Mulan

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This article is about the film "Mulan". For the legendary person, see Hua Mulan.

Mulan
Promotional Poster For Mulan
Directed by	Tony Bancroft Barry Cook
Produced by	Pam Coats
Written by	Robert D. San Souci
Starring	Ming-Na Eddie Murphy B.D. Wong Miguel Ferrer Harvey Fierstein
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s)	June 6, 1998 (private) June 19, 1998 (general)
Running time	88 minutes
Language	English
Preceded by	Hercules (1997)
Followed by	Tarzan (1999)
IMDb profile

Mulan is the thirty-sixth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, and first released on June 5, 1998 by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution. Loosely based on various versions of the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan (Fa Mulan), the film was the first of three produced primarily at the animation studio at Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida. It was directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, with the story by Robert D. San Souci.

The most notable voice cast member of the film was Eddie Murphy, who provided the voice for the dragon Mushu. Other cast members included Ming-Na as Fa Mulan and B.D. Wong as Captain Li Shang.

The film outgrossed its predecessors, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules in domestic income, taking over $120 million and over $304 million worldwide. It is among one of Disney's most popular and successful movies to date.

1 Plot
2 Production notes
3 Soundtrack Listing
4 Trivia
5 Credits
- 5.1 Voice cast
- 5.2 Supervising animators
6 Goofs
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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). 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 (called Huns in the movie) had already absorbed into Chinese and other races and disappeared on the stage of history.

Disney's Mulan casts the title in much the same way as the original legend, a rough-around-the-edges daughter of a respected veteran, somewhat troubled by being the "sophisticated lady" her society expects. When the Huns invade China, it is declared that one man from every family must serve in the Imperial army, so each family is given a conscription notice. Mulan's father has to serve in the army, but due to an old wound from a previous war he served in, he cannot walk properly. He is willing to serve in the army, but it is clear that he will not survive if he does. One night, Mulan cuts her hair with her father's sword and ties it up. She then takes his conscription notice, armor, weapons and horse; and thus runs away to join the army.

At the same time, Mushu (an unusually small dragon) is sent by Mulan's ancestors to protect and encourage Mulan, but mostly to heal his tarnished reputation amongst the late Fa family's departed guardians.

Although Mulan starts out weak in comparison to her fellow soldiers, she works hard and is soon even stronger than the rest and becomes a respected part of her group, which is led by Captain Li Shang.

After Mulan defeats the Huns with her ingenious plan (she triggers an avalanche over their heads), she realizes she is wounded and passes out from blood loss. She is brought back to the camp for treatment, where they discover that she is actually a woman and she is expelled from the army. Before Mulan leaves the battlefield, she finds out that some of the Huns are actually alive and warns Shang and the emperor. Eventually, she ends up saving the kingdom and winning the respect of the Emperor (and of Shang), with a reasonable expectation of living happily ever after.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Production notes

To create 2000 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 3000 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.

[edit] Soundtrack Listing

"Honor to Us All" — Beth Fowler, Marnie Nixon, Lea Salonga
"Reflection" — Lea Salonga
"I'll Make a Man Out of You" — Donny Osmond
"A Girl Worth Fighting For" — Harvey Fierstein, James Hong, Lea Salonga, Jerry Tondo, Matthew Wilder
"True to Your Heart (Single)" — 98*, Stevie Wonder
"Suite from Mulan"
"Attack at the Wall (Score)"
"Mulan's Decision (Score)"
"Blossoms (Score)"
"The Huns (Score)"
"The Burned-Out Village (Score)"
"Reflection (Pop Version)" — Christina Aguilera

[edit] Trivia

Mulan's full name in Chinese is 花木兰. Translated literally, it means flower of the Lily magnolia; a type of tree native to Sichuan province in south China. The trees in Mulan's garden strongly resembled the Lily Magnolia tree.

The script used for most of the text in Mulan is Traditional Chinese, which is no longer used in daily life on Mainland China, although people are still able to read it.

The traditional name for the leaders of the Chinese Huns was Shanyu. The war between the Huns and China was real. It is called the Sino-Xiongnu War. Hua Mulan probably lived during the Northern Wei dynasty, which is when the last of the Chinese Huns' states came to an end.

In Mulan, characters are rendered in an artstyle reminiscent of Chinese art. The character of Mulan is a departure from previous Disney female leads; she isn't a princess, but a strong, beautiful and capable warrior. The only other adult human Disney heroines who are not of royal blood are Belle from 1991's Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella from 1950's Cinderella (who becomes a princess once she marries the prince), Esmeralda from 1996's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Megara from 1997's Hercules.

Although she is not officially a Princess, Mulan is often regarded as one of the Disney Princesses.

The music featured during the haircut scene, often reffered 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.^[1]

Jackie Chan provides the speaking and also the singing voice of Captain Li Shang in both the Cantonese and Mandarin versions of the movie. A music video of him singing "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" can be found on the film's 2-Disc Special Edition DVD. In the original, this song is performed by Donny Osmond.

Kelly Chen and CoCo Lee provide the voice of Mulan in the Cantonese and Mandarin versions of the film respectively. As they are both professional singers, they also sing the film's songs too.

In the film Lilo & Stitch, Nani has a poster of Mulan in her room.

The movie is also featured as a playable world named "The Land of Dragons" in Kingdom Hearts II, with Mulan able to join the group as a skilled swordfighter. Prior to that, Mushu has made an appearance in the first Kingdom Hearts game, as well as Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, as a summonable character. This has been referenced in flashbacks in KH2, as well as Mushu's immediate recognition to Sora, Donald and Goofy. Much like most of the Disney villains in the series with the notable exception of Hector Barbossa, Shan-Yu's troops (In his case, the Huns that he led in the movie) have been replaced by Heartless. It is possible that Shan-Yu's troops were turned into Heartless. Also, there are some notable differences in the storyline, such as all of the inhabitants of the Land of Dragons are aware of Mushu's existence and instead of Mulan's identity being revealed by a sword wound, Mushu blabs it out by accident. In the game, Mulan's limit attack is Red Rocket, where she and Mushu team up to perform devastating fire attacks.

One of the movie's songs, the pop version of "Reflection" has 3 Spanish translations, because the movie has separate Spanish translations for Spain and Latin America. The third translation was done by Christina Aguilera.

Although Mulan is set in north China, where the dominant language is Mandarin, Disney use the Cantonese pronunciation, "Fa", of her family name. In Mandarin her name is pronounced "Hua".

The Korean version of "Reflection" is sung by Lena Park.

The Mexican version of "Reflection" is sung by Lucero.

When Mulan sings "Reflection" in her father's shrine, her reflection appears in the polished surface of the temple stones. The writing on the temple stones is the names of the Disney animators who worked on the film written in ancient Chinese.

The scene where Mulan disarms Shan-Yu with a fan shows an actual martial art technique.

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 appear to be the couple on the farm in Grant Wood's famous painting 'American Gothic'.

Hidden Mickey: The spots on Shang's horse's neck and rump are shaped like a Mickey Mouse motif. There are also other hidden Mickeys in the film.

Chi Fu's name literally means, in Chinese, "to pester or annoy".

Mushu has a lot of lines that tie back to pop culture. For example, when Mushu and Crickie fly over to the fireworks tower, Mushu scares the fireworks operators away by casting a Batman-like shadow and exclaiming "Citizens, I need firepower." "Who are you?" "Your worst nightmare".

Mulan is one of only three Disney heroines (the others being Princess Aurora from "Sleeping Beauty" and Wendy from "Peter Pan") to have both parents alive and well through the entire movie.

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.

In the original Mulan legend, Mulan uses her father's name Li and not the name "Ping".

The movie's soundtrack can be credited for jump starting the career of pop princess Christina Aguilera, whose first song ever to be released in the U.S was 'Reflection', the 1st single off of the 'Mulan' soundtrack. Reception for the song, and Aguilera's vocals were so well received, that it landed her a recording contract with RCA records. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song, which went to When You Believe from The Prince of Egypt. In 1999, she would go on to release her self titled debut album, on which 'Reflection' was also included.

Lea Salonga, the singing voice of Mulan in the movie, is also the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin.

The inspiration for the Disney princess Mulan was the Chinese heroine Wang Cong'er (1777–1798).

[edit] Credits

[edit] Voice cast

Actor	Role(s)
Ming-Na	Fa Mulan
Eddie Murphy	Mushu
B.D. Wong	Captain Li Shang
Miguel Ferrer	Shan Yu
Harvey Fierstein	Yao
Gedde Watanabe	Ling
Jerry Tondo	Chien-Po
James Hong	Chi Fu
Soon-Tek Oh	Fa Zhou
June Foray	Grandmother Fa
Frank Welker	Khan Additional voices
Pat Morita	The Emperor of China
George Takei	First Ancestor Fa
Freda Foh Shen	Fa Li
Miriam Margolyes	The Matchmaker

Singing voices

Actor	Role(s)
Lea Salonga	Fa Mulan
Donny Osmond	Captain Li Shang
Matthew Wilder	Ling

[edit] Supervising animators

Animator	Character(s)
Mark Henn	Fa Mulan Fa Zhou
Tom Bancroft	Mushu
Ruben A. Aquino	Captain Li Shang Fa Li
Pres Antonio Romanillos	Khan General Li
Aaron Blaise	Yao The Ancestors
Broose Johnson	Ling Chien-Po
Barry Temple	Cri-Kee
Jeffery J. Varab	Grandmother Fa Chi Fu

[edit] Goofs

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Early in the film, Mulan paints her face white and dresses in a kimono; these are Japanese practices, but the film takes place in China.

When Mulan is chased through the camp and collides with the men standing in line to get their rice, rice flies out of the bowls they are holding, when the bowls should be empty.

When Mulan is riding on Khan before the cart he was pulling explodes, her sword is in her hand. When she is blown off her horse in the next shot, it is back in its sheath.

In the same scene, Mulan's helmet is blown off her head. When she is left behind in the mountains (after it is discovered that she is a woman), her helmet reappears beside her, even though it should still be somewhere under the avalanche.

When Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po are racing to help Mulan in the avalanche scene, Yao's sword is curved like a scimitar. In the next shot the sword is straight.

Crickie has four legs, but actual crickets always have six legs.

Mulan accidentaly spills tea on the table during her encounter with the Matchmaker. In all of the following shots, the spill is gone.

When Mulan is wounded in the avalanche scene, she is brought to a tent for treatment. Printed on the left side of the tent is a Japanese flag, although the entire story takes place in China.

When Chien-Po collides with the men standing in line to get their rice, he is standing, but in the next shot he is lying on the ground.

When Mulan is pulled onto the cliff with a rope by the other soldiers, the rope is tied around her horse; in the next shot, the horse just walks away easily, even though the rope is still tied around him and the other end of it doesn't move.

Before Mulan punches Yao, she is holding her father's conscription notice in her hand, but when she punches him it is in her sash.

When Shan Yu talks to the Chinese soldiers, he says the Emperor invited him "by building his Great Wall to challenge my strength". It is unknown exactly when, but the Great Wall took several hundred years to build, therefore the Emperor that started it would not have lived to see it completed.

When Mulan goes to find her puppy and finds him sleeping, the notes on her arm disappear and do not reappear until she has spoken to her father and runs off to town.

Even though no casualties appear to ever be suffered, the number of soldiers under Shang's command decreases throughout the course of the movie.

Even after Shan-Yu cuts Mulan's side with his sword, the sword is still clean. In reality, it would have had blood on it.

When Shan-Yu cuts Mulan, the cut does not start bleeding until after the avalanche. In reality, she would have begun bleeding immediately.

In the ending scene, the two Hun soldiers that drag the Emperor to the balcony have swords attached to their belts. After Shan-Yu appears and tells them to guard the door, the swords have disappeared.

At the beginning of the same scene, Mulan was wearing her male clothes (that she had worn throughout her time as pretending to be a male). After she whistles to the other soldiers and tells them she has an idea, she is suddenly wearing a long, blue (female) dress.

At the end of the avalanche scene when Mulan discovers she is wounded, the wound leaves a blood stain on her shirt. Later on, the blood stain is gone, although there are no signs indicating someone had washed it away.

After Mulan is discovered to be a woman and Chi-Fu drags her out of the tent to humiliate her, all she is wearing above her waist is bandages, plus there is no sign of her shirt anywhere. After the soldiers leave her behind in the mountains, she is suddenly wearing her shirt.

During the scene with Mulan and the Matchmaker, the Matchmaker grabs Mulan's arm, causing the paint from the notes on her arm to rub off on her hand. The paint rubs off on the Matchmaker's face, but not on the teapot handle.

At the end of the Avalanche scene, Chien-Po picks up at least six fully armored men, while at the same time pulling up Mulan, Shang, Crickie, Mushu, and Khan from the edge of a cliff by a thin rope. If he is a normal human and doesn't have any supernatural ancestors, he has totally defied the laws of physics.