Recently, I watched both Mulan (1998) and The Iron Giant (1999), and I feel like these movies show two extremes of animation, in a way. As such, I felt like talking about them, a little bit.
First, I'll tell you where I stand on both, individually: I think Mulan is mediocre and The Iron Giant is a masterpiece.
Maybe on the surface, both these movies might not appear to have that much in common, other than having come out at about the same time, but I think they're actually similar, in a way. They both center the idea of breaking out from a mold, of going beyond expectations and cracking open social norms, even overcoming great discrimination and severe resistance.
In Mulan's case, we have a young lady living in a world where the expectations for a woman, or rather, what the world demands of a woman is to be pretty and bear children. War is a man's business, so much so that the simple thought that a woman might participate in the war is outrageous, and the act is akin to sin and very much illegal, worthy of the death-penalty, no less.
As for The Iron Giant, we have a living weapon that chooses not to be one anymore. People aren't just wary, they're scared, and they react violently, being ready to obliterate it at a moment's notice. The army is mobilized, nuclear missiles are launched!
Our two hero's - though, in The Iron Giant's case, the protagonist is actually Hogarth, not the giant himself - both struggle and succeed in proving to the world that they're more than what they're told they are. Yet, one comes off as bland and uninspired, while the other is a magnificent cornucopia of emotional depth and intense characters.
Why is that?
Well, many things.
I'd like to highlight what I think is perhaps the most jarring difference between these two movies: the villain, or rather, the main antagonist.
In Mulan's case, that is Shan Yu, the Hun. He's violent and ruthless, as well as immensely powerful and terrifying. There, you know everything there is to know about Shan Yu. Another antagonist is the counsel of the emperor, Chi-fu. He, at least, isn't strictly evil either - he does what he thinks is right for his people - but he's also just an asshole. He's a talking caricature. A joke. He wields power, and is therefore a danger to Mulan's objectives, considering he's strongly opposed to her being in the army and being a pompous prick.
However, here's the thing with Chi-Fu: being a misogynist isn't special in this universe. Mulan's dad, while incredibly loving, also feels the same way about her being in the army. Sure, he loves her and doesn't want harm to come to her, but there's nothing in the movie that indicates he would've allowed her to go if her safety was guaranteed or something. It was simply, "not her place." Li Shang is the same! Even after Mulan saves his life, he doesn't change. Sure, a seedling of change may have been sown in his mind, but he disregards her warnings regardless.
The Iron Giant, on the other hand, doesn't have a villain. There's an antagonist, sure, Kent Mansley, but he's not evil. He's not violent, ruthless, immensely powerful, or terrifying. As a matter of fact, he's good. The government, as a whole, is also an antagonist, but it acts more as a force wielded by Kent which even then resists his misguided actions when the truth reveals itself.
The Iron Giant is set in 1957, during the cold war. People are scared - terrified, even - and Kent is no exception. We see what the kids learn in school through Hogarth, learning to hide under their desks to miraculously survive a nuclear strike... And then, an iron giant falls from the sky and starts eating cars! Kent definitely makes mistakes, and from our perspective - understanding the true nature of the giant - it seems that what he's doing is rather stupid and misguided. However, is it even? He wants to protect everyone! He just wants people to be safe, and he's a victim of the paranoia. He goes too far and lies, he exerts too much power, power he was not entitled to or ready to wield, and that led to terrible consequences, but he never aimed to harm. He wasn't a mindless, one-dimensional murderer. He was a civil servant trying to serve the public. His crime is fear and rashness.
Now, don't get me wrong. Misogyny isn't logical, so it does make sense that the character's aren't necessarily logical in their approach to it. It's about social norms, things that are taken for granted and left unquestioned. It makes sense that Mulan's struggle isn't just with the system, but with the unbending minds of those shaped by said system. However, I would mention that Mushu doesn't seem to have much of an issue with it, though he is painted as a bit of a cook and an outsider... Still, the antagonistic forces, the barriers that she overcomes are just that: they're barriers. Mindless barriers. The Iron Giant's antagonists aren't that at all, they're people. They're beings that have goals and objectives that go beyond "conquer China because me conquer" and "women weak because women."
There's a lot to both these movies, really, but that alone is enough to firmly place them on two very different tiers of animation.
Really, I found myself enraptured by every character in The Iron Giant maybe a thousand times more than any character in Mulan. Even Earl Stutz, the crazy fisherman, is more interesting than Mulan's companions. He, at least, tries to do something, instead of being comedy relief. He must have, what, 3 minutes of screen time? Maybe.
Overall, I feel like Mulan is populated by single-minded husks that sometimes say something funny and hit some notes, while The Iron Giant is a living and breathing world.
Brad Bird, I'm single.
But what do you think?
Mulan: 3/5
The Iron Giant: 5/5
