September 9, 1998

Mulan (1998) ***

A young girl saves China from evil foreign invaders. The Mouse House tries hard to placate Beijing (still angry about Kundun) with this spectacular, politically-correct, very pro-Chinese historical epic. The animation is superb (as always), but this film is different from previous Disney pix. There is some comedy (Murphy's hyper dragon is hilarious), but almost no romance or the usual "spunky-girl-with-an-attitude" antics. Instead, we get a "Shaolin Yentl" and that's meant to be a compliment. Directed by Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft, with voices of Eddie Murphy, Wen Ming-Na and Donny Osmond.