'You don’t meet a girl like that every dynasty.'
Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »
It´s weird. Throughout history, the vast majority of cultures on Earth have kept women confined to domestic roles. Yet, every so often, you hear about the lionization of female individuals who not only transgress social restrictions but beat men at the male game. For example, during its entire history, France won a war only when lead by a woman--Joan of Arc (Napoleon doesn´t count as a Frenchman because he was born on Corsica back when Corsicans were more Italian than anything else). Catherine the Great was second only to Peter the Great in Russian history; she expanded Russian geo-political influence to such an extent that Russia became viewed as a threat and not just a giant blob on a map. Amelia Earhart is as celebrated of an aviation pioneer as Charles Lindbergh is.
In China, people talk about Mulan, a female warrior who led Chinese armies to victory over Mongols and Huns from the north and the west. The Mulan stories are based on true historical accounts of women in various wars, though those accounts have all been conflated into one quasi-mythological figure. Disney´s "Mulan" posits the heroine in northern China, fighting off invaders who did not see The Great Wall as a deterrent.
Ming-wa, who did a superb job playing the lead in Buena Vista´s "The Joy Luck Club", gives Mulan a sense of sophistication, playfulness, and gumption. B.D. Wong, who played a scientist in Steven Spielberg´s "Jurassic Park", provides Mulan´s love interest with his voice. The movie is fairly realistic when compared to other legends that have been adapted into movies by Disney. There´s no magic, and the appearance of Mulan´s ancestors as spirits are consistent with ancient beliefs about the perpetuation of human souls after bodily passing.
"Mulan" is essentially Disney´s first foray into an all-Asian environment. The movie´s dialogue is in English, though this isn´t really an issue since the French "Beauty and the Beast", the African "The Lion King", and the Arabic "Aladdin" were all given the same treatment. However, "Mulan" is problematic in the same ways that its studio siblings are. For example:
1) Eddie Murphy as Mushu the dragon. The so-hip-that-it-hurts attitude Murphy brings to the movie is entirely out of place given the Chinese cultural environment of the movie. In fact, his general hyper-activeness is annoying.
2) The "Asian" accents used by the voice actors. They just sound stupid, period. If one can´t do an authentic accent, then one should not be doing an accent at all. Ming-na and B.D. Wong didn´t use forced accents while playing the leads, and not once is their characters´ "authenticity" ever in question.
3) Mulan´s name. The Romanization of Mulan´s full name is "Hua Mulan", but the movie calls her "Fa Mulan". This is really confusing, especially since this version of the Mulan legend is set in the northern part of China. In the north, people use the Mandarin dialect, and her family name of "Flower" is singularly pronounced as "Hua" by Mandarin users. Even the differing historical accounts that attribute other family names to Mulan do not contain references to "Fa".
Disney´s movies (animated or live-action) all share basic structural and interpretational faults. The best ones ("Beauty and the Beast", "The Lion King") minimize the impact of these faults and are effective at making viewers overlook such abuses. The worst ones are gross exaggerations of stereotypes as well as indications of lazy ignorance. "Mulan" is far from being in the "worst" lot, though it is not as artistically successful as one knows that it could´ve easily been.
Still, the movie generates genuine excitement during its epic battle sequences. This is also a noteworthy effort in that the heroine is much more "take charge" than other Disney females. Finally, while some of the voice actors´ accents are lamentable, the general depiction of Chinese culture is quite wonderful. There´s even a great joke--"You don´t meet a girl like that every dynasty." :-)
Video:
The 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen picture is not as pleasant to look at as the images found on the "The Lion King" DVD or "Beauty and the Beast" DVDs. A number of colors look dull or slightly faded, and there´s a slight electronic sheen. This is still a very good presentation of the movie´s visual elements, but it doesn´t sparkle with the same brilliance as found on other recent Disney discs.
Note: Strictly speaking, Disney is not giving consumers theatrical aspect ratios when movies like "Aladdin" and "Mulan" are presented in 1.66:1. American movie theatres usually exhibit movies in either 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. However, 1.66:1 can probably be considered the original aspect ratios of most non-scope Disney animation.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]12247[/release]