Filmtracks: Mulan (2020) (Harry Gregson-Williams)

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Written 2/21/21

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Buy it... if you can forgive this soundtrack for its many, many ills, Harry Gregson-Williams providing a handful of lovely lyrical moments with attractive ethnic instrumentation.

Avoid it... if you expect Gregson-Williams to provide due respect for Jerry Goldsmith or for the titular character's ethnicity by the end of the score, his themes poorly enunciated and unnecessarily Westernized at climactic moments.

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Mulan: (Harry Gregson-Williams) Little did the production of a live-action remake of Walt Disney's popular 1998 animated film know the extent of the ultimate nightmare that awaited along its ten-year journey to what it thought would be the big screen. The studio lost substantial money on the delays of 2020's Mulan, the movie never opening widely in America due to the global pandemic and frustrating families with a $30 streaming price point when the film finally debuted much later in the year than anticipated. Beyond that hassle, however, was lead actress Yifei Liu's inconveniently timed politically commentary supporting Hong Kong, a lack of ethnic diversity on the production team, the removal of character Li Shang, a LGBTQ favorite, from the story, a Chinese cast speaking with distinctly American accents in the English version of the movie, and filming in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, where ethnic minorities are still interned by the government. Add on top of that the fact that director Niki Caro decided to take the film to far more serious, dramatic levels, stripping it of its musical status and instead shooting it to a PG-13 rating, a first ever for one of these remakes of an animated Disney picture. Parents and enthusiasts of the 1998 entry were perhaps bothered the most by the last part, the entire personality of Mulan changed even if the basic plot elements all remain the same. Middling response from American audiences was better than the outright disdain that faced the movie in China, where box office returns were also disappointing. Caro's decision to excise most of the comedic elements of the story and replace that charm with solemn and serious explorations of Mulan's pursuit of loyalty, bravery, and truth has a massive impact on the music for 2020's Mulan, the soundtrack stuck in a no-win situation trying to address Caro's vision while also making some token references back to the soundtrack for the animated favorite. The extended production timeline for Mulan allowed composer Harry Gregson-Williams ample time to ponder these complexities.

The veteran Gregson-Williams was hired based on his collaboration with Caro for 2017's The Zookeeper's Wife, and his experience with the franchise entries for The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Kingdom of Heaven gave him a good base for this similarly ethnically dominated action/fantasy entry. The project was Gregson-Williams' most substantial mainstream entry since the impressive The Martian in 2015, and he put an extraordinary amount of time into finding the right sound for Mulan. First, however, he had to ban the 1998 film and its soundtrack from the children in his household; despite his respect for Jerry Goldsmith's score and Matthew Wilder's songs, he knew his direction would have to be different. One could argue quite easily that Gregson-Williams' prospects here were immediately sunk by Caro's directives. There was really no possible outcome with this score that could shake the inexplicable disrespect shown especially to Goldsmith's acclaimed score via its total abandonment. While Alan Menken and Hans Zimmer were both alive and active for the live-action remakes of their respective Disney classics of the 1990's, Goldsmith is now long dead, which must have meant for Caro that his music died with him. Even if you can forgive the elimination of the songs, neglecting any attempt to substantially interpolate Goldsmith's score is inexcusable and alone diminishes Gregson-Williams' achievement even in the best light. And the decision exhibits laziness, too. Musicals don't have to be childish by nature, and Wilder was available to assist with the new Mulan. Goldsmith's score could have easily been adapted for this new application, whether by Gregson-Williams, Brian Tyler, or a host of others. All of that said, Gregson-Williams proceeded as best he could under ridiculous circumstances, conducting extensive research into Chinese instrumentation to combine with a 90-piece Western orchestra, 48-voice choir, and his typical electronics. The composer contends that there is only a small touch of synthetic accompaniment in this score, but that statement is definitely incorrect, as his electronics figure prominently in portions. A cynic could argue that he's become so attached to his synths that he doesn't know how to lay off them now.

The preparation and production periods of Gregson-Williams' involvement with Mulan lasted 18 months, admittedly the longest assignment of his career, from pre-recorded drum sequences for use during shooting to substantial recalibrations of the score as the film experienced changes in tone during post-production. His application of Chinese instrumentation included consulting with experts in the region's music, and he ultimately brought woodwind expert Richard Harvey with him from the United Kingdom to a studio in Bangkok where they could assemble and record a variety of appropriate specialty instruments. These contributions included a dizi and xiao (both variants on a bamboo flute), a guanzi (double-reed pipe), a pipa (Chinese lute), a guzheng (a plucked, harp-like instrument), a suona (double-reed horn), and the expected erhu, the two-string bowed instrument most commonly associated with the region. Thrown into that mix are Taiko drums alongside various Chinese percussion instruments and Tuvan throat singing for a villain of the tale. Gregson-Williams cannot resist applying his synthetic arrays to enhance and manipulate some of these sounds, which is a tremendous shame, as the highlights of his work here are in the softer passages when such electronic embellishment is not needed or desired. It should be noted that Goldsmith's score for Mulan came at a time when his recordings sounded their most fantastic; the late 1990's offered his music with expansive spread and perfect reverb. By comparison, Gregson-Williams' recording for the remake has gain levelling issues (softer and louder portions not balanced) and a more conventional mix that does push the bass a little too heavily at times. There are certainly very impressive moments in the 2020 score for the concept. As in Gregson-Williams' other ethnic adventure scores, the composer does crank out some lavish and tonally accessible moments of grandeur. Unfortunately, they are surprisingly few in Mulan, and the action and villains' material aren't always engaging. Gregson-Williams' villain tones are generally unpleasant throughout, the suspense element often inaccessible and failing to extend the musical narrative to any satisfying degree. The comedy aspect is minimized, concentrated in the duo of "Honor to Us All" and "The Matchmaker."

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The themes devised by Gregson-Williams for Mulan are plentiful but not always enunciated well. The two representing Mulan are both reminiscent of other composers' works and are therefore somewhat negatively distracting. The main theme of the film for the titular character is an unfortunate lifting of Rachel Portman's primary theme for the 1993 score, The Joy Luck Club, which begs questions about whether or not it was utilized as a temp track here. The development of the idea by Gregson-Williams is ethnically insensitive as well. It starts with promise, introduced at 0:08 into "Ancestors" on various ethnic flutes and secondary phrases expressed by fuller strings. It's a good summary of the idea in its various emotional and ethnic modes, and this survey continues in "Tulou Courtyard." Its performances are omnipresent in the score thereafter, though notable interjections include a performance on flute at 1:35 into "The Lesson of the Phoenix," on subtle French horn at start of "Honor to Us All," and solemn horn renditions throughout "Oath of the Warrior." The idea starts to become militaristic in the middle of "Mulan Leaves Home" despite the cue's soft ending, and extensive variance on the theme throughout "I Believe Hua Mulan" culminates in massive statements. The theme interestingly occupies the end of "Chasing the Hawk" rather than Xianniang's theme and is blatantly victorious at 3:38 into "Fight for the Kingdom." By this cue and the momentous performance of the theme by symphony and choir in "Mulan & the Emperor," Gregson-Williams abandons the Chinese instrumentation for the theme and presents Mulan with only the Westernized superhero sound. This is a huge disappointment, as it suggests that the girl has somehow transcended her authentic Chinese roots and become no different from Wonder Woman in how her music is being presented. The connections to the Hans Zimmer/Remote Control sound cannot be refuted by Gregson-Williams as he pounds his drums, shifts the strings into familiar ostinatos, cranks up the bass, and overlays the Western fantasy choir for these moments. It's a shameless tactic only soothed to a degree as the composer shifts back into the pastoral "Ancestors" instrumentation for the theme early in "The Fourth Virtue." Sadly, the finale of that cue at 4:47 can't resist the Westernized conclusion that soars like the end of John Debney's Dragonfly.

The two secondary character themes of greatest importance in Mulan both struggle to declare themselves and evolve in any meaningful way. The Böri Khan theme has an ineffectively meandering line, performed by percussion, brass, Tuvan throat singing, and electronics in fewer cues than you would expect. Its best expressions come early, at 1:41 and 2:27 into "The Desert Garrison." Continuing at 0:17 into "Böri Khan & Xianniang" and hinted early in "The Charge," the theme really has little impact until its fragments throughout "Chasing the Hawk" and a brief choral statement at 1:02 into that cue. It finally returns in full at the start of "Fight for the Kingdom," with menacing brass at 0:41. The Xianniang theme, meanwhile, is mysterious, sometimes erhu-based, and with suona woodwind wailing on top like a siren call. Its constructs are more memorable than those of the Böri Khan theme, four or five-note phrases of shrillness piercing cues with the help of the suona. While easily distinguishable, the obnoxious tone of the suona in its higher ranks, as if some badly tortured, shrieking oboe, proves here why the instrument is considered endangered. Xianniang's theme can be heard faintly at 0:12 and then fully at 2:15 into "The Desert Garrison," at 0:19 and 0:36 into "The Witch," and at 2:00 into "Mulan Rides Into Battle." Secondary themes for other, more positive characters and concepts are where Gregson-Williams shines in Mulan. A training motif of sorts is a nicely unique idea built from Mulan's theme in the inspirational "Training the Men," which uses the composer's rhythmic percussion in tandem with the ethnic components towards better results than in most cues. Gregson-Williams' family theme, something of a father/daughter motif that extends in part to the phoenix concept, is a lovely tune inspired seemingly by the unlikeliest of scores: Mark McKenzie's Warlock: The Armageddon. This absolutely gorgeous identity debuts on ethnic woodwind at 0:40 into "The Lesson of the Phoenix," building at 1:22 for the fuller ensemble, and returning at 2:23 with more optimism. It's hinted at the opening of "Mulan Leaves Home" before changing into the Mulan theme. Gregson-Williams wraps back to this idea expectedly as "family" is revealed to be the fourth virtue of Mulan, the theme returning at 2:13 into "The Fourth Virtue" on solo horn and then flute in nice expansion; those instruments carry the tune nicely at 3:51 as well.

Also attractive in Mulan is the theme for the new love interest, Honghui. The somewhat mystical romance element opens "Honghui" with choir and solo cello against Mulan's theme counterpoint by the end. Its shades inform the end of "Training the Men" and are overtaken by the Mulan theme after a performance at 0:18 into "Mulan & Honghui Fight." More notably, the theme is reprised at 0:17 into "Return to the Village" on flute and erhu before again succumbing to the Mulan theme, only figuring once more briefly at 1:55 into "The Fourth Virtue." Aside from these new melodies, listeners will encounter a few brazen interpolations of themes from the 1998 Wilder songs, and these insertions are sure to be a "love it or hate it" proposition. They stand out like a sore thumb in 2020's Mulan, sounding nothing like Gregson-Williams' own tunes. The "Honor to Us All" song's theme is reprised in full in the cue here of that name, and it's a likeable use. But the "Reflections" theme is forced into three places in this score and is more bizarre in this context. It informs much of "Four Ounces Can Move a Thousand Pounds," with the primary melody emerging at 3:18. Subsequently, the rousing, simplistic pronouncement of the theme in all its glory at 0:18 into "Mulan Rides Into Battle" is distractingly heroic and different from rest of the score, an issue that also plagues the later insertion at 4:48 into "Fight for the Kingdom." As a Mulan self-discovery theme, the identity is not interpolated elsewhere in the score, rendering it artificial when it is used. The spotting decisions on this theme were reportedly Caro's alone, and they simply don't work. Film score collectors struggling to hear any remnant of Goldsmith's 1998 score have latched on to string figures at 2:20 into "Mulan Rides Into Battle" as a possible tribute to Goldsmith's action motif for that score, but it's a stretch to make that connection, and mainstream listeners certainly won't do it. Again, you either apply the existing themes properly or you don't, and Caro and Gregson-Williams fail miserably on both the Wilder and Goldsmith fronts. The new Mulan theme by Gregson-Williams was adapted into a new Christina Aguilera song, "Loyal Brave True," with the help of several other composers, and the recording is about as average and unimpressive as one might imagine. The original 1998 "Reflection" song is performed again by Aguilera, her performance this time far worse in its inflection than her 1998 version, and Mulan actress Yifei Liu performs her own Mandarin Chinese translation with better authenticity. Overall, the entire remake soundtrack is a mess of poor decisions and inconsistent execution. @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Music as Written for the Film: **
Music as Heard on Album: ***
Overall: ***

Bias Check:

For Harry Gregson-Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3 (in 40 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.98 (in 55,240 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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