Musical Mondays: Mulan (1998)

     Mulan was released on June 5, 1998. The 36th Disney animated feature it is directed by Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft and written by Rita Hsiao, Philip LaZebnik, Chris Sanders, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, and Raymond Singer. Based on the Chinese Poem "The Song of Fa Mu Lan" it takes places in China during the Han dynasty where Fa Mulan (Ming-Na Wen) impersonates a man to take her aging father's place during and join the army when a Hun invasion leads the emperor to call for a general conscription.

     By 1998 the Disney Renaissance was winding down. Beginning with The Little Mermaid in 1989 the company returned to producing more animated musical films, something which they had moved away from since Walt Disney's death in 1966. The first four films in this cycle, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King (The Rescuers Down Under is a bit of an outlier), were all received well both by critics and at the box office. 1995's Pocahontas broke this trend, receiving mixed reviews from critics and making less then the previous three films despite having the biggest budget of them up to that point. The following films, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules made successively less money despite costing even more. There are multiple reasons for this. The rise of CG animation with Pixar's Toy Story meant that Disney had to compete in a more diverse market. I also think that the Disney formula was wearing a little thin and the studio began selecting subject matter that didn't lend itself well to said formula.  

     Mulan represents a slight reversal of this trend. Not only did it do better then Hercules, both critically and commercially, it has also held up better over time. The premise of Mulan is, I think, much more appropriate for the Disney brand then Hunchback or Pocahontas, with their darker, politically charged undertones, or Hercules with its epic, mythological character. The filmmakers were able to craft a movie that, while fitting more comfortably in the Disney formula, also plays with that formula and even subverts it to some extent. The "Disney Princess" movies made since then, particularly Tangled and Frozen, owe a lot to Mulan.

     Mulan, of course, has a somewhat feminist narrative. It is, after all, about a woman joining the military at a time and place when this was considered completely unacceptable. But, while many similar films make the mistake of creating an all-too-perfect heroine and/or making all the men around her incompetent, Mulan features a really grounded, human protagonist. She's not a great soldier at first, she has to train and work hard to get their. She also has a solid, nuanced motivation. On the one hand she is trying to save her father from having to fight and probably getting himself killed. At the same time she wants to prove to herself that she is capable of succeeding at something.

     Early in the film, before she runs away to join the army, we see her going to a meeting with the local matchmaker, one which goes terribly wrong thanks to her clumsiness. The song "Reflection" reveals her inner crisis:
"I will never pass for a perfect bride or a perfect daughter,
can it be,
I'm not meant to play this part,
Now I see,
that if I were truly to be myself,
I would break my families heart."

     Mulan struggles to find her place in the patriarchal society of Han China. She doesn't believe that she will ever make a good bride and fears the shame this will bring on her and her family. Part of the problem is that her heart simply isn't in it. But when her father is put in danger she steps up. It's her love for him that really motivates her to be better. This is reflected in her commanding officer, Captain Li Shang (B. D. Wong), the son of General Li, who struggles to get out of his father's shadow. It's their mutual love for their respective fathers that draws the two characters together and makes their relationship work. I do think it would have been better for Li Shang to fight Shan Yu (Miguel Ferrer), the Hun warlord who kills General Li, together with Mulan in the film's climax, as it would have strengthened their bond and given him the opportunity to avenge his father's death, but oh well.

     Mulan takes a certain amount of inspiration from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which also features a woman disguising herself as a man and falling in love with her master. This leads to all kinds of awkward sexual tension and, as a result, I found this film surprisingly mature at times, though in never strays in to crude or tasteless territory and remains child appropriate. Most of the films funniest scenes are the one's that play around with gender roles.

     The main source of comic relief in the film, Eddie Murphy's dragon Mushu, doesn't fare as well. Yet another attempt to recapture the lighting in a bottle that was Robin William's Genie from Aladdin, Murphy fares better then most (the actor certainly knows how to do improvisational comedy), but ultimately feels like more of a distraction then anything. The cast is strong otherwise, particularly Ming-Na Wen as titular heroine. Wen is able to conveys Mulan's early awkwardness and her later sense of confidence and strength with equal aplomb.  B. D. Wong is also quite good as Li Shang, conveying the characters masculine exterior but also his inner sense of vulnerability and affection for his father. Also worth mentioning is Soon-Tek Oh as Mulan's father Fa Zhou. Though stern and a little overly honor obsessed, Fa Zhou also shows a real tenderness and love for his daughter which really sells her own love and devotion to him.

     The soundtrack honestly feels like it was kind of an afterthought. There's only four songs: "Honor to Us All", "Reflection", "I'll Make a Man Out of You" and "A Girl Worth Fighting For", the last of which is basically just filler. These songs aren't bad, and they work in the film, but with the exception of "I'll Make a Man Out of You" they're all pretty basic and forgettable. At this point, it seems, Disney had pretty much given up on casting actual singers for their musicals, so the sings are dubbed by other actor's. Sometimes this works (Lea Salonga is a pretty good stand in for Ming-Na Wen) but others times it sticks out like a sore thumb (Marni Nixon sounds nothing like June Foray's Grandmother Fa). Jerry Goldmith's score on the other hand, is just brilliant. Blending a traditional orchestral arrangement with more Asiatic instrumentation, the score is driven by leitmotif, something which is beginning to seem more and more like a lost art nowadays. The music that plays when Mulan decides to take her father's armor and run off to join the army is particularly memorable, as the synth, 80's action movie style tune, gives way as Mulan's theme, boldly and heroically, takes over.

     The animation is quite good, as one would expect from a Disney film in this era. I do think it's a little bland at times but the characters are all really expressive, the sweeping panoramic backgrounds are a sight to behold, and the film makes really good use of CG for the bigger action scenes, blending it seamlessly with the hand-drawn elements. It's just a shame that the animators didn't do more with the Chinese setting, which presented a real opportunity to pursue a more unique art style. This is one area where Hercules definitely did it better.

     In the end, while songs are a little lacking and the animation is a bit bland, solid storytelling, fun humor and a magnificent score from Jerry Goldsmith make Mulan one of the better post-Lion King Disney films.

Score: 8/10