What a pleasant surprise, then, to see Mulan--an exciting, funny, unassuming piece of animation that harks back to the unexpected quality of The Little Mermaid. Based on a Chinese folktale, Mulan follows the title character, a headstrong bumbler (voiced by the plucky Ming Na-Wen), as she joins the emperor's army in her father's place, disguising herself as a man to battle the invading Mongol hordes. She's aided in her quest by a lucky cricket, a clever miniature dragon (voiced, often hilariously, by Eddie Murphy), and a handsome general's son (B.D. Wong) who pledges to "make a man" out of her.

The standard objections apply. The songs are obtrusive, the animal sidekicks seem inappropriate for such an elegant tale, and the contemporary references jolt the viewer out of the film's historical cast. And that's without the borderline-offensive Westernizing of Asian characters, and the presentation of war as a fun, zany endeavor. What's bothersome about these elements isn't that they're ineffective; in fact, however objectionable, they're quite crowd-pleasing. The disappointment is that Disney feels compelled to shoehorn another straightforward adventure into this hackneyed formula.

Still, Mulan tones down and even breaks out of the formula in subtle ways. The character design relies on clean, minimal lines, and the backdrops are spare, shaded in muted watercolors. The computer animation effects are more functional than dazzling, which serves to make the massive battle sequence easier to follow and more exciting to watch. Most importantly, this is the first Disney animated feature of this era to have a three-act structure, rather than skipping blithely from set-up to climax. That little extra bit of plot and character development strengthens the film's theme of family honor, infusing the story with genuine emotion.

But what elevates Mulan is the fact that it's the first Disney film since Beauty and the Beast that doesn't leave you feeling worked over. There have been bright spots in all the feature-length Disney cartoons of the past decade, but all of them tried so hard to entertain that they all but eliminated the element of delight. They had no unaffected moments. Given the declining grosses of its recent features, one gets the feeling that with Mulan Disney convinced itself the stakes had been lowered, and the studio responded with a film that reclaims the quiet charms of the best children's entertainment. Suddenly, the castle is worth visiting again.