Fantastic, thrilling adventure with a great message for kids

Rating: Null/10 (24 November 2015)

Fa Mulan is by far my favourite Disney protagonist. If we're simply talking about Disney heroines, that might be Jasmine from Aladdin or Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but Mulan is far more than a simple heroine. She's the hero of her story. She is the one that causes things to happen. Sure, there have been lots of female protagonists before her, but in their case it was always the case of things happening to them and them reacting to it. Mulan's story is entirely her own doing. She didn't need to go to war for her dad. She chose to, despite all the problems it would bring her. It's a small distinction, but an important one.
Furthermore, it's an amazing film even without our badass name-taking, sword-swinging, Hun-defeating, pole-climbing, ancient-bazooka-wielding hero. After a couple of rather flawed Renaissance films, it returns to form with all aspects of the film working beautifully together and with no discernible faults. Sure, some people claim that Shan Yu, the villain, is a tad boring and one-dimensional. And yeah, I can see where they're coming from, but personally I like him. He's menacing and unstoppable, with an intellect to match. He attacks China because it's there, no other reason needed. Having him singing villain songs would water him down.
Then there's of course Mushu, the dragon guardian, voiced by Eddie Murphy. And yeah, that is an odd, odd casting choice, which I'm not one hundred percent convinced works. Sure, he is the best source of comedy in the film by far and it's very good comedy. One of Murphy's best roles, in fact. But he is also pretty distracting from time to time, keeping us from fully immersing ourselves. It doesn't really ruin the film, and I'm not convinced that a more traditional voice would have worked any better either, but it is a thing to ponder about.
The songs are also great, though perhaps not Disney's best effort either. Though, keeping in mind that this is Disney, that's a pretty high bar to reach, so you cannot really fault the movie for failing. And they are good songs, with I'll Make a Man Out of You being a contender for that elusive best effort status.
I love that this movie exists. That Fa Mulan as a character exists. That there is a movie that uncompromisingly tells us an adventure story with a female hero, in this age where we still cannot get any movies with female leads, unless they're romantic comedies or dramas about the difficulties of love. That's thankfully slowly changing and this movie will be remembered as an important milestone on that journey.