Set in ancient China, a period that’s always naturally fascinating and atmospheric, a young woman called Fa Mulan struggles to behave like a proper lady. When the imperial army conscripts a man from each family to fight in a war with the unusually grey-skinned invading Huns, she takes the place of her handicapped father by disguising herself as a man. So she has to not only fit in among the other soldiers in a pretty rag-tag group, but also bring honour to her family by proving herself in battle.
Mulan is a very pedestrian story, you know exactly where it’s going to go: the girl pretends to be a man, outshines her peers, is discovered and shunned, but ends up saving the day anyway. While the message incorporates Chinese notions of honour and identity and does so fine, it’s still your very standard girls-can-do-anything-boys-can-do kind of movie. That said, it’s done for the most part well and the way it tells this story feels at times pretty new. But on the other hand the writing isn’t up to snuff. This is particularly apparent in the humour where a lot of the jokes just fall flat and are cringe-worthy from time to time (“you don’t meet a girl like that every dynasty”). However there are a bunch of really good and even some inspiring scenes, and the character relationships are strangely believable. Yet the way it addresses supernatural figures like spirits and dragons feels a tad forced and obligatory given the era and culture. The battle scene is pretty great. But the lead-in to is rather weak. You see what I meant by “evening out”.
The best part of the movie is definitely Mulan herself. Maybe I’m partial to female characters in stories set in a patriarchal world who become great warriors (one of the reasons I love Eowyn in Lord of the Rings), but Mulan is very likable and endearing both as herself and her alternate identity Ping. Mulan of the original legends is sort of a Chinese Joan of Arc and this movie captures that adequately. You can really relate to her insecurity, integrity, and embarrassments, as well as her confused motivations for joining up. It confirms she’s, like Ariel and Jasmine, another teenage allegory, but with a different possibly more mature focus. The film does a decent job setting her up as an underdog too. She’s not immediately capable -in fact no one is; it takes hard work before she bests her fellow soldiers. I really like the scene where she first transforms herself and takes off from home, and even though it’s a little too obvious, I like that she thinks outside the box during tense moments. She’s got a natural clumsiness and is strong-willed, courageous, but also humble, and the animators as well as voice actress Ming-Na Wen put a lot of effort into showing that. Hell, once or twice, especially during the palace fight, she almost felt like a Miyazaki heroine and I think she’s generally a great role model for kids. But again, her material isn’t always the best and some of her action scenes are a bit too much. The way she rescues her commanding officer Li Shang for instance. He’s voiced by B.D. Wong and isn’t very interesting. Some like to drop this movie as Disney’s first gay coupling, and nice though it may have been, he never shows romantic interest in her until after her true sex is revealed. And even then it’s very underplayed which I like. It would have been weird to have a Twelfth Night style romantic comedy subplot thrown into this movie about China at war. And yeah when it does inevitably get to that liar revealed cliché and Li’s subsequent attitude to Mulan because of her gender, it’s awful. But at least it doesn’t last long. Mulan’s cricket is a pointless side character who’s not quite as annoying as the little dragon Mushu. I don’t mind Eddie Murphy but save for a few instances, he’s not funny here. I know that comic relief characters in Disney movies are generally a bit more contemporary in their dialogue and personality, but Murphy does it a little too well and it’s not a strength to this movie the way it is to Shrek. He’s not the worst, but for a Disney trope he’s one that could have been done in a more entertaining way. And haven’t we seen enough animal companions like this who only the protagonist is close to?
As you’d expect with this type of movie, it touches on gender roles a fair bit, best exemplified in Mulan’s posse who represent a variety of stereotypical male attitudes. Harvey Fierstein’s Yao is the tough brute (ironic for anyone who knows Fierstein), Ling is the hapless chauvinist, and Chien-Po is the timid but kind giant. And all of whom are idiots. I do admire the differences in their stereotypes and the commentary it’s trying to get across, but they are still mostly just stereotypes and all the gender-based jokes are pretty old. (Also for some reason Ling reminds me of Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender) The representative of established patriarchy Chi-Fu is a little too on-the-nose, though he does get a laugh or two owing to the distinct accent of his voice actor James Hong. In addition to Hong, Ming-Na, and Wong, the film made sure to cast a number of prominent Asian-American actors. So you’ve also got George Takei as the Ancestor spirit and Mr. Miyagi himself, Pat Morita as the Emperor! Both do a good job, as does Miriam Margolyes as the matchmaker and the great June Foray as Mulan’s grandma who doesn’t appear nearly enough. The oddest casting choice though is Jose Ferrer of all people as the villain Shan Yu, leader of the Huns. Shan Yu is one of the movie’s weakest elements and is easily the most forgettable villain of the Disney Renaissance (even Ratcliffe from Pocahontas left more of an impression). His design is idiotic and by extent the rest of the Huns as well. He never feels threatening, doesn’t have any depth whatsoever, and his defeat is ridiculous. The whole climax in fact is actually pretty underwhelming.
To be honest the animation is slightly underwhelming too. It’s good, but not often does it show off the way Disney usually does. Another reason I find the comedy generally doesn’t work is that many of the comedic character designs and physical humour look like stuff I’d see on a kids TV show at the time. The only times the animation feels impressive are in the aforementioned transformation scene and the battle and following avalanche. It’s not bad animation and actually looks better than Hercules a lot of the time, it just doesn’t stand out. The music for the most part is the same. “Reflection”’s not bad, nor is “Honour to Us All”, but both are a little boring. A pop song called “True to Your Heart” plays over the end and feels very un-Disney. “A Girl Worth Fighting For” is okay if irritatingly catchy (the papyrus animation is neat) but it has about the worst transition out of a song I’ve ever seen! Tonally it’s horrendous, going from this upbeat number to the tragic discovery of a massacre within seconds. What’s worse is it doesn’t end, it just stops. It’s almost funny! But I will say “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” is actually very good, and is one of the best montages I’ve seen in Disney. It is almost like a Rocky training sequence but it’s got some fun character bits and Mulan’s conquest by the end legitimately feels triumphant.
So yeah for everything Mulan does great, there’s some other area it’s lagging in. I really like Mulan herself, some of the voice talent, a handful of sequences, and some of the ways they handle a clichéd story. But it still is a clichéd story, a number of side characters and jokes are unimpressive, the villain’s a bore, the writing less than stellar, and that one transition in particular is really horrible. It’s largely just an okay movie, but is still worth seeing once for those good elements. If you want a great animated movie set in ancient China though, your better option is still any of the Kung Fu Panda films. They even have James Hong too!
Next Week: Tarzan (1999)
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