For the great people hard times came: the warlike tribe of the Huns attacked the country. Dressed in men’s clothes, Mulan joins other warriors and sets off on a dangerous trek to the foot of the snow-capped mountains. She is accompanied by a funny dragon Mushu, who looks more like a small dog than a mythical monster.

Trying to hide a secret, they find themselves in funny situations and do not suspect that their secret is about to be revealed! …

4k movies reviews
Cartoon “Mulan” is based on the legendary Chinese myth about a girl who risked her life to save her father from imminent death. The creation of Walt Disney Pictures undoubtedly continued the heyday of the oldest film studio in the United States. Eleven years after the release of the film on wide screens, “Mulan” has become for me an undeniable classic of the genre, taking a place of honor alongside other famous and outstanding animated creations of the Disney studio.

The director’s duet of Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft coped with their task in a peculiar way, showing the viewer a harmoniously cohesive picture, an excerpt from the beautiful life and at the same time looking for her “I” Mulan. Dry numbers, dear reader, say that the people liked the cartoon. Having collected more than 200 million in net profit, “Mulan” acquired fans and fans all over the world, including in Russia.

The cartoon reflects both comedy and drama elements. The comedic component is simply replete with humor, various gags and jokes belong here, so the picture just stargazing of various, charismatic and, most importantly, funny characters. Naturally, every cartoon teaches us something, and Mulan is no exception. What is the best way for a person to learn the lesson taught? In my opinion, this is best done through the grief and personal drama of the hero, whom we deeply sympathize with.

In this case, this is an ordinary country girl with a character very unusual for ancient China. She tries with all her might not to disgrace the honor of the family, however, with all her desire, Mulan cannot overcome her violent temper and rebellious nature. The viewer empathizes with the heroine even when she, breaking all the precepts and traditions of her ancestors, runs away from home. A competent synthesis of drama and comedy is what raises any cartoon an order of magnitude higher than other colleagues in the genre shop.

Fabulousness, philosophical wisdom and alluring antiquity – this is exactly what you experience when watching a cartoon. The life of the ancient Chinese is perfectly recreated: women gave birth to children, and men fought. With all this, it was imperative for everyone to serve the emperor in peacetime and in wartime, as well as honor their ancestors. The inviolability of age-old traditions was embodied by the philosopher-emperor, so splendidly drawn by the animators.

Of the characters, I would especially single out the dragon Mushu, who was voiced as always by Eddie Murphy. The voice is the power that can endow the drawn character with the qualities that the voice actor desires. Eddie’s dragon turned out to be just extremely wonderful: moderately boobby and funny. Of course, I would like to point out Mulan herself, whose gags repeatedly caused fits of laughter. The episode where she meets the matchmaker or the scene in the camp where she tries to feign the habits of men are commendable. The animators and screenwriters did their best and this is an indisputable fact.

A separate topic is musical accompaniment. Extremely amazing songs by the famous composer Jerry Goldsmith, one better than the other. At one time, when I was still a schoolboy, the songs did not leave my head for a long time after watching the cartoon. And I’m not the least bit surprised that one of them was nominated for a Golden Globe. I express my admiration.

Yes, of course, at the time of the creation of “Mulan” and the same, my beloved, “The Lion King” there were no such technologies for creating cartoons as it is now in the 21st century. And this does not make the paintings look worse, on the contrary, in them we see something that, due to progress, we will never meet again – the uniqueness of the animation techniques, the special style and presentation of the characters. And this should also be appreciated …

Let me summarize. A classic that needs no evaluation. Watching and revising is my verdict.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital
French: Dolby Digital
Spanish: Dolby Digital

Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish.