13. Mulan (2020)

Mulan doesn’t have the same spark without Donny Osmond singing about getting down to business and defeating the Huns. Without the music, the focus shifts more to the action sequences, which are grand in scale and set against sweeping mountain backdrops. Disney often finds itself in a bind with these live-action remakes—damned if they stick too closely to the animated original with shot-for-shot recreations, and damned if they stray too far with unnecessary originality. The remake of Mulan removes Mushu and Cricket for being too fantastical, yet the changes they make still take away any authenticity. There’s the addition of Xianniang (Gong Li), a witch who can shapeshift into a falcon—far less scary than the actual soldiers in the original—and Mulan’s (Liu Yifei) ability to use qigong to explain her martial arts talent, rather than letting her transformation come from strength and perseverance. This version of Mulan tries to add magic in all the wrong places.