--- title: "Mulan" year: 1998 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/mulan" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 67 critics_reviews: 11 published: "2026-09-17T06:27:05.825964+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T06:27:17.140592+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Mulan (1998) Directed by Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook · 1h 28m · MPA G · Animation, Family, Adventure **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 67 from 11 reviews *In a sentence:* A girl rides to war in her father’s armour and a foot-long dragon spends the film taking credit > Disney’s telling of the Chinese legend is leaner and more serious than the studio’s habit, with a snowfield battle worth the evening. The songs are ordinary and Eddie Murphy’s dragon is a tax on it, but the daughter and her father are moving. ## Synopsis Imperial China. The Huns, led by Shan-Yu (Miguel Ferrer), come over the Great Wall, and the Emperor (Pat Morita) orders one man from every family into the army. In the Fa household that man is Fa Zhou (Soon-Tek Oh), old and lame from the last war. His daughter Mulan (Ming-Na Wen) has failed her appointment with the Matchmaker (Miriam Margolyes), spilling the tea and setting the woman’s skirts alight, and disgraced the family. That night she cuts her hair, takes her father’s sword and armour and rides for the camp in his place. The ancestors send a guardian after her: not the great stone dragon they intended but Mushu (Eddie Murphy), a small, demoted lizard with something to prove. ## Review Disney took a Chinese ballad about a daughter who goes to war in her father’s place and, for once, did not soften it much. *Mulan* has an enemy who kills people, an army that trains and marches, and a heroine whose trouble is not a prince but a promise. Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook direct it at 88 minutes and it feels shorter. It is one of the studio’s better films of that decade, with two reservations. The first thing to notice is how much has been left off the screen. Hans Bacher’s production design borrows from ink painting: a few strokes for a hillside, a wash of colour for the sky, and long stretches of nothing where another Disney film would have put detail. The Fa village is warm ochre and pink blossom; the army camp is dust and grey canvas; the mountain pass is white to the edges of the frame. The characters are drawn in simple angular lines, and the Huns, when they come, have yellow eyes and almost no other colour in them. It is the plainest the studio had looked in years, and the plainness suits the story. It pays off most in the pass. The Huns appear on a ridge as a black line across the snow and the line keeps widening. Michael Kelly cuts between the handful of recruits below and the horde above, and holds on the wide shots long enough for us to count. Jerry Goldsmith’s score drives it with drums and low brass and no tune to hum, which is the right choice. We sat forward for the whole sequence and did not notice we had done it. What Mulan does with the last cannon is the best idea in the film, and we will not describe it. The voices are well chosen. Ming-Na Wen plays Mulan plain and slightly dry, without a simper, so that when she does something brave it sounds like a decision. Soon-Tek Oh gives Fa Zhou a soft, patient voice, and the scene where father and daughter sit under the blossom and he tells her the late flower is the finest moved us more than we expected from a Disney parent. It is the film’s quietest minute and its best written. Miguel Ferrer barely raises his voice as Shan-Yu, which is why the moment where he asks two captured scouts how many men it takes to deliver a message is properly frightening. BD Wong’s Shang sounds like a young officer trying to sound older. Miriam Margolyes has three minutes as the Matchmaker and makes them count, and James Hong fusses nicely as Chi Fu. Now the reservations. The first is Mushu. Eddie Murphy talks fast and some of it is funny, and every time the film goes quiet he arrives to fill the silence. He is there because the studio did not trust a girl, a father and a war to hold a child’s attention for an hour and a half, and the film is interrupted by that lack of nerve about every ten minutes. The better comedy belongs to Harvey Fierstein’s Yao and the two recruits beside him, whose marching song about the girl waiting at home is cut off mid-line, and the silence that follows is the sharpest edit in the picture. The second is the songs. *Reflection* is a mirror ballad of the standard shape, competently sung and gone by the next scene. *I’ll Make a Man Out of You* is the one people remember, because it does a month of training in three minutes and has a joke in every verse. The rest are filler, and Goldsmith’s score underneath them is better than they are. The China is a Disney China: hairstyles from one century, armour from another, a cricket for luck and a lizard for laughs. Anyone who knows the ballad will wince at least twice. But the ballad is about a daughter and a father, and the film knows that and keeps coming back to it, which after the shouting of *Hercules* the year before is a relief. It carries a U certificate and earns it in the old sense: children will take the charge in their stride and the adults will be the ones flinching at Shan-Yu. Watch it with a child if you have one to hand. If you have not, watch it anyway, and pour a drink when the lizard starts. *Fi1m score 74, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics come away pleased. Seven of the eleven reviews are positive, and the praise gathers around the animation: angular, richly coloured, with the Huns’ charge down the mountainside singled out repeatedly as the set piece that justifies the film. Several see it as a more adventurous and serious picture than Disney had lately been making, with a heroine who earns her victories and a villain who frightens. The songs are the one weakness admitted even by admirers: pleasant at best, endurable at worst. The spread is wide. The reservations cluster on formula: the wisecracking sidekick, the production numbers, the patter, all felt to be the studio’s usual habits in a new setting. The New York Times finds it inert and formulaic, and Slant Magazine calls its picture of China soulless despite the research, while still admiring the animation. Others note the liberties taken with history and an Americanised heroine. Nobody, though, faults the drawing. ### Reviews we read (11) - **Time Out**, DA (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the 1998 Disney film immensely entertaining and a cracker, praising its vibrant, richly hued angular animation, tight script full of gags, and standout action and comedy sequences including the Huns' mountain charge and Eddie Murphy's dragon sidekick. The songs are described as merely endurable. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/mulan-1) - **Empire**, Ian Freer (85/100, inferred): Jettisoning the saccharine cutesiness of recent Disney outings, Mulan serves up stunning animation, sharply defined characters and catchy tunes woven into a simple, powerfully told yarn. Ancient China is beautifully evoked with compelling dramatic beats and an unadulterated treat emerges thanks to a strong heroine and scariest villain in years. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/mulan-review/) - **The Guardian** (B+): The critic finds the 1998 animated film an entertaining but historically inaccurate take on the Mulan legend, assigning it a solid entertainment grade while criticizing its liberties with Chinese history. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/09/mulan-disney-reel-history) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (80/100, inferred): The film charts a new direction for Disney animation with a more adventuresome story based on a Chinese folk tale, and Ebert enjoyed it as story and animated art. The songs are pleasant but not memorable enough to make it a four-star film. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mulan-1998) - **The Independent** (75/100, inferred): Disney's anachronistic take on Chinese history and culture nevertheless turns out to be one of its better animated offerings in recent years. The story concerns a feisty girl who dresses as a man and joins the army to save her father's life. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-mulan-u-1186399.html) - **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (75/100, inferred): Mulan is one of Disney's most adventurous and serious animated features, a female empowerment story that should appeal to adults as well as kids. It is lightly stained by strained comedy, rigorous political correctness, and some adherence to formula. [Read](https://variety.com/1998/film/reviews/mulan-mulan-blazes-new-femme-territory-1200454130/) - **The AV Club**, Maggie Donahue (70/100, inferred): The review praises Mulan as a strong female lead with purpose who blends masculine and feminine traits and challenges gender roles, crediting her victories to her own qualities, but criticizes elements like the song 'A Girl Worth Fighting For' and the ending that reinforce traditional expectations without broader societal change. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/mulan-s-gender-politics-haven-t-aged-so-gracefully-1828367475) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (50/100, inferred): Mulan has its accomplishments as a spunky heroine story but comes off as more manufactured than magical, relying on standard hip patter, tepid songs, and familiar animation cliches. The formula is showing despite the new cultural flavor. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jun-19-ca-61328-story.html) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (40/100, inferred): Disney takes a sledgehammer to gender stereotyping but produces the most inert and formulaic of its recent animated films, with familiar sidekicks and production numbers. It ratchets up the violence level for children's animation without advancing the studio's renaissance. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/19/movies/film-review-a-warrior-she-takes-on-huns-and-stereotypes.html) - **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the 1998 film's cultural depiction soulless and stereotypical despite research, with ridiculous songs and mismatched characterizations, but praises the impressive animation, striking backdrops, adorable animals, and bravura action sequences like the Hun charge. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/mulan-dvd/) - **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (55/100, inferred): The critic finds the film isn't daring enough and sticks too closely to Disney traditions like songs and an Americanized heroine. They single out the positive energy of Ming-Na Wen's voice performance as an asset by the end, while noting the animation and humor fall short of prior Disney peaks. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/mulan-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) ## Details - **Director:** Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook - **Director:** Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook - **Screenplay:** Rita Hsiao, Chris Sanders, Philip LaZebnik, Raymond Singer, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer - **Story:** David Reynolds, Barry Johnson, John Sanford, Floyd Norman, Chris Williams, Tim Hodge, Julius Aguimatang, Burny Mattinson, Lorna Cook, Thom Enriquez, Ed Gombert, Joe Grant, Robert D. San Souci - **Editor:** Michael Kelly - **Music:** Jerry Goldsmith - **Production design:** Hans Bacher - **Producer:** Pam Coats - **Cast:** Ming-Na Wen as Mulan (voice); Eddie Murphy as Mushu (voice); BD Wong as Shang (voice); Miguel Ferrer as Shan-Yu (voice); Harvey Fierstein as Yao (voice); Freda Foh Shen as Fa Li (voice); June Foray as Grandmother Fa (voice); James Hong as Chi Fu (voice) - **Runtime:** 1h 28m - **Certificate (MPA):** G - **Release (the US):** 19 June 1998 - **Genres:** Animation, Family, Adventure - **Budget:** $90 million - **Box office:** $304 million ## Where to watch in the US - Disney+: streaming, uhd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Apple TV: rent $4.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $9.99, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1999: Best Original Musical or Comedy Score (nominated) - Annie Award for Best Animated Feature 1998: Annie Award for Best Animated Feature (won) ## If you liked this - *The Iron Giant* (1999), Fi1m 88: Hand-drawn, quiet about war, and not a single sidekick who will not shut up. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-iron-giant.md) - *Princess Mononoke* (1997), Fi1m 88: A girl, a war and a forest that fights back, drawn without any concessions. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/princess-mononoke.md) - *Hero* (2002), Fi1m 77: Zhang Yimou’s colour-coded armies and arrows falling like weather; the charge, done live. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hero.md) - *The Prince of Egypt* (1998), Fi1m 74: The same year’s other serious hand-drawn film, from a rival studio taking the same bet. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-prince-of-egypt.md) - *Brave* (2012): Another daughter who fails the matchmaker, with a bear where the lizard should be. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/mulan