Family Fridays – Mulan

Posted by on Aug 9, 2013

Genre: Children’s TV/Movies

Ages: It’s rated G, I couldn’t find a good age range, but probably pretty young. Definitely less scary than some other Disney movies, but the “bad guys” were kind of scary.

Blurb:

 Clever Mulan disguises herself as a male soldier named “Ping” to bravely take her father’s place in the Imperial Army.

Review:

This is my favorite Disney movie, hands down. There are so many great things to love about it. On the surface, it has humor, great action, and loveable misfit characters. A little bit deeper and the themes in it are rock solid – especially for girls. Number one, I love that the main character, Mulan, does not dress in a revealing manner. I know this makes me sound old and crotchety (which is only half right), but I HATE that Disney heroines are often dressed up (or barely dressed) to be sexy. The Little Mermaid only wore a bra, for goodness sake, to say nothing of Jasmine in Aladdin. And I will not get into the kerfuffle about Disney “beautifying” Merida from Brave for her princess induction, except to say that I fear for the little girls of this generation who are growing up more bombarded by media than ever before and have that sort of thing to deal with. Hats off to those of you who are raising girls and doing your best to instill in them a positive and healthy body image.

Anyhoo, back to Mulan. She’s smart, funny, tough, loyal, capable, and totally and completely socially inept. I think what I love the most about her, though, is that she has her own very strongly defined sense of honor/ethics/rightness and follows through no matter the danger or cost to herself. She’s a great problem solver and comes up with unique solutions under pressure. There’s more to this Disney chick than just a pretty face and a fairy tale wedding. What a great message for all of our children (and ourselves, too). This could be a movie to watch with children on the younger side and just enjoy as the fun movie it is, or it could be a great movie to watch with teens and have some more in-depth discussions about what it all represents.

Get it! Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target

Side Note: Apparently there were sequels. I haven’t watched any of them on the assumption that they were probably going to be awful, which may not be fair as I know nothing about them. However, the links I’ve included go to a Mulan/Mulan II combo, since I couldn’t find the first Mulan solo anywhere.

Have you seen Mulan? What did you think of it? Did you know about the Disney Vault? My husband has been teaching me about pop culture and I have to say, as an economist who understands the relationship between supply/demand and price, I’m extremely impressed at their evil genius. As a parent who wants to get my hands on Beauty and the Beast (great music and visual imagery) I find it extremely annoying.

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