No." Though the director shared that Mushu was removed to allow Mulan to better enhance her relationships with her fellow soldiers, his absence may have also been more about not offending viewers, who found Mushu to be insensitive in the 1998 animated feature.
Mushu was seen as trivialising the Chinese culture
USC Professor Stanley Ronsen also told The Hollywood Report that the character was seen as a trivialisation of the culture in China. “Mushu was very popular in the US, but the Chinese hated it,” he said. “This kind of miniature dragon trivialised their culture.”
It's possible the Great Stone Dragon didn't want to be a guardian and replaced himself with a statue replica of himself since he never woke up and his spirit didn't rise up when Mushu accidentally smashed his statue.
A clause in Eddie Murphy's contract for doing Shrek 2 (2004) forbade him from reprising the role of Mushu in this film, therefore having his other voice actor Mark Moseley (a man best known for filling in for Murphy's characters like Mushu and Donkey in their TV and Video Game appearances) fill in for this film.
Mushu was once a guardian spirit of Mulan's family, but he has been demoted to the unappreciated position of an incense burner and gong-ringer for the deceased Fa ancestors ever since he failed to protect a family member, a soldier named Fa Deng, resulting in the soldier's demise by decapitation.
University of Southern California professor Stanley Rosen, who specializes in Chinese politics and culture, told The Hollywood Reporter that "Mushu was very popular in the U.S., but the Chinese hated it." "This kind of miniature dragon trivialized their culture," he added.
It turns out that the traditional Chinese audience did not particularly think that was the best interpretation of the dragon in their culture. That the dragon is a sign of respect and of strength and power and sort of using it as a silly sidekick did not play well with a traditional Chinese audience."
The biggest issue is this film features way less action than it's predecessor and way less Mulan (she practically disappears in the middle of the film). Mulan's bickering with Shang is also very badly written. Yet, minor complaints. Overall a decent film.
Although Mushu and the phoenix are both guardians of the ancestors, and both are stone statues brought to life for Mulan's protection, the phoenix is never a true replacement for Mushu. Mulan and the phoenix never really interact, compared with Mushu's constant involvement in the animated film.
Why did they change the dragon to a phoenix in Mulan?
"The dragon is representative of the masculine, and the phoenix is representative of the feminine," she said when asked about the topic, People reports. "In a movie, in a story that so much explores gender fluidity, I thought that that was a really nice and appropriate way to go."
Also, the fact that Mushu is a dragon may be a nod to the fact that, while Mulan is a mighty force on her own, she requires a little bit of guidance to be whole and achieve her goals. Ultimately, this would mean that Mushu couldn't awaken the Great Stone Dragon because it was awake all along.
Scholarly consensus is that Mulan is a fictional character, probably developed in Northern China in response to the greater independence women enjoyed there, whose legend was then revised in succeeding eras to reflect the values and challenges of the times.
Mulan star Liu Yifei's comments supporting Hong Kong police sparked criticism of the film, which quickly led to a call for boycotts among Hong Kong pro-democracy protestors, as well as Thai and Taiwanese activists, among others.
In reality, the filmmakers claimed that they were influenced by the #MeToo Movement, finding it inappropriate for Mulan's love interest to be her commanding officer. Considering how poorly the animated film performed in China, Disney made an active effort to appeal to the Chinese market in its live-action film.
Following widespread outcry, director Niki Caro explained that the reason the scaly red sidekick was left out of the remake was a commitment to "the realism of [Mulan's] journey."
The cinematography is great and the colors are often vibrant, but the story is pretty dull. The lead actress is awfully bland as well. The action and music are standouts, but get bogged down by some pacing issues. My biggest issue with this film though is Mulan herself.
If any of you watched Mulan 2, for exapmle buying it on DVD, Mushu turns evil after losing his pedastol, so he tries to tear apart Mulan and Shang, which worked.
In a gigantic nutshell; this movie for a Mulan sequel is a massive failure on every possible level, makes our characters come off as very uncaring for their own needs at the end, betraying the idea of what Mulan's morals were and nothing about the movie makes sense as a sequel or in its concept.
At the end of the film, however, it is revealed he somehow survived the fall (with help from his horse), and Mushu saves the day by pretending to be the Golden Dragon of Unity and freeing the princesses from their vows.
China blocked the release of Disney's animated “Mulan” for eight months in the late 1990s after the company backed Martin Scorsese's “Kundun,” a film seen as sympathetic to the Dalai Lama. The animated “Mulan” bombed in China as a result.
In the original, the general's son Li Shang trains the recruits and ultimately falls for Mulan. The team behind the new movie explained the change was down to the #MeToo movement - they felt Mulan's officer becoming her love interest felt a bit off given his position of power.
Although the whole film told a Chinese story, it actually still showed huge differences between the film and genuine Chinese ancient culture. First, in the film, there are several Chinese elements misunderstood.
