Mulan is a girl worth fighting for, and in her new Super Bowl spot, she’s fighting for herself (and for her family and China).
On Sunday, the latest trailer dropped for the highly anticipated live-action adaptation of Disney’s 1998 animated hit Mulan.
Mulan follows its titular heroine (played by Yifei Liu), as she disguised herself as a male to take her ailing father’s place in the Imperial Army after the Emperor of China (Jet Li) decrees one man from each family must join the fight. She sets out to bring honor to her family in new ways, rather than fulfilling her expected duty of marrying a man recommended to her by the matchmaker — but she’ll have to face off a litany of dangers, including the rumored powers of a witch, and protect her identity to avoid disgrace.
This is the third (and, per Disney, final) trailer to drop for the film after December’s first full-length spot and last July’s teaser. It’s the latest in live action adaptations for Disney, following 2019’s massively successful Aladdin and The Lion King. Hewing more closely to the original Chinese legend of Hua Mulan than the animated version, the live action update promises to be, in the words of director Niko Caro, a “girly martial arts extravaganza.”
The film marks a departure for Disney’s live action takes on their beloved animated properties, veering further away from its animated counterpart than most of their recent outings. Doubling down on the action, Mulan has shed its musical numbers and goofy animalistic sidekicks like dragon Mushu (voiced by Eddie Murphy) and her reliable lucky cricket, Cri-Kee. In its place, it has amped up the action sequences, focusing on martial arts drawn from the tradition of Wuxia, a Chinese film genre centered on martial arts heroes in ancient China.
The film also stars Rosalind Chao as Mulan’s mother; Donnie Yen as Commander Tung; Jason Scott Lee as Böri Khan; Yoson An as Cheng Honghui; and Gong Li as Xianniang.
