Fa Mulan (花木蘭) is the main protagonist of Disney's 1998 animated feature film of the same name and its 2004 direct-to-video sequel. She is inspired by the legendary Hua Mulan from the Chinese poem The Ballad of Mulan. Her speaking voice is provided by Ming-Na Wen while her singing voice is provided by Lea Salonga. Mulan is the 8th official Disney Princess and the only one in the line-up who is not actually royalty through either birth or marriage.
Mulan, aberrant and unlike most previous female roles, is courageous and more self-reliant. She also does not fit in with the expectations of a young Chinese girl of the time; despite her natural beauty, she is clumsy, outspoken, and independent rather than graceful, obedient, silent and demure. Which is why her meeting with the matchmaker ended in chaos, that and help from a certain lucky cricket, and why the matchmaker claimed that even though she has the looks of a bride, it will never work because all she will do is dishonor her parents and her future husband. However, her courage, intelligence, and determination, helped her through her adventures of defeating the Hun Army. She is also kind and warm-hearted despite her clumsiness.
Mulan- Reflection Clip
Mulan's Singing Voice
Powers and Abilities
Although Mulan possess no magical or superhuman powers, she has military training ranging from use of swords to kung fu fighting style thanks to Shang in his training of new army recruits. Also, Mulan demonstrated skilled accuracy during her training with the use of her archery skills. Mulan is also intelligent and resourceful as she was able to quickly think of using the last rocket to cause an avalanche on the entire Hun army and lure Shan-Yu into Mushu's firing range. Her intellect is also proven by her skills in strategy during the Hun invasion.
Appearance
Mulan, under the guise of Ping.
Mulan is a sixteen-year old tomboy of Chinese origin. She is a natural beauty, with dark brown eyes and straight, black hair, however, its length changes. In the beginning of the original film, her hair was long, which went down to her waist. Later in the film, when she leaves to join the army; she cuts her hair with her father's sword, and ties it up in a bun, which helps her blend into the army, so that the other soldiers don't know that she's really a woman. In the 2nd film, her hair was grown, not to its original length, but it's noticeably longer than before. In promotional works, her hair is always shown as it's original length, down to the waist. During the two films, Mulan wore a range of outfits, from beautiful Hanfus (Chinese dresses) to her soldier's get up, though her most notable outfits come from the original film; in which her promotional dress comes from, which is a simple Hanfu, which consisted of either a creamy green-yellow dress, with blue over shirt, which has green sleeves, and a red band around her waist. She also sports kung-fu styled solider's outfit, as well as her pink matchmaker's Hanfu and her father's armor. Besides when she goes to the matchmaker, Mulan does not to
wear any makeup or anything to beautify her appearance and does not use her beauty to her advantage. Most likely not even caring about looks in that way (though nature to her is beautiful). She is often said to have had her crush on Shang for his strength and love him for his personality and sort of had a breakup. It is to be noted that Li Shang also never comments on any part of Mulan's looks or has that moment with "the girl steps into the light and angels sing." Also, it is to be noted, that they never actually say that they love each other directly to the other. When she sleeps, she wears a light blue tank top, short blue shorts, and is barefoot. She wears a dress consisting of green long-sleeved shirt with olive brims and both yellow skirt and inside shirt with a low cut neckline, blue wrap, red waistband, black ballet flats, but also has been seen barefoot as well. To impress the matchmaker, she had her face painted in white, red lips, black hair tied in a loose bun with a red hair ribbon, narrow crimson and pale pink Chinese skirt, pink jacket with long, flowing sleeves, aqua and plum collar, blue wrap with a red ribbon to fasten it, light purple scarf, same color shoes, jade bead necklace, gold dangling earrings, and a special lotus flower hair pick. When she was disguised as "Ping," she has black hair tied to a bun with a teal ribbon to look like a man (when cuts her long, beautiful hair with her father's sword), and dark green soldier armor. In the Karate sequence, she had a Cream karate suit. In the Shan Yu battle, she wore a teal dress consisting of poet-sleeved blouse, long olive vest with a crimson collar, crimson belt, light pink sash, same color shoes.
Trivia
Mulan is the first Disney Princess to be of East Asian descent.
Mulan's pink bridal outfit is often confused for a kimono (which is Japanese), but it is actualy a hanfu, a Chinese garment.
Mulan is the first Disney Princess to not be an actual princess, for she was neither born into royalty, nor did she marry a prince. She is the third Disney Princess to not be of royal descent (the first beingCinderella, the second being Belle, and the fourth being Tiana), as well as the third to not marry a prince (the first being Jasmine, the second being Pocahontas, and the fourth being Rapunzel).
Mulan is the first Disney Princess to have her hair cut, the second being Rapunzel; however, Rapunzel did not cut her own hair, while Mulan did.
Mulan is the second princess to have her mother in her first film after Aurora. The third is Tiana, the fourth is Rapunzel, the fifth is Merida, sixth and seventh is Anna and Elsa respectively.
Mulan is the first Disney Princess to disguise herself as a man in her primary film and the second Disney Princess to disguise
herself as another person, after Jasmine (who disguised herself as a male soldier in a 1994 episode of the Aladdin animated series).
Mulan is the second Disney Princess to be seen wearing pants after Jasmine, except that she wears them for the most of the film while she wore dresses in other scenes.
Mulan in the film spends most of the time in either her training uniform, her battle armor, or her blue infiltration dress, while in the merchandise, she is shown mostly either in her "normal" (green and yellow) dress or her pink matchmaker dress.
Mulan's portrayal in the merchandise has been the origin of the fan-made term, "Mulan syndrome," where a tomboyish female in a source material is re-written as a more effeminate character in spinoffs.
Mulan is the second Disney Princess to have both parents alive and present during the entire film, the first being Aurora in 1959 and the third being Rapunzel in 2010, and Merida being the fourth in 2012.
Mulan is the first Disney Princess to be raised by both of her parents for her entire current life, followed by Merida. (Aurora was raised by the fairies for most of her life, Rapunzel was kidnapped and raised by Mother Gothel.)
Mulan is the third Disney Princess to be played by two actresses, the first being Jasmine in 1992 and the second being Pocahontas in 1995. Ming-Na provides her speaking voice, and Lea Salonga provides her singing voice. Coincidentally, Lea Salonga also provided the singing voice for Jasmine 6 years prior.
Mulan is the first Disney Princess to kill the film's villain before Tiana in 2009. She may also be the only Disney Princess to intentionally kill the villain; Tiana caused Facilier's death by destroying his talisman , but it is unknown if she was aware what would happen to him by doing so.
Mulan means "magnolia blossom" in Chinese. It could also mean "wood orchid".
While her name is "Fa Mulan" in the Disney film, in the actual Chinese legend her name is "Hua Mulan", though they are both pronounced similarly (Fa being Cantonese).
In the Chinese dub of the movie Mulan, when giving her fake name to Li Shang, she states her full name is Hua Ping. Hua Ping translates directly as Flower Vase, and is modern Chinese slang for an effeminate homosexual male. This is adapted into the Chinese dub so that when Ping introduces 'himself', the others think he is a feminine homosexual male, and use that as the basis as to why 'he' tries, and fails, to be manly.
Mulan is the only Disney Princess to have a known (and confirmed) family name.
Mulan is the first Disney Princess to be visibly wounded, the second being Ariel, the third being Merida, and the fourth being Anna.
Mulan is the third Disney Princess to have a horse companion, the first being Cinderella and the second being Belle, and the fourth being Merida.
Although Mulan cuts her hair, it remained long in Disney Princess merchandise.
Out of the 11 Disney Princesses, Mulan is the only one to feature writing down her nationality's language. Ariel just signed her name and Tiana just wrote one word ("OK"), though it was only during her dream song number. Although Belle wrote a book in French, and the viewer sees the words, you don't see her write them, and it is not in the main feature film but is in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas. Aurora also wrote her name, and her nationality is presumed to be British, thus making her the second Princess to write her name in her nationality's language, though it was not in her feature film it was in Disney Princess Enchanted Tales.
Mulan is the second Disney Princess to get married in a sequel to her film, the first being Jasmine, and the third being Rapunzel.
Mulan is the first Disney Princess to not take part in a song about her love fore her Hero/Prince or vice versa. However, she is the third Princess who doesn't sing in a song about the love between themselves and the Hero/Prince. (The others being Ariel and Belle.)
She shares many similarities to Tiana. Tiana being a second of what Mulan does as firsts for Disney Princesses. (Tiana being the second Princess to have her father in the army, and the second to have her mother alive, etc.)
Mulan is the third Disney Princess (Snow White being the first then Cinderella being the second) with the largest number of animal companions, which include Mushu, Cri-Kee, Khan, and Little Brother.File:Mulanhouseofmouse1.png
Mulan w/ Mushu and Cri-kee in House of Mouse
Mulan is shown in several deleted scenes in which one she is daydreaming of how she wants to demonstrate her adventurous/tomboyish spirit.
In many comic strips, Mulan is shown around her farm usually barefoot.
Mulan is left-handed. She has been seen using the sword in her right hand and may be ambidextrous or possibly just taught to use it that way.
Originally, Disney made Mulan leave to the army to get out of her society. Though the way she feels about society is still present in the movie, it is not made to be the main point. She seemed selfish and unlikable that way, so animators stuck to the traditional way of her saving her father.
Mulan's voice was originally going to be done by Tia Carrere, who would later voice Nani Pelekai. Later, Lea Salonga (her singing voice) was considered but her voice wasn't low enough for Ping. She then was voiced by Ming-Na.
Mulan is the first Disney Princess to be involved in archery, followed by Merida.
Mulan is the last Disney Princess (second to last if you include Kida) to be created (1998) until the debut of Tiana in 2009.
Mulan was featured on the 100th issue of Disney Adventures Magazine.
Mulan is the only Princess whose wedding dress is a different color other than white, in her case, that dress is red, the color of prosperity according to Chinese culture.
Mulan is the first Princess to be seen only in her undergarments at one point (second if you include Esmeralda), with the second being Merida (third if you count a behind the scenes character of Rapunzel in a white underdress), and the third and fourth being Anna and Elsa.
When Mulan disguises herself as a male, her eyelashes and double eyelid disappear and her eyebrows grow thicker, but when she dresses like a woman again, her eyelashes grow back, her double eyelid comes in again, but her eyebrows remain thick.
Mulan touches her hair a lot because animators noticed that Ming-Na did.
Mulan is, by far, the Disney character (Heroine or villain) with the highest body count ever. The production team draw 2,000 Hun soldiers during the Huns' attack sequence. Only six Huns survived to the avalanche and only one of them (Shan-Yu) is killed later. This makes Mulan's final body count to 1,994 (Shan-Yu is "killed" by Mushu rather than Mulan).
Mimi Chan did the motion capture for Mulan's martial arts moves, even though Ming-Na could have also done so as she previously played Chun-Li in the Street Fighter movie.
Mulan is similar to Anna from Frozen since they both touch their hair when nervous.
In the Disney Princess line-up and dolls, Mulan is often shown as being more tanned than the others besides Jasmine, Pocahontas and Tiana. However, in the new 2013 type line-up and their merchandise, Mulan is shown as the palest one.
For some reason, none of Mulan's dresses appear in the Kingdom Hearts games (she instead fights Shan Yu in her soldier uniform), therefore defeating the purpose of her, Yao, Chien-Po, and Ling having to disguise themselves as female concubines to infiltrate the Imperial Palace.
Mulan is the second Disney Princess to have a last name (and possibly take her husbands last name as well). Rapunzel is the third Disney Princess to have a last name, however her last name is by marriage as her parental one was never revealed.
In the Special Edition DVD audio commentary, it is said that though Mark Henn is her animator, Christopher Sanders (Little Brother's animator) was the one who mastered her quirky character.
Mulan is often noted in audio commentary that Mulan uses her mind to solve problems and with the learning at the camp can use a combination of strength and intelligence.
In the deleted part of "Reflection", Mulan says, "they want a docile lamb, no one knows who I am," which is true throughout the first movie and sometime between scenes of Qui Gong and Mulan's marriage in the second movie, she claims to have told Li Shang everything.
Mulan's best friend is Mushu. In fact she is the first Disney Princess to have a mythical creature as a best friend.
Mulan is the second official Disney Princess to have sort of a misfit/socially awkward effect. Belle is the first as many describe her as odd though you never see this in the actual movie. In Mulan, she is shown throughout the movie to have that effect but nobody ever straight out says it. Anna, the third to be socially impaired, frequently calls herself awkward.
Mulan is the second Disney Princess to have her life spared. The first Disney Princess was Snow White after the huntsman failed to kill her, while Shang refuses like the huntsman to also kill. But Mulan may actually be the third to be saved if you count Belle being saved by the Beast from a pack of wolves. Elsa is the next, her life being saved by Anna.
Though Mulan seems to be disorganized and wings it a lot, she must be a master planner and strategist. She even does better than Li Shang, who is the best strategist of his class.
Even though Mulan seems to be unruly, she really does follow rules and do what's right, (such as filial piety) just in a different way. It is like she says in the sequel, "bending rules."
Mulan is clumsy yet a master at kung-fu, probably because she used her brain to solve those problems.
Mulan follows her heart yet still holds intelligence at a place.File:IASW Mulan.png
Mulan in It's a Small World: The Animated Series
Mulan seems to know a lot about philosophy and nature.
Mulan's curtain has white ducks or swans on it.
The recoloring of Mulan's redesign may be due to the fact that red and gold were often considered by the Chinese as the colors of communism or because in ancient China, the royal color was gold and red was the color of luck and prosperity.
All of Mulan's dresses in the first film had a blue bodice and a red sash.
Mulan is the 4th Princess to almost die. The first three being Snow White, Aurora, Belle and later Merida and Elsa. (Snow was supposed to be killed by the Huntsman, Maleficent's curse was suppose to have Aurora destined to die, Belle almost drowned, Merida was nearly eaten by Mor'du, and Elsa was almost murdered by Hans.)
Mulan is the first Disney Princess who didn't share True Love's Kiss with her love interest in her feature film. She and Shang however do share a kiss when they are married in the sequel. Merida and Elsa also receive no kiss as they have no love interests.
Mulan sings a remix of another song in the play "Mulan Jr." called "Written in Stone". She also sings a remix of "Keep 'Em Guessing".
On the cover of Mulan 2, Mushu is holding a ring (probably engagement ring), but it is never in the movie or given to Mulan, possibly due to Chinese marriage traditions.
Some Mulan baby dolls have been sold in which Mulan has dark brown hair instead of black, resulting in the possibility that Mulan's hair was brown when she was born and it darkened to black by the time she was a toddler. (This happens to babies and young children a lot. In the Animator's doll collection in which she is a toddler, she has black hair.
Fa Mulan has appeared in a comic with Wolverine (that was specially issued when Disney bought Marvel) and a non-Disney version of Hua Mulan has appeared with Deadpool in the Deadpool Killustratedseries.
Her side of the yin and yang necklace is the yang side, associated with masculinity.
Mulan is the first Disney Princess to not be portrayed by a celebrity in the Disney Dream Portrait Series.
Mulan is the second Disney Princess to be nearly beheaded (the first being Jasmine, who almost got executed by a possessed Sultan in the Aladdin episode "Armored and Dangerous").
Since childhood, Mulan found military affairs interesting, but this was cut out of the movie to emphasize her sacrifice for her father.
