movie review: mulan(disney's animated classic, 1998)

the good. It's not a big secret that we are big fans of Mulan here at the studio so for our first movie review, it's going to be about Mulan. The ballad of Hua Mulan is a very old chinese fairy tale, so old that people don't seem to be able to pinpoint exactly when it came into existence. You could say it's an ancient chinese tale. For this review we're going to talk about Disney's animated classic for kids, Mulan. For a chinese tale to become a Disney cartoon was probably not on people's minds before but it happened. It happened and was very enjoyable to watch. One should note that Fa Mulan is not a princess but a rather ordinary girl with a privileged life. The story starts with Fa Mulan, the daughter of a prominent chinese family who is old enough for marriage. The original poem is not long enough to actually become a full movie so Disney had to add and beef up the story. Fa Mulan is graceful, kind and a good daughter just like the other Disney princesses. She is also honorable, strong and stubborn which to be honest as a woman that can be rather tough at times. Visually the cartoon is appealing, the story is attractive and pretty accurate, the characters are easy to like and the soundtrack is worth listening to even after the movie's over. 

the cons. Depending on what light one would like to portray such a character, the name is important. In chinese "hua" means flower and not only is it a desirable thing, it holds significance in what she represents as a character. Another gaping plot hole is after general Li Shang trained his troops only, what, twelve of them ended up facing that huge mass of Hun warriors streaming down the snowy mountain to their inevitable victory. That was and is still strange. We're not sure if that's his lack of skill in making sure he had enough troops or a big error on Disney's part. Something else we would have liked to see is Mulan playing the ancient game of go/wei chi/baduk. Fitting right?

the rating. For Disney's first attempt at turning an old chinese tale into an animated classic, we'd like to give this movie an 8 out of 10.