SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: Tsang Hao Ren

STUDENT ID NO: 0315753

FILMS SELECTED: Mulan and The Croods

WORD COUNT: 697 words

ENGLISH 2 (ENGL 0205)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: 5TH DECEMBER 2013

Mulan and The Croods are both animated films by Walt Disney Pictures and Dreamwork Animation respectively. Mulan talks about a young girl who take his aged father’s place in the army and impersonating a man to fight in a war against Shan Yu while The Crood s talks about a family that was forced to get out of their comfort zone and to the unknown wilderness in search of a new home when their home was destroyed. Things became worse for Grug when a prehistoric genius threatens his place as the leader of the family. The two films share some similarities such as having a female main character and both talks a lot about family but there are even more differences in those two films.

The first difference anyone would notice is the timeline settings. Both are from the past of our current time but Mulan is set in the Han Dynasty in China while The Croods are of prehistoric time. While in different times, both have technology of their own during their time in the movie. In Mulan, you could find things such as the Chinese sword known as Dao and also Jian. Not to mention, the Chinese inventions of fire crackers. The Croods may have been in prehistoric times, but in this movie, a lot technology concept was invented before even getting a proper name. For example, they were able make shoes, a flying machine and also a camera.

In this two films, they also have very different enemies. Mulan’s enemies are Shan Yu that led the Hun invasion while enemies of The Croods are mother nature itself. Having different enemies, both characters faced their enemies differently, Mulan faced the enemy with bravery and courage although they were outnumbered whike The Croods faced their enemy by running away instead of fighting it to a safe land.

Both movies have very similar charaters but all have different characteristic. Both main characters are girls. Mulan is a brave and independent girl who loves her father so much that she take his place in the army. Eep, The Croods’ main character is a strong and very curios girl who always defy his father’s instruction because of curiosity. Both have a grandmother in which one was a superstitious, loving and understanding towards Mulan while the other is ferocious and cruel to his son-in-law, Eep’s father Grug. Both families in the films have pets. Mulan had her guardian, the dragon mushu and her lucky cricket. The Croods had even more pets such as Chucky, a tiger and Douglass, a dog like creature.

The two of this films both have moral values and also messages to the watchers. Mulan teaches us about girls can do anything as good as any both. It also teaches us to treat our elders well , to serve the nation and defend our country well and be faithful to our God. While in The Croods, it teaches us to take risk, don’t stay in our comfort zone. It also teaches to be creative in solving problems and also to accept new things by being open minded.

Both movies also share some genres but have different ones. Mulan is an adventure film where they travel to war that involves a lot of drama. It is also a musical with everyone singing and dancing in quite a few scenes. It also some comedy-drama in the movie. The Croods on the other her hand is a fantasy, meaning the things happening in the movie is not real, it is just all

imagination. It also have a lot of adventure like Mulan but comedy in it throughout the whole movie.

Every movie had its differences, being too similar would just make one of it a rip off the original movie. Having more variety of movies gives you the freshness in each movie with different angles, time, place and also plot. It wouldn’t be the same old stuff in every with very predictable plots. Why watch a movie when you already know what is going to happen? That is why, it is important to have your own specialty in each movies, giving the crowd the “wow” factor.