Mulan will remain as one of Disney's best films for a long time. Personally, the film is categorically within my top three Disney films. After 20 years, the animation and effects are still clean and superb. The music never gets old and the story about a girl saving China to bring honor to her family and nation still remains relevant. There are a lot of broad themes throughout the film that make the viewing a learning lesson, and yet the storyline is extremely entertaining to watch. There is action for kids to maintain their attention span, but also moral values to keep Mulan as a tool for adults to teach from.
The cast clearly put in effort during the voice acting sessions, bringing out strong characters and whimsical scripts to accompany them. Miguel Ferrer (Traffic) is terrifying as the lead villain, Shan-Yu. Yet, Eddie Murphy (Coming to America, Shrek) as Mushu is hilariously exaggerated. At the center of the story is of Mulan, voiced by the charming-but-tough Ming-Na Wen (Street Fighter). The list of voice actors go on-and-on as the film is densely packed with characters to support Mulan's journey. While the voice actors are important, the directors chose to use different actors for the singing portions which are crucial to Disney's cinematic formula.
Mulan has the most recognizable soundtrack out of every Disney film with hits including "Reflection", "I'll Make a Man Out of You", and "A Girl Worth Fighting For". Donny Osmond's (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) voice provides the overly-masculine Shang tracks. Lea Salonga (Aladdin) provides a powerful counter to Osmond's Shang. One of the themes portrayed through the music is the role of gender in modern society. For a 1998 film, Mulan was progressive and remains progressive the more we learn about Hollywood's scandals. I look forward to the live-action remake that is set to release in 2020, but I hope that they can keep the messages from the original film and modernize them even more.
The Bottom Line: Mulan gives audiences the hero it needs and questions gender roles in a way that adults and children can both understand clearly.
Score: 9.8/10
The cast clearly put in effort during the voice acting sessions, bringing out strong characters and whimsical scripts to accompany them. Miguel Ferrer (Traffic) is terrifying as the lead villain, Shan-Yu. Yet, Eddie Murphy (Coming to America, Shrek) as Mushu is hilariously exaggerated. At the center of the story is of Mulan, voiced by the charming-but-tough Ming-Na Wen (Street Fighter). The list of voice actors go on-and-on as the film is densely packed with characters to support Mulan's journey. While the voice actors are important, the directors chose to use different actors for the singing portions which are crucial to Disney's cinematic formula.
Mulan has the most recognizable soundtrack out of every Disney film with hits including "Reflection", "I'll Make a Man Out of You", and "A Girl Worth Fighting For". Donny Osmond's (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) voice provides the overly-masculine Shang tracks. Lea Salonga (Aladdin) provides a powerful counter to Osmond's Shang. One of the themes portrayed through the music is the role of gender in modern society. For a 1998 film, Mulan was progressive and remains progressive the more we learn about Hollywood's scandals. I look forward to the live-action remake that is set to release in 2020, but I hope that they can keep the messages from the original film and modernize them even more.
The Bottom Line: Mulan gives audiences the hero it needs and questions gender roles in a way that adults and children can both understand clearly.
Score: 9.8/10
Image credit: By Gkaidan - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67121492
