Walt Disney's Mulan
directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook

The 'fun' is back in Disney's animated offering with Mulan. This animated feature is a retelling of the Chinese tale of Mulan. The Chinese Empire is under attack from the Huns and the Emperor has ordered a call-up of one man from each family. To save his lame father, Mulan disguises herself as a man and joins the army in his place.

The movie starts just as the Huns attack and Mulan, not your typical girl, is being (disastrously) put through her paces by a matchmaker. It ends with a dramatic confrontation between the Hun General and Mulan at the Emperor's palace.

In between is the standard Disney tale of a girl who must prove herself worthy in a world of men (only this time, disguised as a man), her usual cast of helpers (a cricket, a horse and Mushu the dragon, voiced wonderfully by Eddie Murphy). But this time, the tale has been made by the introduction of something missing in most current Disney fare: actual humour. It's almost as if the animators and scene directors were told the rough outline of scenes and then told to make them as funny and enjoyable as possible.

And it shows: it has been many Disney animated features since I've laughed this hard. Even the simple act of the Hun General saying "Boo!" to the Emperor was enough to send a person sitting near me into hysterical giggles. But the humour is seldom played just for effects: it fits into the scenes very well.

But this doesn't mean there aren't moody moments in the movie. The scene at the village after the Hun attack was greeted with forbidding silence from the audience which shows how tense it can be, especially when much of the violence of war is hinted at by dark shadows and fallen armour on a battlefield.

The movie does have it spectacular animated moments, like the mass Hun charge that recalls the wildebeast stampede in The Lion King. The computer generated effects are not so glaring as in previous Disney features, making the movie feel more like a traditional hand-drawn animated movie.

This is a wonderful, funny movie with a storyline that is straight to the point: perhaps too straight. The movie did not feel that long although it lasts one and a half hours. Perhaps that is one of the qualities of a good movie: you don't know that time has passed.

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Walt Disney's Mulan directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook

Walt Disney's Mulan
directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook