The ‘Mulan’ Trailer’s Lack Of A Favorite Character From The Original Has Left Fans Confused
About midway through the U.S. Women’s National Team’s World Cup win on Sunday, Disney debuted the first trailer for its upcoming live-action remake of the 1998 animated classic Mulan. It’s the latest in a long line of such films that the entertainment conglomerate has been planning for some time. (Aladdin and The Lion King are two of the most recent examples.) However, unlike most of these remakes, Mulan doesn’t appear to have any music in it. Nor, for that matter, did the dragon Mushu make an appearance.
That neither the original movie’s musical elements and the Mushu character — who was voiced by comedian Eddie Murphy — might not be included shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. During the early pre-production stages in 2017, director Niki Caro said that “no songs” were then in the studio’s plans. The Whale Rider director did emphasize that fact that her take would be a “muscular piece of girly martial arts extravaganza in China,” and judging by Sunday’s trailer, that’s exactly the case.
Even so, the lack of the comical Mushu character — or anything remotely resembling him — has set off a firestorm on social media. Most of the negative reactions were, predictably, relegated to a handful of detractors whose attachment to the original cartoon was seemingly unbreakable.
A few from this camp admitted their initial unhappiness but started to come around after watching the trailer.
The majority, however, seemed perfectly fine with the changes.
After all, the 1998 cartoon added a lot to the original source material…
…but trolls are gonna troll.