Mulan Tagged Articles at Cinematical

With Kit Kittredge: An American Girl finally opening in limited release on Wednesday, it seemed like a good time to take a look at other films girls in the same age demographic might also enjoy. As a mother of three daughters, I like to seek out films that have strong female characters. So many of the roles for females in Hollywood either fall into blatant stereotypes or position young girls and women as existing on this planet primarily for the pleasures of the male half of the species, and I don't want my girls growing up believing the images of women they're exposed to through the media. Of course, everything in life doesn't have to have a political agenda -- what fun would that be? So some of these are just films my own daughters very much enjoy, that the girl in your life might like also.

Here are seven great films for fans of American Girl books and movies ... let me know what others I've missed that you like; with only seven slots to work with, I had to leave out a lot of films I otherwise would have included ...

The story of Noah and the flood will be told a million more times in some medium or other. But following the disappointment of Evan Almighty, it seems a little soon for a new movie version. Sure, Evan wasn't exactly a strict adaptation of the Bible tale, but it was based enough on it to make audiences not so hungry for another Ark adventure. Yet, according to Variety, Unified Pictures (Don't Move) has announced plans to do a computer-animated Noah's Ark, which will be scripted by Philip LaZebnik, who has worked on Dreamworks' Biblical kids film The Prince of Egypt and Disney's Pocahontas and Mulan. Religious films, whether live-action or animated, can be hit or miss, but like Evan Almighty, this new project is not a straightforward telling of Noah and the flood; instead it will focus on the story from the point of view of the animals.

Personally, I love the idea. But I'd love it much better if it was coming from Nick Park and Aardman Animation. It would be like Creature Comforts ... on a boat. The connection between Unified and Park exists: the indie studio has worked many times with Northern Arts Entertainment, which distributed a lot of Aardman shorts, including Park's Wallace and Gromit films. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like that dream will happen. Unified seems pretty set on making a CG pic that resembles those made by the big studios. The best way of doing that, of course, is to get some familiar comedic voices involved. If this pic is more successful than Evan Almighty, perhaps we'll then get to see a greenlight on Darren Aronofsky's own Noah's Ark movie, which he's been interested in doing since he was 13.

About six weeks ago, Variety reported that the Weinsteins planned to make three English-language Hong Kong action films in collaboration with producer/director Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs) and TV producer Tony Krantz (24). Now we're learning that their Asian ambitions are much more expansive: they're launching a $285 million fund to "fully finance the development, production, acquisition, marketing and distribution of a large slate of Asian themed films over the next six years," according to a press release.

The Weinstein Co. will control worldwide distribution of a slate including "a diverse mix of theatrical and direct-to-video titles, which will mostly be filmed in Asia." The company "anticipates producing or acquiring a total of 21 theatrical titles and 10 direct-to-video titles during the term for the fund." The basic idea is that production costs are lower in Asia than in the US or Europe, allowing the films to "offer significant production value with a Western sensibility ... aimed both at performing well in the Asian territories of their origin and appealing to Western audiences." David Lee has been named to oversee the creative aspects of the fund.

Titles covered by the fund include the three pictures in the Lau/Krantz deal mentioned above, previously-announced films such as a live action version of Mulan, a "contemporary" remake (sigh) of The Seven Samurai, Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan and Jet Li, plus Shanghai, an action epic set during World War II, and an untitled project starring Tony Jaa (Ong Bak). Divide $285 million by 31 titles, and that's not very much money for each film, which would indicate they will be making full use of less-expensive Asian talent both behind and in front of the camera. The Weinsteins are infamous for meddling with Asian films, so we'll have to wait to see how independent -- and how "Asian themed" -- these films really are.

[ Via indieWIRE ]

Okay, so it might be a bit creepy for an adult to admit that an animated character is hot, but come on, Jessica Rabbit wasn't really bad, she was just drawn that way, right? Animated characters have been sexualized since the early days of the genre because sex sold just as well back then as it does today. It's pretty evident when you check out all of Disney's animated leading ladies that they've been drawn to look appealing to the eye, going back as far as Snow White and Tinkerbell. (An interesting side note here, according to this interview with Margaret Kerry, who was the character model for Tinkerbell, she claims that her real name is Tinker Bell, two words, although Disney officially has it as one. Her interview is pretty fascinating, check it out.)

The Being a Man Spot over at fanpop has a list of Disney's top ten hottest women, and there are no real surprises on the list. What's notable are the omissions like Jessie from Toy Story 2 who was both sassy and smart, and Daisy Duck, who sort of falls into the creepy Wayne's World category of Bugs Bunny in a dress being attractive. Daisy had a fair amount of sass as well, and she didn't take Donald's nonsense either. That has to count for something, because she definitely wore the pants in that pants-less relationship.

The real question is, what effect does the traditional Disney female image have on young kids? Not everyone is a fan of the oversexed and vivacious look that runs rampant in the Disney-verse, arguing that it gives little girls an image to live up to that is far from what a normal person looks like, and that is sets a very limiting stereotype of what a heroine can look like. Barbie has faced the same sort of criticisms, especially during the whole "Math is hard!" fiasco, yet both Barbie and the Disney women are still created to look like pinup girls.

Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? What do you think, Cinemites?

[Thanks, Marsha]

Man, all this stuff about more Mulan movies is confusing the hell out of me. It seems pretty solid that the Weinsteins are at least considering making a live-action film (listed in the IMDbPro as a 2008 release) about the Chinese folk hero (already brought to screen by Disney, albeit in animated form), and there's been talk that they've got Zhang Ziyi in mind to play the title role. In addition, though, there's also a China-based production in the works, that one under the direction of Stanley Tong. Where it all gets a bit muddled is in the reports about Zhang being asked to star in Tong's version, as well. So, is this a case of Tong trying to steal some Weinstein thunder, or of people in the media getting confused and assuming the films are one and the same? Your guess is as good as mine on that one.

That said, however, it now sounds as if the whole thing might be moot, because there are now other names in the mix for the starring role in the Tong film. Get this: First, it was reported that Li Yuchun, the wildly popular winner of a recent, girls-only American Idol-type show in China, would play Mulan. But now the speculation about Li has fallen quiet, and her name has been replaced by that of ... Katie Leung. That's right, the girl of Harry Potter's dreams -- the Scottish one -- is going to play Mulan. According to the Chinese press, anyway.

Don't like the news? Not to worry -- at this rate a new name will be connected to the part by Monday.

[via Twitch]

We reported last week on the big, three-picture deal that The Weinstein Company was working on with Zhang Ziyi and, though the story was initially debunked, its subsequent appearance in all the trades seems to confirm that there is indeed something in works. Though all of the TWC-Zhang collaborations are yet to be revealed, one, as we've discussed with much dismay, is a remake of Seven Samurai, and the other is reportedly a live-action film about Mulan, the Chinese folk hero brought to the screen in animated form by Disney in 1998.

According to Screen Daily, though, TWC is not alone with Mulan -- Stanley Tong (Mmm ... Rumble in the Bronx) is reportedly working on a movie of his own, entitled The Legend of Mulan, which he plans to start shooting with Chinese backing this fall. Though it's unlikely it would ever get a proper release over here, Tong's film, which will shoot in both China and Canada, is expected to wrap by February of 2007, which will probably have it in theaters well before TWC's version.

According to Zhang Ziyi, she's signed an old-school-style studio deal with The Weinstein Company to star in three films that they'll produce. In addition the rather horrifying-sounding remake of Seven Samurai (And people, The brilliance of The Magnificent Seven is in now way a vote in favor of this new remake -- if anything, it's another reason not to do it. I mean, that lightning is just NOT going to strike twice.) in which she's allegedly slated to share the screen with Donnie Yen and George Clooney, Zhang is also penciled-in to star in a period drama about Chinese folk heroine Mulan (yes, you've heard of her).

The subject of the third film has not yet been revealed, but I'm still completely confused by this whole deal. Do contracts like this actually exist anymore, or is Zhang just lumping three different deals into a single conversation for some reason?