As such, Jingle Ma’s Mulan: Rise of a Warrior, a collaboration of mainland Chinese and Hong Kong talent, strives to be epic. Most Americans are now familiar with Mulan, thanks to the Disney film, but for the Chinese, Mulan has been a national legend for generations. The lengthy Interviews with Cast and Staff is poorly edited and looks like the rough footage for the Making of Mulan video. I should note that the Making of Mulan is presented in Mandarin with yellow English subtitles placed above the original white Chinese subtitles, which looks kind of clunky but still legible. ExtrasĮxtras include the Making of Mulan Interviews with Cast and Staff original trailer and previews for various Funimation live action Asian films. There are only a few options so menus are easy to follow. The Blu-ray menu selections take up the lower part of the screen while a sweeping excerpt from the score and various scenes play in a continuous loop. Various stills from the film are used for the DVD menu backgrounds. No DVD related inserts are included inside the case. The cardboard sleeve has the same design as the DVD cover. The back features Mulan on horseback with her army in the backdrop, a few screen shots, and the series summary. The front cover features Mulan standing in armor among those killed on the battlefield. Also, the subtitles for the Interviews with Cast and Staff contained a number of typos. I noted no issues with the actual film audio, but the sound levels for the Interviews with Cast and Staff were inconsistent and included a lot of background noise.

For the Blu-Ray extras, the audio is the original Mandarin in Dolby TrueHD 2.0 with English subtitles. The Blu-Ray language options are English and the original Mandarin in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 with English subtitles. The DVD language options are English and the original Mandarin in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround with English subtitles. As the invading armies close in, her remarkable courage and insight elevate her to the position of a true leader, who will sacrifice everything to defend her nation and bring honor to her family. When the emperor of China issues a decree that all families in the Northern Provice must defend their homeland against the barbarian hordes, Mulan, a young girl from a military family without a male heir, disguises herself as a male soldier rather than expose her aging father to the horrors of the battlefield. Not surprisingly, Mulan: Rise of a Warrior has an entirely different feel than Disney’s Mulan. After all, she’s a Chinese legend and her story concerns their history. Mulan always struck me as a heroic figure so it rubbed me a bit the wrong way to have the story presented as a comedy.Īs such, I was really curious to see how the Chinese would handle a film with Mulan as a subject.

When Disney released Mulan in 1998, I can’t say I was too thrilled with it.

Cast of mulan rise of a warrior