Work Analyzed: Mulan
Disney animated feature, 1998
Mulan opens with a Hun attack on the great wall of China.
The Emperor sends out orders that men be drafted to fight
the enemy.
Although not the protagonist's wish or desire, this scene
does power the rest of the movie in two ways:
1) Mulan's father is honor bound to represent his family in
the war against the Huns as he is the only man in the family.
Because Mulan knows that her father is not up to fighting,
she decides to fight in his place.
2) Mulan has dishonored her family (in the second scene of
the movie, which introduces her character) by failing the
matchmaker's test for a good bride. In a song lamenting
this, she sings, "I will never pass for a perfect bride or a
perfect daughter. Can it be I'm not meant to play this part?
Now I see if I were truly to be myself I would break my
family's heart. Why is my reflection someone I don't know?
Somehow I cannot hide who I am, though I've tried. When will
my reflection show who I am inside?" So these questions show
that she is seeking her own path to honor.
A herald from the Emperor comes and announces that one man
from every family must serve in the imperial army. Mulan's
father says he will serve and takes the scroll with his
fighting orders that he will need to show the army. Mulan
tries to protest because her father has been ill. He will
leave the next morning.
At dinner that night, Mulan tries to convince her father not
to go to the war. She knows his health is not up to it.
But he says it's an honor. He knows his place and it's about
time she learned hers. Mulan runs out into the night.
After her father is asleep, she steals his fighting orders
and leaves her hair barrette in its place on the nightstand.
She makes herself up as a man, takes her father's sword and
a horse, and leaves.
Her father finds her gone the next morning. Although his
wife says he must go after her and bring her back, he
decides that if he does that, Mulan will be killed as it is
a dishonor for a woman to be in the army. Mulan's
grandmother prays to their ancestors for Mulan's protection.
The dead ancestors confer and decide to send the great stone
dragon to fetch Mulan. A small dragon who has been in
disfavor with them is sent to wake the dragon. Instead he
accidentally breaks it to pieces. The small dragon takes
the unbroken head and pretends to be the great stone dragon.
After being told to go, he decides that the only way he's
going to cover his butt for his latest mistake and get back
in the ancestors' good graces is to make Mulan a war hero.
Mulan is not that impressed by the small dragon sent by
her ancestors, but he says he can advise her. The dragon
and a lucky cricket accompany her to the training camp.
Mulan is nearly kicked out of the training camp, but she
learns all that she is taught about fighting. She also
develops a crush on the Captain in charge of training
the troops. When the Emperor's aide says he's going to
report to the Emperor that the troops aren't ready, the
dragon and cricket fake a note from the front saying the
troops are needed. The Captain leads the troops to the site,
which they find destroyed. The Captain decides that they
need to get to the Imperial City.
The dragon accidentally sets off a rocket that alerts the
enemy Huns to their presence. When the enemy horde comes
after them (they outnumber the army Mulan is in), Mulan
gets an idea. She steals a cannon and shoots it at a
snow covered mountain nearby. The resulting avalanche
buries the enemy. Mulan saves the Captain from the
avalanche and they are saved by a small group of the
Captain's troops. Mulan is wounded in the side during this
and they discover she's a woman. The Captain's duty is to
kill her, but, because she saved his life, he doesn't.
He orders the rest of the troops to move out, leaving
Mulan behind.
Mulan is dejected and thinks she should never have left
home. Maybe what she really wanted was to prove she could
do things right so she could see someone worthwhile in
the mirror. "But I was wrong. I see nothing." The dragon
admits he wasn't sent by her ancestors and had his own
agenda in helping her, and the cricket says he wasn't lucky.
Mulan decides to go home.
Then she sees the leader of the enemy troops and some of
his men emerging from the snow. She decides she must warn
the troops in the Imperial City.
In the city, the Captain and his men are being hailed as
heroes. Mulan tries to warn the Captain the Huns survived
and are in the city, but he doesn't believe her. Neither
does the Emperor's aide. The Huns attack and capture the
Emperor, retreating into the Imperial palace.
The Captain and his men try to batter down the palace door.
Mulan sees that they won't be in time to save the Emperor
that way. She gets some of the troops to disguise
themselves as women and they and Mulan sneak into the
palace. The "women" and Mulan distract the guards and
defeat them. The Captain (who didn't disguise himself)
fights the Hun leader. Mulan gets one of the disguised
soldiers to rescue the Emperor by sliding with him down a
rope leading down from an open window. She cuts the rope
to prevent the Hun leader from following. The Hun leader
is about to kill the Captain saying, "You took away my
victory." Mulan tells him, "No, I did." When the Hun
looks at her, she pulls her hair into a man's hairstyle.
The Hun recognizes her as the soldier who defeated him
with the avalanche and goes after her.
Mulan sees the tower for fireworks across the way from
the palace and sends the dragon to it. The Hun chases
Mulan onto the roof of the palace. Mulan disarms the
Hun and uses his sword to pin his cape to the roof. The
dragon shoots a rocket at the Hun, propelling him into
the rest of the fireworks building. Mulan slides down a
rope to the ground before she can get caught in the
explosion that destroys the building and the palace.
The Emperor comes up to Mulan (who bows meekly) and begins
listing all her dishonoring acts and how she's destroyed the
palace, ending with, "And you have saved us all." He bows
to her and so does *everyone* else. The Emperor tells his
aide to make her a member of his council. The aide says
she's a woman and there aren't any openings, so the Emperor
says, "Then she can have your job." Mulan refuses the
position, so the Emperor gives her a medal and a sword
instead. She hugs him. After she leaves, the Emperor
mentions to the Captain that someone so rare only comes
along once in a dynasty.
Mulan return home. She presents her father with the sword
and medal, which she says are to honor the family. Her
father says the greatest honor is having her back. The
women in the family wish she had returned with a husband.
Then the Captain shows up for a visit.
And the dragon is granted guardian status again by the
ancestors.
So, all in all, Mulan is a story about finding honor, even
if unconventionally. Mulan proves that it is what is
inside that counts rather than societal conventions.
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