Very good, but...

Rating: 8/10 (29 April 2012)

Mulan tells the story of a Chinese girl who joins the army in the guise of a man, in order to save her infirm father from the death which would otherwise await him.
Disney's 36th animated features is memorable for tackling an interesting and unusual subject (including consideration of feminism and sexism issues), for doing it with sensitivity and a beautiful sense of style, and for treating us to some first class animation and production design.
The voice cast includes a number of oriental performers, for obvious reasons: they are all Chinese Americans, and sound as American as everyone else, so there is a big chunk of "I can't see the point" at work (which is not to denigrate the voice performances, which are uniformly good. Except...).
Then we come to Eddie Murphy's turn as small dragon Mushu. This is essentially exactly the same performance as he delivered a couple of years later in Shrek: but while it worked perfectly with Donkey, it seems completely out of place here: it is a style of humour from somewhere else bolted on where it doesn't belong. Murphy is good, but totally out of place, and it jars.
The film is very good: it could have been first rate.