Disney's trend of turning their most beloved animated classics into live-action form continues once again with the release of the teasar trailer for the much anticipated live-action adaptation of Mulan. The plot for the original animated film centered around a young Chinese maiden disguising herself as a male warrior in order to save her father. Up until the release of this trailer, Disney has been on a hot streak with turning some of their most iconic animated classics into live-action form with Cinderella, The Jungle Book, and Beauty And The Beast all receiving box office and critical acclaim from audiences. Despite the unquestionable successes of those films, 2019 has been a more challenging year for live-action adaptation of classic Disney films with Tim Burton's Dumbo opening to mixed reviews and failing to make back its budget domestically despite the end result being a much stronger film than anything Burtons directed in over a decade. Follow that up with Guy Ritchie's Aladdin which received a 57 percent critical score from Rotten Tomatoes in contrast to its 94 percent audience percentage and $800 million plus worldwide box office total, the question that Disney must be pondering outside of being pleased with the films box office performances is whether audiences are growing tired of watching these live-action versions of the iconic stories. Further proof that drives home that theory is Jon Favreau's The Lion King due in theaters on July 19th is barely fresh with a 60 percent critic rating on the Rotten Tomatoes score so far. While that film is expected to perform enormous at the box office and become the second biggest movie of the year behind Avengers: Endgame, the question that has to be on audiences mind as well as the studio is whether live-action Disney fatigue is finally kicking in which brings us to the release of the teasar trailer for Mulan. Anticipation for this one is huge with the trailer reportedly churning out 175 million views within the first 24 hours of its premiere leaving fans of the Disney classic blown away by the early glimpses of the film while also being left scratching their heads over a few major issues the trailer presents such as the the character of Mushu (A small red dragon) from the original as well as the lack of musical numbers from the original film, most notably the iconic cue "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" sung by General Shang (Voiced by B.D Wong) in the original and his army. Both main issues drive home the general consensus that the first trailer while impressive for the most part is also a missed opportunity at elaborating on those issues.
The teasar opens up with an epic shot that's visually stunning of a grassy field with a person riding a horse from a distance traveling across the screen with the shots zooming in on the village. The traveler approaching the village is revealed at the end of the shot to be Mulan. The trailer then cuts to Mulan's mother announcing to her daughter as well as the audience that the matchmaker has found a perfect match for Mulan to be married to which is followed by a disappointing look on Mulans face. The mothers news is reinforced by her father who says the decision is final and wants Mulan to embrace it for which she declares she will bring honor to her family (A line with stays true to one of the main themes and concepts of the original animated film in which the hope of Mulan's family was that she would become a proper woman who could be married off to someone wealthy and bring honor to the family or as the films line "You'll bring honor to us all"). In kicks the red Disney Logo with emphasizes the reddish aspect of the culture depicted in the film followed by visually striking shots of elegant matchmaking women dressed up as they attempt to transform Mulan into being a proper lady with key shots of them placing a comb on her hair and demanding she be quiet. These shots are later accompanied by those of Mulan practicing her fighting skills at night with her being painted to look like one of the richer and proper women she is being groomed to become. These shots are accompanied by the voice of the matchmaker instructing her on being proper saying key lines such as "Compost, graceful, disciplined. These are the qualities we see in a good wife. These are the qualities we see in Mulan."
The trailer then takes a shift to another stage of the film in which the music shifts from being sweet to empowering as Mulan is shown to be apart of the Chinese army taking part in a standard exercise along with the rest of the men lined up, The emphasis here is that Mulan has abandoned the teachings on how to become a proper lady and has transformed herself into becoming a soldier with the rest of the men. The shots that follow up afterwards are those of her pointing a sword at one of the soldiers in the army, shots of them pointing arrows in the air, an army marching towards the audience on horses that's matched with a shot of Mulan wearing a helmet yelling what can only be summed up as an order to charge before her army storms at the opposing side. The trailer then shows her in a red robe with her hair let loose shooting an arrow at the audience, followed by one with her doing a back flip, and another with an avalanche of snow heading towards the army with Mulan riding towards it on her horse. The trailer ends with the shots becoming more rampant with quick cuts of the action intensifying with the invading army throwing flames at Mulan's army, Mulan ducking what looks like a bird flying over her that's accompanied by shots of her running on rooftops and jumping from one roof to the next. The final shots of the trailer show the antagonists covered in dark lighting shadows standing on top of their horses as they charge towards the audience intercutting with Mulan fighting them on the field and swinging around to lay a key blow with her sword to the person she's challenging. The trailer ends with her swinging her sword around in an effort to intimidate the soldiers on the enemy side that's surrounded her with the final closing words being Mulan's voice speaking to the audience saying "It is my duty to fight." The trailer then ends with the Disney logo hovering above the title as it enlarges with the Spring 2020 announcement appearing on the screen.
Overall the look of the trailer is very promising and presents the character of Mulan in a light that's both empowering as well as inspirational. The casting for the character is spot on as Liu Yifei is the perfect choice to play the role, demonstrating the fighting skills as well as the emotional talent to pull the role off. Physically she even resembles Mulan from the cartoon. The films visual style is one that's breathtaking with Art-Set Decoration and Costume Designs that are sure to secure Oscar nominations long after the film is released as well as its breathtaking Cinematography. On a technical aspect, the movie looks perfect from the teasar. With the films casting choice for Mulan being given its proper praise as well as the visual look of the film, the trailer leaves a lot of confusion towards audiences such as the whereabouts of the character of Mushu from the animated film. Mushu was such a driving force in getting Mulan motivated to succeed in the army that one wonders what her motivation will be in the film if he is truly absent altogether. Another issue is the lack of General Shang (Voiced by B.D Wong in the animated film) in the trailer which has also been confirmed that his character is not in the film as well. One is left wondering who will fill in for his place as his character played two roles in the original, both as a commander to Mulan as well as a romantic love interest. The audience also isn't sure about the reason Mulan joins the army in this version of the tale as the animated film showed she did do in order to keep her ailing father (Who was drafted by the government) from going to fight. Is she doing it for the same reasons here or does she do it because she wants to bring honor to her family in another way rather than being an obedient housewife. That part of the story isn't made very clear from the teasar other than her families wishes are to see her become a proper woman. As for the role of Mulans mother, it would've been even more impressive and special if they brought back the original Mulan voice actress Ming-Na-Wen in the role, making it a great torch passing moment from the generation who grew up watching the original one to the new who are certain to flood the theaters next spring to see the classic story in stunning live action form. Its still very early in the marketing department as Disney has just begun to roll out their marketing strategy but one thing that the next trailer should and needs to clarify is how the story will unfold in this version if the rumors are true that the character of Mushu has been deleted as well as the musical numbers. There's been a lot of conflicting news regarding the production of this film along with uncertainty if some of the same characters from the original will return or what kind of tone this film will have. At the moment, the audience isn't quite sure if this is a musical like the animated one or more of a serious drama which could explain the studios reasoning for cutting out the fantastical elements. If that's the case and they intend to be more accurate with the story then they need to do an improved job of clarifying that for fans as audiences after viewing the first trailer are either blown away or left confused by the direction this film is heading along with certain character absences. For now, the early glimpses that audiences are getting of the live-action
Mulan movie are not bad and dare one says even looks exciting. However more needs to be done to answer the questions that fans have after watching the first trailer. Mulan opens in theaters 27, 2020 and stars Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Jet Li, Gong Li, Yoson An, and Jason Scott Lee.
Here is a link to watch the trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ON04GCwKs
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