She's an Oriental Yentl

Rating: 5/10 (28 June 2001)

Good-looking but lumpish and derivative Disney animated musical based on Chinese folklore. Young girl, a failure in Concubine School, decides to join the Chinese Emperor's Army disguised as a boy to save her family's name. The dozen-plus "drag" jokes and vocal hamming from Eddie Murphy (as a tiny dragon) may make older kids giggle, but this is far from the studio's best work. The bathing sequence is a hoot, there are moments of beauty and wonder, but Mulan simply isn't a very intriguing character. The songs from Matthew Wilder and lyricist David Zippel are not memorable and the picture seems exceptionally long at 88 minutes. ** out of ****