Mulan

Mulan marks a sumptuous return to top form, and it can stand comparison with anything done in the classic era of Disney animation. Back then, Snow White dreamed that some day her prince would come. Today, the prince would not find Mulan waiting for him.

The color palette is stunning, the attention to detail exquisite and the merger of computer-animated epic scenes with intricate, hand-drawn passages is seamless.

It features exquisite, silky backgrounds and enough action, romance and silly stuff for all ages and genders.

The film, which is pleasant enough and quite lovely in its visual design, may well inspire millions of girls to forget about Leonardo DiCaprio and get on with their lives. Yet Mulan suffers from recurrent earnestness and erratic writing.

A quantum leap beyond the labored pretentiousness of The Hunchback of Notre Dame or the self-conscious chic of Hercules, Disney's 36th full-length animated movie is far more than a grand family film. It's a grand film, period.

Without its fabulous animation, Mulan would add up to little more than a serviceable variant on the Disney drill.

Mulan is beautiful. It soars, laughs and cries. It's as delicate as a late-blooming cherry blossom and as solid as the Great Wall of China.

This lovely, energetic and painterly film, based on an ages-old Chinese legend about a young warrior heroine, is one that achieves a nearly perfect blending of elements -- adventure, romance, comedy, music and art -- that define the genre.

When you see the Walt Disney Pictures animation wizards working near the top of their game like this, you wonder why any other studio ever tries to muscle into their territory.

As good as Mulan is -- and there are long stretches when it is simply wonderful -- the movie could have still been better, if only its makers weren't so insistent on treating it like such a... cartoon.