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.
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.