Review of Mulan (1998) by Ken S — 06 Dec 2011

This is pretty solid all around. I don't what it is....but during the early half of the 90s, the Disney movies had really good and catchy songs, but in almost all the movies of the second half the songs just feel forced.

Pretty much from Pocahontas on for me. I know some would disagree with me, but I really felt like the songs were too generic Disney, with no heart to them at all. And in things like this, or Hercules, or Hunchback, I just don't really feel like they HAVE to be musicals at all.

Disney didn't HAVE to make all their animated films musical. In fact there was a time when they often didn't. But in the 90s it became a sort of expected requirement, and I just don't think that their hearts were really in it after Lion King.

But beyond the rather mundane musical element, Mulan is pretty great. It has style, an awesome score (score is different than the songs), solid characters (the zany Eddie Murphy character fits in to this story much more than the Gargoyle zany characters fit into Hunchback), and a good plot.

Interesting sidenote: Eddie Murphy would go on to reprise the character of Mushu as Donkey in Shrek. Mulan is a winner for me.