(Written on 2018-06-19)
On June 19, 1998, the Disney cartoon "Mulan" entered people's field of vision. After this musical film with "Mulan" as the protagonist in the Yuefu poem "Mulan" from the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China was released in the United States, the audience instantly remembered this Chinese princess with curved eyebrows and almond eyes.
As Disney's 36th animated feature film, the story of "Mulan" is the same as the folklore we are familiar with. In order to resist the invasion of the Huns, the daughter of the Hua family, Mulan, disguised herself as a man and joined the army instead of her father. In the cartoon, Mulan set off with a horse, a miniature dragon and a cricket symbolizing luck, and finally defeated the Xiongnu "Chanyu", saved China from the invasion of foreign enemies, and returned full of honor. This film is also Disney's first. A film that talks openly about "war".
Tony Bancroft, one of the directors of "Mulan", has previously worked as an animator on Disney's "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin" and "The Lion King", but "Mulan" is his Director's debut.
Another director, Barry Cook, as a special effects animator, participated in "Electronic World Warfare" (the original "Tron") and "The Little Mermaid" in 1982, as well as "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Beast". "Aladdin" has contributed his professional level, and "Mulan" is also his first directorial feature film.
Disney animation in the 1990s was very bold in the choice of the director of this film . Both of them were making a feature film for the first time . However, although the directors are all relative "newcomers", the final result of the film is not bad - with a budget of 90 million US dollars, it eventually won more than 300 million US dollars at the global box office.
Wen Mingna and Huang Rongliang
Asian voice actors in Hollywood
"Mulan" is Disney's first Asian-American "princess". The film is a significant film for Asian-American stars in Hollywood . The film gathers a handful of people in Los Angeles that year. Some well-known Asian actors - Wen Mingna, Wu Hanzhang, Huang Rongliang and Takei George have all dubbed the characters in "Mulan". For the ABCs who grew up in the United States, "Mulan" is the first "Chinese princess" who has made them the most recognizable and most similar to her image in decades.
Wen Mingna, who dubbed "Mulan", was born in Macau and immigrated to New York with her mother and stepfather when she was 4 years old. She has starred in "The Story of the Emergency Room" starring George Clooney. He plays Detective Mei, and is well known to the audience. She is also one of the first Chinese actors in Hollywood to officially sign an American TV contract. In the film, Mulan often touches her hair, because this is one of the little things Wen Mingna likes to do.
Wu Hanzhang, who dubs the eunuch's "Blessing", was born in Minnesota, USA, and is almost the most-appeared Chinese actor in Hollywood movies. In his early years, he played a small role in Roman Polanski's "Chinatown", sold a bowl of noodles to Harrison Ford in "Blade Runner" (1982), and in 1986 "Monsters in Chinatown" He played the big monster, dubbed the role of "King Qin" played by Chen Daoming in the English version of "Heroes" by Zhang Yimou, and was also the "Duck Daddy" of "A Bao" in the "Kung Fu Panda" series.
We may be more familiar with Huang Rongliang and George Takei. Huang Rongliang dubbed the male protagonist "General Li Xiang", whose voice actor was originally Bruce Willis. Huang Rongliang runs through the entire series of "Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic World". The 58-year-old was born in San Francisco, California. In the just released "Jurassic World 2", he still looks the same as in 1993. In "Jurassic Park" he was not much different.
He also played the crazy villain Dr. Hugo in DC's American drama "Gotham". Interestingly, contrary to "Mulan", Huang Rongliang played the role of a man disguised as a woman in "Mr. Butterfly" in 1993.
George Takei, also born in California, whose parents immigrated to the United States after the Pearl Harbor incident, may be one of the first Japanese actors to be known in the hearts of a generation of Americans. Takei's iconic role is in the American TV series "Star Trek". First mate "Sulu", he is also one of the first Asian actors in Hollywood to come out of the closet. Takei's dubbed role in "Mulan" is the "ancestor" of the Hua family, which is in line with his own pioneering status among Asian actors.
Chen Huilin, Coco Li and Xu Qing dubbed "Mulan" in the Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland versions of the film, respectively. In these three versions, Jackie Chan is the hero "Li Xiang", and also appeared in "Flower". Mulan's MV "Men" ("I'll Make A Man Out of You" in English).
Chen Peisi is the voice actor of "Mushulong" in Mandarin, and other Asian actors who appear in this film include Watanabe Gordon (who starred in "The Story of the Emergency Room") and Morita Noriyuki, who are also Hollywood After The Joy Luck Club, it was the first film to be dominated by Asian actors.
Loyal to the original "Mulan Ci"
Focus on the affection between Mulan and her father
"Mulan" was born during Disney's "Renaissance" period and began a long production cycle as early as 1994 on the Disney-MGM studio in Florida. That year, Disney also sent a group of art supervisors to Beijing for three weeks , taking photos and paintings in various landmark buildings, seeking cultural inspiration. In the end, elements including Chinese landscape paintings, calligraphy, pandas, the Forbidden City, etc., all appeared in the film in a familiar and unfamiliar way.
Originally, Disney took a fancy to a story called "China Doll", which tells the strange story of a miserable and oppressed Chinese girl who was brought to the Western Paradise by Prince Charming from England , and planned to adapt it. into an animated short.
Fortunately, Disney did not do this, and finally made the decision to adapt the long epic poem "Mulan Ci" of the Northern Dynasty, avoiding the birth of a racist film.
At the beginning of the script, Mulan and Li Xiang were engaged before they met (maybe it was a baby kiss, which was quite common in our ancient times). It was engraved on the slate of the family ancestral hall, and in anger, Mulan shattered the slate and fled, trying to shape her own destiny.
But one of the writers, Chris Sanders (who later became the director of "How to Train Your Dragon" and "The Flintstones"), got a little tired of the "romantic" part of the story, and suggested to producers that better Loyal to "Mulan Ci", focusing more on the family relationship between Mulan and her father .
So the focus of the film shifts to Mulan, who is distressed by her elderly father, puts on the armor instead of him, and joins the army to kill the enemy. Since the Northern Wei Dynasty, Buddhism has been introduced to China. However, since director Tony Bancroft is a Christian, he refused to include Buddhist elements in the film . This is also a major regret of the film.
Although the Chinese have always been "descendants of the dragon", the image of "dragon" does not appear in "Mulan Ci". Walt Disney's nephew, Roy Edward Disney, suggested adding "Mushu Dragon," an animal character voiced by Eddie Murphy. In fact, Disney was not comfortable with the appearance of "dragon" in the film, an image that the East thinks is super normal and that the West thinks is a threat, and it is too scary.
So the image presented in the final film is an ultra-small miniature dragon, and the film also uses Eddie's mouth to show this compromise, "I'm just the size of a travel suit, if I were the real size, you guys would have been scared long ago. dead! "
This film is Eddie's first film and the only one other than the "Shrek" series that dubs the animation. Coincidentally, Eddie voiced the donkey in Shrek, and the donkey fell in love with a dragon.
The filmmakers originally wanted Lea Salonga, who dubbed the voice of "Princess Jasmine" in "Aladdin" (Linda Larkin, who voiced Jasmine's voice), to also be the voice of Mulan in "Mulan" Dub. However, because Mulan's "male body" voice needs to be lowered, the directors felt that Wen Mingna was more suitable, and Liya was the same as in the "Aladdin" period, with a song sung by Mulan .
One more thing, Lea from the Philippines is a multi-time Tony Award and Lawrence Oliver Award (drama and musical award) winner. She has played "Miss Saigon", "Les Miserables", "Cinderella" in West End and Broadway. ", "My Fair Lady", "Cat" and many other famous musicals, the heroine is an out-and-out Asian queen.
Liya said in an interview in 2015 that she felt that she could not dub Mulan's speaking voice, but only her singing voice, which was very "My Fair Lady".
Because in this 1964 film starring Audrey Hepburn, Marnie Nixon only dubbed the voice of Hepburn's singing voice, and she was the voice actor of the role of Grandma Mulan in "Mulan", maybe Everything is divine will.
The next Disney character to speak and sing differently is "Chief Tui" in "Pocahontas" 18 years later. The speaking voice actor is Temuera Morrison, while the singing voice actor is It's Chris Jackson.
BREAKING THE DISNEY PRINCESS RULES
First Asian-American Princess
When the producers heard Wen Mingna's narration at the beginning of the movie "The Joy Luck Club", they felt that Mulan was her! When selecting the dubbing candidate for "Mushu Dragon", Disney was looking for a big name similar to the voice actor Robin Williams of "Elf in a Bottle" in "Aladdin", so they Find Eddie Murphy, a black actor who starred in the "Beverly Hills Detectives" series. This is why, although the image of Xiaolong in the film is Chinese, he has a black accent in his mouth, which is very hip-hop.
At first, the white actor Harvey Festern was actually very reluctant to dub "Mulan" because he felt that the film should give more opportunities to Asian actors . He didn't decide to dub "Yao" until he got confirmation from Disney that many Asian-American actors would play the main roles in the film.
This eldest brother is most famous for playing the cross-dressing version of Edna Turnblad in the Broadway version of "Hairspray", and he also took this characteristic of himself. In the third act of "Mulan", everyone disguised as a woman to enter. In the scene of the palace, it was vividly displayed.
Although it is widely believed in academic circles that the story of Hua Mulan took place in the Northern Wei Dynasty (around 412-502), in order to allow Western audiences to have a better understanding of the film , the creators still drew more inspiration from Chinese settings in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. set . In order to create the grand scene of the 2,000 Huns attacking in the film, the production team developed a software called "Attila" (King of Huns), which allows thousands of different characters to move autonomously.
And this software variant "Dynasty" was used to create the 30,000 soldiers who appeared in the Forbidden City in the final decisive battle. Some scenes of the Forbidden City are actually from the scenes that appeared in the music of "A Whole New World" in "Aladdin", but with some modifications.
The most well-known song in "Mulan" is "Reflection" by Christina Aguilera . This song also officially started her brilliant singing career in the future. The Mandarin version of the film, "Myself".
The soundtrack of the film invited master Jerry Goldsmith, and was nominated for the Oscar for "Best Original Score in a Musical Comedy", but lost to "Shakespeare in Love" in the same year, and won the "Best Original Score" at the Golden Globe Awards. Song" and "Best Original Score". Jerry Goldsmith, who created the soundtracks of many classic films for the "L.A. Confidential", "Total Recall", "The Mummy" and "Star Trek" series, also wrote many popular songs for "Mulan".
Because the two consecutive films of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in 1996 and "Hercules" in 1997 failed to meet Disney's expectations at the box office, the filmmakers set a limit of $30 million for "Mulan" to be announced and released.
Unlike "Pocahontas" that premiered in New York's Central Park, and "Hercules" that held its flamboyant light show on Fifth Avenue in New York, Disney chose to simply set the premiere of "Mulan" at Los Angeles.
In addition to Chinese lanterns, there are fortune cookies (fortune cookies, a kind of food that Americans like very much, they think it is from China). In order to promote "Mulan", McDonald's also specially launched the Sichuan sauce with chicken McNuggets. The amazing thing is that this sauce even appeared in an episode of "Rick and Morty" last year, and McDonald's really because This episode, which briefly revived the sauce, was magical and joyous.
Although Disney previously told stories of non-white princesses in 1992's "Aladdin" and 1995's "Pocahontas" - the former is an Arab princess, the latter is an Indian princess, but in "Mulan" The introduction of Asian princesses is indeed the first time in Disney's history .
It's not that Mulan really changed the rules of Disney. The most unique thing about her is that she is not a true "princess" in the traditional sense. Her father is neither a king, nor does she marry a prince to become a princess . In "Snow White", Snow White's father is the king, in "Cinderella", the prince who found the crystal slipper married her, and in "Sleeping Beauty", Aurora's parents are also king and queen.
Before Mulan, the rules for becoming a Disney princess were very simple, either you had to come from the royal family or you had to marry into the royal family.
However, what makes Mulan different is that she does not meet these two items, but she has a brave heart. Unlike the princess who always needs to be rescued by the prince, Mulan is the one who carried the audience and saved the general, the emperor and all the Chinese people.
Like Jasmine, she is the only two Disney "princesses" who wear pants . In this "Frozen" era, when Elsa and Anna were regarded as pioneers by feminists, Mulan has long been famous for her feat of saving the empire on her own . The film was almost rated PG for its first use of the term "cross-dress".
Mulan is also the one with the most murders among Disney characters . In the scene of the Xiongnu invasion, 2000 Xiongnu soldiers and 2000 horses, only 6 Xiongnu survived the avalanche, and 1 horse did not survive, and these are all thanks to Mulan.
She is also the second Disney princess to have both parents and not a tragic character. For that matter, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty (1959), Princess Lepai in Tangled (2010), and Merida in Brave (2012). .
Their "Mulan"
Our "Mulan Ci"
There are many differences between "Mulan" and "Mulan Ci" , after all, the film is only an adaptation based on this long poem. For example, before the expedition "Grandpa has no eldest son, Mulan has no eldest brother", and after the expedition to greet Mulan, "Little brother Wenjie comes, sharpens knives to pigs and sheep", in fact, it is very clear that, It's not that there are no other men in the Mulan family, but maybe because the younger brother is still young and not yet in the military grade, he can only join the army as a daughter instead of his father.
When Mulan came back, "A sister hears that my sister is coming, and the household manages the red makeup" and even told readers that our female warrior also has an older sister, but she was the one who joined the army instead of her elder sister, which further showed Mulan's heroism and determination.
Mulan in the film is an only child, and does not see any siblings. Chinese audiences are naturally well aware of how uncommon this was in ancient China. The creators paid homage to this by giving the heroine a puppy named Little Brother.
And when the emperor finally found out that Mulan was a daughter, but still saved the situation in China, he asked Mulan, "Do you want to be my prime minister?" He is actually echoing the point in "Mulan Ci", "Mulan doesn't need to be a minister, I would like to travel thousands of miles and send children back to my hometown". Mulan, who does not seek fame and wealth, only wants to return to her hometown and see own relatives.
The most different thing from the film is that in "The Ci of Mulan", Mulan's comrades in arms "have been together for 12 years, not knowing that Mulan is a girl". When everyone finally found out that "An Neng can tell whether I am male or female" Mulan turned out to be a girl, they only reacted privately to "all the companions are panicking". a series of dramas.
I personally think that the most exciting episode in "The Ci of Mulan" is that after declining the reward from the Khan, Mulan, who is not humiliated, returns home. After preparing the job description for a family full of life like "Sharpening the Knife Huo Huo to the Pig and Sheep", Mulan seems to be In the past twelve years, he has never left the general, silently "being the window to manage the clouds, and the mirror to the mirror". "Take off my war robes and wear my old clothes", if she didn't describe it specially, she would have thought that she was a girl who was to be married in some boudoir. There were only a few words, and there were countless dark tides.
As for the plot in the film, where Mulan was "exploded" after being injured and was almost sentenced, it belongs to the art of Hollywood .
Interestingly, in order to write this article, the author specially watched the English version of the film, because when the Chinese version was released, I was still a baby with no memory... And what is amazing is that the Chinese translation of the subtitle group is often different from the The main meaning of the English original sound is similar, but the artistic conception is quite different. I feel that the Chinese version and the English version are two different movies .
"Mulan Ci" original text:
Haw chirp again chirp, Mulan is a household weaving. Don't hear the sound of the machine, only hear the female sigh.
Ask the woman what she thinks, ask her what she remembers. Women do not think, women do not remember. I saw a military post last night, and the Khan ordered a lot of troops. There are twelve volumes of the military book, and the volume has the name of the master. Grandpa has no eldest son, and Mulan has no elder brother.
The east market buys horses, the west market buys saddles, the south market buys bridles, and the north market buys whips. Once he bids farewell to his father and mother, he will stay by the Yellow River in the evening. He does not hear the voice of his father and mother calling for women, but he hears the sound of the Yellow River splashing and splashing. Once he left the Yellow River, he reached the top of the Black Mountain in the evening. He didn’t hear the voice of the mother and father calling for the girl, but he heard the chirps of the Hu Qi in the Yanshan Mountains.
Thousands of miles go to the military plane, and Guanshan is as flying as it is. Shuoqi spreads the golden watchtower, and the cold light shines on the iron clothes. Generals die in a hundred battles, and strong men return in ten years.
Return to see the emperor, the emperor sits in the Mingtang. Zhixun twelve turn, reward hundred thousand strong. The Khan asked what he wanted, and Mulan didn't need a minister, and was willing to travel thousands of miles and send her son back to her hometown.
When the father and mother heard that the daughter was coming, they went out to help the generals; when the elder sister heard that the younger sister was coming, she would take care of the red makeup; Open my east pavilion door, sit on my west pavilion bed, take off my wartime robes, and wear my old time clothes. When the window manages the clouds on the temples, the mirror is painted yellow. When I went out to see my companions, my companions were all excited: I have been together for 12 years, but I didn't know Mulan was a girl.
The male rabbit's feet are fluttering, the female rabbit's eyes are blurred; when the two rabbits walk next to the ground, can Anneng tell if I am male or female?
The live-action version of "Mulan" is coming
The general will not die in a hundred battles, and Mulan will return after twenty years
In 2004, a group of new and old Asian actors, such as Wen Mingna, Huang Rongliang, Liu Yuling and Wu Shanzhuo, became the voice actors for the sequel "Mulan 2", and Morita Noriyuki and Takei George returned to their respective roles. Lauren Tom (Ross' Chinese girlfriend) and figure skater Kwan Ying Shan, who had guest appearances in "Friends", are the new cast members of the film.
Unfortunately, Eddie Murphy was unable to return due to his participation in "Shrek 2", and the voice actor of "Mushu Dragon" was replaced by Mark Moseley. This work did not go to theaters, but was released directly to videotape/DVD. In fact, during the period of Disney's hand-drawn style animated films, including "The Lion King", "Tarzan" and "Interstellar", there were similar operations, produced by Disney Cartoon Studio.
Disney had considered a third entry in the series, but the plans were put on hold when John Lasseter became chief content officer at Disney and Pixar.
Some other film and television works adapted from "Mulan Ci":
"Mulan Joins the Army" (1928)
"Mulan Joins the Army" (1939)
"Mulan" (1964)
The Secret of Mulan (1998)
"Mulan" (1998)
TV series "Mulan" (1998)
TV series "Mulan" (1999)
"Mulan 2" (2004)
"Mulan" (2009)
TV series "Women General" (2013)
TV series "The Legend of Mulan" (2013)
"Mulan" (2020)
In recent years, the success of "Beauty and the Beast" and "Cinderella" live-action films has stimulated Disney's intention to turn the film into a live-action version. In 2000, Disney wanted to adapt the animated version into a live-action version. The director selected at that time was Chuck Russell ("The Scorpion King", "Greek in Disguise"), and the heroine "Mulan" was Zhang Ziyi ( !!), but it was eventually cancelled.
A good sword is not afraid of grinding, and a good work is not afraid of waiting. In early 2017, Nikki Caro ("Northern Wind", "The Zookeeper's Wife") was chosen to direct the latest live-action version. After a long casting process of thousands of people from 5 continents, at the end of November 2017, "Sister Fairy" Liu Yifei was selected as the final "Mulan" candidate. Due to the conflict between the original schedule of the live-action version of "Mulan" and "The Nutcracker and the Four Kingdoms", the final film was changed to March 27, 2020.
Donnie Yen will play Commander Tang, Mulan's mentor, Jet Li will play the emperor of China, Gong Li will play the villain witch (we may be more used to calling it "witch"), and Chinese-Vietnamese Tang Shanna will play Mulan's sister (this time there is a sister). !).
Indian-American actor Utkash Ampangdekar ("Pitch Perfect," "Mindy Trouble") plays the con man Skatch, and Yuan Long ("Marco Polo," "Independence Day 2") plays the royal legionnaire Deputy Qiang, and New Zealand Chinese actor An Yousen plays Mulan's "boyfriend" Chen Honghui ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Qingming", "The Megalodon").
Reading it now, "I don't hear the voice of the mother and father calling the girl" in "Mulan Ci" still makes people moved by Mulan's homesickness; The cruelty of the show is impeccable.
More than 1,500 years later, Hua Mulan, who is brave, confident, and not afraid to break the tradition, will always be a heroine in the hearts of generations of Chinese people . On the 20th anniversary of the release of the animated version of "Mulan", let us also look forward to this female warrior who does not care about the powerful forces and never backs down in the face of difficult and difficult conditions. What a surprise we bring.
Note: Part of this article comes from Wikipedia and IMDb.
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