|
Mulan (Special Edition)Rating:
Release Date: 26 October, 2004 Retail Price: $29.99 OUR Price: $19.99 You SAVE: $10.00! Cast: Complete Cast (6 total) |
Mulan (Special Edition) Reviews
Could be better
There is lots to love about Mulan. A wonderful score, great animation, lots of good vocal talent.
The biggest area in which the movie fails, however, is the scriptwriters' irritating overuse of comic relief. They have a tendency to interrupt scenes quite inappropriately for
Eddie Murphy or Harvey Fierstein to deliver gags. It gets immensely tiresome. I'm divided as to whether this is worth three stars or four; but I'm opting for three.
Culturally Speaking
Just like the case with most other Disney cartoons, the animation and the character shaping are quite excellent, due to the company's strong producing power. We see the effects eye-catching and the plots exciting with imaginations few people could come up with, which kids would certainly appreciate and benefit from. As a Chinese, however, I don't think it's easy to judge some cultural product inspired by our legend, created by foreigners, but, according to some critics, not intended for us.
Throughout the story I did gladly perceive a noticeable effort by the writer to respect Chinese culture (I mean that in the past) and follow the way they behaved, and to try not to be offensive. But perhaps because that culture inevitably seems (or at least seemed) strange and mysterious to cartoon makers in the US, or at least no longer familiar to their Chinese American advisors, Mulan turned out to be a huge success in theatre, except for that it, too unfortunately, might have been too difficult for its goodwill adaptation to entertain anyone who knows Chinese culture, in a way based on proper understanding, and not to cause the least feeling of being misread or disrespected - the same feeling an Arabian could possibly get after watching Aladdin, a Frenchman after watching Beauty and the Beast, or a wild animal (if only he can) after seeing what he looks like in such films as The Lion King, or Madagascar. I was fully acquainted that such a picture is totally outlined based on western culture, and what's more, just for fun, so it'll be just fine no matter how absurd the story was going to be. But here are still some details I have to regretfully show you, on which I thought they might have gone too far.
First, I think it is too much for ancestors of any Chinese family to have a disco party after saying words like "could you stay for ever?" In fact they were quite serious and definitely would not be pleased to be made fun with. Who should be more interesting might be young figures like Mulan herself, but would not and should not be the ancestors. Second I don't think an emperor of ancient China would, though a little shocked, gladly accept an embrace, even from someone who saves his life, let alone Mulan is a girl, and obscure too. Before I watched it one of my friends told me "You're not going to believe all this could ever happen in China." It's absolutely right.
I'm just telling you something I knew, and NOT suggesting that in the future when you shoot any movies about us, you should follow our rules, which in fact would be rather difficult and impossible for you. And I perfectly understand that in a show simply for kids, bright figures are necessary no matter what the cultural background is. But what I would like to show you, culturally, is that any attempt to depict scenes happened in a background you're strange with is well worth praise and encouragement, but unfortunately it seldom serves to satisfy the insiders.
Just carry on your experiments, but I do strongly recommend you to pay more attention to what I said. Here is a country where more and more of that billion people will be able to judge your work according to their own opinions, so, to some extent, knowing us better will certainly bring you more money.
A new Chinese (Hong Kong) directed film of Mulan is shooting this October, and will be coming out soon, in which the story will be told in our way, whether it appeals to most of you or not. For those who want to know more about us, and also who hope to learn Chinese, it's my honor to introduce it to you all here. Thank you for your time.
More Customer Reviews (55 total)
You like Mulan (Special Edition)?
|
© 2004, 2005, 2006 DVD Booty | Don't Plunder Our Cache of Booty, Matey!
Hosting made possible by donations from On Call Cash, Debt Free Diary, and consolidate debt
