8 out of 10
 

In a glittering script written by a man from Aylmer, the 1400 year old Chinese legend of Mu-lan, a woman who pretends to be a man to defend the honour of her country and her family, springs to life.

As ancient China is invaded by the Hun, or "German tourists" as we know them in England today, Mu-lan goes to train and fight to defend China in a cartoon that is so well drawn that it makes the "Lion King" look like a rough and amateurish sketch. The downhill charge of the Hun cavalry is truly awesome and although the fight scenes at the Imperial Palace are exciting, the choreography of the movie is within credibility. This is certainly a film that adults will enjoy.

Regrettably, the film is made by Disney, a company renown for interfering micromanagement of artisitic genius in order to try to guild the lily. Unable to cope with such a high quality product, Disney have had written into the script, a "cute" dragon with Eddie Murphy as its voice in a futile effort to reproduce the sucess they had with the Genie in "Aladdin". Whilst it is amusing, this and the mmemorable, worhtless and talent-free sing-a-long songs always look what they are, laughable out-of-place devices to sell merchandise.