Disney originally wanted to cut 'Reflection' from the animated 'Mulan.' A compromise was made to keep it in the final movie.

Disney's live-action "Mulan" is available Friday on Disney Plus for purchase. While it doesn't contain the lyrical songs that made the original animated movie a classic, the hit song "Reflection" is utilized throughout the new film's score. 

Christina Aguilera and star Liu Yifei both perform new versions of the song which became inextricably linked with the animated film since its 1998 release.

It's difficult to imagine, but there was a time Disney considered removing the song from the animated movie.

Disney was worried the song would bore audiences

"Word came down from on high that they wanted us to cut the song from the score," composer Matthew Wilder told Insider in March after viewing the live-action adaptation of the movie for the first time.

Wilder took over as the animated film's composer during development after Disney scouted his work on a musical in Canada. "Reflection" was the first song he wrote for the animated movie alongside lyricist David Zippel. 

They had written two verses and two choruses for the ballad when they received a note to cut "Reflection" from the animated picture. 

"There were films that were testing, for Disney, where they were finding that the audiences were dialing out," Wilder said. "They were — what they referred to as — 'popcorn moments' where the ballad of a film was of no interest to them and they were going out to the lobby to get refreshments."

"They used that information to inform the work that we were doing on Mulan," Wilder added.

In an email, "Mulan" co-director Tony Bancroft told Insider that a song in 1997's "Hercules," which debuted a year before "Mulan," triggered the note about "Reflection." The hero's song in that movie is "Go the Distance" while Meg's ballad, later in the film, is "I Won't Say (I'm in Love)."

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On a recent podcast discussing the animated "Mulan" which reunited Bancroft, his brother Tom (who animated Mushu), Wilder, and co-director Barry Cook, the four reminisced about keeping the song in the film.

"We had an early screening of the entire film, and those early screenings are always brutal," Tony Bancroft said on "The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast," not anticipating to hear anything about "Reflection" because it was well-received early on in production.

"But when it was cut into the film, it overstayed its welcome. That was the thing [producer] Tom Schumacher would say over and over," Bancroft said.

But everyone knew the song was special and fought to keep it in the movie

"David and I were knocked back on our heels and we fought tooth and nail to keep it in because we thought it was just such an important moment for Mulan," Wilder said of their reaction. 

In the 1998 movie, Mulan sings "Reflection" after an appointment with a matchmaker goes awry. Mulan is told she's a disgrace who will never bring her family honor.

As Mulan wipes her face free of makeup, she sings of an internal struggle to be the person her family expects while also staying true to herself. She can't see a way to do both.

"We believed so strongly in the song and the compromise that we came to, with the powers that be, was that we were only going to showcase half the song in the movie," Wilder said of the version of "Reflection" you hear in the animated movie. 

"People, when they're watching the film, are probably not completely aware that it's really only half a tune," Wilder said. "But they did such a brilliant job with the way that they set it up and you walk away feeling, at least I did, feeling very satisfied that you had seen a fully evolved moment."

Wilder said he and Zippel completed the full song after Christina Aguilera was brought on to do a version of the song for the 1998 film. 

'Reflection' isn't the only hit song that almost didn't make it into a Disney movie

"Reflection" isn't the first hit song that Disney executives contemplated cutting from one of its animated classics. "The Little Mermaid" star Jodi Benson previously told Insider former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg nearly cut Ariel's "Part of Your World" from the 1989 movie for a similar reason. 

"The song was going to be possibly cut because kids were getting restless during the testing of the movie and dropping popcorn in the aisles and stuff like that," Benson told Insider. 

In the end, legendary Disney lyricist Howard Ashman fought to keep the song in the final movie.

Wilder is among the few people from the original animated "Mulan" who returned to work on the 2020 live-action adaptation along with Zippel. He was brought on to help the team figure out the best way to honor the music and the songs from the original animated film. 

"Mulan" is now available to stream on Disney Plus for $29.99. You can read our review of the movie here.