Mulan (1998) Review

Let's face it. In the 1990's the bar on animation had been raised to its peak. With films like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, Mulan had a lot to live up to and it doesn't. It's the weakest of the 90's Disney animated features.

Inspired by an early sixth century poem, Mulan tells the story of a free-spirited Chinese girl of the same name. Mulan (voiced by Ming-Na) is afraid that she will never bring her family honor so she decides to enter the army to battle the Huns lead by the supposedly evil Shan-Yu (Voiced by Miguel Ferrer). It's the only way that she can protect her father, a former soldier, from having to go. She cuts her hair and spends far too much of the film pretending to be a guy. She receives help from a shamed dragon (voiced by Eddie Murphy) who thinks that by helping her he can retake his place as a guardian over Mulan's family. To make a long story short Mulan manages to fight off the Hun army before being discovered.

This picture is really all over the place. There is no clear structure to the story nor does it have very interesting characters. I found Mulan to be rather whiny and selfish. She doesn't go to save her father. Just so she can be someone she likes looking at in the mirror. She's not sure what she really wants and so I don't feel any reason to root for her. Additionally I don't root for the bad guy because the filmmakers never bothered to explore what makes him tick. The only thing we hear is that he's mad about a wall being built.

The biggest issue I have with the film is the songs. There is no subtlety to them. The songwriters were trying to duplicate the Menken/Ashman collaborations so much that what they ended up with are songs that have no consistent form and don't really do anything to help the story or have the characters express what they can only express in song. I can't hum a single one of these songs.

The only thing that hints at a great film is the score. I distinguish the score from the songs as a way to further pan the songs in that they don't fit with the score as composed by one of the greatest composers in film history, Jerry Goldsmith. The animation is nice to look at but with the lack of structure and even less songs that I can get into, the film ends up being bogged down to a murky mess that did at one time have potential.

★★