They look a real handful, as well as being very cute, etc! They look like they’re from Southern China. Guangzhou? My colleague tells me that the Fa in Fa Mu Lan is not a regular Chinese family name, for what it’s worth.
The foster-daughter I looked after for a while - half Chinese/Filipino - loved Mulan to death and knew every word. It helped that she looked like Mulan (as much as an 11yo can). Mind you she loved Brittney too …
For me it was about as good as Disney animated films ever get. But by no means did I get into it as emotionally as you seem to have.
Yep, I don’t subscribe to the theory but I have heard it way too much.
[feminist viewpoint] Beauty is a bad stereotype. [/feminist viewpoint]
Strange thing is these aren’t the same people who complain Loony Tunes and Animaniacs were too violent.
Everybody has a pet peeve. I think mine is political correctness. My kids love Animaniacs, and I encourage it as I think these shows were intelligent as opposed to lets say Sponge Bob or Ed, Edd & Eddy.
I have strange rules. Dumb upsets me more than “Is it PC?”
I discourage, Ed, Edd & Eddy, Barney, Sponge Bob. I encourage PBS Kids and Discovery Kids. I watch Animaniacs & Looney Tunes with them.
Via the Netflix delivery system, my kids are being exposed to what I believe are lost gems. Muppet show, Riki-Tiki-Tavi, The Point.
They know Mary Poppins better than any of their friends. They actually quote Animaniacs. My daughter at age 8 understands that some movie work for kids and some work for kids and Adults. Incredibles was an immediate purchase as whole family loved the movie.
I think the theory with Beauty and the Beast is that Beauty is the stereotypical female who is rewarded for her selflessness. She puts up with the Beast’s crap and gets the ultimate reward: a somewhat reconstructed male who is willing to marry her and give her his castle to run. :dubious: Note that Beast is a truly stereotypical male: gruff exterior hiding a heart of gold, which people don’t generally see because of his inability to communicate effectively. Personally, I see Beauty as a step on a path toward Mulan. Beauty is literate, confident, and self-assured. So what if she likes helping other people?
jrfranchi, have you turned your kids on to 1-2-3 Contact? I loved that show when I was a kid; I don’t know if it’s still on, but it was great.
To the OP: your daughters are cute as buttons. When they hit their teen years, I suspect they will turn your hair grey. I like Mulan, but my dad never got it (“Why does she want to go fight? Let me tell you, I’ve been in the army. I’d rather stay home and pick flowers.”), but it’s a right popular movie. I think the message is that with enough hard work, you can achieve your goals. That’s a good lesson for all kids, I think.
The music isn’t the best, but there are still some great songs. Yeah, I’m a sucker for the Disney cartoons.
Seriously? Beauty and the Beast was always my favorite Disney movie because Belle was such a strong character: she ditched the good-looking football-hero type in favor of presumable spinsterhood; she gave consistent sass to a deadly seven-foot-tall bizarro monster guy; she never compromised herself or her principles. What makes her a bad stereotype/role model?
Exactly. Mulan just gets to do tough boy things, like climb trees and stuff, while Belle (thanks – forgot her name) does the more traditional female things, like (it’s been too long since I’ve seen it) rearrange the cupboards and dance?
At the end of the day, Belle and Mulan are sisters – motivated by a love of family and both seeking to protect their fathers. Noble goals and in line for women traditionally. (Consider female suffrage in the US and the arguments that ultimately got women the vote were not arguments rooted in fairness or equity, but arguments that women needed to vote so that they could better control the quality of the agriculture and standards for schools, so that they could feed and educate their families.) I think that we are seeing a change in Disney heroines, in line with the change in the greater society. Like I said, Belle is on a path straight to Mulan. Makes me wonder what’s next.
I may be stranger - I don’t believe in PC. I still prefer to say prejudiced or discriminatory than “racist”, for example.
Campers, the thing about Belle is that she’s still, well, beautifu. But I suppose the film and the book (French?) it was based on wouldn’t have sold so well if she was just average. The typical male thing with Beast is a good point too, as is the matty him and do the housekeeping thing. Perhaps these films reaffirm that sterotypes are a necessary evil. Or do they point to a different “truth” - i.e. that women really can be happier when they are helpers to a man?
I agree that Disney works in stereotypes – Cinderella is beautiful, under all that dirt, while her stepsisters are ugly. The insides and outsides match (not quite like the real world). That’s what makes Gregory Maguire’s books so interesting – he takes the familiar fairy tales and turns them on their ears.
Are stereotypes true? No, but they’re based on essential truths. That’s why we connect to them, why they seem so right to us. We understand why Mulan has to dress up as a man – men stereotype women as fragile and incompetent in her world, so she passes as a man to get where she thinks she needs to be. And she fails, at first, at the manly tasks she’s given. That fits our understanding as well.
And her motivation suits – she’s female, and so tries to avoid confrontation where possible, but ultimately takes difficult steps because it’s what she thinks her family needs. Truthfully, we’re more used to seeing this as a motivation for girls than boys, but I think the concept of sacrificing one’s self for a father (or parent) is gender neutral.
But if your question instead is whether women are more likely to sacrifice self for the good of a group (whether it be a family or otherwise), I think the answer is yes. Why? Don’t know – could be genetic, could be learned. But women do tend to deal with problems differently than men do. I’ll leave that there, so as not to hijack the thread further.
One last question, for the OP: how do your girls react to the Little Mermaid? Her relationship with her father is much more troubled than Mulan’s, I think. Or else she’s just more openly rebellious (Mulan’s all about stealth rebellion).
Disney’s Florida animation studios only managed to produce two movies in its brief lifespan, both of them IMO blockbusters – Lilo and Stitch and Mulan.
Mulan gets regular play in my household, and it’s one of my (very few) favorite Disney “princess” movies because the damsel isn’t passively sitting around pining for True Love or whatever – Mulan gets out there and kicks major hiney. My wife thought it oversimplified the original poem, but considering the effort in reducing a cultural epic to an 80-minute movie, I consider that nitpicking. The only thing that bugs me musically about the movie is the final segue into the credits, and that’s only because the “rave” struck me as an anachronism; I suspect that idea got tossed in by a manager who wanted a “hip” finish to the film.
Oh yeah, and I wish the villain had gotten more air time. A badass design like that should get trotted out before the camera more often.
My favorite throw-away gag line is…Yao: I’ll get that arrow, pretty boy, and I’ll do it with my shirt on.
The big difference between Mulan and all the other Disney “princess” movies is that all the others focus on the boy/girl thing. Belle and the Beast work out their relationship troubles, Cinderella wants to dance with the Prince and marrying him is the result of her good looks and charm, Snow White marries the Prince, Ariel falls for the air-breather and evenutally they work things out, Sleeping Beauty does pretty much nothing except sing purty and the Prince comes to save her, etc.
Mulan has a difficult situation to deal with: China is being invaded, her father will go and be killed if she does nothing. She takes the steps she feels she must (and becomes a hero) and then returns home. The boy/girl stuff is very limited and not at all part of the main story.
Mulan wants to please her father (and mother), sure–don’t most kids?–but she has a life of her own.
Personal detail:
1st adopted daughter is now 4, was 10 months when we adopted her. She was found in WuZhou city, GuangXi province and is probably a farm girl from somewhere nearby.
2nd adopted daughter is now 3, was adopted at 20 months. She is from GuiYang city in GuiZhou province. Probably a city girl.
3rd adopted daughter is 6. She is from HangZhou, ZheJiang province where she had lived 3 years with a foster family. We brought her home in March '05.
We also have bio boys 21 and 22 and girls 19 and 17.
Jeepers, don’t get me started about my daughters, I’ll run on all day.
My biggest beef with Beauty and the Beast is that Belle and the Beast basically start with an abusive relationship. It’s a little Jane Eyre-ish, really. He treats you bad, honey! Why are you falling in love with him? He locks your father in the tower for asking for directions, he’s moody, verbally abusive, and attempts to deny Belle food. It buys into the whole myth that you can change a man, that when he’s an ass, he doesn’t actually mean it because he’s just misunderstood. Belle puts up with all that crap, and in the end she is rewarded a shining prince, with whom she will presumably live happily ever after. Don’t get me wrong, I like the movie, it’s just that when you step back to look at it, the WTF quotient is high.
The fairy tale and the Disney movie differ significantly from each other. The version I’ve linked is the most well-known French version, but there are tons of different versions. In the fairy tale, there is no Gaston, Belle (called just Beauty) has two incredibly selfish sisters and three brothers, no singing furniture, Belle is even more selfless and much more simple. It reminds me of the love like salt tales a little when it comes to the sister dynamic. If anything, the fairy tale version is even less PC than the Disney version, since Beauty is way more submissive and goody-goody.
Belle is, however, a massive leap forward from the Snow White and Sleeping Beauty types. And I do like Mulan quite a bit, mostly for the reasons NoCoolUserName listed.
My mother’s analysis of this movie was that Mulan could be viewed as a representation of an ABC (American-Born Chinese) in conflict with immigrant parents. She’s outspoken, rebellious, and headstrong in ways that are considered unfeminine by the status quo.
My wife thought it oversimplified the original poem, but considering the effort in reducing a cultural epic to an 80-minute movie, I consider that nitpicking. The only thing that bugs me musically about the movie is the final segue into the credits, and that’s only because the “rave” struck me as an anachronism; I suspect that idea got tossed in by a manager who wanted a “hip” finish to the film.