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Mulan Special Edition

by







Mulan

(1998) | Approx. 88 min | Rated PG | Reviewed 10/19/04 by Kevin Krock











Cover Art

Click to Buy		Ratings Summary

(Scored out of a maximum of five)
Audio*****
Video****
Goodies*****
Interface****
Value*****

The Movie


Based on a Chinese fable about a young, free-spirited girl who strives
to bring honor to her family by disguising herself as a man and taking
up arms to defend her country, Mulan features the classic Disney
balance of strong characters, beautiful animation, a solid story, and
memorable music.

The movie opens with Mulan, voiced by Ming-Na Wen, sung by Lea Salonga,
failing to impress the matchmaker and generally showing that she cannot
meet the societal expectations of a young woman in ancient China, thus
bringing dishonor to her family.


Promotional image © Disney.

Meanwhile, the Huns have begun to invade the country, and the Emperor
has called for every family to provide one man to help fight. Mulan’s
hobbled father accepts the call, but before he can leave, Mulan secretly
takes his place and reports to the training camp disguised as a warrior,
and she and her ancestor-provided guardian dragon, Mushu, voiced by Eddie
Murphy, attempt to fit in with the rest of the men in the camp. Mulan’s
hard work pays off, though, as the rest of her comrades take her in as
one of their own, and soon the whole troop is on the move to fight the
Huns.

It is a movie that has a lot of good things going for it: The plot is
solid and enjoyable. The heroine is strong without being over-the-top.
The supporting characters are perfectly suited to their roles. There is
a good dose of humor throughout the movie. The villain is subtly evil
but clearly the bad guy. The animation features some very impressive computer-assisted
scenes, especially the battle and crowd scenes. And lastly, even though
it is not a musical, the movie features five catchy songs and a score
that keep the movie moving along. Although I have only watched it a couple
of times since seeing it in the theaters in 1998, I still find it a pretty
entertaining movie that is suitable for the whole family.


The Goodies

Disney has recently gone on this wonderful binge of cranking out double-disc
special editions for many of its more popular titles, both animated and
live action. Sure, it is mostly so they can move to the high-definition
DVD format and sell HD-DVD versions of all this stuff again in a few years,
but I will appreciatively take what I can now and wait for the HD-DVD
war to settle down. Mulan was originally released on DVD a few years ago
as a “movie-only” title under the old Gold Collection moniker,
and now it has been given a far superior treatment, nearing the Platinum
Collector’s editions. This two-disc set includes all the things I would
expect for a special edition, and even though some of them are not quite
as deep as those on a Platinum title, this set has something for everyone
in the family.

Disc One primarily contains the movie, but it features a surprisingly
decent variety of bonus material. There are a few so-so items on this
disc, including a deleted song, sung by the composer Matthew Wilder, and
four music videos, which neither my young boys nor I particularly cared
for. However, the deleted scenes are an interesting look at some of the
directions the production team was going in before they reached the final
version on the screen, and my boys enjoyed watching Mushu host the rather
short Disney Pedia, which explores aspects of ancient China.

There is also a cute two-minute “Pop-Up Video” type of segment
that pops up quirky trivia over a collection of behind-the-scenes video
clips put to “True to Your Heart,” sung by Stevie Wonder. Additionally,
much to my boy’s disappointment—but not necessarily mine—there
are no set top games on either of these discs.


Promotional image © Disney.

Of particular interest to me was the audio commentary, featuring Pam
Coats, producer, Tony Bancroft, director, and Barry Cook, director. It
is both educational and entertaining. As with most of the recent Disney
commentaries, the trio intertwines interesting aspects of the production
process with humorous anecdotes about certain people, places, or things
that influenced the movie. It is well worth a listen.

Disc Two is where a lot of the serious behind-the-scenes stuff resides.
There are a bunch of things to sift through on this disc, including a
number of great still-frame art galleries, storyboard-to-film comparisons,
and featurettes. The best place to start, though, is the “Discovering
Mulan” featurette, which takes you behind the scenes of the production,
and it does a nice job of introducing many of the aspects that helped
shape the direction of the movie.

There is also an interesting narration of the Mulan legend called, “The
Ballad of Hua Mulan,” which is accompanied by beautiful production
artwork. In the “Finding Mulan” featurette, you get a glimpse
of the early designs for Mulan, and you also see how her character developed
through various storylines to the one in the film.

Finally, one of the things I love about special editions is the examination
of the art designs behind the film. It is fascinating to see how the animation
style and artwork we see in the final film develops from a wide variety
of artist’s conceptual drawings, sketches, paintings, and so on. In the
“Art Designs” section of the disc, there are a few featurettes
that nicely explore how the production team approached the design and
development of the characters and artwork, and it is always interesting
to see how various people artistically interpret a subject.

The “Ballad of Color” featurette and digital production featurettes
are well worth watching, as they discuss the use of color in the movie
and the development and execution of the impressive computer animated
scenes.

The Video, Audio and Interface


Much like any of the recent Disney special edition DVDs, the audio and
video transfers have been fully remastered from the original digital animation
files, and this disc looks and sounds fantastic. The anamorphic widescreen
video transfer exhibits solid and vibrant colors and excellent detail.
However, I did notice some digital artifacts on a few scenes with highly
contrasting lines or edges on my standard television, but after a little
work, I confirmed that the effect was due to the player’s efforts to shrink
the anamorphic widescreen picture onto my standard screen.


Promotional image © Disney.

This on-the-fly conversion tends to show this more on animated films
because they tend to have more high contrast lines and edges than a live
action movie, and when the video scan lines are digitally removed by the
player a smooth edge becomes jagged. On a standard television, this issue
is very transient and minor, and on a widescreen TV, the issue is non-existent,
since you see the whole image. Besides that nitpick, it looks great.

The audio transfer is excellent. The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtrack
has been remastered and provides a full and rich surround environment.
One of the audio highlights is listening to the Hun army ride down the
hill ahead of the avalanche, as you feel like you are right among the
army. It simply makes the presentation of the movie that much better.

As for the interface, it is perfectly suited to the theme of the disc,
and it nicely sets the environment for the movie. There are plenty of
animated transitions, animated menus, and musically accompanied menus
that maintain the look and feel of the movie perfectly. Additionally,
the hierarchy is simple and easy to navigate. Overall, the audio, video
and interface provide for a pretty solid presentation platform, and this
set will look and sound good on any home theater system.


The Final Evaluation

Even though this is not an official Platinum Collector’s DVD, it comes
pretty darn close. For starters, the presentation of the movie is top
notch, especially if you can see it in widescreen, and the audio is right
on target for the home theater audience. The commentary is well worth
listening to, and the bonus disc is filled with all sorts of interesting
featurettes and galleries. Overall, if you enjoyed the movie, you will
enjoy this set, and if you already own the Gold Collection disc, put this
one on your upgrade list.

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