Another Live Action One: Mulan

"Did you hear we're being remade in live action?"

"I'm not being played by Jackie Chan, am I?"

It seems Disney is developing another live action remake of one of their animated classics, Mulan. This is unbelievable. Disney already has four remakes coming in the next two(!) years, and then there's Dumbo that hasn't gotten a release date yet and now Mulan. That's six remakes, plus the three that's been released in the last five years. I'm trying to think if any company has remade so many of their own movies.

What is the reason for them making remake after remake after remake? I guess money is the answer, the remakes have been grossing fairly well. But I don't want to think that the people at Disney are only in it for the money, there has to be more than that. I think a movie could be up for a remake if it's set in an older time, and you want to update the technology and set it in a present time. With all phones and Internet it could change quite a bit of the story, for example Romeo and Juliet would be quite different in present time. But here's the thing. The Disney classics are fairytales and they are being remade as fairytales, in the same time and age. Why do you update a story if you're not going to update it?

And the major thing is, we've already seen the story. We've seen Mulan, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast. We want to see something new. Let me give you Disney's upcoming live action movies: original, original, Star wars, remake, sequel to remake, remake, original, remake, Star Wars, sequel, Star Wars, Star Wars. That's three original movies, two sequels, four remakes and four Star Wars movies. And I'm not even sure how many of the Star Wars movies are sequels. And then Dumbo and Mulan which are not on the list yet.

Not everyone will agree with me now, but I think a movie studio should have more original movies than sequels/remakes. I want to see more original stories from Disney, because I know they can be great. It hasn't happened often yet but I believe they can turn that around, like they did with their animated movies.

Image from here