I love the boot camp song, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You.”
I love the movie. I cry every time he says the line to her “The greatest gift and honor is having a daughter like you.” I waited my whole life (and am still waiting) for my dad to say anything remotely like that, even “I’m proud of you” and I fear I’ll never hear it.
As for the legend, it wasn’t ruined too badly IMO. My SO is Chinese, and all of the women in his family - his mom, his aunts, etc., - love it. They all own it. They watch it with their daughters. So…as well as Disney can do, but not too bad.
I *am * a little resentful of the fact that the animation is positively crappy compared to a movie like Hercules. Just look at everything that is going on in the background in Hercules, clouds moving, grass moving, and Mulan is very simplistic. I honestly think they didn’t expect it to do very well so didn’t put much money into it.
I always have to resist the urge to yell “Huzzah!” when she passes the test.
Then again, I have to resist the same urge when the Ghostbusters show up for their encouter with Zuul, so maybe I’m just weird. 
I think Mulan is great. Actually in pin yin her name is Hua Mu Lan. Jackie Chan does voice in the Chinese version.
Sure it’s kinda hookey but we watch it a lot. My favorite part is when Mulan throws down the arrow and has a big shit eating grin on her face.
BTW, I watch it with my 3 Chinese daughters. Well, they are actually sino-American joint ventures. (my wife is Chinese). the 5 year old has watched it for years - the 8 month old twins have an attention span of about 5 minutes but am sure they will grow into it.
You have really cute girls and I’ve been to everyone one of those places you described. My favorite is Guizhou. It’s a wonderful thing you’re doing.
I’m a 25 year old guy who knows nothing of the source material for the movie. It was the last Disney film I saw in a theater, and I liked it quite a bit. I thought it was a very good movie, with a nice change of pace for the female lead (as others have mentioned). And, I’m a sap, so the child/parent relationship got me.
My biggest beef was that I felt the music seemed to have no connection with the story, theme, or mood. It would have been a much better movie with different music, or even none at all. I don’t remember 'cause it’s been a while, but I seem to recall thinking during many of the songs, “oh, guess they had to do this here because a Disney animated film’s supposed to have music. Too bad It’s pulling me right out of the story.”
Also, comic relief sidekick Eddie “Mushu” Murphie was totally rediculous and formulaic. Hey, let’s get a black guy talking jive talk! They’re always good for laughs. Something else that completely detracted from the movie.
But, still, good movie. I liked it mostly.
And, minor hijack:
That’s 3-2-1 Contact. 
You have seven kids? The next time Mom asks for grandchildren, I’m going to use you as an excuse.
Well, I never really liked Beauty and the Beast, but I did like how they set up the character of Belle. She was beautiful (hence the name), but that was inconsequential to her – she was much more interested in reading and seeing more of the world. There was that whole song about “there must be more than this provincial life.” (Which was a very clever double entendre, if you ask me.)
I wouldn’t say that Mulan is a step farther than Beauty and the Beast in its portrayal of women, unless you think that the only way a woman can prove her value is to do guy things. Seems to me that the most positive message is the freedom to do what you want, not just fulfill one traditional role instead of another. That’s what Mulan is about on the surface, but I think it’s significant that she didn’t necessarily want to do tough boy things, and in fact she thought they were just as stupid as all the girly things they tried to get her to do at the beginning. She was only doing it because she felt it needed to be done, and in that sense she’s the same as Belle.
The consistent line through all the Disney movies, at least since The Little Mermaid, isn’t so much about women’s roles as it is about learning how to find your place when it seems you don’t fit in anywhere. In that sense, it’s not just between Belle and Mulan and Ariel, but also includes Lilo, Stitch, the main (and forgettable) characters from Atlantis and Treasure Planet, Tarzan, Aladdin, and some others I’m sure I’m forgetting.
Now whether a message of independence and being yourself is still valid when it’s been pounded into a formula by a huge multinational entertainment consortium – that’s for people other than me to decide.
Yeah, 7. One bio-kid, 3 step-kids, 3 adopted kids. Feel free to use me as any sort of excuse, but…what sort of excuse am I for not having grandkids?
Except (and correct me if I’m wrong; it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie) it wasn’t all just Belle putting up with abuse. It was Belle sacrificing herself to free her elderly father from the Beast’s grasp. Remember, the father got to leave in return for Belle staying.
Well, if some people go around having seven kids, some other people have to have none to balance out. Right?
Use him as an example, and Mom might harp on you instead for not adopting too
to give her those grandkids that way 
Mothers are wile like that.
Many of our friends are so happy for us because they feel we’ve taken the burden off of them. Glad to help out. (Note that I only “had” one–all the others I’ve taken on responsibility for, but their entrances into the world were not my decision. :))
Back to the OP, some moments that move me:
Even Aragorn saying
pales before the scene where the Emperor and everyone in the city (and, by extension, everyone in China) bows to MuLan because she has saved China*. Not the least because there likely was a real MuLan.
And when she takes credit for her work:
Shan Yu: No! [He turns to Shang, who is now conscious.] You! You took away my victory! [He is hit by a shoe.]
Mulan: No! I did. [She pulls back her hair.]
Shan Yu: The soldier from the mountain!
*I’ve heard a great deal about you, Fa Mulan. You stole your father’s armor, ran away from home, impersonated a soldier, deceived your commanding officer, dishonered the Chinese Army, destroyed my palace, and… you have saved us all.
I haven’t seen Mulan, but I just wanted to say I smiled when I saw the pic of those little girls. They’re so cute and look so happy!
My problem with Beauty & The Beast, which people have danced around without actually saying it, is that it romanticizes Stockholm Syndrome. With showtunes. “Be our guest” my ass…
I enjoyed Mulan when I saw it. I think it’s great how Disney has moved away from Western Europe for their source material.
Robin
Ethilrist, that’s an absolutely perfect way of putting it. Succinctly, sweetly.
That’s true, but that doesn’t exonerate her from becoming positive-emotionally invested in the Beast. That she had to bargain for her father’s life is enough to warrant some lifelong resentment. It was more than getting started on the wrong foot. As upthread, it romanticizes Stockholm Syndrome.
For the OP–I am a mother, rather than a father, and we have a 14yo daughter (natural American, not adopted and not Chinese–MUCH to her current anti-American dismay).
However, I really thought that Mulan showed a lot more courage than would be expected even of a 21st-century American girl, and I never had any qualms about letting my daughter watch it.
I don’t know the original Chinese story. However, the movie does show a young girl/woman who is not afraid to stand up for herself, and who is willing to accept risks that threaten her own life to save both her family and her country.
I can’t see any true comparisons between Mulan and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, though. I LOVED French fairy tales when I was growing up, and Disney’s version of Beauty and the Beast doesn’t compare to the original Perrault story, where the girl gives her life willingly to spare her father’s life, in comparison to her sisters’ selfishness and willingness to lose their father as long as they get the things they desire. However, in the original story, Belle truly believes that she is giving up life, not just freedom, when she offers to take her father’s place in the palace. In the Disney story, it is assumed that the viewers have already heard the story, and know how it will end before they come to the movie, so there is no heart-wrenching parting when Belle leaves for the Beast’s palace.
Disney’s Mulan, however, is a story that any 20th-century Western girl can relate to, as long as they do not believe that they must obey the men in their lives, and that they can make decisions for themselves. In fact, I think that Mulan’s story is much closer to the Disney version of Pocahontas, which at least shows that females have a right to choose their own destiny, even if it isn’t historically accurate.
However, let’s not get into Mulan II, which is an absolute joke, as far as I am concerned.
I like this movie a lot, mostly for reasons already mentioned. A couple of comments of my own:
I didn’t like the songs the first few times I saw it but they mostly grew on me. But I agree that the movie could easily have been made without them. I think that is why I originally responded negatively to them, because they pulled me out of the movie.
I realize this is a ridiculous complaint but I think the plot of the movie makes little sense after the avalanche.[spoiler] That should have been the climax, she gets thanked by the Emperor, goes home and reconciles with her father. The whole business about the 5 remaining Huns sneaking into the castle just to kill the Emperor (where are you going to go after that?) had me shaking my head in disbelief the first time I saw it. I just don’t see the characters’ motivation.
Though I do like Mulan’s idea that the soldiers should sneak into the castle disguised as women…no one knows better than her how women are overlooked in that world.[/spoiler]
And yes, the jive talking sidekick thing has been done to death.
I really loved it. What can I say, I’m a sucker.
I think most rants are based on the book that was supposedly the basis for the movie: Warrior Woman, by Maxime Hong Kingston. Disney has never been known for its accuracy when remaking legends/fairytales into movies, anyway. We studied Warrior Woman in one of our Asian-American lit classes and a lot of Kingston’s contemporaries condemn her for supposedly exploiting the stories of a culture she claims as her own but actually knows nothing about.
Mulan is probably the last Disney animated film I really enjoyed. That general (damnit, can’t remember his name) was soooooo hot. (heh)