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Mulan (1998)

Mark Moore

Mark Moore

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This has got to be my favorite Disney Princess film (although I haven't seen any of the Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, or Cinderella films or the Pocahontas sequel yet). I didn't have the pleasure of seeing it in the theater, but I rented it in...late 2009, I believe (shortly after going to Walt Disney World, which got me on a Disney Princess kick).

Mulan has seriously got to be the most awesome, kick-ass Disney Princess ever (yeah, yeah, I know she's not really a princess). I think she's the only Disney Princess that's ever killed anyone (and she set the bar pretty high at that: the entire Hun army...minus those that...escaped...from the ice...what?).

I love Mulan's personality. She's awesome, but she also a clumsy, free-spirited goof. "I'm here!...What?"

Ming-Na Wen (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, The Batman) does a great job as Fa Mulan. Originally, Lea Salonga had auditioned for the role, but it was felt she couldn't lower her voice deep enough during the scenes when Mulan is pretending to be a man; she was, however, kept on as Mulan's singing voice, and she does a great job.

Now, I'd gonna get into ranting territory. "Reflection" is, without a doubt, my favorite Disney Princess song, but it's so short. Mulan has the shortest solo of any Disney Princess. According to Lea (during one of her concerts), she had come into the studio three times to record "Reflection", and each time was shorter than the previous. They cut out a lot. Er, no, they downright BUTCHERED the song!

I found a video on YouTube recently that has what's presumably the original performance...sort of. It starts with the scene from the film itself. Then there's a slight blackout and pause, and then it comes back to an alternate recording (presumably the original), set to storyboards of the rest of the sequence. This transition occurs just as Mulan enters the shrine, and it's distracting. I would have preferred to hear the entire original recording. Anyway, this video literally brought me to tears. I'll never be able to watch this scene in the movie again without being reminded of how epic that it ALMOST was. Cutting this song and sequence has got to be the greatest sin in cinema history.


Seriously, someone please fanimate this sequence!

Anyway, I've noticed that this extended version has some lyrical differences compared to Lea's live performances (I'll get into that later).

So what are your thoughts on this film?
 
Mark Moore said:
although I haven't seen any of the Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, or Cinderella films or the Pocahontas sequel yet
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Watch Beauty and the Beast. It is quite literally my #5 movie of all time. But I do like Mulan. Now I need to go watch Rambo to make up for those last three sentences.
 
QuickCut said:
Watch Beauty and the Beast. It is quite literally my #5 movie of all time. But I do like Mulan. Now I need to go watch Rambo to make up for those last three sentences.
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By "Rambo", do you mean "First Blood" (which is often called "Rambo"), "Rambo: First Blood Part II", or "Rambo" (the fourth film in the series)?

I do plan to watch B&B sometime. I need to find an online digital rental service that doesn't have a monthly membership fee.
 
Mark Moore said:
By "Rambo", do you mean "First Blood" (which is often called "Rambo"), "Rambo: First Blood Part II", or "Rambo" (the fourth film in the series)?
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:lol: does it matter? I guess the only ones I've seen are First Blood and Part II, I guess I should go watch III. :p
 
I also dig Mulan. One of my top five favorites from the Mouse House. For some reason the sunglasses on Crickee at the end really bug me, but what are y'gonna do?

For what it's worth, I did get to see it at the cinema. A preview screening, even! :)
 
Here's the deleted sequence by itself (this is apparently the video that the other poster had joined to the movie footage). The image is bigger without being cropped as in the other video.


Regarding the lyrical differences that I mentioned earlier, this is the only version that I've heard where she sings "Who is that perfect bride? It's not me, though I've tried" (as opposed to "Somehow, I cannot hide who I am, though I've tried" as in the movie) and "from their expectations" (as opposed to "and meet their expectations" as in her live performances).

There's a live performance in her "Disney Medley" on one of her live albums. There's a slight lyrical variant (likely a flub) where she sings "I could break my family's heart" (as opposed to "would").

I recently came across this video of Michelle Kwan skating to the full-length song (likely soon after the film was released). I don't know what the source is for the song's recording (whether from the studio or something that Lea recorded specifically for Michelle's performance). It contains her typical live lyrical choices ("Somehow, I cannot hide who I am, though I've tried" and "and meet their expectations"), but there's a different "Now, I see" line that doesn't seem to exist anywhere else, and I can't quite understand all of it. There's also a repetition of some of the lyrics to get it up to the length of the performance.


In this next video, Lea performs the song live in 2011. The lyrical difference here is she sings "I can be myself" (twice) instead of the first time being "I can free myself".

 
Uncanny Antman said:
For what it's worth, I did get to see it at the cinema. A preview screening, even! :)
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Any differences between it and the final film?
 
I have a love/hate relationship with Mulan. I love the move for the reasons you originally outline, she is simply one of the most engaging, proactive, self-determined heroines of any Disney feature cartoon. Her destiny is not reliant on a Prince Charming, and her goals are far loftier than to marry-up (yes, that's a harsh over-simplification of Cinderella).

However, particularly within its era of Disney feature-length cartoons, it has the most abysmal song-list. I suppose Reflections is ok, but it's fairly generic. Most of the rest of the songs I actually quite despised and felt they repeatedly took away the pacing of the film which is a traditional action-driven narrative. For me the musical numbers turned what could have been one of the most enjoyable Disney cartoon of its era into a mediocre mish-mash. If I had to guess, the film-makers sensed that the musical numbers were really dragging the film down, which could explain why Reflections kept getting trimmed.

I don't think that it's a coincidence that Disney's next release (Tarzan) drastically moved away from musical productions (only two songs were sung by characters). For better or worse, the era of cartoons singing whimsically about their lives is long-gone.

Anyhow, that was an interesting clip no matter how you look at it.

I had actually considered doing a Mulan edit that cuts down the songs rather than adds :) but not sure it could be done without compromising certain aspects of the story.
 
nightstalkerpoet said:
Mulan is in my top 10, along with A Goofy Movie. :)
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Top 10 Disney or just top 10?
 
Mark Moore said:
Any differences between it and the final film?
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Not that I recall...but the screening was only two weeks or so before official release, so I doubt there was any tweaking done at that late stage. :)
 
L8wrtr said:
I suppose Reflections is ok, but it's fairly generic. Most of the rest of the songs I actually quite despised and felt they repeatedly took away the pacing of the film which is a traditional action-driven narrative.
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Reflections isnt even the best song in Mulan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'll_Make_a_Man_Out_of_You


L8wrtr said:
For better or worse, the era of cartoons singing whimsically about their lives is long-gone.
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It's back. Boom Baby. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangled
 
QuickCut said:
Oh man, now I love me some princess movies, but that piece of junk was terrible (imho).
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I like "Tangled" - as well as "The Princess and the Frog" (which also has characters singing whimsically about their lives). Since that was the first new theatrical Disney Princess movie after "Mulan", you could argue that "era" never ended.
 
It ended with Tarzan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Renaissance

I liked Tangled. The animation was solid, and the songs were not bad. Mostly I liked the style and the horse was a fun sidekick. It still didn't have the Little Mermaid-Tarzan quality songs (Or Little Mermaid-Lion King especially)
 
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