Mulan is the Walt Disney product of 1998, directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook.

Rating: Null/10 (5 February 2007)

Mulan is an Chinese Legendary about a young girl and her voluntarily- facing adventures. Mulan is the story of the love of the land and sacrifices people do for defending their own national identity.Its genre looks adventure but at the same time comic and romance. The story has a happy start and of course a happy end but in very different settings. The start is the time Mulan gets ready to take part in a contest to be the perfect bride(daughter). The scenes are happy and colorful.It's comic when she is cheating to memorize the motto of the perfect bride and gets the help of a puppy to the house chores. These scenes accompanies with happy nice songs. While at the end the setting is very formal, all the country celebrates the countries victory against invaders and even the emperor bows against Mulan, followed by all other people. The story of Mulan takes place in a small Chinese town where people are living at peace her great ancestors and father as an old warrior makes them an honored family, but her failures, for instance in the perfect bride contest, make all except her father believe she is a black spot for the family and never can bring honor for the family. The time when the war begins is the climax, when the emperor orders all the families to sacrifice a man for defense of the Chinese Empire. Mulan's father who already gave service in the emperor army and was injured is the only male in the family who should fight and since Mulan knows his hard situation, joins the army, leaving home at night in his father's graceful helmet and sword. Since there are no women in the army she should pretend to be his father's son.That's a burden for her because he should also practice hard to be as strong as men, however none of the amateur soldiers are so brilliant. The commander, Shang, tries hard to make these ordinary sometime stupid and comic men a professional loyal army of the emperor. When the Army begins the war, the Emperor's army is defeated hard by Shan Yu's great number of soldiers, but this is Mulan who sacrifices and makes the situation vice versa. The perspective I'm looking at Mulan is something different. My stand point is on the cultural studies point of view. First let's don't forget that Mulan a crystal clear Chinese name is not a Chinese but an American cartoon. It is an American cartoon, but first let's extract the Chinese features which looks dominant in this cartoon. Mulan's story is an old Chinese legend which is the source of Chinese settings, characters, names and even themes. The cast and crew is listed on background that is an old hide on which many Chinese scripts were written during the ancient times. You see also the traditional Chinese designs being drawn in ink, so the start point is Chinese however its music is something between American and Chinese. The setting of Mulan's house is a Chinese house in spring and in one corner there is a Buddhist temple where the ancestors are buried. The faith in ancestor's spirits is distinctly perceptible. Another Chinese myth is the dragon which is the symbol of Emperor of China. His sculpture is in the yard and in next stage the ancestors ask him to protect Mulan in the war. The dragon in Chinese culture is the source of water and rain, so it is a holy feature that many refer their ancestors to dragon.3
When Mulan practices for the contest she gives you notions depicting an ideal traditional woman in China. She should be able to pour tea well and she should have the sense of dignity and refinement. The perfect Chinese girl should be quiet, demure, grateful polite and delegate. The question she asks after her failure in the contest is planned in the song whose refrain is "Who I am inside?". Even the time Mulan can save the commander's life, showing great courage, she sings "I can prove I can do things right". The third point that is clear to be heard is the time they discover Mulan is a girl and Chi-Fu, the emperor's consultant, sentences her to death. She asks them about the difference between Mulan and Pinn(her male name). All these suggest that the women in Chinese societies suffer from the misunderstanding about their actual abilities.
Another main concept of Chinese culture is the Family honor. Mulan failure in the contest makes her and her family believe that she can not brings the family honor. The lack of males is inferiority for the family because when old men called to war their sons as their representatives answer, but Mulan, who is more courageous than men, has to pretend to be a man to fight.
Loyalty to the emperor and Chinese values are very significant,but the American concepts and signs are also crystalized in Mulan. Mulan has a potential satire about Chinese culture when it's indicated with superstitious and not very pragmatic beliefs like faith in ancestors spirits and Chinese dragon.The figures totally look Chinese but they actually look white and the heroine herself is dressed up, to look more beautiful and appealing,using thick make up.The beauty,as Americans are well-known to value, is outstanding for the girls to be accepted in the society high ranks. The very influential parts of the cartoon are the songs which are not in Chinese or in complete Chinese music and the English language with a thick American accent is sure dominant.