Disney has done it again . . . making a film based on a classic story.

The tale of Mulan is based loosely on the Chinese legend of a young Chinese girl who risks her life by disguising herself as a male soldier and saving China from the invading Huns. Now with a sprinkle of Disney pixie-dust, Mulan becomes the poster child for all heroines everywhere.

Fa Mulan is the only child in her family, but despite her beauty, she cannot truly be herself, be matched with a normal man and still maintain her family's honor. And if that wasn't disappointment enough, the Chinese Army summons all of-age males to fight, her ailing father has no choice but to serve his country. During the night, Mulan cuts her hair, dresses in her father's uniform and runs away to take his place in the Army, knowing that she would rather risk her own life on the battlefield than have her father die as a soldier. Of course, the biggest risk of all is that if Mulan's true gender is revealed, she will have to give up her life as punishment. Meanwhile, the family ancestors have Mushu, a gong-welding dragon (who looks more like a little lizard), to guide Mulan to what she is meant to become. The tests and trials will not be easy, and impressing the leader, General Shang, is a different story in itself, but Mulan witnesses tragedy, joy, friendship, and tries to show that it takes a special type of man to save a empire - sometimes, it takes a woman.

In my opinion, Mulan is an ultimate tale of "gender-bending" and "girl power." Mulan is a lively, smart girl, which is not exactly what guys in the ancient Chinese times are looking for in a wife. She's practically a tomboy, so one would think that pretending to be a guy would be a piece of cake, right? Wrong. Even as her alter-ego "Ping," Mulan has to learn to be just like the best soldiers in China or return home as a failure. The whole girl power message is more fluent in the sequel, but it is rather frowned upon here - girls have to be beautiful, perfect, and willing to do whatever their husbands ask of them; Mulan is the opposite, although she is beautiful. She prefers to speak her mind about things, whether it is necessary or not and that tends to get her (as well as her family's honor) into hot water.

She's got the personality, spunk and independent will and determination to do what she wants, kind of like (some of) the Disney Princesses do. Heck, if Mulan were an actual "Disney Princess," she'd definitely be one of the strongest personalities out of all of the traditional outline of a Disney Princess (Of course, she's not a princess . . . watch this one and the sequel!).

The animation and design is very smooth and fits the setting of Ancient China very well. The designs for the characters really suit their personalities and qualities - Mulan's is simple yet classic as both a guy or a girl, while Mushu's make him seem small, despite his huge comedic presence and ego. General Shang is an interesting opposite for Mulan - he wants nothing more than to follow his father's footsteps and be a good leader, but he also manages to set the standards very high for his first set of soldiers. The music is very Chinese-esque and the songs fit the tones and instruments of the time, all while still keeping rather in touch with the historical sense of the time period. (Actually, it's not perfect, but it's getting close, darn it.) Mulan's main problem is shown early on in her song, "Reflection", in which she feels ashamed to be a daughter that will never be honorable as someone that everyone wants a perfect wife to be (Actually, this was my favorite song of all in the entire film . . .), while Shang's motto is "I'll Make a Man Out Of You", which reminds me of those training montages in old fighting films showing struggles, defeats, inner battles, and eventually the success of the underdog. The comedic fun of Mulan/Ping's new friends is humorly shown and sung in "A Girl Worth Fighting For"; the Gang of Three (as they are called at other times) tells what they look for in a perfect wife, much to Mulan's dismay. There's another song that plays in the end credits called "True to Your Heart" and it mainly is the theme of the entire film - stay true to yourself and you can do anything.

My only real gripe about the whole film is the villain himself, Shan-Yu. He is dark in appearance, his presence is noticable, but he is one of the weakest villains in Disney animation. One may think that the film would probably be better either without him at all or with just crappy generic Hun soldiers attacking, but he does, however, get a little bad by the final battle in the Imperial Palace..So I guess he's not so bad . . . but he's still one of the worst.

In conclusion, I don't really have much to say about this film. I personally love the feel and strength of the movie, as well as the message of a woman being just as strong as a man (as I mentioned eariler, the sequel overdoes this theme, but it's still enjoyable), and Mulan's strong will makes her a character that you want to root for. This is good for both boys and girls, but mainly the message of being a strong female focuses more on the girls; however, boys will enjoy the battles and action sequences, as well as the humor.

I say that this is a must-buy film, and I agree that you should check out the sequel "Mulan II" right afterwards for more girl power fun.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Mulan is another Disney movie based on an old story. However, this time they left behind Europe in favor of Asia by adapting The Legend of Hua Mulan.

Mulan is a young woman of marriageable age, but has trouble mastering the skills that are considered necessary for a good wife. After being rejected by the matchmaker again, news arrives of a conscription in order to defend China from the Huns. Mulan's father is old and injured, but must go because he's the only man in the family. Mulan steals his sword and armor to fight in his place.

The story works well, I think. Mulan is one of Disney's more interesting heroines. Unlike so many of their characters, she's far from helpless, right there in the thick of things. Mushu, played by Eddy Murphy, is also incredibly funny adding comic relief along the way.

The style of the film, while clearly the Disney-style, takes some inspiration for the art of China. The scene that impressed me most was the battle in the pass against the Huns. It's amazing that the people at Disney were able to animate so many different characters.

Mulan does have a few flaws. The songs aren't really all that good, but they don't really detract from the movie. Also, Shan-Yu wasn't really a very memorable villain.

So, I had a few minor quibbles, but mostly the movie is good. All in all, Mulan is worth a look.

Before he played a wisecracking underdog named Donkey, Eddie Murphy voiced a wisecracking underdog named Mushu. By 1998, most people feel that Disney had lost its magic established by The Little Mermaid through The Lion King. But really, Mulan is a great film and much under appreciated. Earning $120 million, the film was profitable as well, though after The Lion King's $300+ million take a few year earlier, expectations were too high.

The story centers on a young Chinese woman who disguises herself as a man and helps to fight against the invading Huns. Its got the classic sidekicks with the aforementioned tiny dragon Mushu, and the funnier cricket. It has great songs with Christina Aguilera's breakout hit Reflection, and Donny Osmond's I'll Make A Man Out of You (Sung by Jackie Chan in Mandarin on the DVD). I suppose it could have had more songs though. The movie is pretty front loaded with the music and the end tends to drag a bit as a result. Mulan is a strong female hero, who is refreshingly not a princess. The film has comedy and action, and even manages to sneak in a love story. As I mentioned before, the ending is the weakest part of the film keeping it from being perfect, but overall, this movie fits in with the top tier of Disney animated movies. Mulan cross dresses to the tune of an A-.

A pretty good story, this is. Though I disagree with the Chinese dragon design, Eddie Murphy is one of my favorite actors, and he's HILARIOUS! The "dragon, not lizard" thing is very true, at least amongst the dragon I know of. Yeah, the whole bathing sequence is really awkward. I didn't get it when I first saw the movie. Overall it's a pretty good film. I really hadn't thought about it much before.

"This cricket's a lucky one!"

Mulan is a very enjoyable movie. Eddie Murphy made a great Mushu. I loved the "Be A Man" song sequence.

The first half of the movie is very funny. It does start to slow down a little over half way through, but not so much that it ruins the movie. The storyline is pretty good, even if it is a bit predictable.

The characters are great and most have a good amount of depth. The voice acting is excellent and every actor fits their role well. The soundtrack is very good. Dramatic, happy and sad. It conveys the mood of the scene well. The songs are good, and some are very funny. The animation is also top notch. There are a few continuity issues with like the Huns army, it tends to grow and shrink in size, as does Shang's small force.

Overall this is a great film, and quite funny in places. It's one in my DVD collection.

No, Inkwolf it's not just you. The 'girl fighting to be equal to guys' thing IS getting a bit used up. Or if it isn't, it wasn't deployed very well here. You know what spoiled this for me - I kept thinking of how it reminded me of the Cliff Richard movie 'Summer Holiday'. But anyway...

I watched 'Mulan' when it first came out, and enjoyed it quite a lot. I was fully expecting to give it at least three stars after watching it again last night, but instead I found myself rather disappointed by it the second time around.

In hindsight, perhaps it just seemed good by comparison to some of the ordinary stuff Disney had made immediately before it.

Don't get me wrong there is still plenty I like about this movie. Some of the scenery is impressive (though it could have been more so) Mulan is a likable enough character the battle scenes are visually well done, though rather brief. But I found myself unable to really engage with the movie. Nothing about it really connected on any deep emotional level, and it could hardly be accused of being intellectual.

What didn't I like? Frankly the 'girls are at least as good as boys' thing just irritated me. The songs... I never really noticed this the first time around, but the songs are just very weak. There's only one in the whole film that's halfway memorable. Most of the rest are musically ordinary, and lyrically atrocious - and there are quite a few of them. If they'd scrapped them and given more time to Jerry Goldsmith's score, the soundtrack might have been more memorable.

An interesting reversal from my first viewing. Initially I found Eddie Murphy's dragon slightly irritating (unsurprising, since I find the real Eddie Murphy VERY irritating) - this time though, I thought he was the only really decent character in the film. His was the only dialogue which had any real wit or pizzaz to it, and I found that this time around I quite liked him. The grandmother was good too, even if she seems to have been recently reincarnated as an Inuit in 'Brother Bear'. Unfotunately she only gets a few minutes of screen time.

I wanted to give 'Mulan' 3 stars, and I nearly did, but in the end it just fell a little short. Do watch it it's a perfectly reasonable film, and I enjoyed it a lot more than 'Hercules', for instance. It just seemed to have a potential that it didn't live up to.

Mulan is a movie that came out during the time when it seemed like Disney was running out of steam. However Mulan is such a glorious achievement that marks a return to everything that made Disney great in the first place that it could've easily come out during the rollicking times of movies like Aladdin and The Lion King. The story is very strongly plotted and dramatic. It's easy to identify with the main character and the seriousness of her situation. Mulan isn't a princess nor does she fall in love. She wants to help her father but she knows how dangerous it is for her to do so. And Disney wisely chose to avoid negatively portraying the sexist conventions of the ancient Chinese society and just chose to focus on Mulan's struggles. The relationships between the characters are wonderfully strong and thankfully neither of Mulan's parents get killed or are cliched stereotypes. Mulan's father is still stern, but he isn't done in an over-the-top way like Ariel's father in The Little Mermaid. The animation is utterly brilliant and fluid, with remarkable depth of field and convincing smoke and fire and mirror effects. The action sequences are truly breathtaking and the final two scenes, where the crowd bows to Mulan and where Mulan's father shares a tender moment with her get me emotional and lift my spirits. And thankfully, the humor of the typical Disney sidekicks is actually very funny. The only weak link of the movie are the songs, but this is a minor quibble as the movie isn't really a song-filled extravaganza like many of the other Disney movies. The songs are still very nice, and "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" has a certain camp flavor that oddly fits the whole cross-dressing theme.

All in all, Mulan is a fabulous film.

Is it just me, or is the 'girl fighting to be equal to guys' plot a bit used-up? Yeah, I know the struggle still goes on...but doesn't the constant rehashing of it really send kids the message that a woman has to be something extra-special to compete with men?

Still, Mulan is a fun movie. Pulls out all the stops of a girl-in-disguise movie (the bathing scene, the trying to act macho, the having to listen to guys talking about women) but Mulan is a very likeable character from the beginning, and her struggles are easy to sympathise with.

The scenery is beautiful, and many of the scenes are breathtaking...the battlefield, the attacking hordes in the snow. And as usual, fun and interesting characters abound. (Though the dragon sidekick was noisy and annoying. And only occasionally funny.)

Mulan has a reasonably good story. It covered what it needed to cover and didn't linger too long on the whole Mulan-as-a-guy thing. Eddie Murphy made a good little dragon, Mushu, and has all the good lines in the film. Well, no that's not quite true, Grandma has some excellent one-liners as well and I would've liked to have seen more of her character.

The Hun villain of this film, Shan Yu, not only doesn't get enough screen time for me to be afraid of him, but his bird-like features are more bizarre and distracting than evil. I liked how Mulan was drawn--mostly because she's the first Disney heroine in a long time who doesn't have a three inch waist. On the whole the animation does its job--with the computer generated parts well integrated with the traditional-style elements--but there wasn't anything jaw-dropping about it.

As for the songs, the first thing that strikes me is that they seemed too short. Mulan's self-commentary song "Reflections" is really tiny--particularly if its suppose to be defining our main character. Again, the songs were just there. They didn't detract from the story but I didn't think they added much to it either.