#12 – Mulan (1998)
Best Character: Mulan
Worst Character: Chi-Fu
Oh, Mulan. For some reason this film seems to be very love-it-or-hate-it on this board. Despite placing it just outside the top 10 I am firmly in the love-it camp. It’s a fantastic film, filled with an exceptional character in Mulan, tremendous action sequences and a decent soundtrack. It goes into detail regarding war and death such that few Disney films have managed to match. However it does so with the charm and humor that the Disney Renaissance is renowned for. Mulan successfully takes one of the most intense and adult subject matters and transforms it into a kid-friendly film without compromising its messages.
Similar to Tarzan, Mulan has only one character that I really care about, and that character is Mulan herself. She is the only Disney princess to see action and physically fight her own battles. In fact I’d argue she’s the bravest of all the princesses. She’s the daughter of a noble but nevertheless risks her own life and the reputation of her father and family to fight for China in her father’s place. That takes immense courage. Not to mention the multiple times she exhibited her bravery on the battlefield, wiping out an entire army on the mountain peaks and showing her worth in front of all of China during the final battle with Shan Yu. Mulan is an exceptional warrior, showcasing her physical prowess as well as her mental prowess time and time again. She also maintains her caring side throughout the film, for which I’m very thankful. Too often filmmakers, when confronted with the decision to create a “warrior woman,” remove all aspects of femininity the character had in order to make them more masculine and at times robotic. Mulan is different. She maintains her charming personality and femininity throughout the film all the while kicking major ass. Mulan doesn’t want to be a man. She just wants to find her own identity, struggling to understand why certain paths are forbidden to her just because she’s a woman.
It’s just as much a film about how men and women should be considered equals as it is finding your own identity within society. Mulan is pigeonholed from the get-go as a geisha, but that’s not who Mulan is. She’s a warrior, and she proves she’s more than capable of hanging with the men time and time again, ultimately surpassing them all. The film does a fantastic job conveying these messages, but doesn’t get overbearing like some other Disney films get with their message. It’s one of the better messages Disney conveys in its films, and Mulan is a fantastic role model for young girls and boys alike.
If only there was just one more character as fleshed out as Mulan. As is, she practically carries the entire film herself. Mushu is good for a laugh or two every now and then, but I’ve never been very interested in his own personal arc. Cri-Kee just gets in the way the entire time and never really helps Mulan in any way. He’s more of the sidekick to Mulan’s sidekick and ultimately an unnecessary character. Yao, Ling and Chien-Po are good for laughs every now and then as well, and I’ve always liked their presence onscreen. That said, all we really know about them is who their dream girls are. They have very little depth. Captain Li Shang is the third biggest character after Mulan and Mushu but he certainly doesn’t seem like it. He’s just some ultra-serious military wunderkind who never really lets loose and show the audience who he really is. Chi-Fu is really obnoxious and his motivations for hating Mulan and being a dick aren’t really addressed. If he’s doing it because of tradition or custom, that’s fine, but he’s still very annoying. As far as the villains go, I’ve never liked Shan Yu. He’s clearly evil, but again, what do we actually see him do? All we really see is Shan Yu being ominous and scary. He has very little interaction with any of the main characters and he has very weak character development.