Excellent but still

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2002)

I do love Mulan, but I do not rank it up with what I call the four new classics (the Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Hercules...yes you did read that right). Instead it ranks the next level down, along with Tarzan (another movie I loved but that had some annoyances in it I just couldn't ignore).
This is a great movie with several good songs (Reflection being one of them...it is quite beautiful) but one of the problems is that there were NOT enough of them! The songs that are there are great, but there are so few that it just doesn't do the movie justice.
Although the movie overall is wonderful, and well well worth watching, there are two scenes that stand out from it as, in my opinion, spectacular. These are SPOILERS: the transformation scene where Mulan disguises herself as a boy (the background music and pouring rain in this scene make it simply breathtaking) and the final scene in China, which brings me to tears every time I see it.
The only reason I do not rank this movie with what I call the fab four, is the very end, which is one of the weaker endings I have seen in a Disney movie. With such a strong story throughout the ending seemed to be simply thrown on at the last minute. While I understand that the romance aspect did not really work with this movie, surely they could have done something slightly better than (and I quote) 'would you like to stay forever?" I mean please! Even if it were Mulan who says this line it would make it better.

Other than the ending though, and the fact that there simply are not enough songs, this is a wonderful movie that will make a great addition to any Disney collection.