Mulan.
This to me, is pretty personal because the animated Mulan is my favorite Disney princess of all time. No, its not because she’s asian.
In the animated version, what made me like Mulan was that she was relatable, likeable, and the underdog.
Mulan was super funny and I could relate to her being looked down upon. But most importantly, she didn’t need luck or destiny to succeed. She showed that hard work can achieve goals, and did not whine or complain about it.
Theres a scene in the movie, where the Captain orders every single soldier to get an arrow from the top of the post to be worthy. Everyone fails, including Mulan.
So when the Captain deems Mulan unworthy and tells her to leave, Mulan sees the arrow and decides to get it.
She fails a couple of times.
But does Mulan quit? Does she complain that the general is sexist, or does Mulan accomplish the job because of destiny?
No, Mulan acomplishes her goal because of hard work, perserverance, and being crafty.
When Li Shang sees this, he’s impressed not because of Mulan’s destiny but because Mulan proved him wrong.
I also want to talk about the final fight for this animated movie.
See, in the final fight women are looked down upon. They think women are weak, and cant really fight and need a man’s help. A fan is used to help hide a woman’s emotions or is usually a symbol of Chinese women.
The main villain laughs at Mulan using a fan as a weapon, and says she’s weak and stupid for thinking a fan could defeat him.
However, Mulan does this.
Does anyone see what happened? Mulan didnt beat the enemy because she was “The Chosen One.” She beat the enemy because she outsmarted him.
Not to mention, the fan was seen as a “girl’s toy” and weak. yet Mulan used a girl’s toy to beat the bad guy. To quote a youtuber’s comment “The fan is s a symbol of feminity and it's saying that Mulan doesn't have to change to be strong. It's a call back to her meeting with the matching maker where she was pretending to be a perfect lady. It shows the audience how much she's grown throughout the plot.”
Animated Mulan achieved her goals because she was hard working, never gave up even when people were mocking her, and her intelligence.
Lets go to Live Action Mulan now.
Live action Mulan is born with a lot of Qi, which basically means she’s the chosen one and has super powers.
What…. the actual….. hell.
It might not be clear, but this…. is not how you write a likeable character.
Live Action Mulan is basically perfect, she’s even more of a Mary Sue than fricking Rey from Star Wars.
Live Action Mulan can basically do anything and achieve her goals? Why? Because she has Qi, which allows her to be unbeatable. Live Action Mulan does not lose in any fight, and she’s basically Anakin Skywalker if Anakin never had a character arc and never faced the consequences.
You can have a character be the Chosen One, as long as they have flaws. Look at Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. They were the chosen ones, yet they made mistakes and have character issues.
I also want to mention, that what makes a good female protagonist is if they start actually reacting and acting like how a normal human is. Dont make a female super powerful because of her gender.
This is live action Mulan’s reaction when she sees the main bad guy.
This is animated Mulan’s reaction when she sees the bad guy.
Look at animated Mulan’s face. She’s absolutely terrified and running for her life. If she’s scared for her life, it means I’m scared for her. Mulan is improvising, which makes it more tense and has a sense of dread in the fight.
Not to mention, she is reacting how any person would react when they see a 6 feet 6 inch muscular man wielding a sword chasing after them. It shows that Mulan is HUMAN and makes us root for her.
If you watch the final fight for the live-action, you’ll notice how bored you are because Live Action Mulan keeps on making these faces, like this is just a monday for her.
Legit, Mulan looks like she’s daydreaming when she’s fighting.
How am I supposed to be invested in this fight when it looks like the protagonist isnt even trying and just looks like she’s bored.
This is my biggest problem with the live action Mulan. No, I didnt hate live action mulan because “I’m sexist”. I didnt like live action Mulan because she is basically a Mary Sue who was born with super powers, and always succeeds.
Animated Mulan succeeds and accomplishes her goals because of her craftiness, her perserverance, and hard working attitude.
Live Action Mulan is a female character that happens to be super strong.
Animated Mulan is a strong, well-developed character that happens to be female.
In the animated version, you can still be an ordinary girl and save your country.
In the live action version, as long as you have Qi you can save your country.
I think that the Encanto is successful.
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