Review of Mulan (1998) by Ian E — 07 Apr 2013

"Mulan" is an animated film courtesy of Disney that is enjoyable for children and adults. It features catchy songs, an interesting story the audience can get sucked into and it's a nice change of pace from other children's films, dealing with serious issues like family, identity and even war & loss.

The titular character isn't some spoiled brat that isn't satisfied with her life, she's a young woman that loves her father too much to let him go out to a war that will surely be the end of him.

Her character becomes a great warrior because she learns to use her physical strength and think outside the box. There are several satisfying scenes where we get to see her take on and defeat opponents that are much bigger than she is and on top of providing some good entertainment (it's always great to see someone on the screen that's as intelligent as your are) it also encourages children that are watching to use something other than the obvious method to handle their problems.

Eddie Murphy provides good comic relief as "Mushu" and there are a decent amount of side characters that are memorable. The villain of the story is not well fleshed out however (aside from his desire to lay waste to China and kill the emperor, we know little about Shan-Yu) and there are a few too many side characters (the lucky cricket for example is totally unecessary and is more often than not a distraction from the plot).

Overall it isn't perfect, but it's a very entertaining story with good animation, a smart story and memorable songs. (Dvd, September 23, 2012).