As the fate of cinematic releases in 2020 hangs in the balance, some movies are going VOD, but Disney should ensure that Mulan is given proper theatrical distribution. It has been close to seven months since the first cases of COVID-19 were identified, leading to a worldwide pandemic. Film and TV productions were shut down indefinitely, major events such as the Cannes Film Festival and San Diego Comic-Con were cancelled, and questions have even arisen over the future of next year’s Oscars.
The biggest change, however, came in the form of the box office. In March 2020, it was predicted that the global box office could lose around $5 billion as a result of coronavirus, but now, that number seems dishearteningly pessimistic. Cinemas worldwide have closed en masse and, while some theater chains are looking at reopening with social distancing measures in place, the future of the industry seems very bleak right now. In response, studios had to decide what to do with their release slate for 2020. Some films had their premiere dates pushed back months or even years, while other movies made their debut on VOD. That latter strategy has proven successful for some releases, such as Universal’s Trolls World Tour, but it remains a hugely risky strategy for those big-budget studio tentpole titles. This is a problem that Disney has faced with its release schedule, which is full of nine-figure blockbusters that were not only designed for cinematic distribution but need the massive worldwide grosses contained within just to break even.
One such example of this is Mulan, Niki Caro’s live-action remake of the 1998 animated movie. While the film was supposed to come out on March 27, 2020, its release was pushed back to July 24 following the spread of the pandemic. With that new release date around six weeks away, the chances of it actually happening for Disney seem uncertain. Mulan was intended to be a very big deal for the studio in 2020, a major step forward for their live-action remakes and a costly investment in their continued relationship with Chinese audiences. Mulan has a reported budget of $200 million (although some earlier reports put it closer to $290 million), so it isn’t a film that can afford to go straight to Disney+ if the studio wants to make even a sliver of their money back, and that doesn’t even account for the costs of essentially marketing the film twice worldwide over the course of a year.
Still, it’s important for Disney to give Mulan the treatment it deserves not only because of their financial investment but because the film carries the weight of cultural and historical importance for the company. Among the oft-divisive glut of Disney’s live-action remakes of their animated classics, it’s Mulan that feels like the most necessary of that trend.
The Mulan Remake Corrects Original’s Whitewashing
Whenever Disney adapts a well-known fairy-tale or novel or piece of folklore, they are notorious for stripping it of its original cultural context in order to create something more homogenous that’s easier to sell and brand. Aladdin‘s Agrabah, for instance, is a cultural grab-bag of Middle Eastern, Northern African, and Asian influences. This has led to much consternation for obvious reasons, especially in terms of cultural and racial sensitivity. Mulan faced similar pushback in 1998. In Disney Culture by John Wills, it is noted how “in response to the Europeanized Mulan, forty thousand people signed a petition complaining that Disney ‘whitewashed’ its characters […] For some people, Disney Culture reads as white culture, and the Walt Disney Company is cast as a backer of traditional white America.”
There’s a reason that, long before the film even began production, over 100,000 people signed a petition titled “Tell Disney You Don’t Want A Whitewashed Mulan!” Disney has a long and sordid history in this field, much like the rest of Hollywood. That’s why so many fans can’t help but feel immense relief to see that 2020’s Mulan not only has an all-Asian cast but was partly filmed in China, and is less focused on appealing to an assumed default white majority audience. It remains extremely rare for Hollywood to invest in any kind of film with an Asian lead, much less a nine-figure blockbuster with an exclusively Asian cast, many of whom are unknown to general American viewers. Disney still has a long way to go in terms of inclusivity in its work but Mulan signals a major step forward in the right direction.
Mulan Treats The Chinese Story With Respect
As noted by critic Inkoo Kang, then of MTV News, the Disney rewrite of The Ballad of Mulan is one that puts the company’s preferred tropes and storytelling style before that of the source material:
“Read the original “Ballad of Mulan,” and you’ll see that Mulan’s need for authentic self-expression is Disney’s invention. For over a millennium, Mulan has been revered in China for her filial sacrifice, not her feminist critiques. The animated movie’s coming-of-age angst, hunky love interest, and princess-y happily-ever-after are American additions that help Mulan’s tale fit better into the Disney format.”
The original ballad of Hua Mulan has been a key part of Chinese mythology since the 6th century and has been the subject of several film, television, and stage adaptations over the past hundred years. Disney’s version is, of course, the most popular among non-Chinese audiences worldwide and Kang notes that with the movie came “the added emotional weight of having been the first and possibly only time many Asian-American children saw someone who looked like them on-screen — while breaking stereotypes of the demure, submissive Asian woman at that.” The animated Mulan may have its nostalgic and cultural value but it is still very much a Hollywood picture.
The new Mulan is still the work of an American studio, directed by a New Zealander and based on a movie made almost exclusively by Americans, but it’s clear that Disney has still done a lot of work to ensure that the film has more in common with the ballad than the cartoon. That’s a reassuring step forward for the studio and, frankly, what they should have been doing with these live-action remakes in the first place. The big issue for Disney here is that they need to appeal to both the demands of the Chinese market who have an immense attachment to this story and that nostalgic Disney-loving demographic who loved the original. The former has greater spending power right now, in their eyes, and it only benefits Disney to adhere to that if they continue to commit to this business strategy.
Mulan Will Be Epic
Most of Disney’s live-action remakes have been criticized for being carbon copies of the original stories with a few miscellaneous details added to make things just different enough. This trend has been so prevalent, especially in titles like The Lion King, to the point where some fans have wondered why Disney even bothered remaking them beyond brand synergy. Mulan feels refreshing by contrast because it’s clearly a different beast from its animated source material: It’s not a musical, major characters have been changed, there’s a new villain, and, most notably, this is a pure epic.
Disney has never been a studio noted for its action movies, exceptions like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise aside. Typically, they have left the grand battle scenes to Star Wars and Marvel rather than their own label. Disney’s Mulan remake presents a fascinating opportunity for them to fully enter this market as their own entity, and they’ve certainly spared no expense in their endeavor. This film is many things but it’s also a signal that the company is keen to throw their own hat into the ring of the now-dominant blockbuster market rather than leaving such projects to their endless array of acquisitions. That’s something that needs and deserves a big screen with big audiences in tow. It’s just a question of if and when such things can happen. They may need to wait longer than anticipated but it should be an investment that Disney makes with Mulan’s best interests at heart, as well as an awareness of its overall importance to the company, to audiences, and to the changing face of Hollywood.
Key Release Dates
Mulan
Release Date:2020-09-04
