Follow Your Heart?

Ordinarily, this entry would be reserved for part 4 of the paper "What Does it Mean to Read the Bible Faithfully" that I've been covering this past week. But extenuating circumstances have intervened, and I just feel compelled to put the paper aside for an extra day and share my thoughts on a particular Disney movie I have recently seen. I should probably warn you ahead of time that this is going to be a really long ramble from me...

My friend Amanda and I have both seen the Disney movie Mulan, which first arrived in theatres everywhere in 1998. If you don't know the story, here's the basic plot outline. Mulan is a young Chinese girl who disguises herself as a man and enters the Chinese army when the Huns threaten to invade their country. She does this to save her ailing father from the burden of enlisting, and to prove that she is worth something. She ends up saving China and becomes a legendary hero, and in the process gains a lifelong mate in Captain Li Shang, leader of her regiment. So Mulan succeeds in not only saving her country and her father, but in finding her own sense of honor.

I loved this movie. I absolutely loved it. Out of Disney's regal lineup of female princesses, Mulan stood out. She was a thinker, and a doer. She had flaws. She wasn't out yearning for a man or desperately seeking escape from her father's rigid regulations of regal ceremony. This Disney heroine was resourceful and brave, and she used her mind without allowing her feelings to dominate her every action. Sure, she was attracted to Shang, that can't be disputed. But her attraction was low-key and subtle, never straying out of bounds into full-blown swooning. Her sense of honor and fierce loyalty to her father and her family drove her story. I liked that. It felt so refreshing and so unlike the plethora of female leads we're used to seeing in Disney feature films and their ill-fated sequels. Not to mention that Mulan was backed up by a stellar voice cast, breath-taking animation, and inspired music track.

That said, I hoped Disney wouldn't think to cheapen their bonafide modern classic with a sequel. They've tried on numerous occasions to duplicate the success of their originals. The Return of Jafar. The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. More often than not, they just haven't worked. The 'new' stories feel like stale retcons and rehashes of things we've seen before without a speck of originality present in them. The animation gets shafted and lacks the beauty and splendor of the originals. New story elements are dropped in with jarring effect because they don't reflect our original interpretations of the characters. See where I'm going with this? So needless to say, I feared the worst when I heard of the impending release of Mulan II.

So I finally saw the film. What did I think?

Mulan: "By following my feelings, I wound up doing the right thing. I guess I learned that my duty is to my heart."

*SIGH* Oh, brother...

This movie frustrated me. I really wanted to like it. But there were too many things that just bothered me, and this quote pretty much sums them all up.

The message Disney wanted to send was evident very early on. It goes pretty much like this. Follow your heart, regardless of duty, honor, and nobility. I did not feel comfortable with this message given the context of the first film, and no matter how many times it was forced on me, I just couldn't buy into it. Yet that's what Mulan herself advises the Emperor's daughters (whom she and Shang must escort to another province) as they start to question why they must fulfill their duty to their country when they can feel their hearts pulling them in another direction (they're drawn to the bumbling co-stars: Yao, Ling and Chien Po. Glad to see the trio's back for an encore).

First of all, that's not how the story unfolded in the original movie. Mulan's heart told her to quit, to give up when everything seemed hopeless (i.e., when her identity was outed and she was left behind in the mountains with the buried Huns). Her saving China was motivated by her sense of loyalty to her family and her drive to spare the life of her father so he wouldn't have to go into battle in his ailing condition. She did not go out looking to break the rules, surely that would've brought even further disgrace upon her family. Not only that, but how could she know what her feelings were telling her? She didn't know her heart at that point. That was the meaning behind the song in which she lamented that she couldn't read her own reflection. If Mulan's heart was involved in the fashion that this movie embodies, she would've stayed home or become instantly infatuated with Captain Shang on the spot. But that wasn't what spurred her on. It was her determination to save her family at the risk of her own life (she should have been dead on sight when Shang found her out) and with all the odds against her. That was Mulan.

I'm also reminded of a Bible verse that was pointed out to me a short time ago. It's Jeremiah 17:9, and it reads, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" As a Christian, I'm troubled by Mulan II's message on a spiritual level also. I realize Disney wasn't seeking to please the religious community in any sort of manner; they just wanted to tell their story to millions of children using characters they all knew and loved. That's the problem. At several points, this didn't feel like the Mulan I knew when I was younger. It was the same VA, same style of dress, fighting techniques, etc. But at times, it felt like I was watching someone else.

I didn't know what Robert Schulman was trying to get across with this script. Is he saying that honor, duty, and obligation to family and country are wrong? That you should always follow your heart, no matter what happens? What about China? Far as those girls were concerned, they were sentencing all those innocent people to certain death. If so, I have a lot of misgivings about it because it seems to me that it's totally the opposite of what Mulan fought for in the original masterpiece. Moreover, certain groups in the world who actually take these concepts seriously may find Mulan II to be insulting because it almost treats them as outdated. I can't say I'd blame them.

Other problems. When I heard that Mushu would plot to break up Mulan and Shang to avoid losing his beloved pedestal in the Guardian family line, I groaned. Didn't he already learn that lesson? I had hopes that he wouldn't achieve follow-through when the couple played along with his initial pranks, and he'd see that Mulan and Shang do work well together based on how well they resolve little differences. But of course, there had to be a split scene because it served as the main conflict this time (there's very little fighting in the sequel. Just a few bandits). It's jarring how quickly such well-seasoned characters as Mulan and Shang descend into bitterness and arguing. Honestly, did Shang not question for even one moment when Mushu played his trick outside his tent that surely Mulan wouldn't say such things about him, especially not behind his back? Doesn't he know her better than that?


As much as I enjoyed the trio, I had a hard time enjoying the princesses' attraction to Yao, Ling, and Chien Po. Mostly because I just didn't like how they were setting it up. On one hand, I certainly appreciated their attraction to the men because they liked their personalities and characteristics (and of course, Mei couldn't help but admire Yao's ... um, bodacious bod). But this subplot was entrapped by the main plot of their sworn marriage for the safety of China and her people. Did they not understand the gravity of the situation? It was a binding obligation, yes, but to throw aside the welfare of millions of innocent people who would surely face destruction and death if they didn't keep their oath? Ugh.It just seemed like both plots were competing against each other, and that made it difficult for me to get seriously involved with them. In the end, it all gets wrapped up in a nice, big, pretty bow thanks to some more clever deception by Mushu, and the girls get to marry the men they want. Hurrah hurrah.

So the main storylines fell flat for me as I feared they would. Moving on to what I did like.

The character interaction was the saving grace of this movie. Thankfully, they brought back the majority of the voice cast from the first film, except for big names like Donny Osmond (but Shang didn't sing this time, so no problem there) and Eddie Murphy. Ming Na is once again a joy to hear. She brings such a radiant exuberance to the Mulan character, deliciously excited in some parts yet appropriately subdued in the more serious scenes. I'm glad to see Mulan's well-timed humor was in full-swing. Her jokes and fun pokes with Shang were just adorable.

The Disney songs. I was neutral about them for the most part. Two songs in particular stood out to me. They did a reprisal of the "Girl Worth Fighting For" in the trio's first scene. A cute nod to continuity between the films. And I did enjoy the princesses' little number. Although for the life of me, I can't remember what that song was called.

While I didn't care for the set-up, I had to admit the tension between Mulan and Shang made sense. I wouldn't go so far as to say they're as different as the yin and the yang, but they do handle certain situations differently. Mulan felt distressed that the princesses were being forced into a marriage against their will, and Shang was most concerned with his duty to country and honor. So while I felt the parallel to Mulan's actions in saving China was disturbingly out of character, it did make for an interesting conflict between our two young stars.

Mark Moseley plays Mushu, replacing the talented Eddie Murphy, and he easily wins my award for the most inspired voice acting. There was no drop-off whatsoever in Mushu's character. He easily got all the best lines, and the rapid-fire delivery of his jokes was timed brilliantly. At times, it was very hard to tell that Eddie wasn't doing the voicework, that's how good it was. My hat's off to Mr. Moseley for the smooth-as-butter transition.

I had mixed feelings on the animation. At times, it's great, but at others, it's just standard, which is par the course for Disney sequels. For the most part, the characters were spot-on. I'm glad they maintained the graceful fluidity of their movements, and even made a few subtle improvements from the original film (such as the way the horses trotted). Shang went off-model a few times, mostly in the montage of scenes in which Mushu played his pranks (I think he shrank a foot or two in one scene). Mushu has a couple of modifications (the wiry whiskers and hairy forearms) but nothing that seemed alarmingly drastic. The backgrounds suffered the most, lacking the detailed, realistically-staged formatting from the original Mulan. Many settings looked flatly two-dimensional. But I did, however, like the textured feel that some places had, like the emperor's palace and outside of the temple. I'm just glad Walt Disney-Australia didn't get their hands on this sequel. They would've ruined Mushu, I'll say that much.

So, all in all, Mulan II is an enjoyable romp if you can get into it. I personally had a hard time doing so because I just couldn't in good conscience reconcile this Mulan with the one I watched in the original. There's simply too many fundamental problems associated with her portrayal and the movie's intended theme for me to do so. Sigh. I'm getting so cynical and cranky in my old age. Anyway, I give Mulan II a standard C. Don't let the low grade mislead you, though. This movie was not terrible or anything. It was decent enough, and as far as most Disney sequels are concerned, the quality was slightly above average. However, it left me feeling highly unsatisfied.

Song of the Day: Avalon - "Everything to Me"

Verse of the Day: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" - Jeremiah 17:9 (no surprise here)