Women — or at least heroines who save entire countries — definitely get their due in the latest Walt Disney feature cartoon, “Mulan.” Political pundits still may be complaining about the cultural effects of previous Disney cartoon leading ladies: Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel the mermaid. But how can they find fault with somebody like Mulan, a beautiful, brave Third World warrior with a voice like an angel, eyes like Going Li and a fighting spirit like Rambo?
The rest of us should like Mulan and her movie just fine, too. Highly accomplished, slick as a whistle and sometimes dazzlingly entertaining, this new Disney animated feature is a modernized version of a Chinese legend: the tale of a teenage girl who saves the empire from the invading Huns by disguising herself as a male soldier. One of the most expensive, technically elaborate and innovative of the recent Disney animated features, it owes much of its success, at least for me, to one of its tiniest (if loudest) characters: Mushu the Lizard. Mushu, Mulan’s guardian dragon, acts with the frenzy of early Woody Woodpecker or Daffy Duck and has the voice, no less, of Eddie Murphy.
Though the legend on which the movie is based is some 2,000 years old, its theme is definitely ’90s-friendly. Teenage rebel Mulan (voiced by Ming-Na Wen and sung by Lea Salonga), tries to save her aged, loyal father from forced conscription into the Chinese army by taking his place in the war against the invading Huns.
Once in the army, disguised as a man, she bonds with her comical fellow soldiers: macho Yao (Harvey Fierstein), gentle giant Chien-Po (Jerry S. Tondo) and prankster Ling (Gedde Watanabe). And she falls for her dashing captain, Shang (voiced by B.D. Wong, with singing by Donny Osmond), and winds up battling the Huns to save The Emperor (Pat Morita).
Finally, in breathtaking battle scenes — a computer-animated snow encounter that suggests Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran” and a climactic Forbidden City brouhaha probably modeled on Hong Kong period actionfests — Mulan proves her mettle.
All that may sound like some weird cartoon hybrid of “G.I. Jane” crossed with “Yentl,” “Joan of Arc” and “Seven Samurai.” But the story’s obvious feminist themes don’t overload or swamp the picture. The intricate playfulness of the movie (and especially of Murphy) is a big part of what makes it work so well. The songs are catchy; the design and animation — drawing heavily from Chinese graphic styles — are often spectacular. And the story has that slam-bang narrative drive that distinguishes the big Disney movies from their recent, sadly deficient imitators, such as “Anastasia” and “Quest for Camelot.”
There’s no doubt that this film is a Pocahontas”-like attempt to be politically correct. For my taste, though, what makes the movie work best are not so much its new elements — the mock Oriental graphic design and feminist themes — as its old ones. Little girls in the audience will probably adore Mulan, with her indomitable courage and silken, sweet voice. But the film doesn’t take off until the star funny animal, Mushu, shows up — played with fantastic verbal pyrotechnics by Murphy.
Mushu, a hopped-up little lizard who has been demoted from dragon status for misdeeds is this movie’s attempt to create a show-stopper like Robin Williams’ motormouth genie in “Aladdin.” (Or, on a lesser level, James Woods’ hip villain in “Hercules.”) And it works. Murphy ignites “Mulan.” Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, when he got derailed into machismo and action movies after 1984’s “Beverly Hills Cop.” he seemed to have lost the comic spark of his early Saturday Night Live appearances and movies. But it shouldn’t be a surprise that the new Disney feature is about a teenage girl who becomes the mightiest warrior of old China, the spark was back in 1996’s “The Nutty Professor.” And it’s back in Mushu, too. Jivey, explosive, a fussbudget with heart, Murphy’s Mushu is like a Jiminy Cricket or Timothy Mouse with attitude.
Though some critics have complained that Murphy’s turn disrupts this movie’s serious side — which is probably true — I don’t think that’s necessarily bad. Frankly, “Mulan” might have been worse off if it had continued in its earlier serious semi-“Pocahontas” vein. The movie explodes into life with Mushu. Before he showed up, I was just about to give up on the picture.
The directors of “Mulan,” Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft, are handling their first big feature. But by now the Disney formula is so sure-fire that the project has a seamless flow and effortless narrative drive. And formulas, in this case, help rather than hinder the movie.
Ever since their inception, animated cartoons have tended to celebrate the small, the underdog. In what other major popular art form could you find so many mice, bugs and rabbits as heroes? Or be so absolutely sure that if a huge ravenous cat, or even a lion, chased a tweety bird, that the cat would be the one to get clobbered? So or that the movie is stolen by a tiny, wisecracking lizard.
“Mulan” engages our sympathies because it tries something new. It wins our gratitude because it’s willing to champion a different kind, or gender, of hero. But it wins us over and gets us laughing, because it knows when to bring in the showstopper: Murphy as Mulan’s buddy, the preshrunk mini-dragon with the sassy tongue.
”MULAN”
(star) (star) (star)
Directed by Barry Cook, Tony Bancroft; written by Rita Hsiao, Christopher Sanders, Philip Lazebnik, Raymond Singer and Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, based on a story by Robert D. San Souci; edited by Michael Kelly; production designed by Hans Bacher; art direction by Ric Sluiter; music by Jerry Goldsmith, with songs by Matthew Wilder (music) and David Zippel (lyrics); produced by Pam Coats. A Walt Disney Pictures release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:27. MPAA rating: G.
THE CAST
Mulan ……………. Ming-Na Wen (acting voice),
Lea Salonga (singer)
Mushu ……………. Eddie Murphy
Shang ……………. B.D. Wong (acting voice),
Donny Osmond (singer)
Yao ……………… Harvey Fierstein
Shan-Yu ………….. Miguel Ferrer
The Emperor ………. Pat Morita
Chi Fu …………… James Hong
Grandmother Fa ……. June Foray