They may be getting down to business to defeat the Northern invaders, but they will not be breaking out into song. Disney’s live-actionMulanwill focus on telling the titular character’s epic story with stunning fight scenes. Unlike previous live-action remakes such asBeauty and the BeastandAladdin, the cast of the newMulanwill not be performing songs from the beloved animated original. When directorNiki Carofirst mentioned in an interview in 2017 that there will not be singing inMulan, the fans were not pleased. Caro later clarified that production had barely begun and nothing was set in stone.
In one of the trailers forMulan, we heard how they incorporated the instrumental version of “Reflection." Is this a sneak peek at how we’ll hear “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” or “Honor To Us All”? When I visited the New Zealand set ofMulanin October 2018 with a group of journalists, we were all curious whether the songs will be performed in the movie. Alas, there indeed willnotbe characters breaking out into song in this new version of the film, and producerJason Reedexplained Disney’s thinking behind this particular decision:
“It will not be traditional ‘break into musical’ [songs]. They’re not going to stop their workouts to do a big musical number to camera. However, there are a number of songs that are iconic for the movie and tell a great version of the story and they are very helpful to us in how we’re putting the movie together. It gets a little easier in animation to keep the tension and the reality in place and still have people break into song and sing to camera. We made the decision that we wanted to keep the world—even though it’s a fantasy—more grounded, more realistic so those emotions really played and the threat is very real. So we are using music in a slightly different way.”
We asked some of the cast members about whether they wanted their character to break out into song. “I wanted to do a musical” jokesJason Scott Lee(Bori Khan).Yoson An(Chen Honghui)who grew up watching the animated film says, “To be honest if it was going to be a musical, I might not be here. Being honest. I was a little bit disappointed, but I kind of get what they were going for [in] this version. The audience can expect a more realistic version of this story—The Ballad of Mulan. But, what we’re trying to do as well—not me, but the producers—is to embody and use some of the soundtracks throughout the film and I think it’s going to be nice.”
ComposerHarry Gregson-Williamshas been tasked with composing the original score for the film. Gregson-Williams worked with Niki Caro onThe Zookeeper’s Wifeand while we haven’t heard much of the music, here’s hoping he’ll take inspiration fromJerry Goldsmith’s score for the animated film to enhance the movie.
For more from my set visit, check out my articles on thebiggest differencesfrom the animated film andwhy the character of Li Shang was cut.
Mulanhits theaters on March 27th. Tickets are on sale starting today.
