Mulan

Directed by: Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook

Written by: Robert D. San Souci (among about thirty others)

Top Billed Actors: Ming-Na, Eddie Murphy, B.D. Wong

Genre: Children’s Adventure

Year Released: 1998

Rating: G

When China is attacked by the Hun army, the Emperor sends orders that one man from every family will be required to enlist in the army. When Mulan, a headstrong, independent young woman hears this news, she is appalled. Her father, the only man in her family, has grown old and is too weak to serve in the army. Her determination to protect her father leads Mulan to disguise herself as a man and join the army in her father’s place.She is accompanied by Mushu, a small dragon sent by her ancestors for her protection, Khan, her faithful horse, and Cri-ki a ‘lucky’ cricket purchased by her grandmother. As her group completes their training and marches into battle, Mulan struggles to keep her identity hidden while keeping up with her fellow soldiers and protecting the country and the emperor.

Sarah’s Thoughts

Though I adored this movie as a child, I hadn’t seen it for years until now. Our nostalgic viewing was prompted by two main factors. First, a close friend received a copy of Mulan along with several other Disney movies for Christmas. Second, in the past few months, Chris has devoted himself to learning all of the words to “I’ll Make a Man Out of You,” the song sung by Shang, the male lead and love interest.

Needless to say, these factors mandated our watching Mulan (and likely several other Disney movies to follow in the near future).

Moving on with the actual review, I still find Mulan to be a highly enjoyable film. Despite being primarily aimed at children, there are several references and jokes that I find incredibly entertaining now that flew completely over my head ten years ago.

I find the character chemistry to be incredibly well executed. The voice actors are all brilliant. Particular props to Eddie Murphy, who plays the obligatory animal sidekick and comic relief, Mushu. His jokes are one of the highlights of the movie experience.

Another feature I must highlight is the soundtrack. One thing Disney has always done well is creating fun, easy sing along songs for their musicals. This is certainly true for Mulan which is one of my favorite Disney soundtracks. (And I’ll confess… it’s on my I-pod)

So, despite the fact that we spent a good bit of the movie picking on the historical inaccuracies and the points of minor illogic or ignored laws of physics, we had a wonderful time watching.

I would recommend this movie for family viewing, otherwise tedious babysitting jobs or even a nostalgic evening, particularly if you were a fan as a child.

Chris’s Thoughts

I am a guy. I like guns. I like explosions and blood. I like video games and hot wings. But I'll tell you what. I like, no let me rephrase...I AM ONE HUNDRED PERCENT, COMPLETELY ECSTATICALLY IN LOVE WITH DISNEY MOVIES! And I don't care what you say like "what a girl" or "he's a pansy" because I'll pull some serious kung fu crap and beat you down! And speaking of kung fu, this review is about Mulan (hehe, nice segway eh?). Mulan is that classic Disney movie. Pretty much every animated disney movie (or any genre for that matter) has a formula. The Disney movie formula goes a little like this..ahem...1: Hereo/Heroine 2: Obligatory animal who doesn't talk but is usually sassy and 3: The love interest who doesn't seem like a love interest at first but you still know they are the love interest. Well lets break it down shall we? We have one, of course. That is Mulan. We have 2, Mulan's horse (affectionately called Bessy and other such stereotypical cow names by Mushu) and there is also the cricket who is just effing hilarious. And we have 3, Shang, the lieutenant who trains Mulan. The movie, while highly inaccurate, was still hilarious and a great fun to watch. As Sarah said, there are many jokes that as a youngin I didn't get. There was even a joke about cross-dressers (I'm not even kidding! Go watch it!). But overall the movie was fun, easy to sing with, and Eddie Murphy is in it, so its almost automatically brilliant. I loved this movie and you will too. So....watch it and stuff....yeah...so....*cough* bye.