Mulan is a young Chinese girl trying desperately to fit into a strict Chinese culture that only has one place for women- married and in the home. Her family and friends are more concerned with honour and an orderly society where everyone knows what their duty is, than of being true to themselves, so Mulan is a constant source of frustration for those around her who love her. Mulan can bring her family great honour in only one way, she must please the village matchmaker who in turn will find her a suitable husband. The visit to the matchmaker doesn?t go well and Mulan is sent home in disgrace.

Mulan?s life changes drastically when the imperial army arrive and announce that the Nation of China is under attack by the Huns and the Emperor has conscripted each family to send one man to fight in the imperial army. Mulan?s father is the only man in her family and will have to go to war. Mulan is concerned that her father will be killed he is a sick old man, so in order to save his life, she steals his armour & horse, cuts her hair and presents herself to the imperial army as a representative of the Fa Family.

The ancestors in Mulan?s family decide to send the great dragon to watch over her and keep her safe, but in a mix-up Mulan ends up being guarded by a minor dragon, who posses none of the great powers of his family, the tow make an unlikely pair and end up helping each other to success. Mulan completes training with her regiment and is ready to go to war with them, but her greatest challenge will be keeping her identity a secret, if she is found out, her crime is punishable by death!

This would have to be one of my favourite Disney movies; the story is simple and intriguing and has a special blend of fact and fiction that makes for a fabulous story. The characters are typical ?Disney?, loveable, funny, and vulnerable, & 5 minutes into this film I was hooked! The animation was spectacular; exactly what you would expect and more, the makers of this movie have obviously spent many years ?getting it right?. Eddie Murphy plays the part of Mushu ?Mulan?s ancestral dragon, and he is at his best in this role, Murphy is a genius of comedic timing and has really found a niche in animated characters. The scenery and background in this movie are phenomenal but the dialogue is unbelievable, many clever and hilariously funny one-liners compliment beautifully with the wise Chinese sayings and actions. This is another movie that is suitable for everyone and older members of a family will also enjoy it, my children (Aged 4 to love this movie ? we owned a very old, worn out copy on video, so the release onto DVD of this classic was a must have in our home collection.

The cover of this DVD and the Discs themselves are beautifully colourful and include pictures of characters and scenery from the movie. Complete with all the up to date technical stuff- Dual layer Transfer 16:9, Dolby Digital Sound, Wide screen 1:66:1 option, etc, and available at most good dept stores or specialty music stores, make sure you add this to your home collection.

THE EXTRAS

This is one area where Disney has excelled! The bonus features on this two-disc set are unreal and I would compel you to buy this disc just for the bonus features!

Disc one has the usual; photo gallery, deleted scenes, and deleted song- all really cute and well worth the effort of looking up- and the now famous and expected ?sing a long? songs from the movies.

But Disc one also has; music videos of songs from the movie-

A Mulan fun facts section where you can access info on Mulan by using your remote control

And a Disney Pedia ? more info on the wonderful world of Disney through your remote control.

But it is disc two that is guaranteed to impress!

Music and more ? look at the music from the film including

A music video of Jackie Chan (singing I?ll make a man out of you?) & Coco Lee (singing the reflections song) in Chinese. The Mulan Movie has been dubbed and sold in many languages; when this was translated into Chinese for release to the Chinese market Jackie Chan & Coco Lee were chosen as the stars of the movie, and a subsequent music film clip was made- these are fantastic and include footage from the movie as well as scenery from China.

There are two other film clips included- True to your heart , sung in Chinese and another version of the reflections song with a different artist.

Backstage Disney ?

This section of the bonus features concentrated mainly on the making of Mulan. Interview style snippets of film from the producers the animators and the directors of the movie giving you a comprehensive look at the team who made the movie and the things that inspired the team. They speak of their actual trip to China and the drawing and photos that they brought home to then turn into this wonderful movie. Wading through this you will find storyboard to film comparisons, and feel like you actually get to watch the story evolve from the drawing room to the screen. The writing of the songs and how they are fitted to the animation and footage of Donny Osmond singing Gen Shang?s famous song are all included in this section.

The Ballard of Mulan is the reading of the actual poem that inspired the movie Mulan and it is enhanced with a series of drawings, this beautiful poem is particularly worth finding so make sure you see this.

Story boards early presentation reels interviews footage of the team, its all on this disc. This movie took 5 years to make and these bonus features will give the viewer a real understanding of the ?making of ? Mulan.

Brilliant stuff !

CONCLUSION

Mulan is another unforgettable movie from the magicians at Disney Studios, and although the movie is nearly 10 years old it is still a modern and thoroughly enjoyable movie for the whole family.