Directed by: Barry Cook/Tony Bancroft
Written by: Rita Hsiao/Philip LaZebnik/Chris Sanders/Eugenia Bostwick-Singer/Raymond Singer
Based on life of Hua Mulan
I watched this one while I was on an extended hiatus from the site, so my reivew will be short:
I liked it.
Ok. A little bit more. It’s a super interesting story of a young girl in ancient China who disguised herself as a man so she could join the army instead of her father. It’s just as relavent today as it was in ancient China and in 1998 when it was made. Beautiful animation and a pretty funny performance by Eddie Murphy as the obligatory animal friend.
I honestly don’t remember what my issues were that made me grade it 3 1/2, but I do know that it was nowhere near perfect. Just a really fun movie. Maybe it’s the love interest? Sure, it’s fun to have a big military guy be sexually confused by his attraction to one of his soldiers. But it’s also really forced. (I also don’t think it’s nearly as out in the open as a lot of people really want it to be. Shange isn’t really attracted until well after he knows she’s a girl.)
I’m interested to see how Disney can manage a live-action version without making it pretty violent. But they’re Disney. They can do just about anything. Maybe not always well, but they sure do it.