*SHE IS INCREDIBLE!!* Mulan (1998) | First Time Watching | (reaction/commentary/review) 

Reading that gave me chills

I love that, especially when Mulan lays the doll against the General's sword, basically emphasizing what the soldiers are really fighting for.

Damn, reading this brought tears to my eyes.

Plus Shan Yu has that line about a little girl missing her doll, which also factors in.

@@ashleypanzica2696 I like to also see that part as Mulan, being the only woman in the army, represents the women who are killed in war when all the men have always been representing (and concerned about) the men who die due to war.

Yep 😂

I use the meme regularly on facebook when people say dishonorable things 😂

I use this regularly 😂😂😂😂😂😂

I always use to shame someone 😅

Mushu always hilarous is

Too true! Makes my mom cry every time 🥰

It’s the one thing I wish my own father said to me, but he said the exact opposite to me, repeatedly. But it’s made me who I am so can’t complain too much

Well, unless you're a boy.

I bawl every time I hear him say it 😢❤

@@taylorhall1988 The _exact_ opposite? So your father said, "The worst punishment and disgrace is having you as a son"? That's awful. :(

Except he's not Atilla the Hun. He's Shan Yu, a completely fictional character. 🤦🏼

@@MontgomeryWenis fine, I got his name messed up. He is still the leader of the Huns and the Huns had female warriors

@@MontgomeryWenisthat’s not even the point of their comment 🤦🏼‍♀️

@@Brandy_2228 So? It's incorrect information whose correct info is literally spoken multiple times in the film. How do you get that wrong? They mention Shan Yu by name several times. 🤦🏼

@@MontgomeryWenis Not to mention the Huns never attacked China and this is a completely different group (though some scholars think the Huns were descended from them, but it's debated), so I'm not sure why anybody would call him Attila in the first place. He would be way out of time and place.

Yes absolutely!! I also realized later in life that I can disappoint my parents and still make them proud

A true Disney Renaissance appreciator, unlike the new generation of Disney producers.

Absolutely I was always a tomboy and sometimes resonated in me watching Mulan fight!

I never understood this line of logic. I'm a Mexican, and I never once felt like I wasn't represented by Disney movies or anything because the characters were white or Chinese or what have you. I look at Mulan and I see myself reflected in her because she exhibits some qualities that I admire and strive for. We don't need someone to look like us or anything silly like that. We can just find the things worth admiring in each individual and identify with that.

@@NovusIgnisI don’t really understand how your comment relates to the previous comments. But I’m going to try to explain why I agree with that logic. Show White was a very passive character who was "classically" beautiful, fragile, innocent, naive, waiting for someone else to rescue her… attributes that are often seen as feminine and are often told to girls as something to strive to look/make yourself like, too. When you’ve already realized that you are strong, curious, adventurous (or nobody has told you that girls "shouldn’t" be like that), characters like Snow White can make you feel like you’re failing as a girl or you are not normal. And girls who were already told to be passive or not be inquisitive or only focus on looking good for a man to rescue them feel validated because characters like Snow White are admired and serve as "perfect" role models. It can also just be a movie or just a character for some kids. It depends on your environment and what other characters or real life people you’re confronted with. If you only ever see passive female characters and rescuing male character, you very likely will think that that’s the way it should be. Because children think that what they see, what adults show them, is the way the world works. A character like Mulan can - potentially - show or remind you that, for example: there are different types of people no matter the gender, that it’s okay to be strong and curious, that it’s okay to want to be strong but also have empathy/"female" attributes, that you can find friends in unlikely people, that you don’t have to look or behave a certain way to be a girl,… You can transfer that concept to race/racism just as well because it mostly depends on what your parents/society showed and told you. If your parents managed to make you relate to lots of different people (disregarding gender, skin color, age, body type,, …), it won’t matter to you what attributes a fictional character might have. In most societies or cultures, that’s something your parent actively have to work for, though. Because while children are born without (e.g.) racist tendencies, lots of people/media around them will show racism, making the children think that that’s the correct behavior. And some children are also more receptive or observant than others, too.

Lol, the JUDGEMENT on the guy's face when he says that!! He's like 'Guess there's no accounting for the Emperor's tastes...' 😂

I feel sorry for the parents who got asked what a concubine was when their kids first saw this movie hehe

@@imogenonscreen8054lol I learned that word from the Bible when I was little, along with some really fucked up stories.

Shout out to Mathew Wilder of break my stride fame for working on the soundtrack and being the singing voice of the male love interest

​@@nevetstrevel4711Donny Osmond did Li Shang's singing voice.

And that is the last musical song of the film! The tone completely changes and it works so well

Fully agree. A problem with many of the female leads in recent movies (especially Marvel, but also the live action Mulan) is that they follow the same idea that "you are already perfect, all you need to succeed is to get rid of your self doubt". This can be a powerful message if done right, but it is hardly ever done so. What makes Mulan here a strong female character is not that she is prefect and completely capable at the start, but is a human, as flawed as anyone else, and that used her flaws to find her own way, to become unique and turn them into strengths. She has a complete character arc where she isn't suddenly all powerful just because the plot demands it, but even in her final fight, she is all on the defensive and only succeeds through cunning and finding the opening (and the help of a little dragon). I have the feeling, too often, movies take a shortcut in writing female leads, by reducing the complexity and the difficulties of their character arcs (in contrast to male lead movies) from a flawed person that can grow and learn, that becomes a better version of themselves.

Seriously, she can have both feminine and masculine traits. She can make mistakes but learn from them. She can be heroic but also vulnerable. Just write a great character, that's all. I think the issue we see today is superficial appeal to the female audience, it's corporate contrived "feminism" it's pandering and hollow. As a woman it sucks to be shown something so fake and expected to care like I should be happy about it, I just want a great character that's all.

Exactly! Not just that she learns how to fight well, but she's smart and can be comedic as well. She's such a well-rounded character. Female leads so often now can't be comedic or physically weak. And either have multiple romantic interests or is positively against having any. I always go back to this movie when having the discussion about the problem with a lot of "strong" female characters in movies now

​ Yeah, exactly, I liked she can have both traits: She doesn't quite fit in with the femenine group or completely with the masculine group, she can go her own way that's what I felt. By making human her character, we can feel her complete

That's how female leads in CDramas basically are. Yes they do have the "badass" fighter type (usually an assassin) but she's not presented as invincible and she works best with her love interest who helped her do a face-heel turn thus a character growth.

granny is an icon

Yeah, I'm agree too, I wish more people thought that way

Same thing with “you missed” 😂. You HAVE to follow with “how could you miss, he was 3 feet from you.”

I still use the “Great Stone Dragon, have you awakened?” line on family members when they wake up from sleeping in.

​@abbiejo6822 bruh that's hilarious i love it

Well said, and I also love that they all ultimately succeed through both ingenuity and working together as a team, leveraging each others’ strengths. Yes she’s the hero, but she’s not so ridiculously OP that she does everything on her own.

Yup. It’s exactly what I’ve never liked about Jasmine.

I like that it *does* place that emphasis on duty and social/familial responsibility too. It isn't just some story about "you're an individual and you need to express that individuality even at other peopels' expense." So often these movies preach the message that you should never abandon whatever specific thing you want to do because everyone else is telling you to do so. They're in the wrong and you're in the right, follow your truth, etc etc. It's one thing I loved about Coco too. By the mid point in the movie, the main character sees the value of family and decides that if he has to sacrifice his dream so save someone else, that's a worthwhile thing to do. And through that growth, he's rewarded by that same family. I dunno, I'm just sick of this hyper-individualism that suffuses all of American culture. Heaven forbid someone put the community or family first instead of themselves.

but iirc unlike all the other disney princesses from the time mulan was actively trying to fit the expectation of society and family had placed on her where the others were actual princesses and such and were rebelling against those expectations. mulan wasn't really rebelling so much as trying to keep her father alive by tricking everyone like she did

@@lionheartt15 That's kind of what I'm saying. I think it's more interesting to criticize society without having the main character criticize society (at first anyway.) Sort of a show-don't-tell thing

@@NovusIgnis Because that's a cultural thing. Extremes of both isn't good tho

no theres no hidden meaning there. if you want something thats at least plausible the line "boys will gladly go to war for you" is at least a little believable as instead of fighting to marry her they're inspired to fight with her

OMG I love foreshadowing. Never thought about that before now!

Except she didn't strike the match to light the cannon, she used a dragon.

@@teamninjabug8287 Eh close enough

@@teamninjabug8287 again, she didn't do the same as everyone to fit in, instead she made her own way.

That move is so bad ass and is one of my favorite parts of the movie

That looks a lot like Aikido, though, which is a Japanese fighting style. Was it a similar move from a Chinese fighting style?

The amount of detail that Old School Disney drew from real life is the hallmark of their golden age. It shows the amount of love and passion they had for their craft. For The Lion King, they sat down with actual Lions to learn their mannerisms, they went into the wild to capture the true spirit of the African Savanna. For Aladdin they delved into deep Arabic lore and traditional stories, and spent weeks to get individual seconds of animation *just right*. Old School Disney were Artists first, movie-makers second. And their downfall into propaganda-pushing, short-cut narratives, and vitriolic fan-shaming is one of the great tragedies of the new millennium.

I always wanted to learn that... still do.. 😂

@@choalithikanthe2422 Basically do a research on the subject. It's practically mandatory for anyone writing a setting. Heck Tom Clancy did his research into military aspects of his novels so well that you'd think he was an ex-military.

Yes yes yes

Yessssss

YESSSS

Yes please!

YES HE NEEDS TO WATCH PRINCE OF EGYPT

You do realize that mushu basically murdered another dragon

@@JoshuaNelson-kl5zb not really. By then, it’s strongly implied that the statue was just a statue. There are dragon motifs all over Mulan’s decision, which comes as she sits under the Great Stone Dragon, very much suggesting that in truth, Mulan was the Great Stone Dragon. Additionally, while dragons in Chinese culture represent many things, one of the most potent is wisdom, which is a trait that allows Mulan to succeed. The statue by that point was no longer a symbol of the Great Stone Dragon, bc its spirit was now within Mulan.

@@agwarddd no that's not it at all the Great dragon was not a symbol he was an individual creature remember mushu was a statute then The Great ancestor woke him up this means the Great dragon was one of his kind and he died in his sleep

​@JoshuaNelson-kl5zb that's probably how it reincarnated as mulan, if that's what the writers were going for. Assuming I got the timing right, reincarnation was a belief back then

@@Fairygoblet in order for that to work Mulan would have to have been born after the Great dragon died he could not have been reincarnated as someone who was alive at the same time as him

To defeat the Huns

did they send me daughters

When I asked for sons

Your the saddest bunch I’ve ever met

But you can bet

If you are talking about China, maybe you can check up Fuhao (妇好). She is the first Chinese female general recorded. Her story as well as her tomb discovered in 1976 are both quite interesting.

Would probably be less of a debate if it wasn’t for China’s cultural revolution. So much history wiped off the surface of the Earth, "cleaning the slate" for China. I’d like to think the stories have some basis in reality, but any old temples or libraries that might’ve held that sort of knowledge got pretty much wiped out.

@@strawberrysoulforever8336She was already a symbol of feminity and courage in China before the movie. Disney made her discover to western audience but destroy it all by making a terrible live movie. (Also your line about China seems a bit racist… I would have let you know that every countries has its history of misogyny and terrible things made to women and it didn’t change the fact every country has also those feminine figures as heroins)

@@lysfranc8782 I don't know much about other cultures. I meant Disney picking her up gave Western audiences a strong symbol that China already had. And I was just talking about foot binding. But then, England had crippling styles, too. Some Victorian women died of internal bleeding from corsets. China is not unusual, but it did have very rigid gender roles not so long ago.

My favourite is Encanto, but Mulan is easily top 3, and definitely the best of the Disney Renaissance movies.

I'm more of a Hercules man myself Ratatouille if we include Pixar

@AnEnormousNerd Maybe I'm biased. I love Aladdin, The Lion King & A Goofy Movie too, but I remember seeing Mulan in theaters, and the song reminds me of Basic Military Training

@@johngreen6521 🎶Let's get own to bussiness🎶

For me it's also the strongest moment! When I face challenges in my life, I listen to the song like 20 times + 15 times just that climbing part to give me strength

It’s the transformation scene for me

“Would you like to stay forever??”

It was the first time I heard that line, given that I'm French and used to watch the movie in french. In the French song, the song goes like "a young woman's been waiting for me for 40 years" "after all this time she surely has no teeth anymore". I can't say which line I prefer x)

doesn't that va have like 300 role credits?😂 hes so iconic

Yes, James Hong. Also Po"s (kung fu panda) adoptive dad

I’m an only child too like Mulan🖤

Yes! And you can see dragons in the whole sequence when Mulan decides to leave implying that the dragon was already in her the whole time.

Me too!

Same here as a kid, I’d much rather use my imagination in playing out an adventure than playing house; and also struggled with people pleasing. I’ve since then accepted myself and learned to not please people nearly as much.

Don't forget for singing voices you have Lea Salonga and Donny Osmond. I also just learned that George Takei is the First Ancestor.

Just a note that Kuzco's movie is called The Emperor's New Groove. It's a very fun watch!

All of these!!!

Haha in French it goes: -A beautiful woman has been waiting for me for almost forty years. -By now she has no teeth left!

In Polish I believe it was, "The one awaiting me is the best of them all! - Listen how nice he speaks of his mom" 😸

In Russian it's also that "there's a dame waiting for me at home - the only woman who's in love with him is mum". But the being in love makes it extra punchy compared to just love

In swedish it's: -At home there's a lady, she is my own flame -The only girl that wants him, it's his mom/mommy

Seems like i started something, we need more translations and create a ranking xD

Agreed although the funny thing is I didn’t know he voiced Mushu when I watched Mulan the first time as I only knew him as the voice of Donkey from _Shrek._ So it wasn’t until I rewatched Mulan the second time until I realized Mushu and Donkey were voiced by Eddie Murphy.

Seconded! They're all fantastic!

Why? It's better to watch now with us

Dishonor on you! Dishonor on your couch!

And Star Wars as Fennec Shand. She’s become a Disney triple threat lol

Re: “Not a princess”: -No, Mulan was neither born royal nor married into royalty. But, she serves the Emperor. That should count, in my opinion. Seriously though, as far as I’m concerned, the truly necessary requirements for a Disney Princess- other than being female, human, and a character in a Disney movie- are that she must be: • the main protagonist of her *_own_* story- NOT the love interest of someone else’s (sorry Meg, Esmerelda, AND *_Jasmine)_* • of an age where romance and marriage are a consideration, whether she is actually interested in a relationship or not. Or more simply let’s just say, she is coming of age as a young adult (neither a child, nor fully matured) …though an animal sidekick and a pretty dress don’t hurt. And neither does doing really well at the box office.

+

DISTURBING....

@@breezymango4113oh, gawd. Shut up.