Mulan Review (class project)

Rating: 10/10 (4 May 2018)

Mulan Worldview Analysis
In the Disney movie Mulan, the hero is in fact named Fa Mulan. Her goal at first is to give her family honor by being able to be matched with a good husband. When that plan doesn't work out, she then comes back home to find out her father is having to be sent off to war to fight the Hun army. Her goal then shifts to taking her father's place in the army by disguising herself as a boy and bringing her family honor in that way. That fact that she is a woman in the army disguising herself as a man is her character flaw because it eventually leads to her "apparent defeat." The apparent defeat happens after fighting the Huns and the main adversary, Shan Yu. She is discovered as being a woman after being injured in battle and is left there for dead by her love interest, and the general, Li Shang. After you think all is lost, her and her guardian from the ancestors named Mushu, discover that the Huns are planning to attack the emperor of China. She rushes down to China, as a woman now, and is faced with the final confrontation with Shan Yu and after an intense battle, she defeats him. The revelation of the hero is that even though she is a woman, she is just as tough as any other man in the army. The whole country sees that as well and bows down to her in the end. In conclusion, the moral of this movie is that women are just as strong as men and possibly even stronger. A woman can do anything a man can do and this movie teaches equality of the sexes.
The movie gave a lot of supporting evidence to prove the moral of the story. At first, when she goes off to war disguised as a guy, she is stumbling around and can't fight very well. After training though she becomes one of the best warriors in their group and even saves Li Shang from his down death. She also defeats the Hun's leader Shan Yu and saves China which proves a woman can do anything a man can do. I agree with this message and I wouldn't do anything different, I think they prove that point very well. Also, I believe this movie ultimately celebrates goodness in the end because Mulan realizes women are just as powerful as men and she is liberated. Another way this movie celebrates goodness is she is the hero and defeats the evil Huns who are killing people.
In this movie, I don't believe Christianity is expressed very much, if at all. I think this movie depicts more Chinese traditions and religions through the use of praying to ancestors, several mentions of meditation, and defending family honor. The ancestors, though, are the main thing I want to focus on as an example. Not only do they pray to the ancestors for help and guidance, but we also see the ancestors come to life. They actually also end up sending a guardian named Mushu to go and protect Mulan. I think this is saying that the way we should live and the human condition is that we should look to our ancestors for help and guidance. The movie is saying our ancestors will ultimately be there to protect us even when they have passed on to the afterlife. This does not agree with the Bible because the Bible says that Jesus is ultimately the one who can save and guide us through our life by praying to him alone.
The redemption revealed in this movie is that Mulan finally gets to be comfortable in her own skin. She fights with the guys as her true self and gets to be liberated in the fact that she is just a tough as the guys. I think it completely departs from biblical truth because biblical redemption is accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior and being baptized to be born again. Even though this is true, I think this movie's message is a positive element of this movie. This movie is empowering to women and a good lesson to teach little girls that they don't have to feel less than any man. It is also positive to have the message to have people feel comfortable in their own skin. I think some negative elements of this movie are the sexism that is portrayed in the movie and the religion depicted not being Christian. If you think about it, if she was a woman who couldn't fight at all and hid as a boy in the military only to get caught, she would have died for sure. Despite this, in conclusion, I believe you can recommend this movie to all ages because it is a very funny and quality Disney movie.