Film Review: “Mulan” (2020)

The 2020 remake of the 1998 film shows that there’s still some magic left in the Disney machine.

I went into the 2020 live-action remake of Mulan with no small amount of trepidation. I’ve had decidedly mixed feelings about this effort of Disneys to comb through its back catalog of animated classics and turn them into something “new” and “exciting.” I loved The Jungle Book, but I’ve been by turns underwhelmed and disgusted by some the other efforts, with Aladdin and The Lion King falling into the former camp and Maleficent and Beauty and the Beast falling in the latter. Given that Mulan has always been one of my favorite entries from the Renaissance, I was dreading the damage they’d do.

Fortunately, I ended up very much enjoying this film. Though it lacks the effervescent joy and irreverent spirit of the original, that actually turns out to its advantage. It keeps the bones of the story but doesn’t follow it slavishly (unlike both Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King), instead choosing to make enough changes that you feel as if you are watching something at least moderately new.

The film largely follows the same plot as its predecessor. Mulan is the daughter of a renowned warrior, but though she clearly has tremendous abilities she is forced to obey the rules governing female…