Mulan (1998)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Directors:

Tony Bancroft
Barry Cook

Writers:

Robert D. San Souci (story)
Rita Hsiao (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

19 June 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Drama | Family

Tagline:

The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.

Plot:

To save her father from death in the army, a Chinese maiden secretly goes in his place and becomes one of China's greatest heroes in the process.

Plot Keywords:

China | Dragon | Mountain | Matchmaker | Luck

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 14 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Miguel Ferrer	...	Shan-Yu (voice)
Harvey Fierstein	...	Yao (voice)
Freda Foh Shen	...	Fa Li (voice)
June Foray	...	Grandmother Fa (voice)
James Hong	...	Chi Fu (voice)
Miriam Margolyes	...	The Matchmaker (voice)
Pat Morita	...	The Emperor (voice)
Eddie Murphy	...	Mushu (voice)
Marni Nixon	...	Grandmother Fa (singing voice)
Soon-Tek Oh	...	Fa Zhou (voice)
Donny Osmond	...	Shang (singing voice)
Lea Salonga	...	Mulan (singing voice)
James Shigeta	...	General Li (voice)
George Takei	...	First Ancestor (voice)
Jerry Tondo	...	Chien-Po (voice) (as Jerry S. Tondo)

Also Known As:

China Doll (USA) (working title)
The Legend of Mulan (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

88 min | Philippines:85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Mandarin | English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Philippines:G | Denmark:7 (DVD rating) | Iceland:L | USA:G (certificate #36035) | UK:U (cut) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Belgium:KT | Brazil:Livre | Canada:G | Chile:TE | Finland:K-8/5 | France:U | Germany:o.Al. (bw) | Hong Kong:I | Mexico:A | Netherlands:AL | Peru:PT | Singapore:G | South Korea:All | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud)

Company:

Walt Disney Feature Animation

Trivia:

Both Mulan and her father were animated by the same team - supervised by Mark Henn - as this helped make them seem related to each other.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As the Huns crawl out from beneath the snow of the avalanche, there's not a trace of snow clinging to any of them.

Quotes:

Mulan: With all due respect, Your Excellency, I think I've been away from home long enough.
The Emperor of China: Then, take this.
[removes his crest from around his neck and puts it around Mulan's]
The Emperor of China: So your family will know what you have done for me. And this.
[hands her the sword of Shan Yu]
The Emperor of China: So the world will know what you have done for China.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Lindsay Lohan/Pearl Jam (#31.16)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

True to Your Heart

Great Movie for little girls

I have a 4.5 year old daughter who is going through the princess phase. We read lots of fairy tales etc and its very difficult to find a fairy tale where the princess is strong and resourceful. Most of the time they are pretty passive and the worst one is sleeping beauty. I find myself treading a fine line between letting her enjoy the fairy tale and occasionally commenting on the fact that perhaps some of these princesses just don't do enough to help themselves and how they can help themselves a little bit more. I don't want to destroy her pleasure in these fairy tales, after all, I loved them too. But it took me a while as adult to see how the subconscious message of helplessness in these fairy tales can reinforce the existing values of society and parents that girls are meant to be saved.

So it is a great pleasure to be able to show my daughter a story of a strong and intelligent girl - Mu Lan and its great that Mu Lan and we are both ethnically Chinese. Here is a heroine who is resourceful, uses her brains, saves the Captain and China. We draw many discussion points from the story, such as why it is that women were not allowed to join the army, the value of trying hard and training and practising hard, what is discipline and why it is needed to succeed, using your brains and thinking of how to solve a problem, not just using brute strength, etc. Even some politics - like why did the Hun king want the Emperor to bow to him and why the Emperor wouldn't bow to him but would bow to Mulan. My challenge is the explain things in a way which is both accurate and yet understandable to a 4 year old. My daughter loves the story because Mulan does a lot of "saving".

My daughter has probably watch the movie only 3 times coz I limit TV and video a lot. But she'll ask me to tell her the story in my own words, based on the video. It works out great.

The fact that the movie Mulan captivates me as an adult also helps. There's only so much I can enjoy of a barney video.

I definitely recommend this movie to parents with young girls, as a good place to start talking about being a strong and intelligent woman. Another good one is Beauty and the Beast. I've not seen Pocahontas so I can't comment on that.