MULAN
US, 1998, 95 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Eddie Murphy, Ming- Na Wen, Leia Salonga, B.D. Wong, Harvey Fierstein, George Takei, Miguel Ferrer, James Shigeta, James Hong, Pat Morita, Miriam Margolyes, Marni Nixon.
Directed by Barry Cook, Tony Bancroft.
From the Disney Studios. While Aladdin lived in the Middle East, the filmmakers have now gone to China, the Far East, for an entertaining fantasy adventure that boasts a vigorous heroine, Mulan herself, disguising herself as a warrior to save her father from conscription. She trains, is skilful in warding off the invading Huns with an avalanche and ultimately saves the day and the Emperor in the walled city. The battle scenes and the army in snowy landscapes are particularly impressive animation. It's a sign of the times when movies are marketed for China and for audiences appreciative of a vigorous leading lady. (And Eddie Murphy entertains as the voice of the dragon.) Lively adventure.
1. The popularity of the film in the late 90s? For adult audiences, for children?
2. The Disney world, animation, computer graphics, style of animation, drawing? The transposition of the American-style Disney world to Chinese history?
3. The quality of the animation, the human characters, the range of creatures – with their fearsome and comic touches, the battle sequences, the training?
4. The musical score, the songs? As sung by Mulan, the captain, the troops? The training? The irony of the song about training a man – as Mulan in disguise does her military training?
5. The Chinese situation, the Chinese history, the oppression from the emperors, the wars? The focus on the family, Mulan’s place in the family? The matchmaking? The conscription, Mulan’s decision? Her disguising herself, with her friends the creatures? Going to do the training, her being valiant? Participation in the war? Being found out, her being a kind of Chinese Joan of Arc, saving the day, saving the country?
6. The character of Mulan, as a girl, her place in the family, her being upset, the prospect of marriage, the matchmaker and the devices, the accidents? Her lucky cricket? Her relationship with her grandmother? The crashes? Her father ordering her to go? The decision, cutting her hair? The lizard and its protection? Going to the camp, training, with the male troops? The ambiguity, her bathing? The doll? The experience of war, the dead village, the attack, the avalanche? Her being wounded, her identity discovered? Her not being killed? The news of the Huns? The irony of her attraction to the captain, falling in love with him, the secret?
7. The captain, tough, his song? Father, adviser? The training? His being saved? The triumph? His scepticism – the sword? The truth and his love for Mulan?
8. The portrait of the family, the detail, the characters, the parents, grandparents? The expectations, Mulan breaking their expectations?
9. The portrait of the soldiers, the comedy, the avalanche, the dark side of the moon? The personalities, the training, warfare?
10. Eddie Murphy and the comic dragon, his patter (and the adult jokes), comedy? The cricket? The lizard, the horse? The guardians?
11. The serious aspect of the film, warfare and battles, the Huns, the slaughter, the arrows? The avalanche? The Huns in the city? The visual presentation of the Huns?
12. The fighting in the city, the taking of the emperor, the importance of the emperor and his leadership, dressing the women, burning the bird? Heroism, fighting, the emperor escaping? The fireworks?
13. The emperor, the truth about Mulan, everybody bowing, her being a heroin, going home to her father and family, her marriage?
14. The background characters, the particularly Chinese aspects – the possibility for American audiences to understand something of transcultural issues? Or was this simply a pleasing Disney film for American and worldwide audiences?
