From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the film "Mulan". For the
legendary person, see
Hua Mulan. For the namesake protagonist, see
Fa Mulan.
Mulan is a 1998
animated feature film produced by
Walt Disney Feature Animation, and released by
Walt Disney Pictures on
June 19,
1998. The thirty-sixth
animated feature in the
Disney animated features canon, the film is based on
the
Chinese
legend of
Hua Mulan,[1]
and was the first of three produced primarily at the
animation studio at
Disney-MGM Studios in
Orlando, Florida.[2]
It was directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, with
the story by Robert D. San Souci and Rita Hsiao, among
others.[3]
When the
White Huns, led by the ruthless
Shan Yu (Miguel
Ferrer), invade China, each family is given a
conscription notice. Mulan's father, Fa Zhou (Soon-Tek
Oh) has to serve in the army, but he is old and
suffered a leg injury during a previous war, and it
seems clear he would not survive another war.
Fa Mulan (Ming-Na
Wen) disguises herself as a man, then takes her
father's conscription notice,
armor, and weapons so that he will not have to go.
She rides away on her horse, Khan, to join the army,
aware of the fact that the punishment for a woman
impersonating a soldier is death.
Mushu (Eddie
Murphy), a small
dragon, has been awakened by the family's First
Ancestor (George
Takei). Mushu had been demoted to gong ringer after
a mishap with one of the ancestors when the other
ancestors were awakened. After various choices of which
guardian to send after Mulan, he is asked to awaken the
"Great Stone Dragon". Mushu accidentally destroys the
Dragon but realizes that this could be an opportunity to
earn his place among the guardians again if he can make
Mulan a war hero.
Mulan trains with a group led by
Captain Li Shang (B.D.
Wong), including fellow soldiers Ling (Gedde
Watanabe), Yao (Harvey
Fierstein), and Chien Po (Jerry
Tondo). The troops complete their training, but Chi
Fu (James
Hong), the Emperor's meddling and misogynistic
advisor, refuses to let them see battle, accusing the
troops of being ill prepared. Mushu forges a letter from
the General, ordering Li Shang to take his men to
battle. The troops set out to meet General Li (James
Shigeta), who has already left on a mission.
However, Li Shang and his troops discover that the
General and his men were killed in battle.
Captain Li Shang and his troops continue,
disheartened by their loss, when they are ambushed by
Hun archers. After an initial attack, the Huns are
believed to be defeated, but the troops soon discover
otherwise. As they are setting up the last cannon to
fire at the Huns, Mulan spots a precarious mound of snow
on the upper mountainside. As the Huns charge down the
mountain Mulan takes the cannon and fires the rocket at
the snow mound. The collision of the rocket and the snow
mound causes an
avalanche which spreads over the charging Huns,
burying them. Captain Li's soldiers take refuge while
Mulan rescues Captain Li from being swept away by the
snow. The Chinese soldiers initially cheer for their
victory, but quickly become somber after Mulan discovers
that she is bleeding; she had been wounded by a swipe of
Shan Yu's sword. Shang quickly summons a doctor just as
Mulan faints.
During treatment, Mulan's true identity is
discovered. Captain Li is notified and is expected to
execute Mulan, but spares her life and considers his
pardon an exchange for Mulan saving his own life.
Instead, Captain Li expels her from the army. Mulan
decides to return home but hears the Huns emerging from
the snow that had blanketed them during the earlier
battle. She tries to warn Captain Li's troops as they
are heralded by citizens in a parade for their war
efforts, but they do not listen. As the Emperor (Pat
Morita) addresses the crowd, the Huns, disguised as
parade characters, kidnap him.
Captain Shang and his troops try to follow the Huns
into the palace but are unsuccessful. Mulan devises a
ploy with the other soldiers to dress as
concubines, scale a palace wall and infiltrate the
palace. When the Huns lower their defenses in the
presence of the "women", Mulan and her friends swiftly
dispatch them all. During this attack the Emperor is
safely removed from the palace by Chien Po, but Captain
Li and Mulan are both trapped on the balcony with Shan
Yu. Shan Yu is about kill Captain Li when Mulan gets his
attention. He recognizes her from the mountain battle
and gives chase. Mulan lures him onto the palace rooftop
where they face each other in personal combat, until
Mushu, as arranged by Mulan, propels a huge rocket that
hits Shan Yu and carries him off to his death. The fate
of the remaining five Hun warriors is never fully
disclosed.
The Emperor meets Mulan and, in an accusatory tone,
lists Mulan's crimes, but he pardons her. The Emperor
then bows to Mulan, which is considered an extremely
high honor as it implies being of a higher status than
the Emperor, and the crowd follow suit. The Emperor then
offers Mulan a position in his staff (specifically
Chi-Fu's position), but Mulan politely refuses the offer
and confesses that she wants to return home. He gives
her
Shan Yu's sword, along with his
crest, for her to bring home and give honour to her
family.
Upon her return, Mulan expects to be reprimanded but
is instead embraced by her family. Captain Shang arrives
to talk with Mulan, having been encouraged to propose by
the Emperor. The ancestors reluctantly agree to make
Mushu a guardian once more.
[edit]
Production
Mulan originally began as a short, straight-to-video
film titled "China Doll" about an oppressed and
miserable Chinese girl who is whisked away by a British
Prince Charming to happiness in the West. Then Disney
consultant and children's book writer Robert San Souci
suggested making a movie of the Chinese poem, "The Song
of Fa Mu Lan" and Disney combined the two separate
projects.[4]
Development for Mulan began in 1994, after the
production team sent a select group of artistic
supervisors to
China for three weeks to take photographs and
drawings of local landmarks for inspiration; and to soak
up local culture.[5]
The filmmakers decided to change Mulan's character to
make her more appealing and selfless[6]
and turn the art style closer to
Chinese painting, with
watercolor and simpler design - opposed to the
details of
The Lion King and
The Hunchback of Notre Dame.[7]
To create 2,000 Hun soldiers during the Huns' attack
sequence, the production team developed a
crowd simulation software called Attila. This
software allows thousands of unique characters to move
autonomously. A variant of the program called Dynasty
was used in the final battle sequence to create a crowd
of 3,000 in the Forbidden City.
Pixar's photorealistic
RenderMan was used to render the crowd. Another
software developed for this movie was Faux Plane
which was used to add depth to flat two-dimensional
painting. Although developed late in production
progress, Faux Plane was used in five shots, including
the dramatic sequence which features the
Great Wall of China, and the final battle sequence
when Mulan runs to the
Forbidden City. During the scene in which the
Chinese are bowing to Mulan, the crowd is a panoramic
film of real people bowing. It was edited into the
animated foreground of the scene.[8]
-
Ming-Na as
Fa Mulan (singing voice provided by
Lea Salonga), the female protagonist, based on
Hua Mulan. She disguises herself as a man and
joins the Chinese Imperial Army in her father's
place. Instead of being punished for doing so, she
ends up a war hero.
-
Eddie Murphy as
Mushu, a dragon and one of the Fa family's
guardian spirits, previously demoted after
misguiding one of the Fa family ancestors. He is
reinstated as a guardian after successfully aiding
Mulan in her efforts in the army.
-
B.D. Wong as
Captain Li Shang (singing voice provided by
Donny Osmond), the son of General Li and the
officer in charge of training the Imperial Army's
new recruits.
-
Miguel Ferrer as
Shan Yu, the film's main villain and the
head of the Hun army who attempts to conquer the
Chinese Empire.
-
Harvey Fierstein as Yao, a short but tough
Imperial Army recruit who was initially antagonistic
towards but later befriends Mulan. Known for the
fact that his left eye is constantly shut. Despite
this supposed handicap, he exhibits great
proficiency with range weapons; namely the bow and
the rocket.
-
Gedde Watanabe as Ling (singing voice
provided by
Matthew Wilder), a lanky Imperial Army recruit
who at first, similar to Yao, picks on, but later
befriends Mulan. Initially seen as a weakling with a
sarcastic jokester disposition, he later develops
the capacity to deliver a hard and painful headbutt
through Li Shang's training.
-
Jerry Tondo as Chien-Po, a huge, rotund,
good-natured, and inhumanly strong Imperial Army
recruit who befriends Mulan. He appears to be one of
the few who could appease Yao; mainly by the means
of calming him down by holding him up and telling
him to chant with him.
-
James Hong as Chi-Fu, a member of the
Emperor's consul and advisor to Li Shang who refuses
to allow the recruits to join the battle against the
Huns.
-
Soon-Tek Oh as Fa Zhou, Mulan's father and a
renowned
war veteran.
-
June Foray as Grandmother Fa (singing voice
provided by
Marni Nixon), the grandmother of Mulan, who is
encouraging her to find a husband.
-
Pat Morita as The Emperor of China, the
target of a Hun kidnapping who commends Mulan after
saving him and the
Chinese Empire. Wise and decisive, he stated
that "A single grain of rice can tip the scale; one
man may be the difference between victory and
defeat." Ironically, he was saved by a woman at the
near end of the first film.
-
George Takei as First Ancestor Fa, the head
of the Fa family ancestors.
-
Freda Foh Shen as Fa Li, Mulan's mother, who
looks strikingly like her except that Fa Li has a
different hairstyle and is chubbier than Mulan.
-
James Shigeta as General Li, Li Shang's
father who was killed in a battle against the Hun
army.
-
Miriam Margolyes as The Matchmaker, who
attempts to find Mulan a husband at the start of the
film.
-
Frank Welker as Khan, Mulan's horse,
Cri-Kee, a
cricket given to Mulan as an
amulet and Little Brother, Mulan's dog.
[edit]
Reception
[edit]
Critical reaction
Reception of Mulan was mostly positive, gathering a
90% fresh rating from
Rotten Tomatoes.[9]
Stephen Wong described the visuals as "stunning,"[10]
Kyle Suggs described the visuals as "breathtaking,"[11]
and Dan Jardine described the visuals as "magnificently
animated."[12]
Many praise the movie for attempting something new. Fa
Mulan is unlike a traditional Disney heroine, suggesting
that she is independent and brave; without being overtly
glamorous.[10][11]
Film critic
Roger Ebert gave Mulan three and a half stars
out of four in his written review. He said that "Mulan
is an impressive achievement, with a story and treatment
ranking with Beauty and the Beast and The Lion
King".
A negative review described it as a "disappointment."
The songs are accused of not being memorable, and
slowing down the pace of the movie.[13]
Some reviewers suggest that the film is "soulless"
in its portrayal of Asian society.[14]
This movie was also the subject of comment from
feminist critics. Mimi Nguyen says the film "pokes
fun at the ultimately repressive gender roles that seek
to make Mulan a domesticated creature."[15]
Nadya Labi agrees, saying "there is a lyric in the
film that gives the lie to the bravado of the entire
girl-power movement." She pointed out that she
needed to become a boy to do it. Kathleen Karlyn, an
assistant professor of English at the University of
Oregon, criticises it suggesting "In order to even
imagine female heroism, we're placing it in the realm of
fantasy". Pam Coats, producer of Mulan, aimed to
produce a character that exhibits both masculine and
feminine influences, being both physically and mentally
strong.[16]
[edit]
Box office performance
Mulan's opening weekend box office figures were
$22.8 million,[17]
placing it as the second highest grossing movie that
week to
The X-Files.[18]
It went on to make $120 million domestically and $304
million worldwide, placing it the second highest family
film of the year, behind
A Bug's Life, and the 7th highest of the year
overall.[19]
However, these figures were criticised as being a
significant decrease from former Disney films, and this
was considered a sign of the decreasing popularity of
cartoon animation.[20]
Top international releases include
United Kingdom ($14.6 million) and France ($10.2
million).[21]
[edit]
Awards
Mulan won many
Annie Awards. The film itself won the award for Best
Animated Theatrical theatres. Individual achievement
awards were awarded to Pam Coats for producing; Barry
Cook and Tony Bancroft for Directing; Rita Hsiao,
Christopher Sanders, Phillip LaZebnick, Raymond Singer
and Eugenia Bostwick-Singer in Writing; Chris Sanders
for Storyboarding; Hans Bacher for Production Design;
David Tidgwell for Effects Animation;
Ming-Na for Voice Acting Mulan;
Matthew Wilder,
David Zippel and
Jerry Goldsmith for music and
Ruben A. Aquino for Character Animation.
Tom Bancroft and Mark Henn were also nominated for
Character Animation.[22]
It was also nominated for an
Academy Award for Original Music Score in 1998, but
was beaten by
Stephen Warbeck's score for
Shakespeare in Love.[23]
The music score also received significant praise. Jerry
Goldsmith won the 1999
BMI Film Music Award and was nominated for a
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score in 1998.
Matthew Wilder and David Zippel were also nominated for
a
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song the same
year for "Reflection".
They were beaten by
The Truman Show and "The
Prayer" from
Quest for Camelot respectively.[24]
[edit]
Reception in China
Disney was keen to promote Mulan to the
Chinese, hoping they might replicate their success with
their 1994 film
The Lion King, which was one of the country's
highest-grossing Western films at that time. Disney also
hoped it might smooth over relations with the Chinese
government which had soured after the release of
Kundun, a Disney-funded biography of the
Dalai Lama that the Chinese government considered
politically provocative.[25]
China had threatened to curtail business negotiations
with Disney over that film and, as the government only
accepts 10
Western films per year to be shown in their country,
Mulan's chances of being accepted were low.[26]
Finally, after a year's delay, the Chinese government
did allow the film a limited Chinese release, but only
after the
Chinese New Year, so as to ensure that local films
dominated the more lucrative holiday market.[27][28]
Kelly Chen and
Coco Lee voiced Mulan in the
Cantonese and
Mandarin dubs of the film respectively, while
Jackie Chan voiced Shang in both dubs.
[edit]
Chinese culture in Mulan
[edit]
The Legend of Hua Mulan
-
The Chinese legend of Hua Mulan centers on a young
woman who disguises herself as a
man to take the place of her elderly father in the
army. The story can be traced back to
The Ballad of Mulan. The earliest accounts of the
legend state that she lived during the
Northern Wei dynasty (386–534).
However another version reports that Mulan was requested
as a
concubine by
Emperor Yang of Sui China (reigned
604–617).[1]
The film may take place even later, as it prominently
features landmarks such as the
Forbidden City which was not constructed until the
15th Century. On the other hand, at the time of
Northern Wei, the
Xiongnu (Huns)
had been already absorbed into Chinese culture. However,
according to the style of dress (traditional Han
clothing), the film takes place sometime in the 15th
century or before. The
fireworks featured in the movie indicate that the
movie is set during the Sui dynasty. Although Mulan is
set in north China, where the dominant language is
Mandarin,[29]
the Disney film uses the
Cantonese pronunciation, "Fa", of her family name.
In Mandarin her name is pronounced "Hua".
Disney's Mulan casts
the title character in much the same way as the
original legend, a
tomboy daughter of a respected veteran, somewhat
troubled by being the "sophisticated lady" her society
expects her to be after failing the matchmaker's
training, dishonoring Mulan's family. In the original
Mulan legend, Mulan uses her father's name Li and not
the name "Ping" and she was never discovered as a girl,
unlike the film. Also in the original legend, Mulan went
to war for her father, because her father was getting
too old to fight, and had no sons to take his place.
However, in the film, it was added that her father's leg
was injured.
[edit]
Language
The script used for most of the text in Mulan is
Traditional Chinese, which is no longer used in
daily life on
Mainland China (but still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong,
Macau, and many overseas Chinese communities), although
people are still able to read it. The traditional name
for the leaders of the
Central Asian Huns was Shanyu. The war between the
Huns and China was real, called the
Sino-Xiongnu War.
When Mulan masquerades as a man, her name is a
pun in Chinese. Her first name is "Ping" (瓶),
meaning pot, and her surname (placed first using Chinese
naming conventions) means Flower (花). Together they make
"Flowerpot", a Chinese term meaning an effeminate man.
According to Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and
Sketches by Maurice Baring, "Ping" in Chinese means
soldier-man, and if you wish to express your contempt
for a man there is no word in the whole of the Chinese
language which expresses it so fully and so emphatically
as the word Ping.[30]
Chi Fu's name literally means, in Chinese, "to bully".
-
Mulan features a score by
Jerry Goldsmith and five songs by
Matthew Wilder (music) and
David Zippel (lyrics), with a sixth originally
planned for Mushu, but dropped following Eddie Murphy's
involvement with the character.[31]
The movie's soundtrack is credited for starting the
career of pop singer
Christina Aguilera, whose first song to be released
in the U.S. was her rendition of
Reflection, the first single from the Mulan
soundtrack. The song, and Aguilera's vocals, were so
well received that it landed her a recording contract
with RCA records.[32]
In 1999, she would go on to release her
self-titled debut album, on which Reflection
was also included. As well as her own, the pop version
of Reflection has 2
Spanish translations, because the movie has separate
Spanish translations for
Spain (performed by
Malú) and
Latin America (performed by
Lucero). Other international versions include a
Brazilian Portuguese version by
Sandy & Junior ("Imagem") and a Mandarin version by
Coco Lee.
Lea Salonga, the singing voice of Mulan in the
movie, is also the singing voice of
Princess Jasmine in
Aladdin. The music featured during the haircut
scene, often referred as the Mulan Decision
score, is different in the soundtrack album. The
soundtrack album uses an orchestrated score while the
movie uses heavy
synthesizer music. The synthesizer version is
available on limited edition CD.[33]
Salonga, who enjoys singing movie music in her concerts,
has done a Disney medley which climaxes with an expanded
version of 'Reflection' (not the same as those in
Aguilera's version). Salonga also provided the singing
voice for Mulan in the movie's sequel,
Mulan II.
The song
I'll Make a Man Out of You was performed by
Donny Osmond, who commented that his children decided
that he had finally "made it" in show business when he
was in a Disney film.[34]
On
Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic, this
includes
I'll Make a Man Out of You on the
orange disc. And on
Disney's Greatest Hits, this also includes
Reflection on the
blue disc, and
I'll Make a Man Out of You on the
green disc.
[edit]
References in Other Media
[edit]
References to Mulan in
Disney Media
- When Mulan sings Reflection, in her
father's shrine, her reflection appears in the
polished surface of the temple stones. The writing
on the stones is the names of the Disney animators
who worked on the film written in ancient Chinese.[35]
- In the scene where Mushu awakens the ancestors,
one set of grandparents worry that Mulan's quest
will ensure her family loses their farm. This couple
appears to be the couple on the farm in Grant Wood's
famous painting
American Gothic.
- There are a number of
Hidden Mickeys in this film, including the spots
on Shang's horse's neck and rump and in the training
sequences, the first time the soldiers use their
rockets.
- Although she is technically not the daughter of
a king or other form of royalty, Mulan is often
regarded as one of the
Disney Princesses.[2]
- Mulan is present in the Disney and
Square Enix video game series
Kingdom Hearts. In the first
Kingdom Hearts and in
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Mushu is
a summonable character,[36]
and in
Kingdom Hearts II, the movie is featured as
a
playable world named "The
Land of Dragons", with the plot being changed to
accommodate the game's protagonists (Sora,
Donald and
Goofy) and Mulan (both as herself and in her
Ping identity) able to join the player's party as a
skilled sword fighter.[36]
- Mulan, Mushu, Cri-Kee and Khan were featured as
guests in
House of Mouse, and Mushu was featured in
Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House
of Mouse.
- Mulan, Mushu, Cri-Kee, Khan, Shang and Shan Yu
can also be featured in
Disneyland's
Sleeping Beauty Castle Mystery Tour.
[edit]
References to Mulan in
popular culture
- The British sitcom
Spaced referenced Mulan in the second
episode of the second series. In the show,
characters are frequently hard-pressed to draw a
line between fantasy and reality, and in this scene
the character Daisy recalls Mulan as someone she has
met "when she was traveling"; until another
character reminds her it was 'a Disney film'. Daisy
also sings a very badly-remembered line of
'Reflection'.[37]
- In the television show
Firefly,
Shepherd Book mentions a Chinese warlord named
Shan Yu who purportedly believed you could only
truly know a man by torturing him.[38]
Margaret Cho referred to a fish and rice diet a
tabloid (falsely) reported her adhering to as being
"so Mulan," in that it was based on the
stereotypes of her ethnic background.[39]]
- In the
Ugly Betty Don't Tell", Mulan is referenced when Betty is
quizzing Marc on his knowledge of her to fool his
mother into thinking they are dating. However, he
does not know much, as is evidenced when the
question is about her favorite princess, and Marc
guesses Mulan. Henry, on the other hand, knows it is
Cinderella.
- In the episode of Family Guy titled "; Thy Trophy", Stewie is taken from the Griffin
family and placed in the foster care of a couple who
has adopted many children of different racial
backgrounds (Chinese, Indian, African, Inuit, etc.).
Stewie turns them all against each other by letting
them know of the conflicts between their homelands
and then by getting them to argue the ethnicity of
Santa Claus. During the argument, one child tells
his adopted Chinese sister to "Go back to your rice
paddy Mulan!"
