Mulan (1998) A Disney Masterpiece with a Great Heroine

I still get chills every time I hear this opening or watch the original trailer. Mulan is one of the greatest Disney movies of all time and my personal favorite, right above Hercules and Beauty and the Beast. The embarrassing live-action version was a huge disappointment to real fans (like every live-action Disney film adaptation has been) because it lacked the magic of the original. What makes the original so great?

Strong Heroine with a Sympathetic Arc and Real Struggles: Our film kicks off with an invasion from the ruthless war monger Shan Yu and the signal fire being lit. A decree is sent out, ordering one man from every family to join the Imperial Army. Right after this setup, we meet our hero—a teenage girl getting ready to cheat on her test. Our immediate thought is, there’s no way:

• She’s can’t even do her chores right. Her father spends the morning praying for her meeting with the matchmaker, which she’s late getting ready for, and we see how she doesn’t exactly fit in with the other “Perfect Porcelain Dolls.” As the song “Honor to Us All” shows, Mulan is supposed to bring honor to her family in one way—by being a bride. And, as the Matchmaker points out, “bear sons.”

• Mulan fails hopelessly with the Matchmaker, and therefore, has no way of bringing her family honor. She has seemingly no purpose in her culture.

  This sense of inadequacy and hopelessness makes us relate to Mulan. She’s not extremely gifted or prepared for the threat which the opening of the film presents us with.

  The Call to action is more admirable because she’s such an unfit choice: Her new character motivation is brought on by wanting to keep her father alive since he has no sons to join the Imperial Army for him. She doesn’t want to do this, but it is shown if her father tries to fight—he will die. The scene of Mulan sitting out in the rain before she cuts her hair and puts on her father’s armor is EPIC. She has no hope of surviving, but she doesn’t even consider letting her father die an option.

  There is no other female character like this in Disney, or anywhere else for that matter. Most females in Disney are called to adventure, love, or to follow their dreams. Mulan is called to war because she’ll lose a loved one if she does nothing. She completely lacks skill or abilities, but she has the strength of character to not let her father die. Something few girls would have done in any generation. Strong heroines are hard to find. Most other female characters in Disney can claim some courage or unique character traits with relatable journeys but none of them defeat an entire army and save a country. None of them get to really be The Hero of the film.

The Fact That our Main Character is a Woman Plays a Role: You might think this goes without saying, but it doesn’t. Hollywood likes to pretend there’s no difference between men and women and we see this in media. They tend to make women come off the same as men in their personality or the way they interact with people. (As much as I love Gina Carano’s character in The Mandalorian, they try and pretend she’s “just one of the guys” so no romance can ensue between her and Mando. They have other one shot women, who we’ll never see again, offering Mando a life. Like we’re going to pretend every man sees Gina Carano as simply a dude). Or, they try to make women seem empowered by just being perfect from the start, (Like Captain Marvel). What kind of human being, man or woman, is perfect and doesn’t progress and change, I ask you? The answer is none. Therefore, no character should be perfect from the start. Hollywood doesn’t know how to handle women. They don’t want to insult them, so they try not to give them any flaws, or they have people praise them for No Reason, ( cough…Nancy from Stanger Things). Mulan being a woman, though, actually plays a part in the film. It makes a difference in the way she struggles and in the way she thinks.

-She can’t keep up with the weakest man: I love this! Women are typically not as strong as men. Let’s get over this. The weakest guy in my weight training class could do pull-ups and I couldn’t. (Doesn’t mean women can’t work hard and kick butt, Not what I’m saying). Arguably my favorite scene in the movie is the Training montage. Mulan is failing at everything. She can’t run as fast as the others, she can’t carry the loads as well as they can, all in a brilliant scene with the ironic song of “Be a Man,” when we know our main character is a woman, playing in the background. The thing is, all the traits Shang sings about that make a man, are simply things that make a warrior. They are not gender exclusive. Anyway, Mulan is so bad, she’s the one Shang asks to go home. The Matchmaker didn’t want her and now the Army doesn’t either. That’s pretty bad. Here’s her chance, though, she can leave and her father will live, but she stays to prove something to herself—she won’t be worthless again.

-Mulan thinks outside the box: Men have a very formulaic approach to problem solving. Women sometimes offer a unconventional alternate option. Every man tries to get up the pole to reach the arrow, just like Mulan at first, and fails. She finds the only feasible way to retrieve the arrow, using the weights to climb. Also, when they run out of canons, they are ready to fire the last one at Shan Yu, which will only distract his army for a moment before they swarm down on them and kill them all. Shang and his group are ready to “die with honor,” kudos for bravery; but, I love how Mulan is like, screw that. She fires the canon at the mountain and takes out the entire army; because, no army can fight the Hand of God. Lastly, she improvises to get into the palace when the men are going to endlessly use a battering ram against the door. All her training comes down to using a fan to disarm Shan Yu, one leg sweep, and a clever trap.

The Film (like all classic Disney) Balances Comedy with Drama Brilliantly: We transition from a “Girl Worth Fighting For” to a massacred village where not One person, woman or child, was left alive. They also find the remains of The General’s Army, all killed by Shan Yu. Another scene that expertly shows how women are different from men. Shang’s father is dead, but not one guy says a word to him. They show their respect by silence. What is there to be said? Mulan, being a woman, is the only one to approach him and say she’s sorry. Earlier on in the film, we also see a messenger about to be shot down by one of Shan Yu’s men because only “one” is needed to deliver a message, and then we go to Mulan role playing with her horse. A transition is handled well when the audience is transferred from one emotion to another in all seriousness. I need to be terrified when I’m supposed to be and laughing when something is funny. Timing and tone are very important for transitions but Disney handles them like a pro.

Consequences of Being in Imperial China Taken Seriously: Mulan’s elderly crippled father is expected to serve in the army. No one pity’s him, or “asks if he has anyone else who could take his place” (okay, 2020 version?) The one job of women was to be wives and mothers, preferably to sons. Why? Because sons could fight. Women couldn’t speak in front of men, as Mulan is told by Chi-Fu with the Fu Manchu mustache. Mulan would be killed if she was revealed to be a woman, as her father tells her mother when she says he should go after her. And, unlike, the live-action version, where they simply see her walk out with her hair down and leave her behind (lame), Mulan is found out to be a woman by accident and dragged from the tent by her hair. Shang almost beheads her, because “It’s the Law,” and no one stops him.

The Greatest Gift of All is Having You for a Daughter: The emperor, basically China’s god, bows to Mulan at the end, making everyone else have to do the same, or probably be beheaded. Mulan brings home the crest of the emperor and the sword of Shan Yu, yet all her father wants to hold is her. The whole film Mulan has wanted to be someone worthwhile, but to her father she has always been a treasure—she’s his daughter. She had nothing to prove to him.

A Relationship Based on Respect: Unlike a lot of Disney movies, romance doesn’t play much of a role in this; but I feel the need to mention that Mulan couldn’t have liked a man she couldn’t respect. She needed someone who was her equal, her superior in the beginning, in order to get to the point where she could be interested in them. Shang had to be a man, not an emasculated one, or it never would've worked. The “you fight good” line aside, Shang had to be capable and worthy of respect in order to stand next to the hero who saved China.

All of this, makes Disney’s Mulan Magic. The heroine is flawed and relatable, motivated by her selfless love for her father. She isn’t perfect. There’s consequences, and a balance of light and dark. Every scene is so good and leads perfectly into the next one. The message that you can go away, save the world, and become the greatest warrior ever, only to be held in the same high esteem by a loved one as you were when you left, is a touching truth. You certainly try your hardest and do your best, be strong and courageous, but to someone who loves you—you had inherent value from the start and were a great gift before you set out to change the world.

-Hannah