am2xAnimated Movies was launched by Olivier Mouroux in 1999. In addition to a daily news report, he also created a database of information about past, current, and upcoming films. In 2003, he took a job in the industry and had to give up his work on the site. Several fans of Animated Movies decided to take on the task of keeping the news portion of his site going, and founded what is now Animated Views.

As AV turns 15, let's take a look back at the site we descended from. Below you can explore the database Olivier compiled at Animated Movies during its existence, as it last appeared online in October 2003.


 

Cast * Production Details * Earlier Version * Interesting Facts * Mulan's Poem


Directed by: Tony Bancroft & Barry Cook
Written by: Robert D. San Souci, based on an anonymous poem
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith, Matthew Wilder & Vanessa-Mae Nicholson

Released on: June 19, 1998
Running Time: 88 minutes

Budget: $70 million
U.S. Opening Weekend: $22.745 million over 2,888 screens
Box-Office: $121 million in the U.S., $303.5 million worldwide
 
 

CAST

Click on Mushu to hear what he has to say!Fa Mulan/Fa Ping... Ming Na-Wen & Lea Salonga (singing)
Captain Li Shang... B.D. Wong & Donny Osmond (singing)
Mushu... Eddie Murphy
Yao... Harvey Fierstein
Emperor... Pat Morita
 
 
 
Fa Zhou and his daughter Mulan
Mulan leaves home with Khan
Cri-Kee, Mushu, Mulan and Khan

 

PRODUCTION DETAILS

  Mulan is the first feature length production which was created by Walt Disney Feature Animation, Florida which is located at Disney/MGM Studios at Waft Disney World.

  Mulan's artistic leaders spent over three weeks in China drawing and photographing to learn Chinese style and culture.

  The artistic approach to the film is based upon the Chinese "sing" style of "negative," or empty-space balanced by positive detail.

  Computer animators used the latest technology to add detail and to mimic camera techniques that were previously unavailable to animators. A computer program called Attila was used to create the sequence of 2,000 Huns on horseback and cround scenes of 30,000 people.
 
 
Mulan as Ping!
Shan Yu
Mulan (as Ping) along with Ling, Yao, and Chien Po

EARLIER VERSION

  At one point there was a puppet show narration at the opening of the film, somewhat similar to the opening of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. A finished still from this is pictured in The Art of Mulan book.

  In an early version of the story, Mulan and Shang are engaged at the very beginning. In some drafts they have never met before they join the army; in other versions Mulan had met him but didn't like him.

  Grandmother Fa originally had a bigger role in the movie, but her part was cut back when it felt to be too cutesy and distracting.

Early drawing of Mushu  Originally there was a sidekick panda named (really) Moo Goo Gai Panda. This idea was quickly replaced with two sidekick dragons named Yin and Yang, who in turn were ultimately replaced by Mushu. "Moo Goo" survives in a different form as the panda who eats Chi Fu's slipper.

  At least two songs by Stephen Schwartz were cut from the movie. One was called "Destiny" and felt to be too angry for the character of Mulan. The other was written for the transformation sequence and dropped when the storyboards worked better without any dialogue or song lyrics.

  An alternate ending showed Shang and Mulan riding off into the sunset on separate horses.

  Tentative titles before the final Mulan, were China Doll, Fa Mulan, The Legend of Fa Mulan and The Legend of
Mulan.
 
 
 

Mushu blames the explosion on Cri-Kee!
The Huns attack
Mulan leads the army to victory!

INTERESTING FACTS

  Mulan means magnolia: "Mu" by itself means "wood" and "Lan" means "orchid".

  The story of Mulan has been told in China for almost 2,000 years.  Mulan is the heroine of a famous Chinese poem written during the Northern Dynasties (AD 420-589). In the story, Mulan disguises herself as a man to serve in the army in her father's place. While serving, she is recognized as a courageous soldier and offered a government post. She turns down the position in favor of going home and living a peaceful life with her family. After she returns home, she puts back on her lady's clothes--and shocks her fellow soldiers, who didn't know she was a woman during all that time on the battlefield. The story was expanded into a novel during the late Ming (AD 1368-1644) Dynasty.

Deutsch soundtrack cover  When the ancestors first discuss which gardian to send to help Mulan, the top shelf has several stone sculptures of the guardians, one of the sculptures is Hugo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

  When Mulan sings "Reflection" in her father's shrine, her reflection appears in the polished surface of the temple stones. The writing on the temple stones is the names of the Disney animators who worked on the film written in ancient Chinese.

  B.D. Wong (Shang) was Franc's assistant in the Father of the Bride remakes.

  The music -at least at the end- of the theater and video trailer is originally from the film Dragonheart, scored by Randy Edelman.

  Disney's Florida story artists had originally envisioned an opening scene where all of the incidents that lead up to the creation of the Great Wall of China are played out by shadow puppets performing by candle light behind a paper screen, according to Jim Hill. Eventually, the camera would have pulled back away from the paper screen, revealing that there was an audience seated in a puppet theater that was watching this shadow play. The camera would then have drifted over to the theater's window and revealed that -- just as the off-screen puppeteer is explaining how the Great Wall prevented the Mongol horde from ever returning and attacking China -- that Shan Yu and his army are (at that very same moment) swarming over the Wall. The sequence was supposed to have ended with the horde entering the theater in the middle of the puppet show. The audiences flees, screaming. Shan Yu kills the puppeteer and then sets fire to the shadow puppets and the paper screen.

  Astonishingly, the British censors would not issue the film with a U certificate until 2 seconds of footage showing a headbutt had been removed!

  Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame lyricist Stephen Schwartz was originally signed to write songs for Mulan. He submitted two or three songs, including an opening song called "Destiny". Stephen commented: "In addition to "Destiny", which was to have been the opening number, I wrote two other songs for Mulan, both of which had been accepted by Disney before I was replaced on the film. One was called "Written in Stone", which essentially was replaced by "Mulan's Reflection" and was one of my favorite songs I have ever written an animated feature. The other was "China Doll", and was similar to the song now in the film in which Mulan is dressed and prettied in preparation for meeting her betrothed ["Honor To Us All"]."

  While promoting Lilo & Stitch, actress and singer Tia Carrere explained that "the question of a Disney animated feature had come up previously. The casting director was looking for me for Mulan, and for some reason I was working in Eastern Europe, and my agent at the time kinda dropped the ball, and I was really upset about it because I wanted to be a part of the Disney history. So I was really disappointed."

  In 1998, after completing demo in hopes of landing a record deal, Christina Aguilera auditioned to sing "Reflection." According to Christina, "They needed someone who could hit a high E above middle C." Christina then cut a one-take demo in her living room singing to a karaoke tape of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Run To You." The demo was rushed to Disney, and within a day, Christina was in a Los Angeles studio recording "Reflection." That same week, RCA Records signed her to a record contract.

  Disney won permission to show Mulan in China in 1999. The film reportedly flopped there because the main character looked and behaved differently from the Hua Mulan figure portrayed in Chinese poems and folklore.
 
 
Mushu tries to be menacing!
The emperor congratulates Mulan
Mulan back home, surrounded by the ones she loves!

MU-LAN'S POEM

  Anonymous from the 5th or 6th century A.D.  Translation from The Flowering Plum and The Palace Lady: Interpretations of Chinese Poetry by Hans H. Frankel.
 

Tsiek tsiek and again tsiek tsiek,
Mu-lan weaves, facing the door.
You don't hear the shuttle's sound,
You only hear Daughter's sighs.
They ask Daughter who's in her heart,
They ask Daughter who's on her mind.
"No one is in Daughter's heart,
No one is on Daughter's mind.
Last night I saw the draft posters,
The Khan is calling many troops,
The army list is in twelve scrolls,
On every scroll there's Father's name.
Father has no grown-up son,
Mu-lan has no elder brother.
I want to buy a saddle and a horse,
And serve in the army in Father's place."

In the East Market she buys a spirited horse,
In the West Market she buys a saddle,
In the South Market she buys a bridle,
In the North Market she buys a long whip.
At dawn she takes leave of Father and Mother,
In the evening camps on the Yellow River's bank.
She doesn't hear the sound of Father and Mother calling,
She only hear the Yellow River's flowing water cry tsien tsien.

At dawn she takes leave of the Yellow River,
In the evening she arrives at Black Mountain.
She doesn't hear the sound of Father and Mother calling,
She only hears Mount Yen's nomad horses cry tsiu tsiu.
She goes ten thousand miles on the business of war,
She crosses passes and mountains like flying.
Northern gusts carry the rattle of army pots,
Chilly light shines on iron armor.
Generals die in a hundred battles,
Stout soldiers return after ten years.

Pre-painting for MulanOn her return she sees the Son of Heaven,
The Son of Heaven sits in the Splendid Hall.
He gives out promotions in twelve ranks
And prizes of a hundred thousand and more.
The Khan asks her what she desires.
"Mu-lan has no use for a minister's post.
I wish to ride a swift mount
To take me back to my home."

When Father and Mother hear Daughter is coming
They go outside the wall to meet her, leaning on each other.
When Elder Sister hears Younger Sister is coming
She fixes her rouge, facing the door.
When Little Brother hears Elder Sister is coming
He whets the knife, quick quick, for pig and sheep.
"I open the door to my east chamber,
I sit on my couch in the west room,
I take off my wartime gown
And put on my old-time clothes."
Facing the window she fixes her cloudlike hair,
Hanging up a mirror she dabs on yellow flower-powder.
She goes out the door and sees her comrades.
Her comrades are all amazed and perplexed.
Traveling together for twelve years
They didn't know Mu-lan was a girl.
"The he-hare's feet go hop and skip,
The she-hare's eyes are muddled and fuddled.
Two hares running side by side close to the ground,
How can they tell if I am he or she?"
 
 
Mushu drawing by character designer Harald Siepermann
Mush & Ancestor: preliminary drawing by character designer Harald Siepermann

 




Animated Movies original content © Olivier Mouroux