News Disney's Live Action Mulan

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by JD, Jul 7, 2019.

  1. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2004
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    The first trailer for this premiered during the Women's World Cup Finals today, so I thought it would be a good time to start a thread.
    This is the theatrically next released live action remake of a Disney animated movie following this summer's The Lion King. There is also the second Maleficient in December, but that's gone so far off from the animated Sleeping Beauty at this point that I don't really count it.
    The cast:
    Liu Yifei as Hua Mulan
    Donnie Yen as Commander Tung
    Yonson An as Chen Hongui
    Gon Li as Xiannian
    Jason Scott Lee as Bori Khan
    Tzi Ma as Hua Zhou
    Jet Li as The Emperor
    Ron Yuan as Sergeant Qiang
    Jimmy Wong as Ying
    Doua Moua as Po
    Cheng Tang as Yao
    Xana Tang as Hua Xiu
    Utkarsh Ambudkar as Skatch
    Chum Ehelepola as Ramtish
    Nelson Lee as The Chancellor
    It is written by Elizabeth Martin, Lauren Hynek, Rich Jaffa, and Amanda Silver, and directed by Niki Caro.

    Trailer:

    I like what I see here, and it's looking like this one might go a little farther off from the animated movie than some of the other live action remakes have.
    It's also got one hell of a cast.
     
    Greg Cox likes this.
  2. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2007
    Fans are a bit disappointed at this point because none of the actors will sing the Disney "Mulan" songs" At this point they will instrumentals

    https://thedisinsider.com/2019/06/2...hu-in-mulan-cast-will-not-sing-classic-songs/


    I say at this point because they're going see what test audiences respond to and reshoots.

    Frankly I think that's a complete waste of time. What if the actors can't sing? They just wasted a ton of time and have to rush recording songs after test audiences want them in the movie.

    Also the "Mushu" character voiced by Eddie Murphy will be replaced by a Phoenix
     
    Qonundrum likes this.
  3. Janeway’s Girl

    Janeway’s Girl Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 15, 2014
    No songs and no Mushu? That’s sad.

    Despite that I still think the teaser looks awesome!
     
  4. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2001
    Location:
    AI Generated Madness
    Trek fans should note that Rosalind Chao (Keiko O'Brien) is in the film.
     
    lurok likes this.
  5. JD

    JD Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2004
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    I'm not to surprised it's not a musical, I figured with so many of these coming out, it was inevitable that at least one or two of them would skip the songs.
     
  6. Samurai8472

    Samurai8472 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2007

    It sort of reminds me of when Disney just made movies. Something the likes of "The Rocketeer"

    No sing and dances or superheroes
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2019
    FreezeC77 likes this.
  7. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2001
    Location:
    AI Generated Madness
    From what I've heard "Dumbo" skips the songs.
     
  8. Qonundrum

    Qonundrum Vice Admiral Admiral

    Back in the 1960s TV shows would use ADR to have the singing voice placed over the actors - lip-syncing, which is - to my current understanding - something still done to this day? I have not seen the original animated show, but if the songs were created in 1998 then it's unlikely that there's anything controversial - but it's not like movie character origins or dialogue or songs don't get changed lyrics in redos so why not go the opposite way and take out music segments in a genre that's... known for musical songs in its animations?

    Why do a live action version anyway, what's so wrong with the animated edition? (There may be very good reasons, I do not know.) But the last CGI live action flick I saw, "Wonder Woman", still looked like an obvious mash-up of real actors with big green screen CGI that almost but didn't quite match up and it all looked fake as a result. The completely animated version doesn't have such a limitation as it's all animated, allowing suspension of disbelief to reign unfettered. Remember those Hulk movie flops that used CGI Hulk scenes and nobody could swallow the CGI scenes involving the people, in part due to the lack of physics. As with the CGI Spider-Man, and so on. The technology of today does make sufficiently passable what could not be attempted three decades ago, but the animated realm is still more completely encompassing and not because it's on a 60' screen. YMMV, of course. After all, if a show is really really good, or has potential despite what's really really bad, it ends up getting remade all the same.

    And, yeah, I'll admit I rather enjoyed watching the teaser trailer. If the movie is as good as that teaser, then I'm not sure the lack of songs and dances will be an issue.



    (one of the commenters claims the movie is based on a narrative poem and not the 1998 animated feature. Fascinating...)
     
  9. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jun 9, 2001
    Location:
    Mr. Adventure
    This looks like many of the Chinese period piece epics you will see from time to time and I can't really imagine it setting the box office on fire any more than those do. Maybe the Disney pedigree makes a difference but I'd be surprised if this really takes off. At least domestically, it might do really well in Asian markets.
     
  10. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2001
    Location:
    On the run.
    I'm glad they're skipping the songs. What's the point of just making the same movie again? (I realize I may be in the minority on that, but like...the Lion King still has the songs and is still animated, so is the only point of making it that it's not "a cartoon" any more?)

    I don't bother with the remakes any more (skipped/skipping Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, Aladdin, and Lion King, but I might check this one out.
     
    fireproof78 likes this.
  11. crookeddy

    crookeddy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2006
    Well Aladdin had a different take an genie from will Smith and a new feminist twist on jasmine. Worth seeing.
     
    Turtletrekker likes this.
  12. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2000
    Location:
    Lost in a temporal and spatial anomaly
    I'm also glad there won't be any songs. I think the film and story will be much stronger without it. Mushu, too. Hopefully he'll be seriously toned down for this one.

    I'm tired of Disney's new trend of remaking all of their animated classics, but this is one I'm genuinely intrigued by, if only because I don't know the legend all that well.

    It was great to see Rosalind Chao pop up in the trailer! :D
     
  13. Pondwater

    Pondwater Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2011
    Location:
    The Backwoods
    Oh, wow! They’re making these fast.
     
  14. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2014
    Location:
    Journeying onwards
    Sounds like a good plan. I see no reason to have it be a musical.
    MASH fans should also note :D
     
  15. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2005
    I'm glad they're not doing the musical numbers. It seems they're doing another take on the Mulan legend instead of a slavish translation of the animated movie into live action, which I'm all in favor of. The Jungle Book went the same route and it's probably my favorite of Disney's live action remakes thus far.
     
    The Nth Doctor and fireproof78 like this.
  16. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2001
    Location:
    On the run.
    I didn't skip that one due to songs, I skipped it because I never really liked the film in the first place. Same with Beauty and the Beast and the eventual Little Mermaid.
     
  17. Agony_Boothb

    Agony_Boothb Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2009
    Location:
    Melbourne, Australia
    This is probably the only Disney remake I am genuinely excited to see. That trailer was beautiful.
     
  18. valkyrie013

    valkyrie013 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2009
    This one I'm looking forward too! Always love these period epics, and love that Netflix has a good assortment of them :)
    Sad that they won't have Mushu.. :( needs a bit of levity, spiritualness to it to set it apart!
    Didn't see Ming Na in there anywhere.. Would have been nice to see her, maybe as the mom..
     
  19. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2000
    Location:
    Lost in a temporal and spatial anomaly
    Yeah, a Ming-Na cameo would be awesome. I suspect Rosalind Chao is Mulan's mom but I'm sure Ming-Na could show up as someone else.
     
  20. Kor

    Kor Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2001
    Location:
    My mansion on Qo'noS
    Like the "Crouching Tiger" Netflix sequel, I think it's weird that this is in English.

    Kor