Review of Mulan (1998) by Matthew H — 02 Mar 2014

Mulan is for a mediocre animated feature from Disney. I felt that the early 90's showed the studio delivering some of their strongest animated films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King since their heyday.

However, by the end of the decade, the ideas started to suffer, and I felt that the quality of film that Disney has delivered has been hit and miss. Mulan for me just didn't entertain me the way I had hoped.

I felt that the heart of previous films wasn't there, and the filmmakers tried to replicate the same old formula, but to no avail. The animation here is great, and the film looks wonderful, however I felt that the story just was a clichéd affair, one that we've seen many times before, and done better as well.

Mulan is a film that tries to outdo other films in Disney's catalogue, but it never delivers anything memorable to really outshine previous films in the studios catalogue. The film never goes beyond its potential, and it should have stood out among the other standout early 90's Disney films.

This is standard Disney fair, and it's a formula that is overdone. With that being said, it's no wonder that Disney ventured into more live action films and computer animated features, which at least brings much more interesting ideas, concepts and storylines to a film.

Mulan just came at the wrong time, and it is a film that though looks great, just doesn't have anything going for it to really make it a standout Disney feature. The film relies on an overdone formula, and one that ends up being tiresome in the long run.

Stick with Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King if you want some of the best of Disney's 90's animated features.