Mulan: the controversial new Disney movie

The premiere of Mulan, the live action adaptation of Disney's animated work, left no stone unturned. It turns out that, due to the coronavirus crisis, the Clarín website reported that the mouse company decided to premiere this work by streaming, through its exclusive Disney + platform, which generated ridicule and criticism from users.

However, the main issue was not so much about inclusion within the new content subscription platform. The problem is that, to be able to see it, you had to pay an extra $ 30, which was added to the value of the service, all to consume content "from home" and without the possibility of going to the big screens.

In addition to the dispute over new forms of content consumption, this work was also the focus of various critics. For example, the CNN website in Spanish mentions that Disney was criticized for "thanking the Chinese authorities accused of human rights abuses in the credits." Therefore, we decided to see how well the adaptation of this film with an Asian protagonist was.

Mulan, a film full of controversies

In the first place, this film began to be viewed "with bad eyes" for the decision of having to pay to consume it. That is to say, users may have agreed to see it predisposed or waiting for a “masterpiece” that justifies the investment. The Xataka website explains that it seems expensive to see it from our home, since we are used to "paying at once" for the subscription service.

In other words, the experience of going to the cinema implies that we psychologically associate it with “seeing a premiere”, where the fact of leaving our home and going to a specialized place fosters this experience. On the other hand, here the content seems to be one of the many that are part of the platform.

Now, before this initial controversy, it was clear that the film had to exceed the expectations of the fans to "deserve" the money that was invested in it. From the point of view of Hobbyconsolas, it was a "pity" that we could not see it on the big screen, as it could have been much more robust in that situation.

Espinof's specialized website emphasizes that it " is not afraid to change the animated original" , since the film plays, for better or for worse, with its own rules. The fact that it deviates a bit from the original story, including the protagonist herself, generates that it does not have that essence of a "children's story", but that it becomes a much more guerrilla story.

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One of the most obvious changes occurs in the musical field, since it lacks songs, appealing to the much more reflective and personal tone of the story.

Another of the most obvious differences is the absence of one of the key characters in the story: Mushu , Mulan's little dragon adventure companion, who participates in several funny scenes in the original work. The base film, as highlighted by the Tomatazos medium, modified the princess genre, although this was taken to the extreme in the adaptation, as in the elimination of their partner.

However, it was not the most criticized aspect by much of the community that grew up with and loved the original tale of this heroine, since they also eliminated the LGBTQ + representativeness by not including the relationship between Commander LI Shang and Ping, so not there are traces of bisexuality within this tape.

Another change, as reflected in the Hipertextual website, occurs in Mulan's own childhood. In the current film we see a bit of the childhood of the legendary warrior from China, although the family nuclei will be different. In the animated film, she has her mother, grandmother and father with leg problems at her side. In the current one, her grandmother does not appear, in addition to the fact that she has a sister.

Therefore, we can consider it a risky production, both in its story and in its own launch. If we interpret it as an original product, it manages to meet expectations, showing us a very interesting oriental narrative and with an acceptable rhythm. If we compare it with the original story, we can observe a show that honors this warrior, but modifies her essence.