MULAN

Okay, I'm watching it. But because I'm a lazy man, I'm goin to try real time blogging and simply comment as I go....

I'd forgotten how old this was-- 1998. Pre-Hercules!

Hey, it's June Foray!!

"You'll Bring Honor To Us All" Okay, statement of traditional values without making too much of a straw man out of them.

Marni Nixon is singing for Grandma!! Marni Nixon is a movie musical Goddess!

Matchmaker is fat and obnoxious. Mulan's requisite outcast status is now established.

"If I were truly to be myself, I would break my family's heart" Hey-- I know this song! So her problem is that she can't reveal her true identity.

Dieing for honor-- a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, and everyone should know their place. And so she transforms, set to uber-heroic soundtrack.

Chinese religious traditions are HIlarious!

The Huns don't even look human.

Men in the army are gross, disgusting, and stupid. Also brutish and ridiculously violent. She tries to spit, gets manly urges to kill something and cook outdoors. If we had a character trying to pass as a woman and talking about being helpless and overemotional and having big urge to shop, would that be sexist?

Captain is derided for being a "pretty boy"

"I'll make a man out of you" Free from standard guy stereotypes. Part of message is suck it up and don't quit.

Hygiene is a stupid girly habit.

Marching off to battle. "A Girl Worth Fighting For" "How bout a girl who has a brain and speaks her mind? Nahh..."

First battle scene is straightforward and traditional, all manly and warriorlike.

Some sort of extra points for having the extra-macho soldier played by Harvey Fierstein.

She wanted to do things right so that when she looked in the mirror she'd see someone worthwhile. Main character statement without gender attached

"You said you'd trust Ping. Why is Mulan any different?" Echoes a scene in Tootsie.

I wish noone had ever developed software to render large crowds. It always looks out of place.

Be A Man reprise when dressed as geishas. Cute.

Boy, it's a good thing that there's no group of Huns to see this movie. They're like ev ery bad cliche ethnic depiction of Asians from the first half of the 20th century.

The captain physically fights the Hun chief. All Mulan can do is avoid getting hit for most of the fight.

Hugs all around. Very Disney.

Now must earn approval of father. More hugging.Followed by inappropriate modern funky finale number.


Okay, I admit it. I was way over-abusing this film. I take it all back. It has problems, but they aren't sexism. I'll even let you call the over-the-top moments with the men as clever post-modern satire on gender stereotypes and not merely a set-up to make her look good.

In other words, I hereby publicly acknowledge that you were right and I was wrong.