Maybe it's just that Mulan is over twenty years old or maybe Mulan just isn't a great movie. To give it credit, I was impressed by the animation. It's been a long time since I've seen 2D animation that didn't try to have the illusion of 3D, and Mulan actually looks pretty good, even by 2019 standards. The problem is that everything else is entirely forgettable. I literally just finished watching the movie five minutes ago and all the songs are already gone. This area of Disney animation is supposed to be bolstered by this big catchy musical numbers, but Mulan just doesn't have any. It seems stupid to complain about plot holes, inconsistency, and realism in an animated kids' movie (I really don't think it qualifies as a "family" movie) that features ghosts, dragons, and a cricket that can keep pace with a horse and communicate with it, but Mulan really pushes it. The number of soldiers in Mulan's crew is sometimes about thirty and other times is five, including Mulan. Where did everyone else go? The final battle has a completely unrealistic attack from the Huns that not only makes no logistical sense, but is impossible to have worked unless all of China is incompetent. Mulan makes it pretty clear that it is much more focused on its message than its story. The actual character of Mulan is surprisingly well written. Although she (and her entire troop) go from garbage people to super soldiers unrealistically fast (a better montage could have easily fixed this), she has a legitimate arc that never went full saccharine. Her character was really the only one that works. Everyone else is a ridiculous caricature dogeared with two or three character flaws to distinguish them. Everything is too slapstick and all of the "humor" comes from people running into things and falling down. Being an animated movie, the voice acting is a huge component and I just don't get what Disney was trying to do by casting two voice actors for the major characters. Why can't you hire one actress that is a good voice actor and can sing? It's most glaring in the grandmother who has a completely different sound and tone between the two voices. If I closed my eyes, with Mulan, I could probably guess that the singing voice is Mulan, but with the Grandmother, the singing voice sounds a good thirty years younger. Li Shang is voiced by BD Wong, except when he sings, then he's DONNY FUCKING OSMOND! Those aren't remotely close. The normal voice actor for Mulan isn't great to begin with. Most of these voices are unknowns anyway, why not cast a total package instead of paying two people to do one job? Even between different characters, it's jarring that some characters got voice actors with Chinese accents and others didn't. I get why Eddie Murphy is the dragon, but why is Yao voiced by Harvey Fierstein from New York with Eastern European Jewish ancestry? I don't give a fuck about "white washing", but if we are in China and everyone is Chinese (except the Huns) it really makes the American voices stick out when they are in a dialog with Soon-Tek Oh. Jackie Chan did Li Shang's voice in the Cantonese, Taiwanese Mandarin and Mainland standard versions, why couldn't he do the American version? Ideally, either everyone should have accents or no one should. Mulan is a beautiful movie with a sub-par everything else. While it is certainly better than some of Disney's more recent outings and it has aged better than some of Disney's older ones, Mulan is incredibly forgettable. Vanilla.