Disney's pushing forward- and hard- with their latest trend of rebooting all their classic films with live-action updates. The latest addition to the pile is Mulan, as was revealed by the studio just a few days ago (already in the pile: Dumbo, The Jungle Book, 101 Dalmations, Beauty and the Beast). For fans of the original movie and its unbeleivably catchy soundtrack (nearly two decades later and 'I'll Make a Man Out of You' is stil stuk in our heads), this is bound to be exciting news.
But it might not be such exciting news for Disney's future. As pointed out by the New York Post, this whole 'remaking the classics' trend is eerily reminscent of when the company started churning out direct-to-DVD sequels in the 1990s, a trend that wasn't met with much critical acclaim (or decent movies, for that matter). And just as importantly... what happens when Disney runs out of movies to remake in live-action? Will they just stop the trend altogether, or will they start mining the less-than-classic Disney films for reboot potential? Or will they reboot the ones they've just released? A live-action Frozen reboot would certainly guarantee the studio at least a billion dollars.
There are certainly other classic Disney films that could undergo what Cinderella did and end up a pretty successful film. Aladdin, for one, or maybe The LIttle Mermaid. And we'd be excited to see those films- but we'd also be just as excited to see Disney continue to push forward into the future, and not the past.
Details on the Mulan reboot are still fairly scarce right now, with no set release date or cast confirmed by any official sources. However, early fan speculation puts Harry Shum, Jr. in the role of love interest Li Shang, and Vanessa Hudgens in the lead role of Fa Mulan.
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