So Disney+ originally required people to pay to see Mulan (2020), on top of what people were already paying for Disney+, which I thought was ridiculous. I didn’t see what price they initially charged people for it, but a friend told me they watched it at that time and it was about $20-something. Again, ridiculous. It also made me worried about the future of watching movies, since I still think it’s not safe enough to go to a movie theater in this era of COVID-19. It made me think that maybe companies were going to start charging high amounts to watch movies at home since people might not be going to theaters like they used to. Still looking to see how that’s going to go.

Alternatively, I have a lot of good things to say about HBO Max and the way they released Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), but I’ll save all that for another entry.

Below are my personal thoughts about Mulan (2020) and Disney+. Feel free to ignore my personal opinion and not let it influence yours, as always.

Let’s start with Mulan (2020). First off, I am very glad I waited until Disney+ made it free to watch on their platform before I saw it. I found the way they “refreshed” the story to be boring. In lieu of Mushu, they had a recurring theme of the phoenix going on as Mulan’s guardian, which I guess sort of worked, but I definitely missed the presence of Mushu and all the musical numbers. Pro-feminists may enjoy the movie, as I think the movie did try to push for Mulan being a strong female lead without the help of a man or the romantic element.

There’s not much I want to comment on the story other than that. It’s otherwise what you would expect from a “live action” version of Mulan. I think the animated version is still going to remain one of my favorite movies to this day. If you’re into Disney’s live action remakes of their animated films however, you might enjoy this one.

As to Disney+, I recently cancelled my subscription after the free trial ended. I found that I don’t watch Disney movies as frequently as I thought I would, and at the moment, the only thing I found worth watching on there was the Mandalorian (2019—), and re-watching Anastasia (1997) a few times. (Sidebar: I didn’t even realize Anastasia was Disney.) Probably will only renew it on a monthly basis when Mandalorian Season 3 comes out. I think Disney+ might only be worth it for diehard fans of Disney that don’t mind watching Disney movies fairly frequently, and/or they have kids that love watching Disney movies over and over. Otherwise, as vast as their collection is in regards to what’s in their own vault, I’m not sure I’m a huge fan of the cost for the return, if you know what I mean.

I’m finding my primary sources of TV shows and movies is Netflix and HBO Max. I was skeptical of the value of the latter at first, but with it having shows like Friends (1994-2004), The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019), The Carbonaro Effect (2014—)–I LOVE magic, Hack My Life (2015-2018), and several of the Hayao Miyazaki film collection, I’ve found it to be pretty enjoyable to use, and also found it to be the perfect supplement to Netflix and worth the subscription cost. Again, I’ll go over these things more later in my separate review of HBO Max.

Until next time!