My family has a tradition of watching movies together on Sunday nights. It’s a great way to unwind after church and moving onto the rest of the week. My husband and I have chosen to have family movie night focus on movies from the past so that we can enjoy older, cleaner forms of entertaining styles while providing our children a chance to be well rounded in their media experiences. At the time of this post, my kids are 11, 9, 7, 4, 2 and 8 months. My 2 year old is a girl and the rest are boys.

However, this week, we didn’t follow our normal pattern. The kids and I had our family movie day on a Tuesday afternoon. It was snowing outside, the local school district was closed. Our educational goals for the day were met. Instead of lunch, we had popcorn, hot chocolate, and other snacks. Instead of choosing the movie myself, my kids chose Mulan.

The animated version of Mulan was released in 1998. The directors include Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook.

The story begins with Mulan (played by Ming-Na) preparing to present herself as an honorable woman ready for marriage, but fails miserably. My kids laughed at the chain of events that unfold as she attempts to prove her worthiness to the town matchmaker. Mulan pours tea as if she were serving her future in-laws. Her “lucky” cricket finds the temperature of the tea perfect for a bath, and relaxes in the cup meant for the matchmaker. Mulan, ever anxious to please her family and bring them honor, tries to prevent the matchmaker from drinking the cricket. Before you know it, there is a fire, the matchmaker is covered in tea and ink, and Mulan leaves disgraced.

The Huns invaded China, so all the family are required to send a male representative to fight in the war. Mulan’s father must go since he has no male heirs even though he relies on a walking stick to get around. That night, Mulan cuts her hair and prepares to impersonate her father. Of course, Mulan does not know what it takes to be a Chinese man and makes a lot of mistakes a long the way.

What adds to the comedy of this movie is Mushu, the family dragon that resembles a small lizard more than a dragon. Some of his jokes are made when Mulan is bathing in a lake or river alone, but the other soldiers show up. He mentions, “I’ll bet there is something that they’re sure to notice.” I’m not sure what this movie would have been like without this character, but there are times when his antics come close to ruining this movie for me. I prefer movies without body humor and unnecessary violence, but he insights violence when Mulan makes her first appearance in the soldier’s camp. My older kids blushed or turned away their heads during some of Mushu’s more embarrassing moments.

I am not familiar with the historical tale of the real Mulan, but I’m sure this movie is much like Cinderella and Pocahontas. It has a historical basis, but is clearly done Disney-Style. More importantly, certain values that our culture treasures are presented: judge people based on their accomplishments, not gender or appearance. You see this as Mulan is disgraced each time it is discovered she is a woman, even though her heroics repeatedly saved the Chinese army and China. Yet, each time her identity is revealed, her life is spared even though impersonating a man is punishable by death. In the end, her character trumps gender stereotypes and she is recognized as a hero.