Looking for something new to watch in December? Here are some picks to fill your Watchlist.
Related lists from IMDb users
Title: Mulan (1998)
Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Miguel Ferrer | ... | Shan-Yu (voice) | |
| Harvey Fierstein | ... | Yao (voice) | |
| Freda Foh Shen | ... | Fa Li (voice) | |
| June Foray | ... | Grandmother Fa (voice) | |
| James Hong | ... | Chi Fu (voice) | |
| Miriam Margolyes | ... | The Matchmaker (voice) | |
| Pat Morita | ... | The Emperor (voice) | |
| Eddie Murphy | ... | Mushu (voice) | |
| Marni Nixon | ... | Grandmother Fa (singing voice) | |
| Soon-Tek Oh | ... | Fa Zhou (voice) | |
| Donny Osmond | ... | Shang (singing voice) | |
| Lea Salonga | ... | Mulan (singing voice) | |
| James Shigeta | ... | General Li (voice) | |
| George Takei | ... | First Ancestor (voice) | |
 |
Jerry Tondo | ... | Chien-Po (voice) (as Jerry S. Tondo) |
This retelling of the old Chinese folktale is about the story of a young Chinese maiden who learns that her weakened and lame father is to be called up into the army in order to fight the invading Huns. Knowing that he would never survive the rigours of war in his state, she decides to disguise herself and join in his place. Unknown to her, her ancestors are aware of this and to prevent it, they order a tiny disgraced dragon, Mushu to join her in order to force her to abandon her plan. He agrees, but when he meets Mulan, he learns that she cannot be dissuaded and so decides to help her in the perilous times ahead. Written by Kenneth Chisholm <kchishol@execulink.com>
Looking for some great streaming picks? Check out some of the IMDb editors' favorites movies and shows to round out your Watchlist.
Mulan is an entertaining tale of a young girl who takes her father's place in the Chinese army. I think what I appreciate most about this film is that they don't spend a massive amount of time on her possibly being discovered. There's one scene that creates that kind of tension, but otherwise she remains hidden until the movie is ready for her to be revealed. The rest of the time she's just treated like any other soldier who is trying their best to become an effective warrior in the battle against the Huns. I like the training sequences, I find the other soldiers that she meets to be charming, and I'm always a sucker for those scenes when the instructor presents a seemingly impossible task and our protagonist figures out how to make it happen. The film manages to condense the war down to a single moment, but I thought it was a surprisingly effective way of making our heroine a savior on such a grand scale that it allows people to ignore centuries of tradition that minimize the role of women.
Where I think Mulan suffers to some degree is that the creators felt beholden to the Disney animated tropes. The small cricket and dragon are not important to the plot and mostly provide slapstick comedy breaks. I'm all for Eddie Murphy being silly in an animated film, but the tone of Mulan feels less suited to his antics. In fact, I suspect the live action remake of this film will be one of the best because they will probably excise Mushu and Cri-kee from the script. The musical numbers are good songs, but they also feel a bit unnecessary in this story. I wouldn't say they bothered me, because the tunes are catchy, but I didn't think they needed to be there. My only other complaint about Mulan would be that the entire film feels a bit rushed. This might also be based on the fact that they were trying to meet some Disney animated movie standards, and keep it under 90 minutes for the young kids. I just felt they could have used a little more time to let some aspects of the story breathe and develop some of the characters a bit more. However, Mulan works quite well as a film, and it also looks great. This is definitely one of Walt Disney Animation Studios' successes.