Disney's Uppity Young Women

In terms of Disney animation, it's not up there with Snow White or Beauty and the Beast or even The Little Mermaid, but it's cut from the same cloth. Like them, it's a loose adaptation of a well-known story with fairy-tale elements. Mulan (voice of Ming-Na Wen) is a young woman who lives in a mythic China that's being invaded by Shan-Yu (Miquel Ferrer) and his Huns. She's trying, unsuccessfully, to prepare herself for marriage when her family learns of the threat to their country. Her father, a wounded veteran, cannot serve, so she disguises herself as a man and goes off to war. She has the dubious assistance of Mushu (Eddie Murphy), the somewhat-magic dragon who is sent by her ancestors.

That synopsis and the comic name "Mushu" give you a good idea of the film's cultural sensitivity. Centuries-old Chinese traditions can be Disneyfied as easily as European ones. The animation is up to the studio's standards, and so are the songs and score. In short, Mulan does everything that young audiences and their parents expect, and it's going to be a huge hit on video. That's also why it's going to make the Disney-bashers so peeved.

Remember that, at their convention last year, the Southern Baptists flatly stated that wives were to "graciously submit" to their husbands. Do you think Mulan would do that? With or without a dragon? I doubt it. From Snow White to Belle to Ariel and now Mulan, Disney's animated heroines have never accepted such second-class status. Feminists may have thought that the studio hasn't gone far enough, and, yes, at times, the films have arrived at conventional "happily-ever-after" wedding-cake endings. For the most part, though, Disney's female characters, including the villains, have been much more active, aggressive and interesting than their male counterparts - and that, of course, also means that they're much more threatening to a patriarchal organization.