{"id":32590,"date":"2014-03-11T08:16:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T12:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/?p=32590"},"modified":"2022-02-06T00:06:02","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T05:06:02","slug":"movie-review-mulan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/movie-review-mulan\/","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: Mulan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mulan
DVD Cover Copyright Disney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 36th<\/sup> full-length animated feature in Disney history, Mulan <\/i>was released on June 19, 1998. It is based on the legend of Hua Mulan and is 87 minutes in length. A sequel, Mulan II<\/i>, was released directly to DVD on February 1, 2005.<\/p>\n

Plot Summary<\/b><\/p>\n

The title character is an energetic teen in a crisis. Her meeting with the village Matchmaker is an unmitigated disaster, and the prospects for her future are in doubt. Mulan knows she has to accomplish something to right this wrong and bring honor to her family, but what can she do? She\u2019s living in a patriarchal society with limited opportunities for women.<\/p>\n

Good often emerges from bad situations, though, and when Mulan\u2019s father, Fa Zhou, is abruptly conscripted to fight in a war against the Huns, the girl sees her chance. She takes her father\u2019s armor and marches off to battle under the male moniker \u201cPing.\u201d If any of her colleagues discover her true identity, she will be executed. Will Mulan\u2019s gamble pay off?<\/p>\n

Themes<\/b><\/p>\n

Three main themes are prevalent in Mulan<\/i>: sexism, feminism, and redemption.<\/p>\n

We see that although Mulan is daring and competent, traditional gender roles still dominate. Mulan\u2019s efforts almost singlehandedly bury the Huns, who won\u2019t die easily, and she selflessly risks her own life to save that of Captain Li Shang, but she is nevertheless deserted when her true identity is finally discovered.<\/p>\n

Mulan exudes a feminist spirit. When Li Shang questions why he should believe Mulan\u2019s pleas about the Huns having survived, the title character harkens back to the captain\u2019s trust in her when she was \u201cPing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the course of the movie, Mulan seeks atonement for her failures. Seeing that the Huns have survived, Mulan tracks down the army, which eventually accepts her apology to set up a frantic final battle. More broadly, the reason why the title character crashed the army in the first place was to redeem herself in the wake of her debacle with the Matchmaker.<\/p>\n

Mushu, a dragon who works for Mulan\u2019s ancestors, also gets a second chance. Having become a nuisance amongst the family\u2019s ancestral guardians due to past failures, Mushu helps Mulan to regain his credibility.<\/p>\n

Humor<\/b><\/p>\n

While Mulan <\/i>is a war film at its core, jokes and gags are inserted throughout. I find many of the characters, most notably Mushu, to be hilarious.<\/p>\n

Mushu\u2019s role in Mulan<\/i> is similar to that of the Gargoyles in the Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/i> (1996) and Olaf in Frozen<\/i> (2013). That is, his main purpose is to provide comic relief, and provide comic relief he does! Even when he\u2019s mad, this \u201cpowerful, pleasurable, indestructible\u201d dragon, not lizard, is laugh-out-loud funny. In addition to other antics, he scares people with his shadow, and he improvises to impersonate superiors.<\/p>\n

Also, although Grant Wood didn\u2019t paint \u201cAmerican Gothic\u201d until 1930, the two farmers from said work appear among Mulan\u2019s ancestors. Wow, they\u2019re older than I thought!<\/p>\n

Music<\/b><\/p>\n

Mulan<\/i>\u2019s soundtrack isn\u2019t among Disney\u2019s most memorable, but the music is solid nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Articulating the title character\u2019s desire to find her place in the world, I think \u201cReflection\u201d is a beautiful, heartwarming song. Because of the context, I\u2019d compare it to \u201cGo the Distance\u201d from Hercules<\/i> (1997). The popular version of this number was the debut single in the career of Christina Aguilera.<\/p>\n

Additionally, \u201cI’ll Make a Man Out of You\u201d combines figurative lyrics\u2014\u201cMysterious as the dark side of the moon,\u201d for example\u2014with amusing visuals such as Mulan catching fish with her bare hands to create a frenetic number. After an initial rendition during military training, the tune is reprised, ironically, as the soldiers adorn female clothing such as to fool the Huns.<\/p>\n

Relationship to Other Disney Films<\/b><\/p>\n

Mushu refers to Mulan as \u201cSleeping Beauty\u201d when trying to wake her up at the training camp. Sleeping Beauty<\/i> (1959) was Disney\u2019s 16th<\/sup> full-length animated feature.<\/p>\n

Also, when Mulan is pondering a fake male name to appease Li Shang, Mushu suggests \u201cAh Chu,\u201d a clear reference to Sneezy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs<\/i> (1937)! Or, maybe that\u2019s a stretch on my part.<\/p>\n

In the Parks<\/b><\/p>\n

Guests at Walt Disney World can interact with Mulan and Mushu. Mulan regularly appears at Epcot, both randomly in the China pavilion and for all three meals at the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in the Norway pavilion. Meanwhile, Mushu occasionally appears in the \u201cDinoland Dance Party\u201d at the Animal Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Mushu hosts the preshow video at the \u201cMagic of Disney Animation\u201d attraction at Walt Disney World\u2019s Disney\u2019s Hollywood Studios theme park. In fact, Mulan<\/i> was animated here; prior to 2004, this attraction featured actual animators working on feature Disney films, which included Lilo and Stitch<\/i> (2002) and Brother Bear<\/i> (2003) in addition to Mulan<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Finally, if you enjoyed the fireworks that encompassed the Emperor of China\u2019s palace, be sure to check out the various firework displays at Walt Disney World and Disneyland: \u201cWishes\u201d at Walt Disney World\u2019s Magic Kingdom, \u201cIlluminations\u201d at Epcot, \u201cFantasmic\u201d at Disney\u2019s Hollywood Studios, and both a unique \u201cFantasmic\u201d as well as rotating firework spectacles at Disneyland Park.<\/p>\n

Overall<\/b><\/p>\n

Featuring action, humor, romance, and catchy music, Mulan <\/i>is a fairly complete package. Prior to watching it twice for this review, I hadn\u2019t seen Mulan<\/i> since its 1998 theatrical run and honestly wasn\u2019t intrigued by it. Wow, has my opinion changed!<\/p>\n

What do you think of Mulan? Let me know in a comment!<\/i><\/p>\n

Sponsored Ad:<\/strong>\u00a0 Would you like to help support The Mouse For Less website in continuing their mission of being THE Disney vacation planning resource?\u00a0 You can do so by purchasing Mulan<\/em>\u00a0from our affiliate link through Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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    The 36th full-length animated feature in Disney history, Mulan was released on June 19, 1998. It is based on the legend of Hua Mulan and is 87 minutes in length. A sequel, Mulan II, was released directly to DVD on February 1, 2005. Plot Summary The title character is an energetic teen in a crisis….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":32591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disney-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82621,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32590\/revisions\/82621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}