Mulan
Short description
Mulan is an animated adventure set in imperial China, where the emperor orders one man from every family to join the army against an invading force from the north. A young woman named Mulan takes her ailing father's place, disguising herself as a soldier and enduring harsh training while hiding her identity, since discovery would mean severe punishment. A small dragon named Mushu, sent by her ancestors, joins her along with a lucky cricket, and she must earn the trust of her fellow recruits and their captain.
The film was directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook from a screenplay by Rita Hsiao, Philip LaZebnik and Chris Sanders, and produced by Pam Coats. It was the first directing credit for both Bancroft, who later made Animal Crackers, and Cook, who later made Walking with Dinosaurs. Ming-Na Wen voices Mulan, with Eddie Murphy as Mushu, BD Wong as Shang, Miguel Ferrer as Shan-Yu, Harvey Fierstein as Yao and Freda Foh Shen as Fa Li, among 63 credited cast members and 62 credited crew.
Released in June 1998 and running 88 minutes, Mulan cost about 90 million USD and returned roughly 304 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.7/10 from around 344,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.9/10 from a much smaller base of about 10,700. A critics' rating of 8.3/10 from 141 reviews places it above its audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- There was an opening scene that explained why the Great Wall of China was built, rendered in the style of paper cutouts. But it was later cut at the director’s decision, as he believed the audience wouldn't understand it.
- During the scene where the Chinese bow to Mulan, the crowd is a panoramic shot of real people bowing. It was edited into the animated foreground of the scene.
- The creation of Mulan began in 1994, after the film crew sent a select group of art directors to China for three weeks to take photographs and sketches of local attractions for inspiration, and to immerse themselves in the local culture.
- When Mulan disguised herself as a man, her name was part of a Chinese pun. She took the name “Fa Ping” (花 平, Hua Ping), which sounds like 花瓶 (huāpíng), literally “flower pot” or “a delight to the eyes.” In the Chinese dub of the cartoon, the pun is harder to trace due to the common use of subtitles, which makes the narrative more accessible and understandable to speakers of different Chinese dialects. In the subtitles, Mulan's name is simply denoted as 平.
- The name Chi-Fu (欺负, qīfù) means “to bully.”
- The film is based on a medieval Chinese poem about Hua Mulan, a woman who joined the army.
- British censors did not release the film for distribution until 2 seconds showing a headbutt were cut. And the British DVD released in the spring of 2000 was accidentally released with the cut footage. As this violated British censorship laws, it was removed from sale a week later.
- The song 'Keep 'Em Guessing', performed by Mushu (Eddie Murphy), in which he taught Mulan how to act like a man, did not make it into the final version of the cartoon.
- For wearing a yellow skirt, Mulan could have been easily executed; at that time in China, only members of the imperial family were allowed to wear yellow.
- Mulan originally began as a short film called "China doll" about an oppressed and unhappy Chinese girl taken to the West by a British prince. Then, Disney consultant and children's book author Robert D. San Souci suggested making a film based on the Chinese poem "The Ballad of Hua Mulan," and Disney combined the two separate projects.
- Mulan was the first film created at the Walt Disney Studios in Florida.
- In the poem, the heroine is simply called “Mulan.” “Mulan” means “magnolia.” (“Mu” means tree, and “Lan” means “orchid.”) The surname Hua is often added to Mulan, meaning “flower.” In Cantonese transliteration, the name Hua Mu-Lan sounds like Fa Mulan or Fa Muhk Laahn.
- The name Mushu translates as miracle, magic.
- The scene where Mulan finds a child's doll in the burned village is a reference to Hayao Miyazaki's anime “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,” in which an explorer/warrior finds the same doll in an abandoned village.
- In the computer-generated scene where the Huns chase after Mulan, each Hun was drawn to be distinct from the others using modern technology. The same technique was previously used in The Lion King.
- A total of 32 people worked on the screenplay for the animated film.
- "Disney" sought to promote the cartoon in the Chinese market, hoping it could repeat the success of "The Lion King," which was one of the highest-grossing Western films of the time in China. However, the company's relations with the Chinese government soured after the release of "Kundun," a Disney-funded biography of the Dalai Lama, which the Chinese government considers politically provocative. China threatened to limit business negotiations with "Disney," and since the country accepts a limited number of Western films for release each year, the chances of "Mulan" being accepted were low. Finally, after a year-long delay, the Chinese government gave permission for the film to be released on a limited basis, but only after the Chinese New Year, to ensure that local films would dominate the more profitable holiday market.
- Disney was sued for using the name Ping in the cartoon, but the issue was settled in 1997.
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