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

Big Hero 6 Review - SPOILERS!

I finally saw Big Hero 6. It's been out in Sweden for over a month and I can't believe it took me this long to see it, but now I've rectified it. And my general feeling right now, five minutes after watching it is: disappointment. I'm sad to write that because I honestly want to love this movie, but I'm not sure I do.

The main issue with this movie is probably that it's way too short, it doesn't give time for anything more than the bare minimum story elements. This is a big problem when you have a cast of seven, five of them being big secondary characters. It's only Hiro that gets any character development, at all. Since the title is Big Hero 6 you'd think this was a team movie, like Avengers and Rise of The Guardians, but it doesn't do anything to make us really care about anyone else but Hiro, Tadashi and Baymax.

The character development is really underwhelming. What do we learn about the characters? Wasabi is pedantic, Fred has a rich family. There isn't much else there. They seem to like each other somewhat, but I don't really see any love except towards Tadashi. Do they hang out outside of school? I have no idea. I saw them briefly in the Hamada home when Hiro was building the robots, but where they hanging just for fun or were they helping? I felt no connection between them and Hiro at all, despite them being very excited about his project.

Another thing they could have explored a little more was Tadashi's death, or in particular, the mourning. Since the rest of the movie is based on Hiro wanting revenge, I'd like to have seen a bit more effect on him, and stayed in the grieving face a little longer. Also the scene where Hiro orders Baymax to kill the villain was good, but could have been made a lot stronger.

The scene where they decide to be super heroes was way too fast. Almost no one is objecting (except for "we're just us", which is such a set up line), no one suggests calling the police or even discuss what's happened for very long. They just decide to be super heroes and then they do it. No one seems scared, even though they were almost killed by the villain just an hour earlier.

Finally, Baymax "sacrifice". We all know this scene, someone sacrifices him/herself, then you're sad for two minutes and then you find out they survived one way or another. I didn't mind that there was a scene like that, but I think they should either have made it longer so you really have time to start doubting the return and be sad for a while, or made it very short so it isn't such a big deal. (Robot, remember?)

Let's get onto the good things in the movie. First of all, it's beautiful! The flying scene was gorgeous, the city looks amazing and the animation is top notch. Baymax is the perfect amount of fun without being distracting, and the movie has both a lot of heart and some humor. All the main characters are likeable, and it was interesting seeing a villain that wasn't just evil.

That's where my disappointment comes from I guess. Big Hero 6 could have been a really great movie, but as it is it's only very good. And I was hoping for, and expecting, more than very good.