Mulan

Mulan is Disney's 36th animated feature film, released in 1998. it was based on the ancient Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, in which a soldier's daughter dresses as a man to take her father's place in the Chinese army. The movie stays true to the general structure of the legend, and follows Mulan as she trains in the Chinese army to fight off a Hun invasion. Critics reviewed the film very well, praising its stylistic, artistic, and narrative techniques.

Fast Facts

1. Release date: June 19, 1998
2. Directed by: Tony Bancroft, barry Cook
3. Produced by: Pam Coats
4. Written by: Robert D. San Souci, Rita Hsiao
5. Starring: Ming-Na Wen, Eddie Murphy, Miguel Ferrer, Harvey Fierstein, BD Wong
6. Music by: Jerry Goldsmith
7. Distributed by: Walt Disney Pictures
8. Running time: 90 min.
9. Budget: $100 million
10. Total earnings: $504.3 million
11. The first full-length film primarily created at Disney's Florida-based studio
12. Followed by straight-to-video sequel, Mulan II
13. The film was strongly criticized by feminists for its gender themes

Inspired Artistic Style

The animators of the movie were praised for using an art style that emulated traditional Chinese watercolor paintings. Scene backgrounds noticeably favored soft shading and blurred details, in contrast to the typically bright and sharply detailed backgrounds in other contemporary Disney animated films.

Technical Innovations

In order to produce Mulan, several animation tools were created:

1. Atilla is a crowd simulation program created to animate 2000 Hun soldiers in an attack sequence.
2. Dynasty is a variant of Atilla that simulated a crowd in a slightly different way, and was used in the final battle sequence in the Forbidden City.
3. Faux Plane is a program that enhances the depth of two-dimensional art, and was used in multiple scenes to bolster the background scenes, including a scenes in the Forbidden City and in front of the Great Wall

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