else who were also lagging behind got inspired by the seemingly weakest link being the one to succeed on the task which they cannot complete. The only reason her identity was found was because she singlehandedly took down The Invading Hun Army and saved Her Comrades from dying a horrible death. She then had to regain back their Shan's trust after being exposed. Which culminates into her devising a plan to save The Emperor and take down Shan Yu for good. This is why her position was The Emperor's Advisor. She used her brains to compensate for her lack of physical strength against her enemies. She's not a One Man Army. She's a Strategist. Unlike Ms. Phoenix Chi over at The 2020 Remake.

Disney: “Ok so we’re going to get rid of Mushu because he does not line up with Chinese myth” Fans: “ok I guess if it’s culturally appropriate it’s fine” Disney: “Ok Now Let’s Trow In A Witch And A Form Of Chakra That Makes no Sense

The metoo argument is complete B.S. Shang never even attempted to make moves on Mulan while she was a soldier. The only time was after Mulan had already left the army and returned home. And get this, if anything she had a higher power dynamic by this point since she was honored by the emperor personally.

"How the heck is he doing that? Does he have Chi powers?!" No, that's just Jet Li doing Jet Li things.

Mulan in the animated movie: * works hard to gain the respect of her peers * Mulan in the live action movie: * just good at fighting because magic *

Disney: You can do anything as long as you have magical powers.

What's so funny is that Pokemon manages to represent the Chinese Phoenix (Through Ho-oh) in both appearances and meaning better than the movie that was set in CHINA could.

“Alright so we wont bring Mushu because it’s not culturally accurate” “Oh ok that makes sense” “So let’s throw in a witch that turns into an eagle and a flame phoenix that does nothing the entire movie”

Gotta give props to Disney for “If it ain’t broke, then break it” strategy, round of applause for Disney