Mulan (1998 movie)

Mulan
Directed by	Tony Bancroft Barry Cook
Written by	Robert D. San Souci Rita Hsiao
Produced by	Pam Coats
Starring	Ming-Na Wen Eddie Murphy B. D. Wong Miguel Ferrer June Foray James Hong Pat Morita George Takei Harvey Fierstein James Shigeta Soon-Tek Oh
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith Matthew Wilder
Production companies	Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Feature Anmation
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release dates	June 19, 1998 (USA) October 16, 1998 (UK, Ireland)
Running time	90 minutes
Languages	English and Mandarin Chinese
Budget	$70,000,000
Box office	$304,320,254

Mulan is a 1998 American-Chinese animated musical adventure movie produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. It is the 36th movie in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It is set in old-time China and based on local legend. The movie stars the voices of Ming-Na Wen and Eddie Murphy. Mulan was a success with its fans because it was different from Disney's other movies in terms of music and artistic design. The music was written by Jerry Goldsmith who also wrote the music for another animated movie, 1982's The Secret of NIMH. Christina Aguilera sang Reflections or the movie's soundtrack. A direct-to-video sequel, Mulan II, was released on February 1, 2005.

In 2018, Disney announced that they were making a live action remake. It was released on Disney+ in 2020 for a premium fee of $29.99. It got a lot of criticism for not being like the original and its' historical accuracies.

Characters

• Mulan - A 16-year-old princess.

Story

An army of Huns, led by Shan Yu, arrive and try to invade China. The Chinese army recruits each man from every family for them to start a war. Mulan's father, Fa Zhou, suffers an injury and he cannot fight. After fears of dishonoring her family after embarrassing herself in front of the 'matchmaker,' Mulan decides that she must save her father. She decides to become a boy to bring "honor" to her family. She packs her father's armour and weapon and leaves to report to the army.

Mushu is an old spirit guardian of the Fa family, who has lost his job and been turned into a dragon. The family ancestors want to send someone to watch over Mulan on her journey, and Mushu takes the job in order to restore his honour. He and the lucky cricket of the family catch up with Mulan, as she joins the small army led by Li Shang. Mulan makes up a soldier name Ping. All the men in the new army need a lot of training, but after a while the soldiers must face the enemy.

The army meets the Huns in the snowy mountains. When the Chinese are attacked, Mulan uses a cannon to start an avalanche which buries and kills the rest of Shan Yu's army. Mulan is hurt by a sword, and the doctor who examines her finds that she is not a boy but a girl. Li Shang leaves Mulan alone in the mountains but doesn't kill her. The army arrives at the Emperor's palace in the Imperial City. As Mulan and her animals spend the night trying to light a fire, they witness some of the surviving enemies climbing from the snow, and they start moving towards the Emperor's city. Mulan decides to follow them and warn her friends in the army.

In the Imperial City the army is celebrating for winning the war while no one will listen to Mulan's warnings, since they know she is a girl. Suddenly Shan Yu and his surviving men step forward, kidnapping the emperor and hiding in the palace. Mulan and her soldier friends dress up as palace women and manage to fool the attackers and move the emperor to safety. With her friends' help, Mulan destroys Shan Yu using a store of fireworks. The emperor rewards her for saving the country.

Mulan returns home with her imperial gifts to show her family. The honour of Mulan and her family and also of the dragon are now restored. Shang is encouraged by the emperor to marry Mulan. He travels to her town, pays a visit, and is invited to dinner by her family.

Other websites

• Official Site
• Mulan on IMDb
• Mulan at AllMovie
• Mulan (1998 movie) at the Big Cartoon DataBase