This official trailer for Mulan immediately brings to mind such films as Hero & Once Upon a Time in China. Which is really good company to have in my eyes. I was never a big fan of the original animated Mulan. It just didn’t deliver on the action I felt it could have to round it out all together. This looks like it takes that story, tweaks it a little, but mainly adds all that bad ass martial arts action I was looking for in its predecessor. The witch aspect add a level of mysticism reminiscent of what you’d find in some of my favorite Wu Tang films. I’ve been really pumped for this ever since I heard this classic martial arts epic style was being used, & now that I see a small hint of what’s to come, I’m even more excited. As if you don’t know the basics already here’s the synopsis that came with the trailer, “When the Emperor of China issues a decree that one man per family must serve in the Imperial Army to defend the country from Northern invaders, Hua Mulan, the eldest daughter of an honored warrior, steps in to take the place of her ailing father. Masquerading as a man, Hua Jun, she is tested every step of the way and must harness her inner-strength and embrace her true potential. It is an epic journey that will transform her into an honored warrior and earn her the respect of a grateful nation…and a proud father. “Mulan” features a celebrated international cast that includes: Yifei Liu as Mulan; Donnie Yen as Commander Tung; Jason Scott Lee as Böri Khan; Yoson An as Cheng Honghui; with Gong Li as Xianniang and Jet Li as the Emperor. The film is directed by Niki Caro from a screenplay by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver and Elizabeth Martin & Lauren Hynek based on the narrative poem “The Ballad of Mulan.”” an amazing cast, with a director who is staying very true to the original poem. Great 1st trailer her though. Really gets me anticipating March 2020. Which honestly, is way closer than it seems. What do y’all think though? Does this do it for you? Are you still on the fence? What are your feelings on this versus the original animated film? Put it in the comments, like, & share.
First Teaser For Live Action “Mulan”
The first Official Trailer for Disney's upcoming live-action Mulan is here, & it's awesome. I am not a fan of the original animated film. I felt it was a story of a girl turned warrior with no real evidence of which contained in the film. I’m not talkin' Kill Bill, but at least a little Ninja Turtle martial arts action could've worked. That why when I heard they were going the martial arts epic route with the remake I was totally intrigued. This trailer was everything I wanted from this adaptation. I absolutely loved it. They're really talong this seriously, & first & foremost it's a martial arts epic. I can’t wait for this film. It's got giant names in martial arts for years with Jet Li & Donnie Yen, two of my favorites, & according to the synopsis even, is staying closer to the original content: “When the Emperor of China issues a decree that one man per family must serve in the Imperial Army to defend the country from Northern invaders, Hua Mulan, the eldest daughter of an honored warrior, steps in to take the place of her ailing father. Masquerading as a man, Hua Jun, she is tested every step of the way and must harness her inner-strength and embrace her true potential. It is an epic journey that will transform her into an honored warrior and earn her the respect of a grateful nation…and a proud father. “Mulan” features a celebrated international cast that includes: Yifei Liu as Mulan; Donnie Yen as Commander Tung; Jason Scott Lee as Böri Khan; Yoson An as Cheng Honghui; with Gong Li as Xianniang and Jet Li as the Emperor. The film is directed by Niki Caro from a screenplay by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver and Elizabeth Martin & Lauren Hynek based on the narrative poem “The Ballad of Mulan.”” I’m super pumped for this. Crazy considering it's essentially a remake of a film I don’t really care for. How bout y’all? In or no? Put it in the comments, like, & share.
Live-Action "Mulan" Will Have A Villain Switch, Oh Also Jet Li & Gong Li!!!!
I learned yesterday that Donnie Yen scored a role in the upcoming live-action Mulan, but apparently that’s not the only thing that went down. Collider reported that according to THR, Jet Li and Gong Li are on board as well. Gong Li is set to play the villain. No, not that one, a powerful witch. Definitely a big change from the 1998 animated film. They've been saying that this will also follow the source material. Which, in all honesty, I know nothing about. A bold move for sure. Fans can be rabid, & the animated classic is loved by a lot of people. The addition of Jet Li is everything for me though. I've been a fan of Jet Li since his early films in Japan before the States even knew his name. This also doubles down on the whole martial arts epic thing. We've still gotta wait until March 27th, 2020. I'm sure there will be plenty of developments by then. Until that what do you think of the new additions to the cast? For that matter, what do you think of the villain toss up? Put it in the comments, like, & share.
Donnie Yen Joins Cast Of "Mulan"!!
If you noticed the exclamation marks in the title, you already have an idea of how excited I am about this. Disney's upcoming Mulan has been promised to be a martial arts epic, & adding Rogue One's Donnie Yen to play Comander Tung is definitely a step in the that direction. According to Variety, Yen has just been tapped to play the role opposite Liu Yifei in the live-action remake, as a mentor to Mulan. I absolutely love this guy, he was my favorite part of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story . I've honestly never been the biggest fan of Mulan , but the more I hear about this live-action version, it's becoming my most anticipated of the bunch. What do y'all think? Isn't this awesome?!? Put it in the comments, like, & share.
Disney's Live-Action "Mulan" Has Found It's... Mulan
Disney's upcoming live-action take on Mulan has found it's title character. Yifei Liu has picked up the role. A Chinese actress with a pretty long resume according to IMDB. Mostly Chinese movies, I've actually only seen one thing she was in, & to say I remember her in The Forbidden Kingdom would be a lie. Though I remember being fond of the movie, I've probably seen it twice at most. I'm actually very curious to see if this works out. I'm sure it will do great abroad, but here in the U.S. we've judged our movies for a long time by who was featured in the films. We are starting to shy away from that, but not by far. Having a cast of actors that are unfamiliar may have an effect on the financial outcome. I'm in though. I don't care who's in a good film, & we already know the story works from it's animated predecessor. Hell, sometimes a big name actor can pull me right out of a story just upon recognition. I'm really curious to see how this one unfolds. Mulan was never one of my favorites, I'm hoping this can change that. What are y'all's thoughts on this casting call? Are y'all ready to see a movie that you don't recognize anyone in? Put it in the comments, like, & share.
Mulan to Have Music Now?
Looks like we have some confusion on the music situation with the upcoming live-action Mulan. Last week director Niki Caro stated that her version of the martial arts epic would not be a musical. However, in an interview with THR she now states, "I mean, I haven't even started on the movie yet. I haven't seen a single casting yet, & these are conversations that are all ongoing. The live-action is based on that inspirational Chinese ballad & on the animated classic. We're still exploring the role that music will play in it, but for sure there will be music." Still not much to go on as when it comes down to it, all films contain music. So while this could give hope to hearing your favorite Mulan songs, it shouldn't be by much. To me it just sounds like a little more positive spin on this still probably not being a musical in the sense of the cast bursting into song. I could be reading it wrong though. Let us know in the comments what you got out of those statements. While your there, like & share.
15 Live-Action Remakes & My Thoughts
Chip & Company sent out a list of upcoming 15 Disney live-action remakes today & I figured I'd share my thoughts on each of them. Most of these are expected, but there's a few surprises & a couple thay may just leave you scratching your head. So with no further ado, I give you:
- The Lion King: We've talked about this one recently with rumors that director, Jon Favreau eyeing Beyonce for Nala. She would join already casted Donald Glover & James Earl Jones. Yeah, ain't it great that the only replacement for James Earl Jones isJames Earl Jones. I'm excited for this. Jon Favreau did great with Jungle Book, giving me very little to worry about on this one.
- Mulan: To also be a subject later. We got writers Lauren Hynek & Elizabeth Martin along with director Niki Caro who can't make up her mind on if or where music has a place in this film. (More on that later.) I'm actually looking mord forward to this than I ever was the animated version. I love martial arts epics, & that sounds like what we'll be getting with this.
- Aladdin: One of, if not my favorite of the classics. We've got a team of directors in Guy Ritchie & John August, & I'm not sure if this worries or excites me. Though it seems a strange pick, I've got a bigger list of Guy Ritchie films I've enjoyed than I haven't. So that being said I'm more than intrigued.
- Jungle Book 2: Jon Favreau's directing is all we know about this one & this is one of the head scratchers for me. With Disney's track record for sequels you would figure this slot would br open for a different remake. So basically, I want to see this still, I'm just hoping I want to see it again afterward.
- Maleficent 2: Screenwriter Linda Woolverton & main title role Angelina Jolie are coming back on for who cares? I mean really, the first one went out of it's way to destroy one of the greatest on screen villians of all time. How? By making her not a villian. Otherwise played perfectly, this film took the evil out of a villian so hateful she wished death upon a baby just for not being invited to a party. So on this sequel, I'll pass.
- Mary Poppins Returns: This one's not a remake, but a sequel. It's currently has Emily Blunt as the main character, Lin-manuel Miranda, and Dick Van Dyke returning to his role. I found a love for Mary Poppins late in life and that's probably one of the reasons that I am secretly looking very much forward to the sequel.
- Snow White: Now this one's a little iffy for me. Mainly because it seems like it's been done a lot recently. However I will give it a chance, as it's one of my favorite stories, and nobody does stories like Disney does stories. Anyway, we have Priscilla Wilson as a writer and Justin Paul and Benj Pasek will be writing new original music for the film.
- Rose Red: I don't know much of what to say about this one, and it's mainly because I don't know what this one's about. Apparently Snow White and Rose Red is about two sisters that encounter an enchanted bear. It's also rumored that this film is not going to follow that storyline anyway. So it looks like anyone who does know about this one, well, they might not really know about it either.
- The Little Mermaid: I tell you this, we know the music's going to be amazing. Lin-manuel Miranda is teaming up with the original songwriter Alan Menken to write a new music to go along with the pre-existing songs in the film. This especially gets my attention as new music sounds like new scenes, and new scenes sound like the expanding a story that I've always loved. Even if I thought was a little short to begin with.
- Peter Pan: Another one the list we don't know too much about other than it's directed by David Lowery and written by Lowery and Toby Halbrooks. I personally can't wait for another Peter Pan as many people have tried this since the animated version, and Hook has been the closest thing to get it right. Which doesn't really count as it's a sequel.
- Oliver & Company: Tommy Kail is on board to direct this remake that was about a cat that got taken in by a bunch of street smart dogs. One of the best things about this was the music and hopefully we can recapture that. As a kid this burned into me that Billy Joel was the man. This was another one of my childhood favorites.
- James & the Giant Peach: This was announced last year to be written by Nick Hornby and directed by Sam Mendes. It'll be a live-action remake of the '96 stop-action film. While James and the Giant Peach never really stood out for me, I am very curious to see how someone would pull off something so ambitious to try to create in live-action.
- Winnie the Pooh: I love this silly old bear. The film is supposed to be directed by Marc Forster and written by Alex Ross Perry and there's a rumor that it could be titled Christopher Robin. I've heard many theories on this live-action movie and all of them sound just as great as the next.
- Dumbo: Oh Dumbo. Written by Ehren Krueger, directed by Tim Burtonm with Colin Farrell and Danny DeVito in talks to star I just don't know really what to think about this one. With talk of a family from Kentucky, a big ring circus taking over a small ring circus, and no talk of flying elephants I'm not sure what we're even going to get with this one.
- Cruella: With Emma Stone set to star in the title role I don't know whether to be excited or reserved on this actually happening, and I think most of that lands on Maleficent. Thankfully, I don't see any way even Disney could turn someone who wants to kill a bunch of puppies for a coat, into any shade of a good person. So, if that's the case, this might finally be the villain picture I was looking for.
So there you go there's my thoughts on the big 15 coming out sooner or later. What do you think? Do you agree, do you disagree? Do you have some altogether different insights? I would love to hear it, let me know in the comments, and don't forget to like and share.
Mulan Not Likely To Have A Singalong Version
So Niki Caro is attached to direct Disney's live action adaptation of Mulan & told "Moviefone" that her version would be "a big, girly martial arts epic." She also confirmed that as of right now there are no plans to make it a musical. This is fine by me actually. I can feel everyone's anger with the next sentence. I don't necessarily remember any of the songs from that movie. Meaning that, with all the songs I remember form movies I've seen less, these just didn't stand out. Martial arts epic sound pretty awesome though. What do y'all think music or no music?
