Jiaying Zheng

Dr. Tabitha Clark

ENGW 1111

2 November 2021

Franchise Comparison and Contrast

Mulan Franchise Comparison and Contrast

Being the daughter of a family, a soldier of the imperial army, and a national hero

honored by the emperor, Mulan Hua was a legendary folk heroine from the Northern and

Southern dynasty era of Chinese History. After the official theatrical release of Mulan voiced by

Ming-na Wen and Eddie Murphy in 1998 (IMDb), Mulan immediately became one of the most

well-known and successful films conducted by Disney ever due to the rapidly flourishing of

feminism around the world at the time, and New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin mentioned

that “Disney takes a sledgehammer to the subject of gender stereotyping in Mulan” (Maslin)

which clearly indicates the revolutionary breakthrough in terms of popularizing and promoting

feminism. Mulan 1998 grossed over $304 million – an unintelligible amount of money in 1998 –

while being nominated for Best Music Oscar Awards and earning several Annie awards

including Best Animated Feature and Voice Acting (IMDb). Twenty-two years later, Disney

made the ultimate decision of developing a live-action version of Mulan while maintain the

original taste and nostalgic feeling of the original musical version in 1998, and USA Today

reporter Carly Mallenbaum described it as “the melodies of the original tunes are woven into the

fresh film score, and select lyrics are included in the dialogue” (Mallenbaum). Unfortunately, the
reboot of Mulan 2020 directed by Niki Caro did not go smoothly and only grossed around $70

million due to the cancelation of theatrical release caused by the global pandemic (IMDb).

Despite the differences between the statistic information for both versions of Mulan, both

versions possessed dissimilarities in terms of revealing the theme of gender and conflict.

Attempting to transcend traditional gender roles and conserving political correctness in

terms of depicting female characters in the film, Disney chose different approaches when it

comes to presenting Mulan’s realization of her unmatched exterior and inner self and revealing

the major theme of gender to audiences. In the more recent 2020 version, a new female villain –

Xian Lang, a witch - was appended to the film in order to gain further persuasiveness and appeal

more emotions to general audiences, as well Mallenbaum said “the addition of a new female

villain adds heft to the film’s theme of sexism” (Mallenbuam). On one hand, the witch fulfilled

the purpose of proving the idea of “women are just the same as men” and became the female

villain in contrast to Mulan, the female hero. On the other hand, the witch occupies the eminent

and irreplaceable position that served as a guidance on Mulan’s path of discovering her identity

and having no shame of presenting it by inspiring and reminding Mulan that “you deceive

weaken you” (Liang, Mulan 2020). In addition to that, two other female characters who were

also heavily emphasized by the producers due to attempting to present the theme of gender and

feminism were Mulan’s mother and younger sister. The producers enriched the female members

in Mulan’s family to create an obvious contrast between Mulan and traditional females whose

original jobs were supposed to be “bringing honor to the family through marriage” (Mulan’s

mother, Mulan 2020). Unlike the newer 2020 version of Mulan, the 1998 version selected a

different method when it comes to divulging the themes. In Mulan 1998, the accidental revealing

of Mulan’s gender to others in the imperial army, who immediately turned on her even after her
saving their lives, was the turning point of Mulan’s awareness of her gender and the entire story.

Unlike the 2020 version, Mulan’s transition was caused by men, which indeed provided less

dramatic elements that can reveal “Mulan’s courage and independence in rebelling” (Maslin) and

are relatively suitable for uncovering the theme of gender, unlike the 2020 version where was

women inspiring and encouraging each other – the witch and Mulan. As Mallebaum commented

on both versions of the film, Mulan in the 1998 version “understood that it was her dolled-up

reflection that did not fit her identity,” whereas she “comes to ultimately realize that her

masculine, armored exterior does not match her inner self” in the 2020 version (Mallebaum).

To fully disclose the theme of gender, the producers for both films laboriously employed

men-versus-men as well as men-versus-self conflicts between on-screen characters. According to

the original legend of Mulan, Mulan’s relationship with her family was a slow transition from

substandard to relatively close throughout the entire story, however, details were missing from

the story, which enabled and opened more space for imagination and more possible stories for

the producers, as New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin said that the story of Mulan has

“surprisingly little depth of field or background detail” and “a lot of empty spaces and scenes”

(Maslin). In the 2020 version, Mulan’s family was relatively more descriptive and involved in

the early scenes compared to the older version. At the very beginning of the movie, the theme of

conflict was adroitly revealed by the scene where Mulan was chasing a chicken, which indicated

Mulan possessed great athletic potential – strong “chi” in another word – and was described as “a

rambunctious young girl who exhibits crazy athletic moves and a fearlessness that worries her

family” (Truitt) by review Brain Truitt while her mother were often disappointed in her since her

mother thought a daughter is supposed to “bring honor to the family through marriage” (Mulan’s

Mother, Mulan 2020). As how the producers disclose the theme of gender, the producers utilized
the same scene, where Mulan was assaulted by the witch and awakened her realization of her

identity and gender, to reveal the theme of men-versus-men conflict. Unlikely, the 1998 version

of Mulan would be considered that did a worse job on revealing the theme of conflict since it

barely talked about Mulan’s family background and basically only mentioned the existence of

her father in terms of the men-versus-men conflict, whereas the men-versus-self conflict was not

properly disclosed since Mulan’s transition between genders was an accidental event.

Nevertheless, the interaction between Mulan and others in the imperial army was a lot more

descriptive through the musical presentation, which audiences can obviously tell the

strengthening of their bounds.

To disclose the themes of gender and conflict, the producers adroitly selected different

approaches, which further improve the persuasiveness and elicit audiences’ sympathy, fully and

successfully for both versions of Mulan in order to assist the films reach to their maximum

potential. In terms of a possible upcoming reboot of the Mulan franchise, another cartoon version

of the film would not be appropriate due to repetitive and over production, however, this

indicates that another action film would also not be suitable because of the same reason and

statistics has shown that Mulan 2020 was not as successfully as expected. In this case, a tv show

series would be the best fit in terms of telling the story of Mulan since it provides more space

and uplift the time limit for the producers to enrich and conduct more realistic, intense, and

detailed relationships between on-screen characters.

 Citation

Mulan 1998, (1998, June 5), directed by Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook

Mulan 2020, (2020, March 9), directed by Niki Caro

Mallenbaum, C. (2020, September 8). The new 'Mulan': What's different in Disney's live-action

remake (from No Mushu to more hair)? USA Today. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2020/09/04/mulan-remake-disney-

biggest-changes-original-animated-movie/3449748001/. 

Dargis, M. (2020, September 3). 'Mulan' review: A flower blooms in adversity (and kicks butt).

The New York Times. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/movies/mulan-disney-review.html. 

IMDb.com. (1998, June 19). Mulan. IMDb. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120762/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2. 

IMDb.com. (2020, September 4). Mulan. IMDb. Retrieved November 8, 2021, from

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4566758/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. 

Maslin, J. (1998, June 19). A warrior, she takes on Huns and stereotypes. The New York Times.

Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/19/movies/film-

review-a-warrior-she-takes-on-huns-and-stereotypes.html.