I have a complicated reaction to this.
First off, it’s not that clearly Disney is going to be kissing China’s ass on this one. The story that MULAN is based off of is one of the classics of Chinese literature; I yield to no-one in my dislike of the ChiCom regime, but I’m not a barbarian*. I can concede that if you want to sell a movie in China you should probably not muck around overmuch with the story that it’s based on.
Nah, what concerns me is three-fold: first, there’s that weird new witch character. The fact that she’s talking to Mulan in the trailer warn that there may be an Idiot Plot being activated at some point. The second issue? I worry that there’s not going to be enough blood. I know that sounds gruesome, but MULAN is about a war with battles and everything. This really should be a PG-13 film. Heck, I could argue that it could be rated R, based on some of the stuff that happened in the original**.
But my major concern is this. In the trailer, we see that Mulan is brave, and loyal, and honorable. OK, OK, and OK. But what was not immediately obvious was that Mulan is smart. Mulan is my favorite Disney character, hands down, because she is smart. I expect to see the quick tactical thinking and mental agility that made the original movie fun for me.
Moe Lane
*Unlike the people running the PRC, of course.
**Destroyed armies, sacked towns, people getting flat-out shot in the back as they’re running away.
I’m optimistic that what you saw isn’t an idiot plot. It seems more like a taunt to me, after the witch clashes with Mulan and discovers her identity.
We’ll see.
One amusing item that I noted in the YouTube comments –
Quite a few of the commenters there seem to be oblivious to the fact that the Chinese are apparently more upset about the absence of Mushu than the Americans are.
But will they bring back Jackie Chan to sing I’ll Make A Man Out Of You in Chinese?