Disney's Mulan example essay topic

Traditional Western and Disney Ideals as Seen in Mulan Fairy tales have been a long tradition in almost all cultures, starting as oral traditions to and gradually evolving into written texts intended for future generations to enjoy. Today, a common medium for relaying these ancient stories is through animation. The Walt Disney Company is probably the most well known for its animated portrayals of many classic fairy tales. These fairy tales are considered, by fairy tale researcher Justyna Deszcz to be "cultural institutions, which exist within an institutional framework of production, distribution, and reception, as well as fulfilling specific social functions, such as the preservation of the cultural heritage of a given country". The majority of these Disney fairy tales are derivatives of European stories.

However, in 1998 Disney opened its first animated feature with an Asian theme in both the United States and Asia. Disney's Mulan seems to stray from the traditional structure of a Disney fairytale, those which have a "relatively uncomplicated sequence of adventures, revolving around impeccably positive characters, who, depending on their gender, either conquer evil or passively wait to be rescued" (Deszcz). Disney's Mulan was aimed to please both the Asian and modern American markets. However, the Walt Disney Company fails to completely step away from its established model in terms of portrayals of minorities, Western depictions of men being dominant in the fairy-tale world, and a woman's ultimate role and happiness being conditional on men. Mulan continues to promote Disney's idea of Western cultures as being ideal and its sexist views regarding women.

The story of the great Chinese female warrior, Hua Mulan, first appeared as a ballad titled "Ode to Mulan" in approximately 500 A.D. In the ballad, there is a young woman by the name of Mulan who is feeling dejected because she has just gone into town where she saw lists of men's names who are being called to serve in the Chinese army. One man on the list is Mulan's crippled father. Because she has no older brother who can take his place, Mulan, with the consent of her parents, then decides to go to the marketplace and buy a horse and saddle so that she may go to war. Mulan leaves and fights in the war against the Huns for twelve years.

When she returns, her troop is honored and offered prizes by the Emperor. However, all Mulan wants is to return home. She is then taken home where she finally takes off her armor. It is only at this time that the rest of the army discovers that she is a woman. The ballad ends at this point, but research has been done on the historical Hua Mulan, showing that this ballad does not give a full and accurate account of the warrior.

First, Hua Mulan's family name was not, in fact, Hua, but rather Wei. Second and more importantly, is "Mulan's" life after her return home. Once the Sui Emperor, Yang Di, heard about this woman warrior, he was greatly impressed and asked her to come live at his palace and serve as one of his concubines. However, the woman refused and committed suicide instead. "Since this matter was bad for the emperor's reputation, no one dared eulogize 'Mulan' in writing... and her exploits were only recorded among the populace in the form of a folk song ['Ode to Mulan']" (Song, 33).

The Walt Disney Company had two target audiences for its animated version of this Chinese folk tale. Along with its primary audience, the United States, Disney was also looking to appeal to its Chinese consumers. There were two main reasons for the company's newfound interest in China. First, Disney was responsible for distributing the movie Kunden in 1997, which told the story of the Dalai Lama. However, the Chinese government was not pleased with the portrayal because it felt that the movie was critical of its rule over Tibet and banned the movie from being shown in China (Kuhn).

Also, Mulan was released in the late 1990's when China was being recognized as a growing power by the rest of the world. The economy in China was improving and it boasted the highest per capita population in the world, exceeding a billion and a half Chinese people. Disney knew that the Chinese had great potential market and therefore aimed to please the Chinese in its making Mulan to improve its relations with China. To do this, the Disney Company attempted to not bastardize the ancient story.

Instead, Disney's Mulan stays fairly close to the traditional story and attempts to avoid any stereotype of the original Chinese folktale. In the Disney version, after Mulan's disaster with the village matchmaker, Mulan's father is called to war, but she sneaks off during the night in his place because she feels like an outcast and wants to prove herself to her family as well as relieve her father from the arduous demands of war. At first she is a terrible warrior, but eventually, with the help of her captain, Shang Li, she becomes one of the best. However, her sex is revealed when she is wounded and she is then left to die in the snow. She eventually makes it back to China on her own and ironically, she foils the clandestine coup of the Hun leader with the help of the men who left her behind, disguising her fellow soldiers as concubine women to foil the Hun soldiers who never expected females to attack them. She is then honored by the emperor with medals and is offered a position in the court, but just decides to return home.

In the last scene, the captain, Shang Li, arrives to tell Mulan that he loves her. This movie appeals to the very traditional culture of the Chinese people by respecting their background, portraying the traditional Chinese as great and honest heroes. In fact, while actors such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li are quite famous, they only depict a comic character and a cruel organized crime member, respectively. Mulan, on the other hand, is considered by many to be the first serious, positive Chinese protagonist to come out of Hollywood. (Zhu, 20). Also, Disney took into consideration many cultural aspects in the making of the movie.

For instance, as film commentator He Zhongshun points out, in "the original story design, Mulan 'kisses her father goodbye' before going to join" (24). However, the company soon realized that daughters would not have kissed their fathers in China two thousand years ago. So instead, this scene was replaced with Mulan leaving her hair clip for her father to indicate that she has left. Disney paid attention to its correctness in the realm of animation in Mulan.

The animation also does not grossly depict the Chinese people as caricatures of a Western stereotype of Asians. The company asked artists from Taiwan to assist in the drawings for the animation. So, rather than using the stereotypical dull yellow skin, very slanted, minuscule sized eyes, and heavy Asian accents, Disney modeled Mulan after the Chinese American actress who provides the voice for Mulan, Ming Na. As a result, Mulan has larger eyes, pale peach skin, and articulate speech, and is "the most beautiful image of a Chinese female [many viewers] have ever seen" (23). The colors used were also carefully researched by Disney. Many of the colors were created specifically in Disney's color laboratory to have "Chinese characteristics."Thus, the film audience can see that the color of the 'dragon robe' worn by the emperor in the film is the authentic imperial 'yellow' of the actual robes" (24).

Along with these aspects that are directed at the Chinese audience, Disney still appeals to and captures the attention of the American audience, as well. "Changes have been made in approach, story structure, casting of characters, tableaux, and so forth" (Li, 15). The company adds magic to the movie with a miniature talking dragon named Mush u, whose voice is the very popular African American actor, Eddie Murphy, and includes dancing, singing ghosts, and a lucky cricket. The love story between Shang Li and Mulan is also an invention of the Disney writers as an attempt to interest the viewers.

"Bringing together such elements as humor, story-telling, thrills, and sentimentality, Mulan has replaced the somewhat dismal mood of the original story with a rich comedic style, which is both entertaining and amusing" (15) for traditional, American Disney company consumers. The primary way in which Mulan departs from the traditional Disney model is in its having a female main character. "The natural difference in physical strength between men and women is not denied; the contrast is utilized to stress the versatility and wisdom of females" (Shao, 13). Disney appeals to the modern feminist views because Mulan is a woman hero who uses her strength and intelligence rather than her helplessness and beauty to be recognized by men.

She is even able to rescue her en tire army from being destroyed by the Hun army by aiming the last canon at the snow on the mountaintop in order to cause an avalanche to fall on the Hun army. She also is able to devise, and successfully execute a plan to save the emperor from the surprise attack from the surviving Huns. However, the few changes that Disney did make to the original tale of Mulan reinforce the traditional, one dimensional, Disney ideals. The company promotes the common theme which is found in many Disney movies that a woman must find a man, Prince Charming, to be happy. At the beginning of the movie, Mulan's family is attempting to convert her into a traditional Chinese girl to prepare for her meeting with the matchmaker.

However, everything goes wrong and the matchmaker refuses to find a husband for Mulan, claiming that no man would ever want her. This inability to find a husband and marry as she is supposed to makes Mulan a misfit in her culture and is the catalyst for her running off to war. Mulan is also portrayed as being weaker than men as she is, at first, unable to perform up to par with the rest of the army. And although she is later a hero, recognized and awarded medals by the Emperor, she is still not completely happy. It is only in the last scene that everyone is satisfied when the army captain comes to her house to profess his love. Medals and a court job offer are not enough for Mulan, or for the consumers and Disney producers, for that matter; the potentiality of a husband in Shang Li, the mark of her ability to fit in with her culture, is the final and real "prize" it seems Mulan was seeking in her efforts against the Huns.

This idea of Mulan not truly being a feminist film is further enhanced by Chen Ken. He argues in his article, "The Shadow of Mu Shu Dragon, "that the "Disney Corporation... despite having taking great pains to endow Mulan with a good many virtues-filial piety, intelligence, forthrightness, and bravery-it has been unable to escape the shadow of 'male privilege" (25). Ken sees the addition of the male dragon, Mu Shu, as the writers' and directors' attempt to insert a male protagonist, since his role, given to him by Mulan's ancestors, is to protect Mulan throughout her adventures and to make sure she returns home safely. In this way, although the woman figure is clearly the hero, she is still dependant upon a male figure and therefore seen as not fit to take care of herself. Still, the film proved to successfully capture and entertain the American audience, critics giving similar reviews to that of Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly who deemed that "Mulan is artful and satisfying" (63). This success is seen even in numbers, Mulan ending its run at the theaters with a box office total of 120.6 million dollars (Mulan), one of Disney's biggest animated films.

On the other side of the globe, Mulan did not fare nearly as well as in the United States. In fact, it was basically a failure in China, only collecting 11 million dollars at the box office (Mulan). Although the Disney Company researched and came up with a marketing plan which it believed would allow Mulan to be profitable in China, the Chinese did not react in ways that the company foresaw. The first aspect of Disney's marketing plan was the date of release of the animated film in China. Disney decided to release the movie immediately after the Spring Festival, a time in which the children are still on vacation and have the time to watch movies and the population will still be celebrating the New Year, everyone in "the appropriate mood for such [a] light-hearted and humorous subject matter", (Li, 16) that will celebrate their culture as is emphasized in Mulan. However, the results were not as Disney anticipated.

The company did not take into account that since the animated film was imported, the ticket prices were higher, and the Chinese might not have felt it was worth their money to watch an animated version of a story they are so familiar with, especially since "middle-aged and young moviegoers in most of China pay scant attention to children's subject matter" (16). And even if the consumers felt compelled to watch the film, there were already pirated copies of Mulan circulating through the country which would allow the Chinese to watch the movie at a much discounted price (16). However, the main reason for the animated film's failure in China was the Chinese peoples' dislike for the film's inaccurate depiction of Chinese historical and cultural themes. "The creators [of Mulan] gave first consideration to the viewing preferences of American audiences, everything in [Mulan] is tied to the Hollywood pattern; the inclusion of Chinese cultural elements exists merely to satisfy the novelty-seeking mentality of those same viewers" (Shao, 12). There are many stereotypical elements to the movie Mulan.

Stereotypes of Chinese good and culture clearly occur when the soldiers are ordering dinner and ask for dishes such as "mu gu chicken" and "braised pigs' trotters" and in the nuptial ceremony. Traditionally, a Chinese matchmaker attempts to please the parents of the man and woman, convincing the family that she will be able to make the best match for both. Also, while Mulan herself is "normal" looking, those around her are not. "The people around Mulan are either buck-toothed figures or else extremely emaciated, as though they are malnourished", (R. Zhang, 32) or are large and pale, with a Buddha-like belly.

Another problem many Chinese found with the film was that Mulan's personality and mannerisms are very non-traditional for the Chinese culture. "The Hua Mulan created by Disney mixes American-style humor, the boisterousness of girls in the American Wild West... and the hippie demeanor of modern youngsters" (Y. Zhang, 26). Mulan's expression of her feelings is modeled after Western movements, such as the shrugging of shoulders when one is unsure. The Western girl in Mulan is exemplified in Mulan's jumping up on and hugging the Emperor in the second to last scene, something that no Chinese woman or man, whether hero or not, would ever do. Therefore, although one can see that the filmmakers have made an effort to understand and learn the Chinese culture, the "American flavor" that the Walt Disney Company is unable to leave behind is quite obvious in its making of Mulan.

So in fact, while it may appear on the surface that the Walt Disney Company has finally broken down its traditions, at the core of its retelling of the ancient tale of Hua Mulan, neither the lives of a Disney female nor a Disney depiction of a minority culture has really changed. He Zhongshun even believes that "The Disney Corporation probably decided from the very outset that, even though the background story came from ancient Chinese history, they would not abandon Disney's characteristic atmosphere and humor. Buried beneath its feminist appearance, Mulan still manages to convey to the world that all a woman needs to be happy is a man. Similarly, while Disney has made a step forward in researching some aspects of Chinese culture, the changes and additions the company has made to the traditional story seem to trivialize and make humor out of the Chinese culture.

So it seems that although Disney can market itself as being modern as an attempt to please their consumers, it will inevitably revert to its traditional western values.

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