Film

Mulan

Name: Mulan
Genre: Animation, Family, Adventure
Released: 1998
Cast: Ming-Na Wen, Eddie Murphy, BD Wong, Miguel Ferrer, Harvey Fierstein

Disney's late-90s high point: a war story dressed as a kids' cartoon, complete with disguise, honour, and one very loud dragon. Ming-Na Wen gives Mulan real steel, Eddie Murphy's Mushu supplies the comic relief, and the training-montage song still slaps. Family-friendly but with genuine stakes — people die, armies get buried in avalanches. For anyone who wants an adventure film that respects both its heroine and its audience.

TMDb rating

7.9

If you liked this

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How to Train Your Dragon2010

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Mulan: Rise of a Warrior2009no page yet

Same source legend, same disguise-and-duty structure, but stripped of music and comedy to show what the story looks like as unsentimental history rather than fable.

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The Prince of Egypt1998

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Hercules1997

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The Hunchback of Notre Dame1996

Proof Disney could go dark in the 90s: outsider status, genuine menace, and a villain far more disturbing than Shan Yu. Gorgeous animation of medieval Paris and a soundtrack that still gives me chills.

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Anastasia1997

A young woman fighting to reclaim her true identity against impossible odds, with a wisecracking sidekick doing Mushu's exact job. Sweeping, romantic, and surprisingly dark for a 90s cartoon.

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Pocahontas1995

Another Disney heroine caught between duty to her people and her own conscience, set against a real historical collision. The animation of the natural world is some of the studio's most beautiful work.

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G.I. Jane1997no page yet

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Yentl1983

The same core act — a woman assuming a male identity to claim purpose or education denied to her — played as intimate drama instead of action-adventure.

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