Mulan (1998)

Directed by Tony Bancroft & Barry Cook. Starring (voices) Ming-Na Wen, Eddie Murphy, BD Wong, Miguel Ferrer, James Hong, Harvey Fierstein, Gedde Watanabe, Jerry Tondo, June Foray, Pat Morita, George Takei, Soon-Tek Oh, James Shigeta, Freda Foh Shen. [G]

Disney-fied version of an ancient Chinese folk tale set during the Northern Wei dynasty, chronicling a young woman named Mulan, eager to honor her family and protect her father from certain doom. Doing so requires her to dismiss traditional gender roles, assume the guise of a male, and join the Imperial Chinese Army to defend the empire from Hun invaders led by black-hearted chieftain, Shan Yu. The animation can be as sweeping as it is striking (especially during the battle scenes), and Mulan is a good heroic character and positive role model for children, but there’s a missing opportunity here to have done the legend justice and tell it as a dramatic story on both the epic and intimate scale. Instead, there are isolated moments of gravitas and visual excitement, but they too often get crowded out by comic relief and Western world clichés. In a blatant attempt to recreate the manic comic energy of Aladdin’s Genie, Eddie Murphy voices an excitable, smart-mouthed, and pint-sized dragon called Mushu, but the voice actor and character aren’t nearly as endearing or funny here as Murphy’s Donkey would be in the first Shrek movie. (As far as Mulan’s sidekicks are concerned, her much quieter cricket and horse are the charmers.)BD Wong portrays Mulan’s commander—and unnecessary love interest—Captain Li Shang, but the singing voice is provided by…Donny Osmond?? Speaking of singing, this batch of tunes from Stephen Schwartz is okay, but far below the high bar set during the early years of the Disney Renaissance. A live-action remake arrived in 2020.

67/100