Talk:Mulan (2020 film)/@comment-27373870-20180728212006/@comment-4889892-20181028133215

Well, if it's based off historical event they failed to portray the time correctly and could benefit from creating a whole war of their own, such as the one I described with the Hephalites. It doesn't affect the story or history in this way.

The thing is, if Mushu is some kind of lizardlike yaojing (as opposed to a yaoguai, a good animal spirit that has attained different levels of power through Taoism) instead of a dragon, there is no cultural defacement. He can claim he is a dragon, and by the end, it is revealed that he actually isn't, and that's why he can't go around in a huge form, making others bow to him. He'll have some supernatural power, but not like that of a dragon. The solution is just as easy as making Jafar young. Having supernatural powers, it would be okay if he talked and the other animals did not, and since a witch is going to be included, it doesn't seem a supernatural element is minded, at least to some extent.

A lot of people do find Mulan to be a masterpiece, and if you fix up those parts considered offensive (which I don't think was their intention. I mean, they took a while to research, but weeks of research does not equal years), it has a lot of potential. I don't know if any film has really created a marriage of styles, but to me an example could be Avatar: the Last Airbender (show, not the stupid movie) which followed the format of an anime and influenced by Eastern culture (and was toned down actually. The Fire Nation was based off Japan but it wasn't made too accurate in order not to make it seem like they were trying to say Japan is evil) but was pretty Western in nature. I don't think we should expect a 100% Western or Eastern style movie here.

Now, they are changing things and I guess that's fine since it's now Hua Mulan, and claimed to be more authentic. I've seen multiple versions of Mulan, and some are great while others are not. But I think they should have changed the names of the 3 soldiers then, just like the did with Shang and Fa Zhou. Keeping them there gives a false claim to it being the same movie. It's just a disappointment, for all those that do love the movie, that it's so far from the original. I mean, though it was probably not the intention of the movie, Mulan has actually helped save people's lives (a lot of trans people, or even people that are just "different" in some way really relate to Mulan and she helped them through their depression), and whether you support their lifestyles or not, I'm sure you can agree that it's good they're not dead. Mulan doesn't need to be a hero for any community, as that isn't the original message of her story (people just made it into that themselves), but I'm just showing you how much people are emotionally invested in this movie.