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I bought this movie on sale for $14.99 a while ago before the holidays and had forgotten that I had it. It had been sitting in the middle of a stack of movies by the TV for over a month, so earlier this evening we checked it out. I was pleasantly surprised at the level of eye candy that this movie allows; a lot of the camera work and cinematography, plus the background scenery of rural China, are just flat-out gorgeous. The movie itself is not as blatant a remake of the Disney cartoon as The Lion King (2019) was, as it is apparently based more off of the book than the original animated feature was, but you still recognize some scenes and segments from the original cartoon. The acting is okay, nothing that the Academy Awards will take notice of. The leading lady, Liu Yifei as Mulan, is pretty good and holds her own as a convincing martial artist on screen, and shows enough emotion to make her character likeable. I'm a big Donnie Yen fan and he shines in this movie, but his is a strictly supporting role and he doesn't offer much to the plot other than as Mulan's commanding officer in the army and an excuse to make her story more uplifting and as an excuse for Mulan to go and kick some bandit ass. Which brings us to the bad guys; Jason Scott Lee plays a wonderful baddie in this movie as Böri Khan, the leader of the Rouran bandit army; while the character itself is very two-dimensional, Lee manages to keep him interesting by his charisma alone. Gong Li is the true star of the villains though as the witch that helps the Rouran conquer the Imperial armies; her tragic performance in this movie is great like all of her other movies, and I'm a sucker for movie villains that make you feel sorry for them.

This is one of the 2020 movies that was a casualty of COVID-19, as it was originally meant to be released in theaters in March of 2020 until the pandemic forced its cancellation and eventual straight-to-video commercial demise. Disney lost a lot of money here, because I can see how this movie would have been a big hit in the theaters had it been allowed a box office run. If you're a parent, this movie is just fine for kids as the violence is bloodless and Mulan's story is very inspiring for young kids, girls especially. Grownups will enjoy the beautiful scenery of the countryside of China, a lot of which has shots that seem lifted straight out of one of the Planet Earth TV shows, and the acting performances are decent enough, especially if you are a fan of Gong Li. As always, I recommend the 4K blu ray if you have the home theater for it since the Dolby Atmos surround sound is wonderful here, but regular blu ray will be just fine for most viewings.