Everything GREAT About Mulan!

[Music] fun transition from traditional ink drawings to our cartoon realism yeah it's pretty real for 1998. and look at those 2d heat waves slightly distorting the soldier's face now all of china knows you're here perfect that's a pretty badass bad guy response if i do say so myself you'll set up defenses around your palace immediately send your troops to protect my people and that's a good leader like a potential future self-sacrifice a single grain of rice can tip the scale so we've got takagi talking to miyagi who are both japanese but at least there's one actor of chinese descent in the room poe's dad mr ping one man may be the difference between victory and defeat or one whoa can you help me with my chores today helpfulness such perfectly timed comedy matchmaker is not a patient woman this first act does a great job of setting off mulan as a character who doesn't fit in she's late she can't remember the admonition most likely because it's not something that she cares about she isn't all that conscientious about her chores maybe she just needs a little strength and discipline she prefers riding a horse to walking prim and proper she doesn't even like her hair to be in this conformist style this isn't her when we're through boys will gladly go to war for you it's true they have their own song about it and she even shows her knack for strategy whoa where did she go i assume she slipped out of the curtain but it looks like she disappeared behind mulan over the top the gender roles are here it's not even by bearing children it's by bearing sons who's going to bear all your sons if they only bear sons ancient china between the goatee the cricket bath the hot coals seat and grandma's commentary i think it's going well i'm just gonna throw a few wins up there you will never bring your family honor haha but you didn't define what kind of honor so we'll see about that i actually like how often this idea is brought up since it pays off so completely by the end there's the obvious split that mulan is dealing with you know the one the rest of this movie is about but the other one that i think we miss sometimes is that mulan wants to make her father proud and no matter how hard she tries she can't be the person she thinks her father needs her to be this one's late when it blooms it will be the most beautiful well there's an on the nose metaphor for you it's cute that her father just assumes she's a late bloomer rather than really doesn't connect with the identity chosen for her by her family and culture sincerely we all work within the confines of what we know so at this moment this was the furthest his acceptance could go for mulan and i gotta give papa fazo an honor win it's not always the easiest thing for americans to understand but it is was a huge part of chinese culture ah mulan isn't the only one torn between two worlds he wants to honor his culture but also doesn't really care if his daughter doesn't fit in perfectly i know my place it is time you learned yours she's trying yo never realized that even though it was meant as a reprimand she actually takes him up on it i know you know this song it fits just fine but just just for a second pretend this is the first time you're seeing this and try to explain why an 80s synthologist started no one is going to complain obviously made another quick face split anybody who's foolish enough to threaten our family vengeance will be mine i guess it doesn't make much sense to complain about japanese voice actors when the noble spirit dragon is from brooklyn traditional values will disintegrate where have i heard that before right everywhere throughout time forever chinese gothic even the farmhouse behind them we will be sending a real dragon to retrieve mulan ah so mulan isn't the only one trying to let her true self outweigh didn't i did that little brother so someone should do a study about named animal sidekick characters in disney movies that show up for the first act to disappear for the movie and then return at the end moana's big pua wally's cockroach okay so maybe he isn't named but also mulan's dog little brother and they're always replaced with other side characters pool with heihei the roach with okay again not a perfect comparison but let's say moe and now a little brother with kriki and mushu technically a boo isn't a monkey for lots of aladdin you get the matter if i pop one of your antennas off and throw it across the yard nice work gentlemen you found the hun army tyrant ruler hun jokes how many men does it take to deliver a message one that's a murder joke pretty savage chilling brutal honestly well done crickey this i don't know you that's honor on your cow he is a big boy you'd be forgiven for thinking he was a cow the filmmaker said they were specifically going off the artistic depiction from the tong dynasty this tattoo will protect me from harm they actually aren't disproving the protection from the spirits since we know that mushu is barty busy right now [Music] of course the guy who when singing about women actually sings about food would have tofu in his serenity chant soldiers one last bunch i've got a name and it's a boy's name too specificity he doesn't talk about me much i can see why the boy's an absolute lunatic astute observations being on the outside of the horses and pigs away from the rest of the camp is a good way to show mulan separation harads and it's happy to see you you could probably use some szechuan sauce so it's not bd wong's workout routine even though it's his voice shang's workout routine there are only four songs in this movie and this is still one of the best disney pieces of all time it hasn't just progressed the story forward through a training montage as well as dropping more on the nose winks about gender and the irony that it's a daughter who's going to save all your butts but donnie osmond sings for shang and the song slaps represents discipline and this represents strength i love that they specifically needed to use both discipline and strength together by tying the weights together to achieve the goal slash climb the pole you need both to reach the arrow and a training montage says this catchy tune is the fastest way to learn to enjoy getting kicked in the face [Music] it's also the fastest way to a slow-mo kick crescendo to your song i mean really though this montage and song are fantastic they really get you to believe that time has passed and that they are fully trained warriors and friends by the end not least of which is helped by the over-saturation and stylization of this final shot it almost makes you forgive the war propaganda white horsehair imperial stallions sulfur from cannons the timeline and history of china and huns is all a little loosey-goosey which is fine for a kid's movie but i appreciate that the villains aren't completely one-dimensional they're skilled trackers with attuned senses let's start over hi i'm lane feels like as good a time as any to point out that ling is voiced by foreign exchange student long duk dong jifu has a fanboy painting and qrikey makes typewriter noises with his feet what's the matter never seen a black and white before it's such a weird way to put it does mushu not know what a panda is or is he trying to pretend like there's an entire unit that uses pandas called the black and white wait did china have a unit that uses pandas called the black and white panda's gonna do what a panda's gonna do the calendar sequence shows us a different fun animation style in the middle of the movie like and leave it to chiang po to be the least problematic of the bunch although only by a tiny sliver to be fair it makes sense and is deliberate mulan's journey is towards realizing her true self and her comrades journey is learning women are for more than just looking pretty worshiping your muscles and cooking your dinner beef pork chicken yeah i could probably use some sichuan sauce how about a girl who's got a brain who always speaks her mind that's like first or second century feminism other uh she's from a different dynasty you wouldn't know her [Music] and ironically you've already found one you just don't know it you know because soldiers fight for each other and she's about to save all your lives of the things ping wants in a woman [Music] that stark change from a happy-go-lucky song is super jarring and then you realize the first thing they see is the doll meaning now they have a girl worth fighting for in the truest sense of the word you just gave away our position it's a short movie so it shouldn't be surprising but we go from marching along with songs to complete devastation cut with a quick fireworks joke and right into a crazy action set piece with insane explosions yeah see i bet you finally have some sympathy for the orcs at the bottom of the hill standing off against gandalf these sweeping cg shots are amazing and finally expose the size of the hun army which has been pretty much hidden up until now well now there's a beautiful shot ahead of its time all right you might want to light that right about now she can't even do that part right or can she pulling on his tail worked out anyway another gorgeous shot where the avalanche fills the entire frame behind shaun you that's pretty brutal if you know what actually happens in avalanches hint it's not this [Music] door surfing you know this goes back to irobot who's been here since 2016 and irobot saving your qriket buddy teamwork [Music] even if you really only need the team leader who's got away over 3000 pounds to counterweight all this fun fact apparently that's an ancient chinese symbol that means doctor the clouds behind shang are bright pink to quote a famous elf they actually just let him do it red sun rises blood has been spilled this night but once shang decides to spare mulan the pink goes away and it becomes dusk what what do you mean you're not lucky honesty from crickey shredder's alive wait we don't want him and actually if that yell woke his main entourage up he's more of a night king look at that stunning city blending in with the dragon statues i love that you can probably predict something is off about the dragon how it doesn't stop moving even shane glances over his shoulder and then it's just a little too close in subsequent shots it even kind of moves like a ghibli monster ah they try to trick us into thinking they're giving her armor so she can fight when in reality in this instance dressing up as a woman is the one thing they need to do to be by the song standards messing with gender stereotypes again and you thought that was just a character building exercise and not useful also i like that chang actually gets to see how mulan did it i was a little worried he didn't know she fully understood the message now that's what i call mongolian barbecue i could probably use some szechuans [Music] hey ling got to use that block breaking technique look at that disarm no matter how the wind howls the mountain cannot bow to it imagine having a sword at your throat and getting all metaphorical amp don't give up brawler that's a potential self-sacrifice i like that even though mulan has trained and is much stronger than ever before sean u's sword is still a little too heavy for her doesn't make her look weak so much as make him seem like even more of a beast i mean really not everyone can cut 18 inch pillars in one swing so uh sean you has no whites of his eyes who are you hey it's the directors your worst nightmare ah mushu finally got to look on the outside how he feels on the inside not quite okay so maybe she had a surge of adrenaline i really thought she was struggling before but how about that disarms him with her femininity also badass good girl come up and stand aside that creature's not worth protecting we're sure shanyu was the villain this goes beyond misogyny although it makes me not feel bad about his job loss you can have his job mountains may not bow to the wind but they sometimes bow to the i don't know rain is mulan like the rain in this analogy like she's erosion hugging maybe not historically accurate but that's kind of the point you you fight good compliments the flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all you don't meet a girl like that every dynasty interpretation win miyagi always knows the best lessons wax on wax off there's only one elizabeth shoe hey she must have bloomed they're gifts to honor the fall family well this is one of those times that only listening to this movie while your kid watches it leads you to miss some stuff mulan's fear was disappointing her father and dishonoring him so presenting these gifts that are the highest forms of honor show why she did what she did and a father in return showing that he cares more for his daughter's safety and love than two of the most important gifts anyone can possibly be given that'll get you the greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter great she brings home a sword if you ask me she should have brought home a mask ah you had to get one last gender stereotype in there yeah i'll give you that one 90s disney would you like to stay for dinner would you like to stay forever oh granny i didn't notice the underwater look to the ancestor's hair earlier you can be a guardian again and a happy ending for everybody what extina in 98 degrees mulan was jude's favorite for a good six months i'd say so like i said while i mostly ended up listening to it more than watching it i feel like i've seen it a million times muyon was often requested by name so if nothing else i got my fair share of the music into my brain which i honestly have no complaints about four songs and i don't even mind honor to us all stuck in my head and other than the show tunes the score has some really great moments and the voice acting is fantastic especially miguel ferreira's shaun yu every line from him cuts through time and space and settles in your soul send his strongest armies i'm ready how many men does it take to deliver a message also i'd be remiss if i forgot sulu as the first ancestor george decay himself before i get into themes and whatnot i just have to point out these few scenes showing evidence of filmmakers loving what they do the lighting the framing each one is so gorgeous you can tell that a lot of love was put into this movie so is mulan the trans icon movie of the 90s well other than the obvious one i mean it can be for you that's sort of how i see it you can't ignore the similarities in language especially in the songs the thing is the majority of it all lands in the songs and ends up being more symbolic and open to interpretation when you actually look at the text of the movie you'd have a slightly better case for her being a cross-dresser or liking drag but really she puts on a disguise not because she wanted to be a man or even because she necessarily enjoys men's clothes it was to achieve a specific goal so mulan's songs can be trans representation and the rest can be representation for girls who just don't like makeup and don't a poor tea without the cultural limitations mulan would have signed up in her father's place as herself and kicked butt as herself neither her gender identity nor expression really comes up now did she smash gender stereotypes and make every man around her question their sexist outlooks on women i don't i don't know maybe hopefully they are willing to listen to a woman by the end but i also think mulan's struggle can be simpler in societies that require conformity it's not uncommon for people to feel like they don't fit in and i'm not talking about the prc i'm talking about american high schools just because you belong to a certain group doesn't mean that's all you are or even who you see yourself as obviously this movie speaks about gender roles and pokes some fun at the outdated misogyny of our ancient cultures but i think it actually has more to say about masculinity than femininity everything is topsy-turvy the way men are represented is deliberately over the top for comedic purposes but also to showcase some of the silly stereotypes about men that even men believe by far the strongest man in the entire army is chen pou and he's also the gentlest of them all he exhibits what we consider some of the most feminine traits the bathing scene which again is played for comedic effect pokes at male friendships and how interwoven competition can be in male plutonic relationships and obviously mulan excels physically and otherwise in ways many of her male counterparts don't the female traits she exhibits tend to boil down to thinking but that's part of who she is she doesn't follow the leader she likes to do things her own way which leads to her saving them all but then merely because she concealed her biological sex chief who loses it it's the type of thing that's meant to make you say but come on bro if you'd found out and killed her earlier you'd all be dead right now how stuck in tradition can you be not to mention the guy who is really all about gender roles wouldn't generally be defined as a very masculine at least by their culture and i do not squeal like a girl it's not the most progressive film of all time but for 1998 having a woman be the holder of her own destiny was a good start she's not technically a princess but that goes beyond just her bloodline i think it's great to have disney lead characters that aren't royalty and don't wear gowns and don't even have to have makeup on to be a woman i think the story has a lot to say about what women can be especially in oppressive societies but again reflections can be your trans anthem because every word might be a question you've asked full stop both neither be your true self that's the point i'm very curious to see where the remake goes with all these threads and i'm glad i don't have to go to theaters to see it technically i still have that 60 second review it just didn't really make sense uh next week a new-ish kind of new pretty jewish one [Music] wait you forgot your sword bye bye bye have fun storming the castle think it [Applause] [Music] alright

Channel: CinemaWins

Views: 966,039

Keywords: Mulan, Mulan 98, Everything Wrong With Mulan, EWW Mulan, Mulan 2020

Id: U__bPfs0Syg

Length: 17min 53sec (1073 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 05 2020