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Second favorite Disney movie!! I love Mulan. I saw this in theaters for my 10th birthday and I made my parents take me three more times after that because I loved Mulan sooo much. Shang is hot.

My favorite Disney movie, oh how I can relate! I love the songs,the music that plays when Mulan makes her decision to take her father's place is my favorite. Who wouldn't like a lady who can kick ass?

Here in Japan you can usually rent a Hollywood video in its original English, or with a Japanese language soundtrack. For some reason, this particular video said something like `2 languages` on its sleeve so I (wrongly) assumed that the technology was such that you could choose which soundtrack to listen to, as you can mostly when such movies are shown on Japanese networks.
I got home to find No they really meant 2 languages. Right up until the closing song all the characters spoke bilingually simultaneously.Tuning in mentally to just one language was a major headache. Thankfully this bright idea seems not to have been widely repeated...
That said it`s a pretty cartoon with a feminist theme. I do wonder about the ancester worship.That said, it is more tongue in cheek than Pocahontas. My favorite quote:
``I should have prayed to the ancesters for luck.
How lucky can they be? They`re dead....``
And just from a normal plot perspective the final emperor kidnap sequences seemed incongrous with what had gone before. So overall not one of Disney`s best.

Mulan (1998)

Having recently watched Lady General Hua Mulan, I went ahead and plugged this in, thinking it would be fun to contrast the two.

For action and drama, the Disney version is better.

But I like the music in the Shaw Brothers opera version better than the Disney, which was all bubblegum pop.

Still, having watched anime like Princess Mononoke and Akira, I'm pretty well ruined when it comes to watching Disney. I want to see blood, buckets of blood gushing. I want to see heads flying off. Arms being hacked. Arterial fluids spurting. Not going to see that in a Disney movie. So tame.

The drama is handled better, in the Disney, though, with Mulan's decision to go off and fight carrying a lot more weight than it did in the Shaw Bros version.

But then the character of Mulan in the Disney film appeared weaker at first. She became an accomplished martial artist in the army training. In the Shaw Bros, Hua Mulan was already an expert archer (shown right at the beginning, bagging a quail for the dinner table).

Both the Shaw and the Disney are about equal on sheer entertainment value. The Disney has freaking Eddie Murphy, plus June Foray (on the English soundtrack). The Shaw Bros opera is just pure theater, and is fun to watch.

I'll be interested in seeing how Michelle Yeoh's Hua Mulan stacks up, if it's ever actually completed.

Mulan (1998)

Oh, why, oh why do i torture myself so by watching bad movies? This cliched-ridden, uninspiring romantic comedy has zero laughs and zilch chemistry. And it's simply painful to watch what is evidently crap.

Best in Show: Voice of Eddie Murphy
One for the future: A repeat performance from Eddie Murphy in Shrek
Stand-out scene: Rescuing the emperor
Brainer or no-brainer: No brainer
Stands up to one viewing or repeated?: Repeated
DVD commentary any good?: n/a

TV
Banned in China on the grounds that this Disney take on a 2,000 year-old Chinese folktale disrespects the source material, this is an entertaining enough addition to the Disney canon. Having one of their revered symbols, the dragon, depicted as a wise-cracking Eddie Murphy was a step too far West for the Chinese. As a precursor/virtual carbon copy to his Donkey in Shrek, Murphy's hapless but aspirant dragon attempts to protect Mulan (Ming-Na from ER) through her adventures and regain his place among her family's spirit guardians. Mulan is an unattached girl who, when her father receives his call-up papers to fight in the just outbreaking war with the invading Huns, steals away in the night and takes his place. As it's a Disney movie of course there's a set plot structure that is adhered to rigidly, and I did find myself wondering how much better this would have been if it had had the "anything could happen" approach of Spirited Away, but accepting that this is bound by set limitations I found it watchable. Not that i'd seek out last year's Mulan 2. The makers' of Spaced fears that Daisy's interpretation of Mulan's lament may infringe a Disney copyright were unfounded.

Great movie! Eddie Murphy was a delight! Good songs in it also.

Mulan is unremarkable in almost every aspect. However, two things shore it up.

Eddie Murphy, and the scene where the Huns charge down the mountain.

Eddie Murphy is doing a prototype Donkey, and he does it with great flair and energy.

The songs are boring and samey. Nothing to hear there.

The animation is quite good, it reminds me of Aladdin.

So, watch it for Eddie, nothing else

I think that Mulan was excellent. For once, characters could roam around without in breaking out into song every five minutes. The one thing I hated about all the old Disney movies is that they were musicals. This movie probably had fewer songs than any other Disney flick at its time. And also, the songs were cute n' catchy, instead of overwhelmingly cute and sickening. I left this movie saying wow, I actually wouldn't mind watching it again. I recommend this movie for all to see!