Saturday, January 21, 2023

Honoring Chinese New Year - The Secret of Mulan

UAV Corporation, 1998
Voices of Abigail Revasch, Leo Burmester, Tom Clifford, and George Bettinger
Directed by Chad Nigeringston
Music and Lyrics by Megan Calaveri 

The major studios weren't the only ones who tried to cash in on the popularity of Disney's films in the 90's. Everyone wanted a piece of that epic animated musical pie, even the lowliest direct-to-video chop shops. Several studios existed primarily to make animated films based on Disney's blockbusters and other films of the time. UAV actually began as video distributors in the 1980's. They entered film production in 1996, churning out B movies and cheap imitations of the latest animated hit like the "Secret of" series. Does this...unique...take on the Chinese legend deserve to fly, or should it be left in a cocoon? Let's begin with the opening number in China, as the towering Mongol beetle Mala Khan and his bug army invades an all-animal China, and find out...

The Story: After Khan's army manages to breach the river, the Prince of China puts out the call for more soldiers. Mulan, a female caterpillar, runs away to take her father's place. She dresses as a male bug and joins the Army, becoming their top captain. Mala Khan would do anything to get rid of this new intruder, and he's helped by a jealous bug general who wishes the prince would lavish praise on his efforts. Only two creatures know Mulan's secret, the female courier Zhing Zhing and her family's loyal mouse retainer Yi Wu. Zhing Zhing is tricked by the traitorous general into bringing Mulan to him. He thinks he's gotten rid of her, but Mulan's only getting ready for her biggest transformation yet.

The Animation: Not great. The backgrounds are actually pretty detailed, and the story is certainly colorful enough. Those colors, however, seem to be thrown together without rhyme or reason and often don't compliment each other. Some of the bugs look so much alike that it's hard to tell what a lot of them are. The characters move stiffly and there's a lot of awkward cuts and transitions in the battle scenes. 

The Song and Dance: Well, at least they tried for a slightly different approach to retelling the legend. I've certainly never seen Chinese folklore done with talking insects before. I suspect it may also be an imitation of Pixar's A Bug's Life and Dreamworks' Antz, which also came out that year and involved crawly critters going to war. Zhing Zhing and Mulan have a rather sweet relationship in the second half, and Yi Wu is a far less annoying sidekick than Mushu in Mulan. Mulan's no clumsy tomboy, either. She's a tough cookie who knows martial arts from the start and won't back down to anyone, including the Mongol Army. The score by Nathan Wang is surprisingly lush for such a cheap production, giving the battle scenes and the finale more feeling than they warrant. 

Favorite Number: The movie opens with the Mongols invading, leveling villages as they sing the praises of "Mula Khan." Mulan's "Reflection" equivalent is "For Honor, For Country," which she sings to the moon as she tries to figure out what to do about her father leaving. Khan's much-abused fly assistant Bowtie finally gets a moment away from his boss as he celebrates his part in getting rid of Mulan with "They Call Him Bowtie." Mulan and the Prince soar in the stirring finale, as they glide over China and Mulan declares "My Heart Is My Kingdom."

What I Don't Like: There's some decent ideas here. I wish they had the budget to expand on them or go further into them. Mulan has a more feminine sister in the opening sequences who chastises her for being a tomboy. She vanishes after Mulan goes to war and is never seen or mentioned again, even after her parents turn up briefly in the finale. Yi Wu isn't a bad sidekick, but Bowtie's whiny Brooklyn accent and weird vaudeville jazz number are totally out of place, and the mouse and rabbit who take the emperor to safety and turn up occasionally thereafter are just annoying. There's that terrible animation, too. And though I did like the majestic "My Heart Is My Kingdom," the other songs are just dull or even more out of place than the ones in the Disney film. 

Not to mention, there's historical inaccuracies going out the wazoo, from the strange mix of clothes styles, to the fact that the Mongols wear Japanese samurai armor. 

The Big Finale: You get what you pay for. There's worse animated movie imitations out there...but there's also better ones. Unless your kids are really bored while wandering around streaming or are huge fans of Mulan or A Bug's Life, I'd fly on by this one. 

Home Media: The DVD is out of print and expensive nowadays. If you must see this, it can be found on several streaming sites for free with commercials, including Tubi. 

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