Guest blogger: Jessie 1

Mulan is an animated movie about a Chinese girl who is living in imperial China. In the movie, Mulan struggles with the problems that girls face to grow into beautiful, well-behaved women. Unlucky for Mulan, she is not graceful or dainty like Chinese woman are expected to be. This gets her in trouble with the matchmaker, who then says that Mulan is a disgrace to her family. Mulan is then determined to do something to bring honor to her family. So in the middle of the night, she rides out to join the Imperial Army in her dad’s place. Ming-Na Wen, an actress from China, gives the voice to Mulan. I thought her performance was very well. I was also impressed how she gave a lower voice to Mulan when Mulan was Ping, her male alter ego in the army. Also, since she was from China, it allowed Mulan’s voice to go with her orient looks. Eddie Murphy lends his voice to Mushu, a little dragon that helps Mulan get through her quest. His voice adds comedy to this otherwise serious movie. One of the main themes in the movie is that brains are greater than brawn. This is a big theme because in one battle the Imperial Army is greatly outnumbered by the Huns. They only had one cannon to fire. The commander of the army wanted to shoot the cannon at the leader of the Huns, but Mulan takes the cannon and fires it at a mountain. At first, the rest of the army is angered with her, but then the cannon caused an avalanche which buried the Huns. The army then realized that Mulan saved them all by using her brain. Entertainment Weekly says, “Disney has finally come up with an animated heroine who's a good role model and has a funky, arresting personality.” I agree with them because Mulan really is a good role model, showing people that brains are more important than strength or beauty. Plus her personality makes the movie interesting. I think Mulan is definitely worth your time and money because it has good music, a good story line, a little bit of romance, and the animation is well done. Mulan will always be one of my favorite character driven movies.