Disney Movie Challenge: Mulan (1998)

 Disney Movie Challenge

Mulan (1998)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021. 

As far as the later half of the Disney Renaissance goes the movie that gets the most talked about is Mulan.  This not a princess “Princess Movie” is actually a fun action movie.  When Disney originally started developing the film it was going to be a more traditional rom-com, but someone at Disney realized it will be better if they make it more closely follow the Chinese legend of Mulan.  

The movie starts with Mulan (Ming-Na Wen) trying to fit in as the typical Chinese girl by learning all the traditional roles in hopes the Matchmaker will match her up with a good man.  But despite all she does everything goes wrong and she is told she is a dishonor to her household.  When the Huns attack China the Emperor (Pat Morita) declares that each family will send one man to fight in the army.  Mulan’s father who was injured in a previous war is the only man in the house and agrees to go to war.  Mulan doesn’t want to see her father go off to war secretly cuts her hair, steals his armor and pretends she is a man to fight in the army.  The ancestors want to send the "Great Stone Dragon" as a protector but instead of waking the dragon Mushu (Eddie Murphy), a small dragon, destroys the Stone Dragon. Mushu decides to go himself to earn the respect of the ancestors.  With Mushu's help Mulan begins training with other soldiers and tries to keep her identity a secret.  Once on the battlefield she proves herself worthy but when the troops find out she is a girl they kick her out of the army.  But when she realizes the Hun army isn’t defeated and still getting ready to attack she heads to the  Imperial City to protect the Emperor.  

For the longest time I didn’t know this was a musical.  While it technically is a music it doesn’t feel like the musicals of the early Renaissance era.  That might be because for the first time in almost 10 years the music wasn’t done by Alan Menken.  In this one the score was done by another legend Jerry Goldsmith known for movies like Patton, The Omen, Alien, and Gremlins.  There were also 5 songs in the movie and they were written by Matthew Wilder (best known for the 80’s song “Break My Stride”) with lyrics by David Zippel.  None of the songs are as memorable as previous Renaissance films, and while the score seemed to have some odd choices overall it was pretty good.  The ending song "True to Your Heart" by 98 Degrees definitely makes the film feel very 90's.

As a fan of action films this movie hit the sweet spot for me.  Great action good story, and who doesn’t love a good underdog movie. Mulan doesn’t start out as a great fighter; she trains with the rest of the recruits and learns how to become a warrior.  She proves herself worthy and we see her struggle for he success. The love story, while thin, somehow works.  My biggest complaint (and unpopular opinion) is that Mushu drags the story down.  While Eddie Murphy's energy works really well for Donkey in Shrek I find the Mushu mostly annoying and an unnecessary distraction to the story.

Overall: A fun action and adventure movie.  I feel the movie would be better without Mushu who is just annoying.  Also confused why they consider this a Princess movie since Mulan is not a princess?

Random Facts:

To help promote the film McDonald’s released a special Szechuan sauce for its Chicken McNuggets.  This became a gag in the cartoon Rick and Morty and the demand for the sauce was so great that McDonald’s released it again.  

Stephen Schwartz was originally hired to write music and songs for the movie, but after Jeffrey Katzenberg left Disney for Dreamworks he hired Schwartz to write the music for Prince of Egypt.  Disney then cut ties with him and the 4 songs he wrote for Mulan were discarded.

Mulan was the first ever Disney Film to get released on DVD. The film almost got a PG rating because it used the term cross dresser. Christina Aguilera had her first hit with the song Reflection from the film.