Mulan: Beyond Traditions – Family, Growth, and Relationships Explored

But joining me today we have leah tanara , talus , gundam kokugatsu and professor tuck a man worth fighting for and , without further ado , let's go ahead and zone in on it . What can I say about mulan ? It is a classic and I'm gonna be honest with you out of all the og , renaissance era disney movies , mulan ranks super high on my list .

It's like one of those uh disney movies where I'm like , yeah , I'll watch it again if I was in the mood . And I'm like you know what , since it's Asian American , I'm not Asian American , asian Pacific Islander month might as well go ahead and talk about it . I was pretty much enjoying it for the most part . The live action that is .

It's where the live action people were feeling , oh no , it's not accurate . Where's Mooshu , hey , oh no , it's not accurate . Where's Mooshu , hey , listen , it was decent , it was not bad , it's just a little different , but for the most part it kind of stayed true to the main story and I was digging it for the most part .

Because , oh shit , If Mulan's getting engaged to Shang , then I'm going to be out of a job . I need to stop this . But you know what ? Let me open up to the panel . How are y'all feeling about Mulan as a whole ?

It's the tone of the song and then the end of the song , where immediately it ends abruptly and you see , just they truly have a girl worth fighting for as they pick up the teddy bear and they don't play a single song after that it's like , oh yeah , we're in the act three end game now , so like it's all gas .

Fuck that , it's called erosion . You think about it in your lifetime Over time , yeah , eventually you start bowing down . Sure , you may not . I'll just kill you off and then make your service . That's just what the fuck . Yeah , it seemed all sweet and nice and everything . Yeah , your honor and all that shit Fucking over the whole country .

It stands taller than that wind . All that wind can do is simply chip chip , chip , chip chip chip chip chip chip chip chip chip chip . Until it's gone . And the reason I love that line so much is because it fits with a lot of characters , in particular Optimus Prime .

Optimus shows that wholeheartedly , and I'm only sidetracking here for just a moment to say this . Like it is . Optimus literally tells Megatron in some similar words At the end of the day , only one of us will always stand , and as you see , megatron , I stand longer than you in the words of Gloria at the end of the day , the day gone but overall .

But overall , I mean , I love Like .

You know , like high cues , like we have long poetry Shakespeare has like poetry as far as like full on stories to get a point across and in most Asian cultures like it's literally just short three lines , five , seven , five . I didn't hit the point that I needed to say and it's like . And so it's like in the simplest amount of words .

You know it's also what we like about martial arts . Martial arts is like oh , in the movies it's all fancy and shit , but in a real martial arts battle it's the quickest shit ever . You can take the most effective way down . I don't know . We talked about this one on a previous episode . Jb with Jackie Chan Adventures .

It's like that wisdom of age of you're wasting time , you're wasting this , you're wasting this . Stop wasting , maximize what you got .

But I'm like when you get older , it's like you can't be moving around and all that , like you used to . So I'm like you gotta conserve that energy . You gotta work smarter , not harder , and I'm not we're not old yet .

But for Mulan I did actually really liking the movie the first movie as far as my general things onto it , the first movie and I don't want to take away because somebody had mentioned something right before we had started recording that I would really hope they mentioned again about the father-daughter thing .

You know , being a father myself , so I heavily relate into that . So I don't want to take that away . I want that person to be able to , um , to please speak that onto the instance reporting as well . but for me yeah , that was leah okay , so I please want you to speak that to report about . So I'm not taking that away .

Um , but also one of those things about is understanding that the gender roles is always like it was very early time for gender roles as well , too as far as like , oh , you know , women can't do nothing , and that's been a big thing for a lot of cultures . It's always still a thing into that aspect and we still face that today .

Um , but it's also one of those things of like , just because you're a woman doesn't mean you can't be a hero and in the end , you're doing the best that you can , regardless of anything . Mulan , the entire journey is her . She made a mistake , but even still , in her mistake , she did it out of love for her family , you know .

She just realizes , like , I can't fit into these normal roles that y'all keep telling me , oh , I have to find a suitor , have to do this , I have to do that . I don't want to do that like . I don't want to do it this way . I'm not a geisha , I'm not this like . I want to be like my dad , and it's like . My dad was a great warrior .

I looked up to him and that's who I want to be , and so it's like , why not like follow into that ? It's one of those ones also that I would relate to Bruce Lee , where a lot of people still nowadays don't know about Wing Chun , as far as about even Bruce Lee's fighting style , that literally his master Ip man , or IP man .

That style was originally developed by a woman . That style was originally by a woman and is literally marked as one of the best , absolute styles , strongest styles out there all right , you know what ?

I feel like one of the biggest misinterpretations is the idea that the character of Merlon wanted to break from tradition . Because that's not . She never had a problem going to the matchmaker . She never had a problem following the rules . She just was a little quirky , I guess would be a word for it .

At the end of the day , mulan's primary motivation hasn't always been her family . In fact , from a meta point of view , her relationship with her father was so important to the animators and writers that they were actually animated by the same person at all times .

Usually , characters are actually animated by completely different teams , but they wanted their interactions to be so smooth and intimate that they actually had the same team .

He was like on some yusuke yurameshi type shit for real , up until uh , and it got to a point where people didn't even want to train him because he was just so wild and he had all that anger and shit . But then it meant , like on what koki yasa said , it was like you know what you got potential , I'll take you on .

And eventually bruce league got that training , he became an athlete and he got to where he is now . Now tacking on to what leah internara was saying is I loved , I fucking love how , compared to nowadays , they did not do that thing . To where , oh , just because you have this super capable woman , you have to make all the men look bad in comparison .

No , no , no . It's like all the dudes was good on their own right . They each brought something to the table .

But they can also put mulan on this pedestal to where , yes , she's the main character but at the same time she's not exactly a mary sue , even in the live actions , where I'm like , okay , as a little kid she was like climbing on rooftop trying to chase out the chicken and she was like doing some Avatar , like airbender type shit with her fucking staff and all

that , and I'm like this is that kind of shit that I don't like , but then again I choose not to nitpick about it . It's like you know I'm going to just let it pass , but I did notice it's like kind of sort of , but that was only in the live action in the og . She was not a mary sue whatsoever , it was more like she was just a regular girl .

That's a little quirky , like y'all said , and all she really want to do is prevent her father from dying from this fucking um fight against all hans . So I'm , I get it . It's like she's not trying to overshadow everybody else , she's just trying to be dutiful to her family .

Like he wasn't always trainable , he was literally . You call him roughy .

So I'm a person who will do anything for my family , even if it means I gotta take my father's place . I'll do anything for my family , right , even if it means I gotta take my father's place .

It's a little confusing trying to explain it , but point being is that at the end she get this sword and it has the description , just like on the symbolism on the sword , just like in the beginning of the movie . But then she flipped over those one more symbolism and it was like wait , what does that say ? And it was like , wait , what does that say ?

And it was like read it out loud Mulan . And it said devotion to family . That was her whole arc and personally I just feel like Mulan is a solid character on her own . Now , tuck , I see your hand raised . What you got ?

How he changes in the beginning , the middle and the end of the story is important Because at first you know , know , like you said , he starts out all playful , happy that she's quirky , all that jazzy stuff . As she gets older and she progresses , he turns , he knows she's getting older so he gotta get more , more .

The word I'm looking for here is more devout into ensuring that her future is taken care of . He just wants to make sure that she's taken care of for the future . So that's what him interested in making sure that she finds a husband and that somebody can protect her is .

As he is ailing and getting older , he won't be able to do it no more and as a father I can definitely see that sentiment .

But as you look at the end of the original um , as she comes and brings the metal and the sword back to him and he just tosses them to the side and says you are the one that I need . Forget all this other stuff as long as you .

Fine , I'm fine and I'm with you if you look at the other side of it , the supporting cast even in my name , the song a girl worth fighting for . The supporting cast , even in my name , the song A Girl Worth Fighting For . The supporting cast , the reason they're like I want a hell or then a moon , I want somebody that can cook . You know what I mean .

And then , towards the end , they actually have to be the women in Faustafar to make sure that they're proactive in what they see .

The main reason why I bring that up is because it was more like he was cool with Mulan , but it was more like what cool with Mulan ? But it was more like what would everybody else say ? And it's more that's kind of the point . It's like why do you give a fuck what everybody else say ?

But then again , different area , different time , it's not like what we got going on in the here and now . So I kind of get it . But at the same time that was kind of the point to where it's more like he wasn't really ashamed of Mulan .

It was more like he was afraid of what everybody else would think To where , oh , you got this girl running around on rooftops and whatnot , fighting and shit . That's kind of weird . Women's not supposed to do that . Are you going to rein in your daughter or something ? I'm like , yeah , he was just under pressure . He was literally under peer pressure .

That's what that was .

That's usually how it winds up going into that um . But I also want to bounce onto something too , because I know it's something that we kind of had . It was kind of a brief discussion before we had started recording .

As far as about Mulan 2 , as far as whether or not people really kind of liked it as much , if you focus on the aspect that the first movie was more so about family , you focused on family Outside of like , oh , she became savior . She wound up defeating Sean Yu , she wound up doing all of that . Cool , that's all side quested shit .

The main storyline was her surviving and getting back to her daddy . That was the whole point of the story . It was like she did all this to get back to her daddy , to show her daddy that she loves him and that she'd do everything for him because she respects family , she respects him .

So it wanted to be that whole thing and bring honor to the family name , exactly . So if you focus on family being the aspect onto that , then it makes sense why in the second movie there was no need for a necessary villain per se into that . It was focused on just family . That's what it was supposed to be .

And now we kind of just focus onto that aspect , so we focus on just family . I don't know , I really like , honestly , I already like the second movie anyway , but it kind of gives me more respect for the second hold on , hold , on , hold .

Sometimes arranged marriages can work out , but personally , spiritually , I'd rather get married to someone that I genuinely fuck with . You know what I mean .

But I also want to talk about this and I'm just going to be honest man , this is a whole joke that still goes on . I actually was literally earlier today was watching a reel with somebody was making a joke about this , where at this point old boy was falling for Mulan .

Was falling for Mulan , no , was falling for Ping , and he was unsure for a moment , but he was seeming like he was like shit . I guess , if I just like boys , I like boys . That's just what it is Found out . Mulan was a girl . He was pissed as hell .

First of all , they had problems before they even got married .

So , well , not really problems , more like problems fabricated by mooshu and I'm gonna talk about mooshu a little bit more , but the whole point being is that they had that whole little spat and all that talk about oh , we're maybe we're a little too different , but you know , mooshu was kind of pulling the strings on that .

But aside from that , it kind of broke the whole tropes where you notice how all these disney princesses keep getting married off to someone that they just met .

If anything , disney has an issue of the princesses getting engaged right away , but we have no idea actually how much time between getting engaged and getting married happens . We always have a fade time skip yeah so it's like to be fair . None of the princesses get married right away to someone they just met .

relationship .

He was like , hey , man , fly to her Like you don't see that kind of girl everyday . Every dynasty . Yeah , every dynasty , yeah , so .

I know we're gonna talk about mushu , so I'm not diving into this , but one of the things into it is that he didn't every problem he tried to create . They found a way around it . What wound up causing problems was when he pointed out issues they already had with each other . Every time he tried to create a problem , they wound up laughing it off .

They wound up being nothing towards it .

But when he started pushing those buttons I know you're thinking about this , I know you were doing this and it was like you know , I really am thinking about that and actually I am feeling a little insecure about that that's what problems really started happening and that's where his plan wound up becoming a success , because it was that point of like oh shit ,

you're right , like this is something that I had already thought about and you just brought it up to the top , and the biggest issue was Mulan and Shane would not talk about it Every time , that they would wait until they were upset . Then they'd blow up at each other . And that is a big problem for most people in relationships . I've dealt with that .

I've dealt with both situations in that Waiting until you're so upset that you blow up never works . As soon as you get those thoughts , you need to be able to talk to your partner . If you cannot talk to your partner about that , there's a problem and that's something you need to talk about .

Hey , every time I have thoughts , I don't feel comfortable trying to bring it up to you because I think something's going on or I think you're going to be upset and I just want to feel confident I can talk to you , that we can actually be partners together , type of thing . The other thing I also dealt with is a Mooshu .

We've all had that friend that's been friends with you for so long . But the minute you get in a relationship they're afraid of you letting them go . You know we always hung out . You were always hanging out with the boys , you was always hanging out with the girls and you got with so-and-so and now you ain't never got time for us , no more .

And look , I'm not gonna even be petty about that part because , look , I even understand that when you're in a serious relationship , that relationship takes higher priority . I'm not even mad about that .

The whole idea is that sometimes it feels like , uh , when you're younger you just feel a little jaded about that until you realize , hey , man , like when you're in a serious relationship , you gotta understand that you need to , um , make sure that you have that in check . To where it's like you can't be one of those guys or one of those girls .

To where it's like you're always out with the boys or you're always out with the girls and your partner's gonna feel neglected and whatnot . And I don't know about y'all , but like , I'm pretty sure that some of y'all can kind of understand how , like Sometimes your partner is like , hey , man , you spent a little too much time with your friends .

Like , I just feel a little neglected . I'm like , yeah , my bad , I'm sorry , I'll do better . I get that , so I can't Be too salty , but at the same time I can't act Like I wasn't in that position too .

And that could also be like in the literal sense as far as a job , like is your job more important than your family ? Type of thing , like he was willing to do whatever to make sure he kept what he had because it was good to him . This is what I meant , this is what I got can I ?

That one , mean , do it for her is like uh , remember you're here forever , but not do it for her . I'm like you know what I fuck with that . I'm with that , I get it . But yeah , um , let's go ahead and talk about mushu to a point to where I'm like I did like him . He was funny as a kid .

It was like dishonor you , dishonor your family , dishonor your cow .

I was hoping there might be like some major meaning into this , but I don't think there really was much of a meaning to Mushu .

You're thinking you thought he would die at least twice in this film , but nah , ooh you lucky motherfucker .

It makes sense based onto that . You know , playing into that and stuff . But for me , I love , so I've never seen a live action . I've been one of those ones that I don't want to watch it . I feel like they changed too much , I feel like they're doing too damn much . I don't want to watch it .

You mean , until they made that bug and they turned him into an actual , into this shit .

Uh , they didn't really stand out per se other than you know . They were like buddy buddy well , not immediately with um Mulan , but like same way how it turns out in the OG , to where eventually they warm up to him . But , unlike in the OG , they just were like bland , they were just kind of there .

As far as the fact that , like we need to stop , like you actually need to act as a unit per se if not until then , probably more so like with , uh , like greek culture and Roman culture , where it was like having just warriors go about doing whatever versus having them as a unit group .

Having them focus together winds up winning the fight easier versus just everyone scattered around doing fucking whatever . Like having that one single unit . So I could see what you mean on that .

2 . As a relationship driven narrative , it's not bad when you consider that At least Yao Champo and Ling Like get together with the princess , you know like courting them and what not , and it was cute , like not gonna lie .

Poe said he wanted to be , he wanted a girl that could cook some delicious ass food and be and showing up , the princess is like oh , I love to cook , I love to feed you , I would love to feed you . And he was like you're perfect for me , holy shit .

But he mentioned about eyes that shine like stars and I really like that , like every single aspect that they mentioned , like even with yao girl that marvel at a string literally each of the princesses fit those perfectly . Like girl literally looked at yao and was like , oh , you're so strong , I like that .

And then , like ling , when he , as soon as he saw girl , he was like your , like , you could see literally her eyes sparkle the animator's excellent job in keeping that continuity that it actually sparkled like a Star Wars moment when he first saw her . Hey , check this out .

But the thing was I like how in the beginning she was just kind of being reluctant Because you know she had a laugh that she didn't like , but I don't know , it was all right , it was kind of cute , like I know it's like a bunch of snorting , but it was fine . And Ling was like oh well , you got a cute laugh and I'm .

I thought you didn't have a sense of humor . Oh , you think I didn't . And then she just sticks a bunch of chopsticks in her nose and just makes Ling laugh . But the whole point being is that in the beginning she was kind of reluctant to laugh because you know she was feeling insecure about her own laugh .

But you can kind of tell that she wanted to laugh but she just couldn't . But she just couldn't . And I just knew in that moment If I was Ling I would be pulling the Steve Urkel . Be like , I'm wearing you down , baby , I'm wearing you down . I know you want to laugh .

So none of them could be who they wanted to be , personality-wise , they had to just play the role of princess , because that's what they're supposed to do , that's just what it is , type of thing . So finding someone .

So all those people , um , that was like raymundo , uh , kimiko , and all them like , yeah , they had to be recasted . The only ones that didn't get recast is tara strong and jennifer hill , who was only and katinape respectively . Uh , everybody else had to get like different voices or some of the same voice athletes more .

Oh , you just gotta have to put in more work and be like more voices than just one yeah , maybe like that .

I'm like who the fuck is this ? Who's this new character ? What is going on ? I'm like , okay , well , let me just give literally only with glasses . That's it and absolute garbage , like it's just straight up absolute garbage . Shingon who out of nowhere .

Sorry , that's a whole thing for another time , my bad , but um , the only other thing I wanted to mention because , again , I've never seen the live action . So I'm getting new information about live action from you guys and it's just reiterating to me why it is I don't want to watch it . Just going to be honest .

But the fact that you are pretty much borrowing an ip just to tell a narrative , that's pretty much a bastardization of the ? Um , not only the franchise , but , man , this show wants to be riverdale so fucking bad . It wants to be south park so fucking bad . It wants to be family guys so fucking bad .

It has been to do with rabbits and it's the whole concept of when a male and female rabbit are sitting next to each other , you can very easily tell which one is which , but when they run together , you can't tell anymore . They're equals in that moment .

And the problem with the live action is they completely reverse the moral by having Mulan state the females running faster , like the whole point is that when the rabbits are running you can't tell . It's the whole idea that when you're on the battlefield it doesn't matter if you're male or female , you are a warrior right and you know what ?

Meanwhile everybody else is kind of like there literally like in the original animated movies .

It's like as an inspirational character , or way better than the live action one , for the pure fact that she didn't start out as perfect . We had to literally work hard and be smarter in order to succeed , and it's like that is much more powerful a story for someone to look up to than I was perfect the day I was born .

I'm like she wasn't that good at first but then she was determined to um restore honor to the family name and to make sure that she keeps her um cover covered . So she had to , like actually put in the work and like , uh , climb up that pole to get the arrow down and all the other shit . Um , yeah , like she had to actually earn her legend status .

Versus with the live action it just kind of seemed like because , oh , we already seen the original like 20 years ago , so you pretty much know how it's gonna play out , so we might as well just make it sound like she's even more capable than she was in yo g .

I just think that With the live action , it's not bad , but it's also not like brilliant , like the og move on . In my personal opinion , same thing with move on to , once again , not bad , but honestly , the og move on , just did so many things great .

Uh , oh , can I mention , like this one minor detail where I kind of like that one part where Sean Yu and his men like captured two messengers and it was like , oh , tell the emperor that we're coming for him . And then the two men ran away . And then Sean Yu was like , hey , quick question , how many men does it take to deliver a message ?

And then the archer was like hey , quick question , how many men did the Tate deliver a message ? And then the RJ was like one .

Literally , you heard the word of it when people went to traverse and found a destroyed town , like when the army found a destroyed town and everything burned to the ground . That's when people knew Sean Yu was there . Well , that's when people knew Attila the Hun was there . He left no survivors . He didn't believe in a prisoner thing .

That was not their whole thing whatsoever . There was no prisoners at all .

You start seeing that in other shows , like other villains start having that shit . You're just like holy shit , like they're absolutely oh you feel different . Yeah , it's like you can see it in their eyes . Yeah , obviously , like that shit's scary as fuck . You mean , honestly , my favorite scene in the first movie is you missed ? How could you miss ?

Is it um , everybody's about to die at this point , like that was not just taking down his army , that was taking down all your men , and they had no idea what the fuck was happening . They just knew a giant fucking avalanche was coming down .

I don't know , I I get it , but at the same time I'm like if I survived that , I'd be like man , fuck that , I'm about to beat her ass .

I'm gonna place the helmet on some rocks to make them seem like , oh , the enemy's behind us , but they're just shooting helmets . But , uh , as soon as she , um , tricked them long enough to where , like , oh , open fire that way , and then pretty much she tricked the bad guys into using their own weapons against them .

To where the catapult launched at the snow mountains , created the avalanche . And I noticed how muon put her hand down , wait for the rumble , and I was like , oh shit , avalanche get up out of there I was like this girl is that was kind of smart . And I was like hmm , that's once again that strategist type shit that I kind of like .

But it was like for your first battle , you , that was very into , I liked it . I don't know best way I could , but I kind of like that detail to where it's like , yeah , uh , let me check to see if that that's gonna create avalanche and then pull back . But um , then she had to fight with the witch and blah blah and all that .

Um , y'all got anything else y'all want to add on ? Anything at all ?

I'm not sure , but she does a great job pointing out the things that are culturally right and wrong with both films , and take it as you will . When it comes to live action versus the animated , um , she said , though , the animated one is more accurate . The animated or the live action is more accurate , but the animated one is more culturally sensitive .

That's why I'm saying , like For the live action , hold on , it deserves some credit for doing some Things right . But there were some deviations that I didn't like about the live action .

Versus if you play Barbie girl , every guy is going to sing it and I don't know why .

I've done this many times and it's happening and I sing both of them oh yeah , no , I'm not saying , both groups won't sing both but it's like the girls sing make a man out of you so much louder and guys sing Barbie girl so much louder , and I don't know why , and I find it hilarious .

It does not make me feel , it does not make me feel like , oh yeah , my daughter can sing this confidently . I'm like nah , bro , this is this a trash ass song . The fuck , bro . Like it's just me , though . I hate the song . As a dad , as a dad of a daughter , I hate the song . Now . I just , I just do because I know the lyrics the ?

I'm like man Moosey you better sit down before he fucking make you into a belt .

A coursing river is a damn near broken river , like that shit is going everywhere left , right , tossing , turning . It's a rapid and it like hearing that open , that , those absolute mix-ups on some things . Swift as a coursing river must be great as a great typhoon With the strength of a great typhoon .

So , if anything , it's like while drake's career might be on just about over , it's almost like you pretty much just accelerated on kids you got me distracted .

One of those ones is like the lyrics don't tell you to be in control , and that's one of the biggest things in understanding how that song progresses forward is teaching you how to be . It teaches you how to be in the military , giving you that pump up into stuff . I'm gonna make a man out of you .

And that's a great song that it also really touches , based on what it really means to be a man per se , because the biggest issue right now for most men is control , and that song gets you all hyped up , but the song does not tell you to have control of anything . It's telling you to let loose .

It's telling you to let it all out per se and but as a guy you can't actually do that in society .

There's no control anymore . You're trying to create a control but the only way to win a war unfortunately involves mass casualties . That's just how it works . So it's one of those songs . It's like it's a big bop . People love it . It's an excellent hit when you really understand it . That song does not teach you control .

It teaches you to be unhinged , but then you also have that mental understanding that I'm going to do all this and still have control of myself . The song doesn't teach you that .

supposed to be about control .

It's more like um , that's like me saying that um , fighting with anger in your heart will just make you a sloppy um fighter , but at the same time , it's like you have to find that sweet spot of concentrated rage to where it's like you're fighting harder , like you're hitting harder , but at the same time you're keeping your mentality to where essentially , think of

it like Ultra Instinct Goku to where it's like you can't lose control , otherwise Ultra Instinct is not going to work very well for you actually I would also go for , like Beast Gohan , but I don't want to spoil that chapter .

I'm near my breaking point , but I'm never going to allow myself to break , but I'm controlling everything that I have .

Because , um , at first , like when it was like teased , they were saying like , oh , this form is going to be called final gohan and I'm like I don't kind of like the sound of that because that just implies that that's as high as he can go , but beast gohan , I'm like I don't think that's a much of it .

I'm no , no , because you gotta think about gohan's uh , whole history , to where , um , he always had an explosive anger , but it just only at rare times did that anger let out . So gohan is like a perfect example of this , to where it's like he's the main one , to where , um , he don't like fighting . But what can I say ?

I ain't no killer , but don't push me Kind of like that . Was there anything else Y'all want to add on ?

You already know the drill we are on Facebook , we are on Instagram , we are sort of on Twitter I probably should get back on Twitter but you know Twitter beef and Quick , but you know Twitter beef .

With that being said , stay nerdy . Remember that great things are coming . We are zoning out of here , so have a good day , good evening , good afternoon , depending on when you're listening to this , and just take ease on yourself . Thank you , okay , hold up , hold up , hold up .

Before we close this out , callie Heikheisen is coming back to the podcast to talk about Mulan . How you been doing , callie , it's been a while um , it has been a while .

I'm leaving it at that . That is my opinion . Um so all of the other princesses , I think the only time that there was a different princess of color was , I believe , jasmine , because Mulan came out in 1999 . I remember that specifically . And , yeah , I do have some Asian heritage . I'm not Chinese like how Mulan is , but I am part Japanese .

But then if I'm talking to a , uh , an , as they're like , you look a little bit different , but you're definitely mostly white , aren't you ?

So it's funny to see the kind of like dichotomy of like whoever's looking at me , and if it's somebody of any other person of color , like a black person or a Hispanic person or something like that , it's just another mixed bag . But the first time that I saw mulan I was like , oh my gosh , this is somebody I can kind of relate to .

Again , she is chinese , I'm part japanese , so there's a little bit of a difference there , um , but I was just super excited because she reminded me of me . So mulan , along with everything , has a special place in my heart because it finally felt that at least part of my heritage was um , was represented on screen and just a little tidbit , and this is a .

I guess it's not too much of a secret .

Mulan also has a special place in my heart because when I was five years old , when Mulan came out in 99 , there's a part where she takes a sword and she cuts off part of her hair with the hair to , you know , make it short , so she looks like a soldier , she looks more boyish , that sort of thing , and I wanted to be just like mulan .

So little five-year-old callie grabbed a pair of scissors and cut off at least a good four inches of her hair and walked up to her mommy and said mommy , look , I'm like mulan . And then my mom screamed and said Mommy , look , I'm like Mulan . And then my mom screamed and said what did you do to your hair ?

So that's one of the few times I've cut off a pretty good amount of my hair . So Mulan is also fully imprinted in my brain because of that . So I cut my hair because Mulan did it and I thought it was the coolest fucking thing I'd ever seen , especially doing it with a sword . But I only had a pair of scissors , so I couldn't be as cool , obviously .

You know how Characters like Sakura from Naruto and other characters , it seems like they will have long hair at first , but then , as soon as they have like this , uh , emotional or mental , um epiphany or catharsis or whatnot , it's like this they have this arc and then , next thing you know this like they come out stronger than ever and they , you know , like cut

their hair . You know , I kept them more . Which way , like at first . You know she had like longer hair at first , but then , of course , she had to cut it . But I mean , it's like symbolic , essentially , yeah , that's what I was going for .

I'm like at first I was like I didn't , I thought it was like just a thing , but then I heard something going around and I'm like , oh , I know what happened . It's it's .

Mulan had more of a reason and that sort of thing , she was chopping off her hair so she could blend in with the rest of the soldiers because everybody's hair was in a top knot or a reason in that sort of way , she was chopping off her hair so she could blend in with the rest of the soldiers because , um , you know , everybody's hair was like in a top

knot or a bun , that sort of thing . Um , so yeah , so milan meant a lot to me in terms of like representation and being able to see somebody , like I said , who looks like me on the screen . And now they're starting to branch out , which , by the way , I'm still hoping that disney decides to circle back to asian culture .

I mean , we got raya with the dragon , but I'd love to see the tail of the bamboo cutter put into disney , um , so that there's more like , uh , an actual , like japanese representation , that sort of thing you know I would love that I was gonna do a full review on it but I was thinking like and maybe not , it's not that big with you , but you know what ,

now that got you on the podcast ?

generational trauma or just generational issues , and so that's one of the things that she was dealing with with her mom . May was dealing with dealing with her mom in the movie and learning how to deal with herself . A lot of people thought that it was more of a , an analogy of like puberty whatever I I .

I guess I can see that , but I'd rather stick to the fact that it's a mystical Red panda sort of issue . But I also Really Sorry , go ahead .

them and whatnot , and ? then I thought it was like okay , I like that , I actually like that . You thought it was like one analogy , but it's like , in other words , it's like more like by the end of the movie you realize it was more about generational healing .

But we know that the overarching thing was her um talking with her mom , because it seemed like her mom was also dealing with the same thing and so she had to deal with issues of that from her mom and so it is just that big issue or , excuse me , the big issue is not the right word I'm looking for the big theme of generational healing .

Like , like I said , with that , with Encanto , a lot of the um , a lot of the uh people of color stories that Disney started to try to tell us is starting to do a lot more of that with the generational healing , which is really refreshing because , just from observations and stuff like that , that's what a lot of cultures deal with .

I mean , people have heard that Asian families are very strict on their kids to do well in school , that sort of thing become doctors , lawyers , etc . Etc . But it's also because they just want to make sure that they're succeeding in life so they don't have to worry about them later on and also maybe they can take care of them when they get older .

So not to say that being pressured and stuff like that into getting good grades is not traumatic in and of itself . Of course you just have to be kind of gentle with that sort of thing . But I mean , that's where the whole stereotype of being uh I think the term is a tiger mom or a dragon mom .

Yeah , no , you had it on tiger mom yeah , so I mean , and it's usually the , the moms that are like that .

Of course dads can be also , can also pressure as well , but their stereotype is being a tiger mom , that sort of thing , a dragon lady , something else , my bad I mean dragon lady sounds new to me but I believe it I think that's an entirely different issue but no , you know what .

But the way they make it happened in the first movie and then it happened again in the live action . But the way they make it sound like Mulan had to be like this perfect girl for this man that's gonna marry them off and pretty much extend the bloodline and all that .

And you know Mulan , whether it's the animated or the live action , you can tell that she's built different to where you just can't hook her up with just any type of dude , which is kind of a shame to where , in a sense , they kind of sort of in the live action , it kind of sort of thing that , oh , he's going to hook up with the guy .

I was like , eh , it's less evident in the live action , but then again I'm not even mad about that because I'm going to get into that later . But essentially I'm saying that with Mulan , the first movie , uh , go to , of course , mulan 2 . People said that it wasn't that good , but hear me out , I think Mulan 2 is great as a relationship-driven narrative .

Yeah , I like the relationship-driven narrative of the second . So , yeah , it may not be as good as the first but it's still good . It's like you just gotta see it in a different aspect , to where like think of it like a relationship-driven narrative .

I's like you just gotta see it in a different aspect , to where like think of it like a relationship driven narrative and I'm like , okay , well , it just kind of adds on to what the first movie left out on . So cool , cool , cool . And then the live action . Okay , the live action did things differently , but it wasn't bad .

It was good on its own merit , even though , in actuality , yeah , like some people were saying that the live-action version of Mulan is more accurate to the actual legend , which is true because , first of all , in the animated version , I was saying to the other people that it was Fa Mulan in the animated version , but in the live action it's Hua Mulan , which is

more accurate to the actual legend and based on the battles and all that that happened in the live action . I can kind of imagine that happening , more so than what happened in the animated version . But of course the animated version is going to be good because you know you have things like Mushu with his comedic beats and man .

Let me tell you Mushu first of all , he I didn't realize that with Mushu I still like him , but he's kind of a dick to where in both movies that he was in , he pretty much was making things better , slash worse , kind of like a golem situation from Lord of the Rings .

He was making things better , slash worse for the sake of keeping his job , and I'm like that's kind of selfish , bro , your heart is kind of in the right place , but that's kind of selfish , bro , your heart's kind of in the right place , but that's kind of a selfish motive .

Though I'm sorry , but you know , like child brain versus adult brain , I'm like child brain probably let that slide . Adult brain's like nah , I'm on your ass about that . You did kind of fuck over Mulan just over a job and Mulan got on his case about that too .

He was like you mean to tell me that you were trying to break me and Shang up just so you can keep your job ? And I was like , well damn , when you put it like that , it made me feel kind of like an asshole . I'm like you should feel like an asshole , but um , yeah .

So what were your thoughts on the first animated movie , since we're gonna do it like movie by movie ?

It's one of the interesting things too , that in the original animated film songs , it's one of the interesting things too that in the original animated film that I think it's probably like a well-known fact now .

But one of the things that people figured out is like , after they do the We'll Bring Honor to Us All and not that one , I'm sorry , a Girl With Fighting For excuse me , it was the song cuts off right when they're running into like the village and stuff like that everybody's been killed and stuff by the Huns , and after that there's no more singing because

instead of it being like a nice light-hearted sort of things like oh , this is serious , like people , people are dead . Um , and a lot of people were saying that once you know she picked up that little doll with the black hair , like the button eyes and everything that for everybody else they had a girl worth fighting for , that sort of thing .

A girl said they were waiting , that they were going to go back and marry that sort of thing . Um , but for mulan , the girl she was fighting for was the girl who had that doll .

Um , so , like I said , there's just like a big how do I put into words the first move on movie covers , a lot of , like I said , of all the singing and everything , all of this great reflection . The song like made me cry when I was younger because I thought it was just the prettiest little thing .

Um , like I said , because she was being told that she needs to be this perfect little girl , that sort of thing , so she can get go and get married . But that's not exactly what she wanted to do .

And once she proved to her parents that she wanted to go and actually be something more like she became a warrior for the emperor they were able to kind of finally get on her side . They just they . They were doing what they thought was right .

Well , they've also been told is that daughters need to go and be good wives to their to husbands and have children and stuff like that . But that was another reason why I really liked move on , because she was another . I feel like she was the first princess to really like go and fight and it's it's very feminist driven .

I know that for some people that might be like a hot button word , but it was a very feminism driven kind of narrative , because all the other girls jasmine was kind of spunky , but she wasn't like in the middle of it . I would say . All the other princesses before that , all the white girls were were damsels in distress I gotcha okay .

To where it gotta be like Accidental . To where it's like oh shit , I did not Expect all this . To pop off to where I'm like she's actually impressive . To where it's like it doesn't feel like her being this awesome wasn't forecast to me . I'm like , trust me , bro , she's badass . And then you watch this show and you're like .

Or this movie and you're just like she's .

But for me the next Disney princess that I really , really enjoyed was Rapunzel from Tangled , because , again , she was the one who went and started her own journey . She made that decision to finally leave the tower and so I mean Rapunzel also has really long hair and listeners , if you don't know me , I have extremely long hair almost down to my butt .

So Rapunzel having long hair and being a badass , and Mulan being Asian and being a badass , like was a no-brainer for me that those two would be my absolute favorite Disney princesses or heroines . Yeah , yeah .

That maybe will jog my memory of what I was going to bring up to where , uh , the difference between Mulan's father in both the animated and the live's father in both the animated and the live actions , where in the animated version you're thinking like , okay , you want to make sure that family name and what not is important and what not , and that's all fine and

dandy in the animated version , or at the very least , I gave it a pass because you know it was just one of those things where you know it was just like that at those times , right , but yeah , in the live action , that's where , when I was saying like the whole thing with the matchmaker and whatnot , it was like the worst offense was because , remember , in the

beginning , when muon was chasing that chicken and whatnot , and uh , her dad was watching and he seemed proud of her at that point , but then , when he got to the matchmaker and how , of course , as a canon event on , muon had to do something to embarrass the family about it and he got mad at her talking about I'm the'm the father , you're the daughter , blah ,

blah , blah , blah . You know that type of shit . And it's almost like it's almost like he reneged on the fact that , yeah , he was proud of Mulan being who she is . But then it's more like oh well , what are the neighbors gonna think ? You gotta stop embarrassing me in front of the neighbors . And I was like , ah , embarrassed me in front of the neighbors .

And I was like it just comes off weird when it seems like You're rather like You're rather on keep up appearances Than to defend your own daughter when she didn't . I mean , yeah , running over rooftops is dangerous , so I get that .

But , like for the most part , you know , I don't think Malone was Her heart , was in the right place , I'll just say that and I just feel like he kind of failed to defend her on some front . But once again , different place , different time , so I can't really judge too hard . Yeah , and try to on full of the time .

Uh , how do you feel about move on to , since I already said my shit about that , but what were your thoughts on move on to ?

Direct-to-video sequels or something like that , so that one really didn't even come out in the theaters , right , that was when they did a bunch of those sequels that nobody really like hated to do , but I actually really enjoyed it . Like they decided to touch more like the lovey-dovey part of mulan .

Like said , they got the main story or at least the main gist of the original legend . Like even in the original legend . You're saying some things should change . Shane does not exist in the original legend , like that was completely put in by Disney , so she would have like somewhat of a um , somewhat of a romance , somebody to like actually get into .

Like I mean , there are people who found out that she was a boy in the um in the original Legend , obviously , but there was no sign of like a love interest obviously , but there was no sign of like a love interest . But chin po yao and ling were actually in there . There was just no like romance with shang or anything like that .

So the fact that they decided to go like the actual relationship route with mulan 2 was really nice to me because I felt like it actually gave like the happy ending for chin po ling and yao , because you know they were talking about their , their girls that they're fighting for , and they literally found their perfect matches in those girls and of course they're

like I don't know about these guys and we know like at the end they end up getting together that sort of thing , um , so it's a ends up being a happy ending . So I know a lot of people had issues with it kind of taking almost kind of like a 180 , maybe like a 90 degree , that sort of thing , because I still feel like it kept the same spirit .

But I think a lot of people were upset because it didn't continue the same spirit of um the first mulan movie , of it being like okay , this is the nice rough and tumble girl . Oh , who the hell are these princesses ? And why are they part of this story ? That sort of thing .

So I think if people are going into watching the movie with at least an open mind , I think they'll be kind of pleasantly surprised . But if they're hoping for the exact same thing that they saw in the first mulan movie , they're going to be really disappointed .

So it or even just watch it as like a standalone type thing , like it could probably stand on its own just fine , but if you're hoping for the exact same thing that they saw in the first milan movie , I feel like people that haven't ever seen it they'll be sorely disappointed yeah , yes , because that's what I was saying with the first time around , when I

watched move on to when I was like a kid , I was like and well , you know it wasn't bad , but it wasn't all that memorable like the first one .

But it was like a mission to escort the princesses to these princes that , uh , the princesses didn't even want to marry , but you know they were trying to pull up the front because you know they had to do it for the dad and uh , this whole political marriage type shit between two kingdoms and whatnot yeah yeah , yeah , I get all that , I get all that .

But , um , it was fun on its own , it's just at the same time , um , it kind of felt like a continuation of the first movie , um , kind of like , oh , fall off from okay mulan's , now this legend and whatnot , but then again having like a three or three hour long movie . Um , that would have been a bit much back in the day .

But then you have bangers like the batman , to where . I'm telling you , callie , I went to the theater to watch the batman and that did not feel like a three hour movie because I was so locked in watching that movie from beginning to end , trying to figure , figure out how it all played out .

It was so good , it didn't feel like a three-hour movie , I swear .

He got this because between Twilight and that the one performance he had in all fucking Harry Potter to where he was kind of acting like Batman falling , um , you know , kind of jumping down from the tree and whatnot , the way he kind of courts Bella , you know the whole scene .

You know that one scene in all fours and whether you like stand-up hinder and shit , I'm like look like he's trying to act like batman for a minute . So I was like you know what , what the fuck ? I think he got this . But yeah , um , move on to great relationship driven narrative . Now we got a little bit of time left .

So I gotta ask you , callum , how you feeling about the live action , because I honestly thought with the action , the action was much better in the live action , I'll give you that much , and the part with the witch a great addition , because it kind of gave a move on that sort of parallel to where oh , we're not so different you and I type shit , and I

thought that was kind of cool too . But what were your thoughts on the live action um , I would say pretty similar .

And then we had Beauty and the Beast , and then we had Mulan , and we have the Little Mermaid and whatever hell else that they're gonna make .

So , with like the live action and everything , I was going into it thinking it was gonna be more , I guess , have more of the playful vibe that we did have , at least in the first half of the original Mulan movie , the animated version , because I thought they were gonna be like doing lots of singing and stuff . So . So there wasn't really any singing .

Obviously it was more . If I remember right , they had kind of like the same music but more like as a soundtrack , like orchestral versions , if I remember correctly . So there were still hints in it and like motifs in the background , but it wasn't like them outright singing .

Because I was like , oh , okay , they're gonna be doing singing and stuff like that , it's not gonna be an issue , um , because that's what they , they sung in beauty and the beast . So surely this is gonna be very similar . And of course it wasn't . So I was disappointed at that , just because to me mulan's um , you know , songs are fucking great .

So that's why I was like , oh okay , this is fine . But once it got to all the action scenes , I was actually pretty pleasantly surprised because a lot of it was very accurate , as far as I know , to Chinese martial arts , that sort of thing . And the clothing , one of the things I've always liked about specific shows , like in Game of Thrones and everything .

If you pay really close attention to like their costume design , it tells a story or like has the certain themes and everything within their clothes .

I feel like they did the same thing with the lawn , which is something I've always enjoyed , just like little details like that and then adding the part with the witch as well , like I was trying to look it up and everything .

Of course , it wasn't like an actual witch in the original legend , but the fact that they were able to kind of tie that together and say , oh yeah , you and I were not that much alike and things actually ended up pretty like .

Okay , as far as I can remember , I think she the witch , actually ended up like sacrificing herself to save Mulan and defeat the Khan , because I mean , it was the Huns , if I remember correctly , in the original animated movie and I think these are more like not quite Mongolians or the Mongols , but it's somebody very similar yeah so it's more like , you know ,

nomadic tribes and stuff like that . So it was really different . I was disappointed , at least this time going into it because , like I said , I was expecting the singing . But I do think that lulan , the live action , went pretty well .

I know it didn't do that well since it was coming out right in the middle of COVID and they were probably hoping that they could have made more money out of it , but that just is what it is . But other than that , I thought that the live action Mulan was pretty solid . I would give that at least like maybe like a B plus .

Fair enough , I would give that at least like maybe like a B+ .

say , but I'll try to say something because it's part of an extreme review where , essentially , I'm going to review Captain I mean , not Captain Marvel , funny enough , we were talking about Captain Marvel just a little bit earlier but I'm going to review the Marvels what If ? Season 2 and Echo .

And once again , first of all , like we already talked about girl bosses , and they're really trying to drive that home with the mcu , um , considering that , you know , owned by disney , so I'm not even surprised . But that's not a point . Uh , point being is that , with the marvels , surprisingly whimsy , like you would think .

No , you would think , oh , this was supposed to be like serious action and type shit . But no , like , it was like really campy .

It felt like , uh , the first half of wonder woman 84 to where , yeah , it was like the first half was like okay , well , this is not so bad , and then the second half is like I don't know , you know oh yeah yeah , but I'm gonna talk my shit about the Marvels and all that when I do the review .

But my whole point with that is it's kind of ironic how they we thought it was gonna be more whimsical in the long live action but it actually they actually played it more serious . But in the Marvels you were thinking like it was gonna be more serious and whimsy , but I was wrong again Like Disney be making some weird moves .

So that's why I would say with Disney nowadays it's like hit and miss . That's why I'm saying like with things like Inside Out coming out and all that , it's like okay , y'all still put out some good shit sometimes . But that it's like okay , y'all still put out some good shit sometimes .

But sometimes it's like I feel like y'all push it out just to send a message rather than tell a compelling story that could be timeless to many generations to come to it . It just feel like y'all made this project . You spent billions of taxpayer um dollars just to uh spew your personal politics and uh shame certain people that you're not naming .

And I'm like why are you spending all this money just to get a point across when we have social media for that ?

I think Zatch Bell is great , but I feel like I want people to like understand how underrated this show is . So if you bring that back , all I want is just to have it like polished , you know , kind of like what they did with Shaman Kings , where you don't really have to change too much , but just polish it .

You know , yeah , just update them , just make it look a little bit more like bearable to watch in 2024 . That's all I'm saying . Because , let me be honest with you like , uh , even though I can go back and watch it , because I grew up watching that bill , I don't know about new cats trying to get into that bill in 2024 .

There'll probably be people who avoid One Piece or JoJo's , who are like I don't like this Ernst style and I'm like that's a damn shame . I mean , I get it because I'm kind of like that too , but that's a damn shame because if y'all actually gave it a chance to call it with Catechia or Hitman , Reborn y'all would love it , I agree .

Like yes , you're gonna make a fuck ton of money with the disney , disney , princess movies , but everybody as far as I know , or at least a lot of um buzz that I've seen is for people to make a live action . Um atlantis , yes , or transfer yes , those two .

When , um , they're trying to push towards 3D animation over 2D animation , but here's the funny thing about that , when they're trying to acquire anime like Bleach and Territory on the Sandland and I think , oh , yeah , the New Kogiyas Project , they're trying to acquire anime and those are probably 2D animation , but back in , like what , 2002 ? 2003 ?

You were trying to push , are obviously 2D animation , but back in , like what ? 2002 , 2003 , you were trying to push 2D animation out the window for 3D animation . How is that working out for you , by the way ? Mm-hmm , I'm just saying it's just weird .

See , that's what I'm talking about , where Disney just make these weird moves to where I'm like , okay , I kind of see where you're going in this direction , but then you kind of lose me at some point .

Going on to where they were talking about oh , ryan reynolds can't improvise his lines in the movie . I'm like , oh , fuck , all that yeah , that's what .

I don't know if it's just because people aren't connecting with the characters as much anymore . Like I feel like the last significant marvel movie that I watched in theaters was probably multiverse of madness .

something in the long run , instead of just trying to make some extra money or some shit or some shit . We're like , oh well , we're just gonna make this because we know certain people gonna like this and you know it's easy money that way . I'm like you're not really doing it for the people , you're just doing it for yourself .

It's just more like you're just trying to speak their language and take their money at the same time .