I'm really looking forward to watching this one. Mulan was one of my favorite movies growing up!

Tonight's rewatch: Mulan
Last time watched: 2015

How much did I like this movie as a kid?
I loved this movie when I was a kid! Mulan, both the movie and the character, was actually one of the reasons I became a feminist and why I love badass women (kinda why I don't 100% blame the revival era for people hating princesses who find love or aren't "kickass"). I used to sing the songs all the time when I was a kid and I loved any merch I could get (which wasn't a lot). I still have my stuffed Cri-Kee that I've had since I was 6.

Why I love this movie so much:
The art style, for one thing. Especially the opening, the background, the way clouds are animated, and I love Mulan's makeup. One of the things I miss about 2D animation is that most, if not all, the 2D movies Disney made had their own style. I can look at any image from any movie and just immediately know what it's from because of the animation.

The music, both the instrumental and the songs the characters sing, are so enjoyable to listen to. I hum Honor to Us All any time I'm putting make up on, Reflection is a sad but beautiful princess song, I'll Make a Man Out of You is the ultimate workout song, and A Girl Worth Fighting For is such a fun song to listen to. I know most of these songs are pretty sexist, but that's supposed to be the point.

One thing I absolutely love about this movie is that since this movie has armies and is supposed to be have battles in it this movie takes the subject seriously, which is rare for something aimed for children. This movie shows blood, talks about death (even shows some death), and shows villages burned to the ground. I remember my jaw dropping when A Girl Worth Fighting For was cut short and we saw the remains of a village Shan-Yu and his men burned down. And I remember being in shock when we see the battlefield Shang's father had died on. This didn't stop me from watching this movie over and over again though. As an adult I really appreciate Disney for showing that war wasn't all fun and games and even if you do win the war not everyone comes home, not just people you don't know, you can lose friends and family. My grandparents were in the military and I have friends who are/were in the Navy and Marines, I even had a brother-in-law who saw his friend be killed and now has PTSD so, again, I love that this movie took the subject so seriously. This movie was still pretty silly but I'm grateful that Mushu didn't try to crack a joke to cheer Mulan up. I remember when I was a kid I got scared that the doll Shan Yu had belonged to the little girl Mulan helped at the begining and that her family was going to die.

When I was a kid I didn't understand the sexism. When Chi Fu got angry at Mulan for trying to stop Fa Zhu from accepting the summon or when she had to be sentenced to death (I know Fa Zhou mentioned it after she left and Mushu said it himself when they first met but I didn't understand what Fa Zhou meant at the time and I sometimes need subtitles on when I watch movies so I didn't know what he said at the time). I didn't even understand anatomy at the time so when Mushu said he coud see through Mulan's armor and she slapped him and when Mulan and Mushu were panicking during the swimming scene and when Shang suddenly found out Mulan was a woman and the reveal involved us seeing the bandages around her chest I didn't get it at all (I was 6 cut me some slack :P)

I know I talked about how much I loved the songs in this movie but there's one song/scene that I thing deserves its own paragraph; Mulan's Decision. In a past article I talked about how much I love this song but in case some of you haven't read it I'll say it again. I have seen this movie a million times and that scene gets me amped up so much more than I'll Make a Man Out of You. I'm writing this article while watching the movie and I for real stopped what I was doing just so I could watch the entire scene. I love that part that much.

Another thing I didn't understand for the longest time is why the Great Stone Dragon would wake up. It wasn't until a couple years ago when I saw a post on tumblr about how we see Mulan with the Great Stone Dragon when she sings Reflection and when she's outside in the rain and during Mulan's Decision we see dragons several times. Mushu couldn't wake up the Great Stone Dragon because he had already awoken...inside Mulan. My mind freaking blew.

The side characters, minor and main, still get me laughing every time. The ancestors are so freaking hilarious and I'm one of those people who likes to imagine that my ancestors act the same way any time I do some dumb stuff, Mushu and Cri-Kee still get me cracking up and Mushu has the best insults, and Yao, Chien Po, and Ling are probably my favorite human sidekicks in a Disney movie (not counting the Good Fairies since they, you know, fairies). Any time any of those characters are on screen I can not stop laughing. I think the funniest scenes has to be the camp fight and that's mainly because Ling freaking pulled out his sword when the troops were getting ready to beat up Mulan and then we see him wailing on a guy with a big fish.

Another thing I have to appreciate about this movie is that not only was the subject on war taken seriously, we were given a villain who was terrifying and actually had something to show for it. For example, in Pocahontas, yes, Ratcliffe is a terrifying because he was able to convince the settlers that the Native Americans were a threat and had most likely killed several Native Americans in the past. But here's the problem; we barely see anything he did that was that threatening. We just saw him be racist and then the worst thing we see him do was almost shoot Pocahontas' father. Yes, those things are really bad and villainous deeds but this doesn't make him terrifying. Shan Yu doesn't just sit back and order his men to do the job for him, we see him lead the charge on the mountain and he attacks people himself more than once. He is a villain who makes my blood run cold every time he comes on screen. There aren't that many Disney villains who actually scare me the way Shan Yu, Gaston, Lady Tremaine, Mother Gothel, and King Candy do. Yes, that's right. I thought King Candy was a scary villain. Obviously not as scary as Shan Yu, but still.

I still love the mountain scene. In another article I said that this scene is one of the reasons why Mulan is my favorite Disney Princess; it's because she uses quick thinking and decides to bring down the entire mountain on the hun army. Seriously oh my god. The idea was crazy and she almost got herself, her horse, and Shang killed but come on! She defeated the hun army with a huge avalanche!!!

The climax in this movie is one of my favorite climaxes in any movie. I've seen people hate the fact that Yao, Chien Po, and Ling dress as women because it's supposed to be seen as "funny" but actually do you have any idea how awesome that was? They unashamedly dressed up as women (while striking a badass pose) without making any complaints or comments like "Can I take this off now?" or anything. The only line we really get is "Does this make me look fat?" which is a common question people ask, not just women. And they kicked Hun butt while dressed up without anyone being demeaning about it. That is how you do a scene of men dressing in drag without being insulting.

I wish we could have seen the Emperor more in this movie and in the sequel. He was like the Dumbledore of this movie (being a wise old man, I mean. Dumbledore is problematic af) and I loved his lines. And his exit gets me laughing every time because I keep thinking of that gif "Emperor out."

I've seen people saying that Shang and Mulan suddenly being a couple was practically shoehorned into this movie and while I can sorta see that I have to disagree. We don't actually see Mulan and Shang officially be a couple, we just saw him complimenting her and then her inviting him to stay for dinner. We don't see them saying they love each other or them randomly doing the lift, spin, and kiss. I liked that it wasn't one of the main focuses of the movie since there were more important things happening. Mulan and Shang may not be my favorite couple but I do like them together.

Princess:
Okay I talked about the avalanche already so I don't need to talk about that. I love Mulan because even though she was trained in the army, trained to weapons..she uses strategy to win her battles. I mean, yes, we see her fight but she and the others wouldn't get as far as they did if it wasn't for her plans that do work out. Even when she's training she realizes instead of using strength to climb up the pole to get the arrow, she uses the weights to help pull herself up to the top. In fact, even after seeing her hold her father's sword more than once we never see her actually use it. That's why I think it's so dumb when people praise Mulan for being awesome for using weapons when we never actually see her fight with weapons. We see her strategize, fight with her fists, and use a fan (an object seen as feminine) to disarm her opponent. Merida is really the only princess we see in the franchise to actually use weapons. She is number one on my list and she is staying there!

Movie:
I love this movie so freaking much. I could go on for days. The animation, the music, the characters, plot, script, I love everything about it! This movie was 2 on my list but I'm movie it back to 1 (it was 1 for a while but then got bumped down by Tangled for reasons I will explain in my article about Tangled)

Rating: 9/10 (I wish this movie was longer)

Would I watch it again?
YES YES A MILLION TIMES YES

Next movie will be....Mulan 2. (needless to say I'm not as excited to watch this one)