According to director Niki Caro, both have been excised from the live-action version to try and tell a more realistic version of the legend than the primary-colored Disney version – a version created by a white, non-Asian team.
"Written in Stone" is a song that was written for Disney's 1998 animated film Mulan, but was cut from the film when its composer Stephen Schwartz left the project. Lea Salonga auditioned for Mulan with "Written in Stone" and recorded a demo during production.
We made the decision that we wanted to keep the world—even though it's a fantasy—more grounded, more realistic so those emotions really played and the threat is very real. So we are using music in a slightly different way.”
This expensive live-action version from Disney has everything you remember and more. Well OK, it doesn't have singing. Forget the songs you grew up with: they didn't fit the vision of director Niki Caro from New Zealand (Whale Rider), who has now helmed the most expensive film ever made by a woman.
Almost as soon as the film arrived on Disney+, social media users noticed that, nine minutes into the film's 10-minute end credits, the “Mulan” filmmakers had thanked eight government entities in Xinjiang, the region in China where Uighur Muslims have been detained in mass internment camps.
The issue was that Mulan was partially filmed in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, in close proximity to detention camps for Uighur Muslims, and Disney gave credit to “publicity department of CPC Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomy Region Committee” among other entities.
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.”
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.
Unlike the animated film, the live-action story opens with Mulan's father, Hua Zhou, narrating the story of his legendary daughter. The animated film opens from the villain's perspective as he invades China through the Great Wall. The landmark isn't featured in the new Disney film.
The doll will become a repeated motif in the film, as the doll represents what Mulan is being asked to become. She is not a doll. But neither is she a boy child with swords. She is someone above that, someone with compassion as her guiding light–a traditionally feminine trait that toxic masculinity ignores.
So, is the new film be a musical? Not exactly. Though the new film doesn't have actual musical moments, like a synchronized performance to "I'll Make a Man Out of You," you do hear some iconic tracks. The live-action adaptation weaves the popular songs into the film by playing instrumental versions in certain scenes.
"True to Your Heart" is the "end-credits song" of Disney's 1998 animated film Mulan, and one of two singles released off the soundtrack. It was written by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel and performed by American boy band 98 Degrees and singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder.
In both the 1998 animated film and the 2020 live-action Mulan, Mulan is only at war for a few months. In the original legend, Mulan was battling in disguise for 12 years.
Disney movies always manages to sneak in a hidden Mickey or two, and "Mulan" is no different. Li Shang's horse gets the honor of being the vessel carrying the hidden Mickeys, with clear Mickey Mouses on his hind and his neck.
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, the wise-cracking sidekick dragon voiced by Eddie Murphy, and Li Shang, the captain of the Imperial Army and Mulan's mentor, voiced by B.D. Wong. Among those who love the original, there are sure to be some questions as to why these seemingly pivotal characters were removed.
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.
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.
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.
In the second film, Mushu actually causes far more harm to the protagonists than the supposed villains of the movie (The Mongols and Lord Quin). For example, in one scene he's responsible for sending a carriage, which contained the emperor's three daughters, off of a cliff and into a river.
The film reportedly grossed between $60 million and $90 million in the United States within the first 12 days of its online release, paling in comparison to its budget. In China, the film took in $23.2 million on its opening weekend, with a sharp 72% decline the following weekend, according to Yahoo Entertainment.
Although the live-action movie of Mulan was a flop, at least the cartoon was one of the two Mulan movies that was a hit. The cartoon Mulan on IMDb got a star rating of 7.6, and the live-action received a star rating of only 5.4.
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.
