Mulan: Critics praise ‘dazzling’ Disney live-action remake – but deplore ‘underwritten’ heroine

Reviews are out for Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan, coming to Disney+ this 4 September.

Critics have praised several aspects of the “dazzling” and “enjoyable” movie, though several deplored Mulan’s character development, deeming her “underwritten” and “the kind of hero no one can see themselves in”.

In a four-star review for The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey deemed the film a “gorgeous, exhilarating experience – whatever the size of the screen”, writing: “Mulan isn’t what we’ve come to expect from Disney’s live-action remakes – it’s far more sober, meditative, and refined than the likes of Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast. It’s indebted as much to the work of Zhang Yimou, known for Hero and House of Flying Daggers, as it is to the original 1998 animation.”

The Hollywood Reporter‘s Inkoo Kang noted Liu Yifei’s ”charisma” as Mulan, but deplored that ”the script gives her no depth and no meaningful relationships to work with”. “The slo-mo, horse-riding scene in which Mulan realises she can embrace both her power and her femininity — with her long, professionally curled tresses flying behind her — would be that much more moving if we ever got a sense that there was a personality under all that hair,” Kang wrote. “This Mulan is unadulterated virtue — the kind of hero no one can see themselves in.”

Leah Greenblatt noted Liu’s “quiet-storm serenity” as well as the film’s PG-13 rating in the US, writing for Entertainment Weekly: “Whether its stronger rating and more sombre tone will translate to a home-bound family audience, only time and streaming revenues will tell; in the meantime, Mulan might be the closest thing to a true old-fashioned theatre-going experience the end of this strange summer will see.”

In a review for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis called the movie “less than buoyant” overall but showed appreciation for Gong Li’s character Xianniang, “the movie’s most vibrant creation”. “One pleasure of Xianniang as a character is her ambiguity, that she seems beyond the masculine-feminine dualism forced on Mulan, who goes from being prettied up as bride material to suiting up in a man’s army and then something else,” Dargis wrote.

Beth Webb heaped praise on the movie in Empire, writing: “Bittersweet comes the news that Niki Caro’s Mulan is not only the best live-action Disney adaptation to date, but also a dazzling, moving, hair-prickling spectacle. Because in a move from Disney that at the time felt controversial, and now feels like a crying shame, a VOD release through Disney+ is for many the only way to watch this epic-scale action experience that feels made for the big screen.”

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave Mulan three stars, deeming it an “enjoyable piece of machine-tooled entertainment”, and an “entertaining if straightforwardly glossy action-adventure from the Disney workshop”.

The long-awaited film was originally supposed to have a theatrical release in March this year, but those plans were delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Viewers will be able to stream it on Disney+ for $29.99 in the US and £19.99 in the UK.