Taking animated movies and translating them into live-action (or sometimes photorealistic animation) often comes with a shift in tone – harder-hitting, more intense, more grounded and real. But generally, Disney’s recent spate of remakes has remained around the PG level – even with that Mufasa moment in The Lion King, those Pink Elephants on parade in Dumbo, and the floaty horror of Will Smith’s Genie in Aladdin. But the upcoming Mulan seems be going for a slightly older audience – according to The Hollywood Reporter, it’s bagged itself a PG-13 rating.
The report claims that the film will be rated PG-13 in the United States for its “sequences of violence” – which makes sense, considering Niki Caro’s new take adapts the 1998 animation (and the epic poem of legend upon which it’s based) into an all-out historical war epic, with a little sprinkle of fantasy thrown in. But it’s a shift in audience for the live-action versions of the classic ‘Disney Princess’ canon, positioned more alongside the likes of Pirates Of The Caribbean, Star Wars and Marvel in terms of primary audience.
The film is yet to be rated in the UK, so it remains to be seen whether the BBFC opts for a 12A or a PG rating. Of course, both PG-13 and 12A still allow viewers of any age to watch the film on the big screen, as long as they’re accompanied by an adult. Read more about the reinvention of Mulan in Empire’s The Mandalorian issue, on sale tomorrow, which goes on set of the film in the New Zealand mountains. Mulan is due in UK cinemas from 27 March.