99 Fun Facts About Mulan

Who provides the speaking voice of Mulan in the 1998 Disney film?

Ming-Na Wen won the part with a voice-over: the producer heard her narration at the start of The Joy Luck Club and said, 'we knew we had our Mulan'.

Who provides Mulan's singing voice in the 1998 film, including the song 'Reflection'?

Lea Salonga was up for the speaking part too, but her voice was judged not deep enough for the soldier disguise; she had already sung for Princess Jasmine in Aladdin.

Who voices Mushu, the tiny disgraced guardian dragon, in Disney's 1998 Mulan?

Eddie Murphy was the pick of Disney chief Michael Eisner after the team had been looking at Joe Pesci and Richard Dreyfuss; he recorded the part at home rather than at the studio.

BD Wong speaks Li Shang in Mulan, but who sings the captain's song 'I'll Make a Man Out of You'?

Donny Osmond got the job because his singing voice was a near match for Wong's speaking voice; he had earlier tried out for the lead in Hercules and been turned down.

Which action star voiced Li Shang in the Chinese-language versions of Disney's Mulan?

Jackie Chan dubbed the captain in Mandarin and Cantonese and sang his training song too, in a music video that has him showing off kung fu moves between the verses.

In the 1998 Mulan, what name does Mulan use when she poses as a male recruit?

Fa Ping keeps her real family name, because she is answering her father's call-up in his place; the 2020 remake changes her soldier's name to Hua Jun.

In the 1998 Mulan, which three fellow recruits become Mulan's closest friends?

Yao, Ling and Chien-Po start by brawling with her in camp and end by dressing up as concubines to slip past the Huns who are holding the Emperor.

What is the name of the Hun leader in Disney's 1998 Mulan?

Shan Yu survives the battle in the mountains and seizes the Emperor in his own palace, where Mulan lures him onto the roof and a giant firework finishes him.

In the 1998 Mulan, what does Mulan set off with a single cannon shot to bury the Hun army?

An avalanche swallows the Huns, but she is slashed in the chaos, and it is while the wound is being bandaged that her comrades learn she is a woman.

In Disney's Mulan, who gives Mulan the 'lucky' cricket Cri-Kee before she meets the matchmaker?

Her grandmother hands him over in a cage for luck; the directors had not wanted him in the film at all, but veteran artist Joe Grant kept slipping sketches of him under their door.

What does Mulan turn down from the Emperor at the end of Disney's 1998 film?

A seat on his council is offered after the whole city has bowed to her; she asks only to go home, carrying his crest and the enemy's sword as gifts for her father.

Which pop star's first US single was 'Reflection' from the Mulan soundtrack?

Christina Aguilera won the song with a demo: asked whether she could hit its highest note, she taped herself singing a Whitney Houston ballad that reached it, and the job was hers.

Stephen Schwartz lost the job of writing Mulan's songs by agreeing to work on which rival studio's film?

The Prince of Egypt belonged to DreamWorks; Disney's bosses told him to choose, he kept his word to the rival studio, and Matthew Wilder and David Zippel wrote Mulan's songs instead.

Mulan was the first of three features produced mainly at which Disney animation outpost?

Bay Lake, Florida, held a studio that doubled as a theme-park attraction: visitors to Disney-MGM Studios walked through the working building and watched its animators at work.

Which animated film out-grossed Mulan worldwide in 1998?

A Bug's Life took about $363 million to Mulan's $304 million; Mulan had opened only second in the US, beaten that weekend by The X-Files, yet ended the year far ahead of it.

Which award did Disney's 1998 Mulan win?

The Annie Award for Best Animated Feature comes from the animation industry's own ceremony; the Oscars had no prize for animated features until Shrek won the first in 2002, too late for Mulan.

In an early draft of Disney's Mulan, what was Mulan running away from when she left home?

A betrothal to Shang, a man she had never met, drove the first version; it was dropped because it made her seem to go to war for herself rather than for her father.

In the video game Kingdom Hearts II, what is the world based on Disney's Mulan called?

The Land of Dragons has Mulan join the hero Sora's party as an ally, at first under her soldier's disguise.

Which McDonald's dipping sauce, launched in 1998 to promote Mulan, returned in 2017 after a Rick and Morty joke?

Szechuan sauce came back in such small amounts that fans who had queued for hours were told it had run out, and ugly scenes followed at some restaurants.

China held back Mulan's release after which Disney-backed film about the Dalai Lama angered Beijing?

Kundun had soured Disney's dealings with China; Mulan was let in only after the lucrative New Year holiday had passed, and it did poor business there.

Who voices the Emperor of China in Disney's 1998 Mulan?

Pat Morita's Emperor has the last word on Mulan, telling her captain that the flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.

Which Motown star joins the boy band 98 Degrees on True to Your Heart, the end-credits song of Mulan?

Stevie Wonder was first asked only to play harmonica on the track; he liked the song so much that he offered to sing on it as well.

Who plays Mulan in Disney's 2020 live-action film?

Liu Yifei was chosen after casting directors toured five continents and saw nearly 1,000 candidates, looking for martial arts skill, clear English and star quality.

Who directed Disney's 2020 live-action Mulan?

Niki Caro, the New Zealander who made Whale Rider, answered critics who wanted an Asian director by saying the job also needed fluency in another culture, Disney's own.

Which new family member does the 2020 Mulan give its heroine, who has none in the animated film?

A younger sister, Xiu, was added because the film-makers felt she gave Mulan more to fight for; later tellings of the legend had already given her one.

How did the 2020 Mulan reach US audiences that September?

On Disney+ behind a Premier Access paywall meant $29.99 on top of the subscription, after the pandemic ended hopes of a US cinema run; three months later it was free to every subscriber.

Who plays the shape-shifting witch Xianniang in the 2020 Mulan?

Gong Li's witch has no counterpart in the animated film: she serves the invaders' leader until the end, when she turns into a hawk and takes an arrow meant for Mulan.

Who are the invaders in the 2020 Mulan, replacing the animated film's Huns?

The Rourans were a real nomadic power of the northern steppe, and the foe that the army in the original ballad is usually taken to be fighting.

The original voice of Mulan cameos in the 2020 remake as whom?

The guest who presents Mulan to the Emperor appears for only seconds, but the actress behind her had been cheering the remake on in public since its first teaser, saying how excited she was to see it.

What controversy arose from the end credits of the 2020 Mulan?

It thanked government bodies in Xinjiang, among them the public security bureau of Turpan, a city where re-education camps for Uyghurs have been documented; calls for a boycott grew.

Which new single did the pop star behind the 1998 hit version of 'Reflection' record for the 2020 Mulan?

Loyal Brave True arrived alongside her new recording of 'Reflection'; nobody sings on screen in the remake, where the animated film's songs survive only as themes in the score.

For which two Oscars was the 2020 Mulan nominated?

Best Costume Design and Best Visual Effects: the costume nod went to a designer who toured museums and travelled through China for research, then mixed the dress of several dynasties instead of copying one.

Which dynasty is the original Ballad of Mulan believed to come from?

Northern Wei rulers were nomads from the steppe who had adopted Chinese ways, which is why the ballad calls its sovereign both the Son of Heaven and the Khan.

The Ballad of Mulan ends by comparing men and women to which animals running side by side?

Hares close the poem: her comrades are stunned to learn the truth after twelve years at her side, and are told that a buck and a doe running together cannot be told apart.

In the opening lines of the Ballad of Mulan, what is Mulan doing as she sighs?

Weaving at her loom, she is asked which man she is sighing over; no one, she answers: she has seen the draft notices, and her father's name is on every roll.

Which actress played a live-action Mulan in the ABC fantasy series Once Upon a Time?

Jamie Chung's Mulan falls not for a captain but for Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty; about to confess, she learns that Aurora is expecting a child, says nothing and leaves to join Robin Hood's band.

Mulan is the Chinese name of which flowering plant?

Lily magnolia is what the two characters name together, though read singly they say 'wood orchid'; the surname Hua, given to her by a 16th-century playwright, means flower.

Which 17th-century novel folded Mulan's story into a larger historical epic?

Romance of Sui and Tang gives her a far darker end than the ballad: summoned to become the Khan's concubine, she takes her own life.

What mission drives the plot of the 2004 sequel Mulan II?

Escorting three princesses to arranged marriages goes awry when they fall for Mulan's three soldier friends, while Mushu schemes to part Mulan and Shang so that he can keep his post.

Which song in Disney's Mulan breaks off mid-chorus when the marching soldiers reach a burned village?

A Girl Worth Fighting For stops dead when the troops find a village the Huns have burned; its lyricist called the sudden cut a really powerful moment.

In the 1998 Mulan, what is the name of the Emperor's counsel who tries to keep Shang's troops out of battle?

Chi-Fu means to report that the recruits are unfit to fight, so Mushu and the cricket forge an order sending them to the front, and that is how they meet the Huns.

In Disney's Mulan, Mushu declares dishonour on Mulan, her whole family and which animal?

Her cow is really her horse: slapped for boasting that he can see through her armour, the little dragon sneers at the stallion as a cow and rants on until she says sorry.

Which Honolulu-born actress was an early choice to voice the heroine of Disney's Mulan?

Tia Carrere missed out on Mulan but not on Disney: two of the film's story artists went on to direct Lilo & Stitch, and cast her as Lilo's big sister Nani.

Which composer scored the 1998 Mulan after Rachel Portman withdrew during production?

Jerry Goldsmith came free only when another of his films fell through; Portman had stepped down on learning that her baby was due just when the score would be recorded.

Who voices the Hun chieftain in Disney's 1998 Mulan?

Miguel Ferrer's chieftain takes the Great Wall as a dare: warned that the Emperor will stop him, he answers that the Emperor invited him by building it.

Where did Disney hold the world premiere of Mulan in June 1998?

Hollywood Bowl was the thrifty choice: after two disappointing releases Disney skipped the kind of spectacle it had staged in Central Park for Pocahontas, settling for lanterns and fortune cookies.

Which martial arts star plays Commander Tung in the 2020 live-action Mulan?

Donnie Yen's commander is half of the animated film's Li Shang: the producers split the captain into a mentor and a fellow recruit, uneasy about a commanding officer as the love interest.

Who plays the Emperor of China in the 2020 Mulan remake?

Jet Li's Emperor walks into a trap, lured out to face the invaders' leader alone, and has to be cut free by Mulan before he can offer her a place in his guard.

Which director was first approached to make the 2020 Mulan but passed?

Ang Lee said he had to pass because he was still obliged to promote Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, adding that it would be great to see an Asian director get the job.

Two ghostly ancestors in the Fa family temple in Disney's Mulan are drawn as a spoof of which famous artwork?

American Gothic is spoofed by a farmer ancestor and his wife; Grant Wood's 1930 original actually shows a farmer and his daughter.

What is the name of Mulan's horse, who carries her to the army camp in Disney's 1998 film?

Khan is frightened when Mulan first appears in armour, but she calms him and he carries her to the training grounds.

Which mythical creature watches over Mulan as a guardian in Disney's 2020 live-action remake?

A phoenix takes over part of the dragon's role, though the remake's director rejected the idea that the bird was simply an updated version of him.

Which 2002 Disney film shows a Mulan poster in the bedroom of a character named Nani?

Lilo & Stitch was written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who had run the story team on Mulan four years earlier.

A crater on which world is named Hua Mulan in honour of the legendary Chinese folk heroine?

Venus has a crater called Hua Mulan because every crater on the planet is named after famous women or female first names.

The singer behind Mulan's songs had already been the singing voice of which Disney princess in 1992?

Jasmine came first, and the singer joked at her Mulan audition that having already been a princess ought to have been enough.

How is the Hun leader finally killed on the palace roof at the climax of Disney's 1998 Mulan?

A fireworks rocket does it: Mulan lures him onto the roof and pins him down, then her dragon guardian launches the rocket that carries him into a fireworks tower.

Which Star Trek actor voices the First Ancestor, ghostly head of the Fa family, in Disney's Mulan?

George Takei, Star Trek's helmsman Sulu, plays the spirit who sends a demoted dragon to wake the family's stone guardian, and he returned for Mulan II.

What unusual name does Mulan's pet dog answer to in Disney's 1998 film?

Little Brother's barks were recorded by Chris Sanders, one of the film's screenwriters, who was replaced by a professional voice actor in Mulan II.

Which colour does the Emperor wear in Disney's Mulan, following a real tradition of imperial dress?

Yellow was the traditional colour of emperors, and the film's wise ruler wears it even while the Huns hold him hostage in his own palace.

Under the law in Disney's 1998 Mulan, what penalty awaits a woman discovered serving in the Imperial Army?

Death is what the law demands, but Captain Li Shang spares Mulan because she has just rescued him, and expels her from the army instead.

After a battle in a mountain pass in Disney's Mulan, how do her fellow soldiers discover she is a woman?

Her wound is bandaged after the Hun leader slashes her across the chest, and the secret she kept all through training is out.

How do three of Mulan's army friends get inside the Hun-held palace to rescue the Emperor in Disney's film?

Disguised as concubines, the three recruits enter the palace on Mulan's plan, then help Captain Shang overpower the Hun leader's men.

Which honour from the Emperor does Mulan politely turn down at the end of Disney's 1998 film?

A seat on his council is the offer, and when his adviser protests that no seats are free, the Emperor says Mulan can have the adviser's job.

Which item does Captain Li Shang bring to Mulan's home as his excuse for visiting her after the war?

Her helmet is his pretext, but the visit ends with the smitten captain accepting the family's invitation to stay for dinner.

What does Mulan lay at the shrine Captain Shang builds for his fallen father in Disney's Mulan?

A doll from the burned village is her tribute to its people, and it is the same toy the Hun leader's falcon had carried off earlier.

What is the name of the Hun leader's pet falcon, his eyes and ears from afar in Disney's Mulan?

Hayabusa pays for his spying when the heroine's dragon guardian burns off his feathers to stop him warning the Huns.

What is the name of Mulan's father, the ageing war veteran whose conscription she takes on in Disney's film?

Fa Zhou accepts his call-up although he is old and frail, and when Mulan comes home with the Emperor's gifts he sets them aside to embrace her.

Which heroine was the next to join the Disney Princess line-up after Mulan?

Tiana of The Princess and the Frog was the next addition, joining a line-up where Mulan was the first member neither born royal nor married into royalty.

In which Disney Junior series did Mulan's original voices reunite in 2014 for a princess rescue episode?

Sofia the First brought Mulan's speaking and singing voices back together for the first time since Mulan II, in an episode where she sings to Sofia and her friends.

Which Broadway star of Torch Song Trilogy voices the short, hot-tempered recruit who first picks on Mulan?

Harvey Fierstein won Broadway's top awards for both writing and starring in Torch Song Trilogy, and he came back to voice the same recruit in Mulan II.

Which actor, the grandfather in Everything Everywhere All at Once, voices the Emperor's adviser in Mulan?

James Hong's pompous adviser dismisses Mulan as worthless once she is revealed as a woman, and ends the film fainting in front of the Emperor.

Which voice legend, best known as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, voices Mulan's grandmother in the 1998 film?

June Foray was 80 when the film opened, and she returned as the grandmother in Mulan II six years later.

Which voice actor, Fred in Scooby-Doo since 1969, supplies the sounds of both Mulan's horse and her cricket?

Frank Welker also voices the villain's falcon in the same film, so three of its animals share one performer.

Disney cast the speaking voice of Mulan after hearing the actress narrate the opening of which 1993 film?

The Joy Luck Club's opening narration won her a first voice-acting job, most of which she recorded alone without ever meeting her dragon co-star.

Which screen star voices Mei, the Emperor's middle daughter, in the direct-to-video sequel Mulan II?

Lucy Liu, fresh from the Charlie's Angels and Kill Bill films, speaks the part of the middle daughter, though another performer sings it.

Which Olympic figure skater has a small voice role as a shopkeeper in the sequel Mulan II?

Michelle Kwan had already starred in a 1998 television skating adaptation of Mulan, made under a deal she struck with Disney that year.

Which actress plays a live-action Mulan in several seasons of the ABC fantasy series Once Upon a Time?

Jamie Chung, who started out on MTV's The Real World, played the part in the show's second, third and fifth seasons.

Which film, opening on the very same day in 1998, kept Disney's Mulan in second place at the US box office?

The X-Files took about $30 million that weekend to Mulan's $22.8 million, and Mulan was runner-up again the following weekend.

With no agreement on when Mulan lived, Disney's designers based the 1998 film's look on which two dynasties?

Ming and Qing were the choice, and the production designer also studied the staging of more than thirty-five film directors, from German silents to Spaghetti Westerns.

Mulan's family name is Fa in Disney's 1998 film because it follows the reading of 'Hua' in which language?

Cantonese gives Fa, while the 2020 remake switched the family to the Mandarin form Hua, the same word, which means flower.

Which children's author brought the ancient poem to Disney and earned the story credit on the 1998 Mulan?

Robert D. San Souci found the ballad while researching folk tales, pitched it to the studio, and published his own picture book of the legend in 1998.

Which Disney animator, who had already drawn Ariel and Belle, was the supervising animator of Mulan herself?

Mark Henn deliberately drew her as less traditionally feminine than earlier heroines, reasoning that she had to pass as a man in the army.

Which 1998 release was the only family film to out-gross Disney's Mulan at the worldwide box office that year?

A Bug's Life was the only one ahead, leaving Mulan the seventh-biggest film of the year overall and ahead of Disney's previous two cartoon features at home.

Beijing finally allowed Disney's Mulan a limited release only after which lucrative holiday had passed?

Chinese New Year was kept for local films, and the late date, together with rampant piracy, left Mulan with low box office in the homeland of its legend.

Mulan was the last princess created in which era of Disney animation, which ran from 1989 to 1999?

The Renaissance, a run of ten features, opened with Ariel's undersea story and closed with Tarzan the year after Mulan.

What is the playable world based on Disney's Mulan called in the video game Kingdom Hearts II?

The Land of Dragons lets Mulan join the player's party as a skilled fighter, first under her soldier alias and later as herself.

In the sequel Mulan II, which threat leads the Emperor to seek an alliance with a neighbouring kingdom?

The Mongols are the danger, so Mulan and Shang are sent across the country to seal the pact, a road trip her dragon guardian spends trying to split them up.

In which country, the director's homeland, was much of Disney's 2020 live-action Mulan filmed?

New Zealand hosted the shoot alongside locations in the heroine's own homeland, with cameras rolling from August to November 2018.

Which family member, absent from Disney's 1998 cartoon, does Mulan gain in the 2020 live-action remake?

A younger sister, Hua Xiu, was created to give Mulan a broader emotional stake, and she is written with a fear of spiders.

Under what male name does Mulan enlist in the Imperial Army in Disney's 2020 live-action remake?

Hua Jun replaces the alias used in the 1998 film because the remake gives the family its Mandarin surname instead of Fa.

Which movement led the makers of the 2020 Mulan to drop the commanding-officer love interest Li Shang?

MeToo made a conscript falling for her commander look uncomfortable, so the part was split between a mentor figure and a young man in her unit who becomes her love interest.

Which actor, Mowgli in Disney's 1994 The Jungle Book, plays the invading warlord in the 2020 Mulan?

Jason Scott Lee's warlord wants revenge on the Emperor for his father's killing, and takes the place of the 1998 film's Hun chieftain.

Which actor from The Farewell plays Mulan's father, a veteran with a crippled leg, in the 2020 remake?

Tzi Ma had already played a General Shang, the commander of the Chinese military in the 2016 alien-contact film Arrival.

Which Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star was attached to a live-action Mulan that Disney abandoned around 2010?

Zhang Ziyi was to star for director Chuck Russell with filming planned for October 2010, but the project was cancelled and the remake waited another decade.

In Disney's 2020 live-action Mulan, what has the 1998 film's cricket sidekick been turned into?

A human soldier named Cricket joins Mulan's unit, a hapless young man who is clumsy at most things but a skilled archer.

At the start of the ancient Ballad of Mulan, where is the sighing heroine sitting?

At her loom, she sighs because the army is calling up men and her father is named in the conscription notices.

Which animal does Mulan's dragon guardian ride to deliver a forged letter after her horse refuses to help?

A panda carries him because Mulan's horse wants no part of the scheme to get Captain Shang's recruits sent to the front.

What is Mulan's horse called in Disney's 2020 live-action remake, a character based on the 1998 film's steed?

Black Wind is the remake's counterpart to the cartoon's horse, the mount Mulan flees home on with her father's armour.

Which actress played the title role in a 2009 Chinese live-action war film about Mulan?

Zhao Wei won the part over several internationally famous names, among them the actress who went on to lead Disney's own remake.