Mulan (Live-Action)

[Clindor]

Thanks
That’s the first time the sequel to a live-action remake is considered prior to the theatrical release of the remake itself..

[Farerb]

I think every theatrical remake is made with thoughts about a potential sequel and eventually a franchise. We already had Through the Looking Glass and Mistress of Evil. Jungle Book 2 is planned and I'm confident that we'll see Aladdin 2 and The Lion King 2. The only exception is Beauty and the Beast and I'm sure they thought about what to do with that and couldn't come up with anything, thus ended up with a spin-off series at Disney Plus.

[Clindor]

I think every theatrical remake is made with thoughts about a potential sequel and eventually a franchise. We already had Through the Looking Glass and Mistress of Evil. Jungle Book 2 is planned and I'm confident that we'll see Aladdin 2 and The Lion King 2. The only exception is Beauty and the Beast and I'm sure they thought about what to do with that and couldn't come up with anything, thus ended up with a spin-off series at Disney Plus.

No doubt indeed! but do you guys remember how much time it usually took in the past for this kind of article to appear? If I'm correct, I remember the sequel for 'Alice in Wonderland' (2010) was announced in 2013, for 'Maleficent' (2014) it was a year after the first movie release, and recently it took a few months for 'The Jungle Book' (2016) and 'Aladdin' (2019).
Now we only got a press release of 'Mulan', no release on any markets, and a potential sequel is already evoked. In this case I think it has more to do with Disney being envious of drawing the attention of the Chinese market even more.

I'm confident that we'll see The Lion King 2.

On my side, I have currently no belief this one would come. I might be proven wrong but I think it will get at best an original Disney+ series as it is the case for BatB. Probably oriented on the characters of Timon & Pumbaa which are the only highlights of this remake according to some. Disney knows despite its commercial success everybody felt this remake to be particularly off. A sequel for this could give a mediocre Box Office performance as for 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' (2016).

[Disney's Divinity]

If it was delayed a whole year, I wonder if Disney would start working on a sequel in that year while they wait on the first to be released? Maybe that's part of the reason they want to get it out this year, so they can see whether they can make a franchise of it or not.

‘Mulan 2’ Reportedly In Early Development At Disney
https://fullcirclecinema.com/2020/04/18 ... nt-disney/

So I was right earlier than even I expected.

[JeanGreyForever]

I think every theatrical remake is made with thoughts about a potential sequel and eventually a franchise. We already had Through the Looking Glass and Mistress of Evil. Jungle Book 2 is planned and I'm confident that we'll see Aladdin 2 and The Lion King 2. The only exception is Beauty and the Beast and I'm sure they thought about what to do with that and couldn't come up with anything, thus ended up with a spin-off series at Disney Plus.

If I recall collectly, shortly after BATB came out, there were talks about a sequel and Emma Watson even said that she had an interest in a sequel where the castle library would be a school for the village children. I can see why Disney wouldn't find that commercially profitable if that was the best sequel idea they could think of.

[Sotiris]

One of the most important roles on a film of this scale (or any film really) is the Production Designer. Grant Major and I had worked together a number of times before and I really value his eye, his taste, his huge vision, and his gentle manner. Under his direction a team of concept artists started to show us what our big set pieces could look like. These images were created three years ago. A desert garrison and thriving marketplace on the Silk Road that is the location for our first big action sequence. Once again, it amazes me how faithful we kept to the original vision. Three years later you can see the real shots in the trailer.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_QO0b0lKJN/

One of the best things about making this movie were the location scouts to remote places. This is a single day in two different deserts searching for the right location for the desert garrison sequence (see concept art in previous post). NB the outstanding footwear which keeps the sand out of your shoes. In between deserts I managed to do a Skype session with a high school class from New Zealand. They were studying ‘McFarland USA’, a film I made for Disney about a Mexican American high school cross country team. At the time I found it strange and amazing to be northwest China talking to New Zealand school kids about Mexican American field workers in California... Now I think that’s kind of normal.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_SruIqlpFn/

[Sotiris]

A critical piece of casting was finding Mulan’s horse, Black Wind. We were very much guided by the animation for the look, and determined to find the most beautiful horse. This is the undeniably beautiful Dazzle who turned out to be not a very nice horse, actually. I vastly preferred Bobby, the other horse who played Black Wind, who was less glamorous but a lot kinder. Interestingly, horses cannot be alone on set. They need another horse there to reassure them. So whenever we were working with Dazzle, Bobby was off to the side, being reassuring. A prince of a horse in my opinion.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_X5aj8lUo-/

[Sotiris]

My first 3 months on Mulan were all about articulating the vision for the movie in a presentation for the studio. These presentations usually involve images on the walls of a room, but I wanted the studio’s first look to reflect the epic scale of the movie to come. I wanted it to be experiential, so we blacked out a huge space, as if entering a museum exhibit. This is the first room. Concept art was presented in parallax on huge screens, following the journey of the story...

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_iH4DLl954/

Rooms 2 + 3 of the Mulan Presentation. Early costume exploration, a maquette of Mulan and Black Wind, and a model of what would become our largest set, a 360 degree interior and partial exterior of Mulan’s village.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_kxM-7lvYV/

Throwback Tuesday to three years ago when I gave this presentation to the creative team at Disney. They liked it a lot and I was asked to do it again (and then again) for different divisions of the company. Eventually they took pity on me and filmed it so I didn’t have to keep doing it in person. This is just the opening, but I went through the entire story. Took about 30 mins.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_nTJ9FlUDS/

As critical as it is to be able to communicate a director’s vision verbally, it is way more powerful to be able to do it visually. The final part of the presentation was a 10 minute pre-viz of the biggest action sequence in the movie. I knew the studio had questions about how I would handle the epic action sequences. I’d not had the opportunity to work with pre-viz before this, so I seized it. It’s great for trying out different camera moves, action, lenses etc, but I felt that with a little help, it could also convey emotion. I enlisted editor David Coulson, and music editor Robin Whittaker to work their magic on the pre-vized shots. I was so happy with the result. It felt like I was not just seeing, but feeling the movie for the first time. You can see some of these identical shots in the trailer.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_prgbOlbko/

I was blessed and honored to have Bill Kong on our team. He is the genius producer behind the brilliant, inspiring ‘Hero’, ‘House of Flying Daggers’, and the original ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’, and he joined us on Mulan to offer cultural and creative guidance. In our very first conversation he reminded me that I am not Chinese, and should not try to make a Chinese movie. He told me that countless Chinese movies have been made of the Mulan story, but none yet had been made by Disney in live action. He encouraged me to honor the Disney culture as well as honoring the Chinese culture. Looking back, I see this was my first lesson in ‘Loyal, Brave, and True’. I would need to be loyal to the Disney audience, and to the 1998 animation, brave enough to follow my instincts and take the live action version into new territory, and true to the rich history of Chinese culture and the spirit of Mulan. Thank you Bill.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_xrQQSF9LR/

As inspiring as the great Wuxia movies are, we needed to find our own visual + physical language for Mulan. Here is our earliest test, on the Phantom flex camera (shot at 500 fps and adjusted to 300fps). We were starting to think about how to articulate the idea of ‘chi’. This test taught me a lot. I knew immediately that super slow motion and digital fx were going to be the wrong kind of language for this character. Mulan is not a super hero. She is not ‘magical’. Her power comes from her integrity, her intelligence, her love for her family, and her connection to her own chi. I realized that we would need to express this power more naturally through brilliant but grounded martial arts choreography, lenses that gave us a more subtle chromatic aberration, and an actress who could deliver both physical and emotional power. For all the technological brilliance at our disposal, we were going to pursue old school movie making techniques - in camera, on the ground, with real people expressing real emotion.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_0L0gslvgU/

[DisneyFan97]

I am still really annoyed Mulan doesn't have a grandma in this version !!

Do China dislike old ladies !!!???

[DisneyFan97]

I am getting a bit frustrated waiting for this , if it's pushed up again i will get a bit mad !

[Sotiris]

It’s hard to overestimate how important costume design is on a movie of this scale and scope. Costume designer Bina Daigeler began with Mulan’s most critical costume. This costume needed to disguise Mulan as a man, but then reveal her as a woman. It needed to take her to war, (armour) but also move with her through martial arts based action choreography. Bina approached the design with her trademark intuition and logic, and her abundant artistry and creativity. The shots of Mulan fighting are some of my favorites in the movie. I see a fearless warrior, but I also see a real woman. I love how Bina’s design reveals the strong, female body. I love how it moves with Yifei - how it’s both tough and flexible. I think Bina created something genuinely iconic, and one of my most cherished dreams is one day seeing a whole tribe of little warrior Mulans on Halloween...

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_2zBShFUS6/

[Sotiris]

No, thanks.

The original codirector of 'Mulan' loves the live-action remake: 'This is what all these Disney remakes should be'
https://www.insider.com/how-mulan-direc ... ake-2020-3

[Disney's Divinity]

That’s just them being gracious to their former employer, imo, sort of like the statement Jodi Benson put out in support of Halle Bailey in the middle of the backlash. It reeks of Disney having contacted them and asked them to make these statements, not something that was just put out there organically. I mean, of course, because how else would they get an article written about it? I’m sure if the director took a Brenda Chapman approach to the re-makes, they wouldn’t get their thoughts in the headlines.

[estefan]

Bancroft isn't the first former Disney director to say he prefers remakes that do their own thing. I remember John Musker and Dean DeBlois also expressing their confusion at the remakes being so faithful.

On the other hand, you have Chris Sanders who said he was fascinated by how closely "The Lion King" remake followed the original and how he didn't have anything against the movie's approach.

I'm always curious to know what the directors and animators who worked on the original animated films think, seeing their work being recreated in live-action and with new visuals. Seeing as he directed "Mulan", it makes sense that he would be asked about it. I remember Rob Minkoff being asked in an interview a few years before the remake was even released what he thought on Jon Favreau directing his version of "The Lion King." These are artists who are now viewing other filmmakers redoing the stories they've told before.

[Farerb]

I remember very few:
Terry Rossio didn't like seeing lines he wrote in a film he had nothing to do and didn't even get credit for.
Angela Lansbury thought the Beauty and the Beast remake was pointless.
Linda Wolverton didn't like Beauty and the Beast as well and that their world didn't really make sense.

I don't remember their exact words but it was something along those lines.

[estefan]

I found this Twitter thread from a journalist who interviewed the former Disney animators on their thoughts on the remakes.

Further down the thread, she shares comments made by Tony Bancroft, which are extremely critical of the "Lion King" remake and even present day Disney in general. So that blows the theory that he's being nice to Disney out of the water.

[Sotiris]

From what I've observed, animation directors generally don't like the idea of having their work remade (or any animated films for that matter) and that's why they prefer remakes that make radical changes to the originals like Maleficent, Alice, Pete's Dragon, and Mulan. In their minds, the existence of the remakes is more justified when they veer away from the original work as much as possible. They see wanting to remake animated films in live-action as insulting instead of complimentary.

[bruno_wbt]

From what I've observed, animation directors generally don't like the idea of having their work remade (or any animated films for that matter) and that's why they prefer remakes that make radical changes to the originals like Maleficent, Alice, Pete's Dragon, and Mulan. In their minds, the existence of the remakes is more justified when they veer away from the original work as much as possible. They see wanting to remake animated films in live-action as insulting instead of complimentary.

I think The Lion King (2019) is the most insulting... they should be really mad, and I don't blame them.

[Farerb]

From what I've observed, animation directors generally don't like the idea of having their work remade (or any animated films for that matter) and that's why they prefer remakes that make radical changes to the originals like Maleficent, Alice, Pete's Dragon, and Mulan. In their minds, the existence of the remakes is more justified when they veer away from the original work as much as possible. They see wanting to remake animated films in live-action as insulting instead of complimentary.

Maybe they would have thought it was complimentary if they had been asked to be consultants or at least given credit. Also the remake of Beauty and the Beast wastes time to "fix" any nitpick voiced at the original or any "plot hole", so it's like someone saying "see it can be better", which is insulting.

[Sotiris]

I think The Lion King (2019) is the most insulting... they should be really mad, and I don't blame them.

I'm more in favor of the happy medium approach when it comes to remakes. Not shot-for-shot like The Lion King, but also not reimaginings like Maleficent. Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin are the best examples on how to go about remaking the animated films, in my opinion. Faithful, but with enough room left to add and change things and put a distinctive yet familiar spin on a beloved tale.

Maybe they would have thought it was complimentary if they had been asked to be consultants or at least given credit. Also the remake of Beauty and the Beast wastes time to "fix" any nitpick voiced at the original or any "plot hole", so it's like someone saying "see it can be better", which is insulting.

It's understandable why they do this though. If you think about it, there's really no reason to be insulted by it. The remake directors need to make some changes in order for their film to differ from the original in at least some minor ways and so they naturally start with the criticisms that have been hurled at the original as a starting point. If anyone's to blame for this is the culture that's picked apart these films and labeled them problematic and old-fashioned for years on end. What you see is the result of both the pressure to make changes to justify the remake's existence and the pressure to make it more progressive to appease the critics, avoid controversy, and market it as a product suitable for a contemporary audience.