Mulan

### Screenplay By

Rita Hsiao, Chris Sanders, Philip LaZebnik, Raymond Singer and Eugenia Bostwick-Singer

### Production Companies

Walt Disney Pictures
 Walt Disney Feature Animation

### Release Date

June 5, 1998 (Premiere)
 June 19, 1998

### Followed By

Mulan II

**Mulan** is a 1998 animated film directed by Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft. It is based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan.

The film was the first of three features produced primarily at the Disney animation studio at Disney-MGM Studio (now Disney's Hollywood Studios) in Bay Lake, Florida.

It is the 36th Disney animated feature film and the ninth film produced during the Disney Renaissance. The film premiered at the Hollywood Bowl on June 5, 1998.

## Plot

The Huns, who are led by the ruthless Shan Yu, invade imperial Han China by breaching the Great Wall. In the Imperial City, the Emperor orders a general mobilization, with conscription notices requiring one man from each family to join the Imperial Chinese Army. To the South, Fa Mulan is an adventurous and active young woman to the dismay of her family, who hope for her to bring honour to the family. She is arranged to meet a matchmaker to demonstrate her fitness as a future wife; but following a few mishaps, the matchmaker deems her a disgrace to the family.

Mulan's elderly father Fa Zhou, the only man in their family and an army veteran, is conscripted into the army. She tries to dissuade him from going, but he protests that he must do his duty. Fearing for his life, she cuts her hair and takes her father's sword and armour, disguising herself as a man so that she can enlist in his stead. Quickly learning of her departure, Mulan's grandmother prays to the family's ancestors for Mulan's safety. In the local temple, Mushu, a small red dragon, is a disgraced former family guardian who is demoted to the role of awakening the spirits of the ancestors. The Great Ancestor decides that the "most powerful of all," a massive stone dragon guardian, should guide Mulan; and sends Mushu to wake him. After accidentally destroying the guardian's statue, Mushu travels to Mulan's aid himself, desiring to redeem himself to the ancestors by making Mulan a war hero.

Reporting to the training camp, Mulan passes as a man named "Fa Ping", with Mushu providing encouragement and clumsy guidance throughout her deception. Under the command of Captain Li Shang, she and her fellow recruits, including Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po, gradually become trained soldiers, but the Emperor's belligerent counsel, Chi-Fu, threatens to dissuade the Emperor from allowing Shang's men to fight. Mushu then crafts a fake letter from Shang's father, General Li, ordering Shang to follow the main imperial army into the mountains. The reinforcements set out and arrive at a burnt village, discovering that the Huns have massacred General Li and his troops.

As the soldiers march up a mountain pass, they are ambushed by the Huns. Mulan cleverly uses a Huolongchushui cannon to cause an avalanche, which buries the entire Hun army. Shan Yu wounds Mulan during the battle, and her deception is revealed when the wound is bandaged. Instead of executing Mulan as the law requires, Shang spares her life and expels her from the army. Mulan is left behind as the other soldiers depart for the Imperial City to report the Huns' defeat. However, Shan Yu and several of his warriors have survived, and Mulan sees them heading towards the city.

Mulan enters the city and warns Shang. The Huns then capture the Emperor and seize the palace. Mulan, Yao, Ling, Chien-Po, and Shang enter the palace and defeat Shan Yu's men. Shang prevents Shan Yu from assassinating the Emperor, and Mulan lures the Hun leader onto the roof, where she pins him there with his own sword. Acting on Mulan's instructions, Mushu fires a large skyrocket at Shan Yu; the rocket strikes and propels Shan Yu into a fireworks launching tower, where he dies in the resulting explosion.

The Emperor initially reprimands Mulan, but then he and the city's assembled inhabitants praise her for having saved them, and they bow to her in honour. She accepts the Emperor's crest and Shan Yu's sword as gifts but politely declines his offer to be on his royal council and asks to return to her family. Mulan returns home and presents these gifts to her father, but he is happy to have her back. Having become enamoured with Mulan, Shang also arrives and accepts her invitation to stay for dinner. Mushu is reinstated as a Fa family guardian as the ancestors celebrate.

## Cast and Characters

* Ming-Na Wen as Fa Mulan
* Eddie Murphy as Mushu
* BD Wong as Captain Li Shang
* Miguel Ferrer as Shan Yu
* June Foray as Grandmother Fa
* Harvey Fierstein as Yao
* Gedde Watanabe as Ling
* Jerry Tondo as Chien-Po
* James Hong as Chi-Fu
* Soon-Tek Oh as Fa Zhou
* Pat Morita as The Emperor of China
* George Takei as First Ancestor
* Miriam Margolyes as The Matchmaker
* Freda Foh Shen as Fa Li
* James Shigeta as General Li
* Frank Welker as Cri-Kee / Khan
* Chris Sanders as Little Brother
* Mary Kay Bergman as Various Ancestors

## Production

### Development

In 1989, Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida had opened with 40 to 50 employees, with its original purpose to produce cartoon shorts and featurettes. However, by late 1993, following several animation duties on Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, Disney executives were convinced to allow the Feature Animation Florida studios to produce their first independent film. Around that same time, Disney Feature Animation developed an interest into Asian-themed legends beginning with the optioning of several books by children's book author Robert D. San Souci who had a consulting relationship with Disney executive Jay Dyer. Around that same time, 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 was in development. Thomas Schumacher asked San Souci if he had any additional stories, in response to which San Souci turned in a manuscript of a book based on the Chinese poem "The Song of Fa Mu Lan". Ultimately, Disney decided to combine the two separate projects.

Following the opening of the Feature Animation Florida studios, Barry Cook, who had served as a special-effects animator since 1982, had directed the Roger Rabbit cartoon Trail Mix-Up produced at the satellite studio. Upon a lunch invitation with Thomas Schumacher, Cook was offered two projects in development: a Scottish folk tale with a dragon or Mulan. Knowledgeable about the existence of dragons in Chinese mythology, Cook suggested adding a dragon to Mulan, in which a week later, Schumacher urged Cook to drop the Scottish project and accept Mulan as his next project. Following this, Cook was immediately assigned as the initial director of the project, and cited influences from Charlie Chaplin and David Lean during production. While working as an animator on the gargoyles for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tony Bancroft was offered to co-direct the film following a recommendation from Rob Minkoff, co-director of The Lion King, to Schumacher, in which he accepted, and joined the creative team by early 1995.

In 1994, 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. Key members of the creative team at the time, Pam Coats, Barry Cook, Ric Sluiter, Robert Walker, and Mark Henn – were invited to travel to China as a research trip to study the landscape, people, and history of the original legend. From June 17 to July 2, 1994, the research trip flew to Beijing, China, which is where Pam Coats became inspired by the placement of flags on the Great Wall. They also toured Datong, Luoyang, Xi'an, Jiayuguan, Dunhuang, and Guilin.

### Writing

In its earliest stages, the story was originally conceived as a Tootsie-like romantic comedy film where Mulan, who was a misfit tomboy who loves her father, is betrothed to Shang, whom she has not met. On her betrothal day, her father Fa Zhou carves her destiny on a stone tablet in the family temple, which she shatters in anger, running away to forge her own destiny. In November 1993, Chris Sanders, who had just finished storyboard work on The Lion King, was hoping to work on The Hunchback of Notre Dame until Schumacher appointed him to work on Mulan instead. Acting as Head of Story, Sanders grew frustrated with the romantic comedy aspect of the story, and urged producer Pam Coats to be more faithful to the original legend by having Mulan leave home because of the love for her father. This convinced the filmmakers to decide to change Mulan's character in order to make her more appealing and selfless.

Sequence Six – in which Mulan takes her father's conscription order, cuts her long hair, and dons her father's armour, served as a pivotal moment in the evolution of Mulan's character. Director Barry Cook explained that the sequence initially started as a song storyboarded by Barry Johnson and redrawn by character designer Chen-Yi Chang. Following the story changes to have Mulan leave to save her father, the song was dropped. Storyboard artist and co-head of story Dean DeBlois was tasked to revise the sequence, and decided to board the sequence with "minimal dialogue". Assisted with an existing musical selection from another film score courtesy of Sanders, the sequence reel was screened for Peter Schneider and Thomas Schumacher, both of whom were impressed. DeBlois stated, "Sequence Six was the first sequence that got put into production, and it helped to establish our 'silent' approach." Additionally, General Li was not originally going to be related to Shang at all, but by changing the story, the filmmakers were able to mirror the stories of both Shang's and Mulan's love for their fathers. As a Christian, Bancroft declined to explore Buddhism within the film.

Because there was no dragon in the original legend, Mulan did not have animal companions; it was Roy E. Disney who suggested the character of Mushu. Veteran story artist Joe Grant created the cricket character, Cri-Kee, though animator Barry Temple admitted "the directors didn't want him in the movie, the story department didn't want him in the movie. The only people who truly wanted him in the movie were Michael Eisner and Joe Grant, and myself, because I was assigned the character. I would sit in meetings and they'd say, 'Well, where's the cricket during all this?' Somebody else would say, 'Oh, to hell the cricket.' They felt Cri-Kee was a character who wasn't necessary to tell the story, which is true." Throughout development on the film, Grant would slip sketches of Cri-Kee under the directors' door.

### Casting

Before production began, the production team sought out Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, or Korean vocal talents. Tia Carrere was an early candidate to voice the title character. However, Lea Salonga, who had been the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin, was initially cast to provide both Mulan's speaking and singing voices, but the directors did not find her attempt at a deeper speaking voice when Mulan impersonated Ping convincing, so Ming-Na Wen was brought in to speak the role. Salonga returned to provide the singing voice. Wen herself landed the role after the filmmakers listened to her narration at the beginning of The Joy Luck Club. Coats reflected on her decision, stating, "When we heard Ming-Na doing that voice-over, we knew we had our Mulan. She has a very likable and lovely voice, and those are the qualities we were looking for."

For the role of Mushu, Disney was aiming for top Hollywood talent in the vein of Robin Williams's performance as the Genie in Aladdin. The filmmakers initially approached Joe Pesci and Richard Dreyfuss until Michael Eisner considered Eddie Murphy. After accepting the role, Murphy initially balked when he was asked to record at the Disney studios, but then asked to record the voice in his basement at his Bubble Hill mansion in Englewood, New Jersey.

For the speaking voice of Captain Li Shang, BD Wong was hired, although his singing voice, for the song "I'll Make a Man Out of You", was performed by Donny Osmond, who had previously auditioned to be the speaking voice of the title character in Hercules. Osmond's casting originated from a suggestion from the casting director, and throughout recording, Osmond studied Wong's dialogue tapes, and aimed to match his inflections and personality. Osmond commented that his sons decided that he had finally "made it" in show business when he was in a Disney film. Likewise for the role of Grandmother Fa, June Foray provided the speaking voice, and Marni Nixon supplied the singing voice.

### Animation and Design

To achieve a harmonious visual look, producer designer Hans Bacher and art director Ric Sluiter, along with Robert Walker and Head of Backgrounds Robert Stanton collaborated to establish a proper chronological location for the film in Chinese history. Since there was no general consensus on the time of Mulan's existence, they based the visual design on the Ming and Qing dynasties. An important element of Bacher's design was to turn the art style closer to Chinese painting, with watercolour and simpler design, as opposed to the details of The Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Bacher further studied more than thirty-five film directors ranging from the silent era German Expressionism, British and American epics of the 1950s and 60s, and the Spaghetti Westerns for inspiration for composition, lighting, and staging that would establish settings that enhanced the characters. Additional inspiration was found in the earlier Disney animated films such as Bambi, Pinocchio, and Dumbo to establish a sense of staging.

In October 1997, the Walt Disney Company announced a major expansion of its Florida animation operations constructing a 200,000-square-foot, four-story animation building and the addition of 400 animators to the workforce.

To create 2,000 Hun soldiers during the Huns' attack sequence, the production team developed 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 open API 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 citizens of China are bowing to Mulan, the crowd is a panoramic film of real people bowing. It was edited into the animated foreground of the scene.

## Release

Because of the disappointing box office performances of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules, Disney restricted its marketing campaign for Mulan, spending $30 million on promotional advertisements compared to more than $60 million for Hercules the year before. Instead of the lavish media event premieres of Pocahontas in Central Park and the electric light parade on Fifth Avenue for Hercules, Disney opted to premiere the film on June 5, 1998 at the Hollywood Bowl complete with Chinese lanterns and fortune cookies. Two days before the general release, McDonald's launched its promotional campaign by including one of eight toys free with the purchase of a Happy Meal. The promotion also included Szechuan sauce for its Chicken McNuggets, which would be referenced in a 2017 episode of the Adult Swim series Rick and Morty and subsequently brought back by McDonald's as a promotional item related to that show.

In collaboration with Disney, Hyperion Books published The Art of Mulan authored by Jeff Kurtti, which chronicled the production of the film. In addition with its publication, Hyperion Books also issued a collector's "folding, accordion book" of the ancient poem that inspired the film. On August 18, 1998, around 3,700 backpacks and 1,800 pieces of luggage were recalled back to their manufacturer, Pyramid Accessories Inc., when it was discovered they contained lead-based paint.

### Home Media

The film was first released on VHS on February 2, 1999, as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line-up. Mulan was released on DVD on November 9, 1999, as a Walt Disney Limited Issue for a limited sixty-day time period before going into moratorium. On February 1, 2000, it was re-released on VHS and DVD as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection lineup. The VHS and DVD were accompanied by two music videos of "Reflection" and "True to Your Heart" while the DVD additionally contained the theatrical trailer and character artwork. The Gold Collection release was returned into the Disney Vault on January 31, 2002. On October 26, 2004, Walt Disney Home Entertainment re-released a restored print of Mulan on VHS and as a 2-disc Special Edition DVD.

In March 2013, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Mulan and Mulan II on Blu-ray and DVD to coincide with the film's 15th anniversary.

In September 2017, Mulan became available to Netflix users through their streaming service.

As in November 2019, Mulan became available to Disney+ launch day.

Mulan was released on 4K Blu-ray on November 10, 2020.

## Reception

### Critical Response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 86%, based on 78 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6 out of 10. The site's consensus reads, "Exploring themes of family duty and honour, Mulan breaks new ground as a Disney film, while still bringing vibrant animation and sprightly characters to the screen." In a 2009 countdown, Rotten Tomatoes ranked it twenty-fourth out of the fifty canonical animated Disney features. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 71 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade.

Roger Ebert, reviewing for the Chicago Sun-Times, 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". Likewise, James Berardinelli of ReelViews awarded the film three-and-a-half stars out of four praising the lead character, its theme of war, and the animation. He concluded that "Adults will appreciate the depth of characterization while kids will love Mulan's sidekick, a colourful dragon named Mushu. Everyone will be entertained [by] the fast-moving plot and rich animation." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly graded the film a B+ writing "Vividly animated, with a bursting palette that evokes both the wintry grandeur and decorative splendour of ancient China, Mulan is artful and satisfying in a slightly remote way."

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune described the film as "a big disappointment when compared with the studio's other recent films about a female hero searching for independence." He was further critical of Mulan's characterization in comparison to Ariel and Belle, and claimed the "design of the film does not take advantage of the inspiration provided by classic Chinese artists, and the songs are not memorable." Reviewing the film for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan wrote "Mulan has its accomplishments, but unlike the best of Disney's output, it comes off as more manufactured than magical." While he praised the title character, he highlighted that the "by-now-standard hip patter (prepare for jokes about cross-dressing) is so tepid that not even five credited writers can revive it, and the songs by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel (with Lea Salonga and Donny Osmond singing for the leads) lack the spark that Zippel's lyrics brought to the underappreciated Hercules." Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine criticized the film as "soulless" in its portrayal of East Asian society. Janet Maslin of The New York Times criticized the lack of detail in the background art and described it as "the most inert and formulaic of recent Disney animated films."

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". Nadya Labi agreed, 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 Mulan needed to become a boy in order to accomplish what she did. Kathleen Karlyn, an assistant professor of English at the University of Oregon, also criticized the film's portrayal of gender roles: "In order to even imagine female heroism, we're placing it in the realm of fantasy". Pam Coats, the producer of Mulan, said that the film aims to present a character who exhibits both masculine and feminine influences, being both physically and mentally strong.

### Box Office

Mulan grossed $22.8 million in its opening weekend, ranking second behind The X-Files. It went on to gross $120 million in the United States and Canada combined, and $304 million worldwide, making it the second-highest grossing family film of the year, behind A Bug's Life, and the seventh-highest-grossing film of the year overall. While Mulan domestically out-grossed the previous two Disney animated films which had preceded it, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules, its box office returns failed to match those of the Disney films from the first half of the Renaissance such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. Internationally, its highest grossing releases included those in the United Kingdom ($14.6 million) and France ($10.2 million).

### Reception in China

Disney was keen to promote Mulan to the Chinese, hoping to replicate their success with the 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. China had threatened to curtail business negotiations with Disney over that film and, as the government only accepted ten foreign films to be shown in China each year, Mulan's chances of being accepted were low. 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. Box office income was low, due to both the unfavourable release date and rampant piracy. Chinese people also complained about Mulan's depiction as too foreign-looking and the story as too different from the myths.

## Awards and Nominations

### American Film Institute

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

* AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals (Nominated Animation Film)