Mulan

Disney hits a triple.

Features the voices of: Eddie Murphy, Donny Osmond (Donny Osmond?)
Director:
Disney pulls themselves out of a slump. After the stifling political correctness of Pocohontas and its unDisney-ish breast fetishism and the hypocrisy of The Hunchback of Notre Dame with its looks-don't-matter theme which has the stud getting the babe anyway; Mulan gets it mostly right.

I say "mostly" since we have the Disney cliches:

  • the plucky heroine
  • the plucky heroine's lust object
  • a gaggle of goofy buds
  • the effeminate and officious bureaucrat/flunky
  • the very mean and very powerful villian
  • a story where we overcome adversity and find true love
  • and mediocre songs

    Mulan is the story from ancient China of a girl disguised as a man taking her father's place when he is conscripted. Reason: the Huns have breached the Great Wall and are making a beeline to Bejing. And we know they're baddies since they're rendered in shades of gray. (Huns have defective melanin?) And their eyes are black with yellow irises. Ooooooooooo, very bad.

    Side note: Disney got into hot water with China over their production of a movie which glorified Tibet. China is as populated as a country gets--a stupefying market of movie-goers waiting to be tapped. Now come's a movie which glorifies a Chinese legend. Coincidence or kowtowwing? You make the call.

    The plot moves fitfully from Mulan's home life (go see the village matchmaker) to army training to a battle to Bejing. Five writers are listed and I believe it--Mulan does not overflow with smooth segues.

    And there's the music for those interminable interludes. Just stuff. That's all--stuff. As mediocre as it gets. One wishes Disney would just do a cartoon and leave the songs in the waste basket. After all, Toy Story clicked without the singing. That'd free up a good ten or fifteen minutes for better exposition.

    Having gotten the bitches out of the way, one has to congratulate Disney for the sheer quality of its animation. As good as it gets. The comedy bits and how smoothly they're animated is the usual Disney excellence.

    Eddie Murphy is the voice of the dragon--a lizard who's swallowed a Bic Flic given how "powerful" he is. Murphy tries to out Williams Williams' genie from Aladdin. While it's not that caliber, he comes pretty close. Plus Murphy's dialogue is not near as dated as Williams' topical refs, so Murphy gains ground there.

    Disney can be counted on to deliver the Big Action Sequence. They deliver and how. I'm referring to the sequence where the Huns come pouring over the snow-covered ridge on horseback and what happens to them. The director's use of "camera" angles and editing are superb. This sequence alone makes the movie worth seeing. But then there's the Bejing sequence...

    While Mulan has its Kabuki-rigid Disney cliches, the terrific quality of its action and comedy sequences more than make up for them. It's a triple and well worth seeing.

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