History WesternAnimation / Mulan

As Mulan is the only lineage of the Fa family, her ancestors order the disgraced guardian Mushu (Creator/EddieMurphy), [[OurDragonsAreDifferent who is small and has a penchant for comedy]], to send the Great Stone Dragon to fetch Mulan home safely, but Mushu accidentally breaks the Stone Dragon's statue. He then [[NonHumanSidekick goes in his place]], but rather than fetching Mulan, hopes to make her a war hero and bring himself to glory.

[[caption-width-right:350:''Somehow I'll make a man out of you!'']]

''Mulan'' is an animated film released in 1998, as the 36th film on the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon. It was inspired by the [[ImperialChina Ancient Chinese]] [[FolkHero folk legend]] of [[Literature/TheBalladOfMulan Hua Mulan]] (花木蘭).[[note]]Disney chose to romanize the heroine's name as Fa Mulan, in effect giving her family name the typical Cantonese pronunciation, but her personal name the normal Mandarin one.[[/note]] The film deals with Huns invading ImperialChina, led by the vicious warlord Shan Yu, resulting in every Chinese family receiving a conscription order requiring one male from their household to serve in the army. The title character, Fa Mulan (Creator/MingNaWen), has no brothers, resulting in her veteran father being forced to accept the conscription. Fearing that her father's old age and crippling injuries will result in his almost certain death against the Huns, she steals his sword and armor, cuts her hair, and goes in his place, [[SweetPollyOliver disguised as a man]].

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[[folder:S-T]]
* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:General Li is set up as a big and important character: general of the hero's army, father to Mulan's captain... and then he dies off-screen to prove just how serious things have become.]]
* {{Sarashi}}: Technically bandages, since Mulan was injured earlier. {{Inverted|Trope}} in that the scene where they are revealed is also the scene where Mulan is [[JustForPun busted]].
* SavedByTheAwesome
-->'''The Emperor:''' I've heard a great deal about you, Fa Mulan. You stole your father's armor, ran away from home, impersonated a soldier, deceived your commanding officer, dishonored the Chinese Army, ''destroyed my palace'', '''and'''... you have saved us all.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: The Huns find out that a village is being guarded by means of a doll sprinkled with GPSEvidence.
* SceneOfWonder: Immediately following the number "A Girl Worth Fighting For," all the soldiers fall silent as they arrive at the decimated village. They even stop before singing the last note of the song to stare in shock and horror. This is taken even further when they come across the fallen troops that came before them.
* SceneryCensor:
** When Ling does a backstroke to Mulan during the bathing scene, a conveniently placed water lily accompanies him.
** When Mulan sneaks away from the guys during the bath scene, she whistles for her horse who blocks the view of her [[SexySurfacingShot surfacing from the lake]].
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: [[spoiler:Shang lets Mulan live, despite the rules of executing her for passing as a man to get into the army]], as part of his IOweYouMyLife debt to her earlier. Later, he comes very close to manhandling Chi-Fu for insulting her after she saves the Emperor and defeats Shan-Yu. When the Emperor approaches, Shang steps forward, saying I Can Explain and preparing to take any punishment. He's visibly relieved that instead of ordering Mulan executed, the Emperor rewards her with his respect and pendant. 
* SeriousBusiness: Honor is a huge deal in ancient China.
* SettingOffSong: "A Girl Worth Fighting For" is sung while Shang's company head out to meet up with the Imperial Army.
* SexySilhouette: Mulan is seen as a silhouette behind a dressing screen when she's being undressed by the cosmetologist before being shoved into a tub.
* ShadowDiscretionShot: Inverted intentionally as Mushu is trying to be intimidating, but [[BigShadowLittleCreature he's not]].
* ShieldSurf: Mushu sleds during an avalanche with a shield he picked up somewhere.
* ShipperOnDeck:
** The emperor of China subtly does this.
--->'''The Emperor:''' ''[Clears throat]'' The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.\\
'''Li Shang:''' Sir?\\
'''The Emperor:''' ''[Leans in]'' You don't meet a girl like that every dynasty.
** Likewise, Mulan's grandmother ships her granddaughter and Shang the minute she finds out about him. She does not possess the emperor's subtlety.
--->'''Fa Mulan:''' ''[to Shang]'' Would you like to stay for dinner?\\
'''Grandmother Fa:''' Would you like to stay forever?
* ShirtlessScene: Shang takes off his shirt for the first training session. [[EatingTheEyeCandy It gets Mulan's attention]], whereas Yao snarks at him.
* ShoulderSizedDragon: Mushu is a rare [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Eastern dragon]] example. He insists that he is "travel-sized for your convenience!"
* ShouldersUpNudity:
** During the "You'll Bring Honor To Us All" sequence, Mulan is put into a [[BathtubScene tub]] to be washed and only has her bare shoulders above the water, that are shaking due to the water being cold. Her [[GodivaHair wet hair also happens to fall down to her chest]].
** During the bathing scene, Mulan is shown undressing behind the foliage that [[SceneryCensor conveniently only goes up to her shoulders]]. When she's in the water, she keeps her shoulders above the water while the guys often have it up to their waist. When dozens of naked soldier run past Mulan, they're also only seen from the waist up.
* ShoutOut:
** The families Chi-Fu calls to claim their conscription notices are the names of Disney employees who worked on the movie -- the Hsiao family, after screenwriter Rita Hsiao; the Wen family, after Mulan's voice actor, Ming-Na Wen; the Lok family, after conceptual and background artist Sai Ping Lok; and the Chang and Yi families, after character designer Chen-Yi Chang. Mulan's alter-ego is also named after Sai Ping Lok.
** When Mushu goes to [[spoiler:secure the fireworks]] for the final plan:
--->'''Servant:''' Who are you?\\
''[Mushu spreads decorative wings from a balloon hidden behind his back that [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries make him look like a bat]]]''\\
'''Mushu:''' ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries [In a low, growly voice] ]]'' [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Your worst nightmare.]]
** The doll the Huns use to find the village, and again when Shang's company find the razed remains of said village, is the same as a doll found in similar circumstances in ''Manga/{{Nausicaa|OfTheValleyOfTheWind}}''.
** This line when Mushu is waking up Mulan:
--->'''Mushu:''' [[Film/FullMetalJacket Now, let's see your war face.]]
** Two of the ancestors look remarkably like the AmericanGothicCouple.
* ShowDontTell:
** When Mulan figures out the arrow test, she doesn't say a word. Instead, she studies the weights before looping them together to make a climbing brace. Cue her climbing all night, and the soldiers cheering her on at dawn.
** During the village scene, everyone is mostly quiet, with tiny bits of dialogue. Mulan is completely silent when she finds the little girl's doll and hugs it to her chest. Likewise, Shang creates a shrine to his father without saying a word.
* ShownTheirWork:
** Shan-Yu doesn't even question that "the soldier from the mountains" would be a woman when Mulan reveals herself to him. In Hun society, women were equal with men in many ways, including eligibility to join the army and hunting. It didn't matter that she was a woman; to him, she was just another soldier.
** The scene where the main characters disguise themselves as concubines is treated with nonchalance by the Huns, the only comment made is how ugly they are. The ancient Chinese emperors frequently had concubines at the palace in addition to their married wife, and it was not uncommon for concubines to sire heirs to the throne.
** The move Mulan uses to disarm Shan Yu with her fan is an actual kung fu move.
** Fa Zhou is seen practicing a form of tai chi called Mulan Quan - which is named after the original Mulan legend.
** Crickets are indeed considered a symbol of good luck in China.
** Magnolias serve as a running motif in the movie. Mulan's name translates as "magnolia".
* ShrineToTheFallen:
** Mushu comes from the Fa family shrine to aid Mulan in her quest. One of her ancestors lost his head somehow.
** Shang's sword, his father's helmet, and the little girl's doll are left at the village by the Tung Shao Pass.
* SillyAnimalSound: After losing all his feathers, Hayabusa clucks like a chicken.
* SkewedPriorities: Inverted when Mulan returns home; as an ApologyGift to her father for running away and taking his place in the army, she presents him Shan Yu's sword and the Emperor's Crest, showing she restored honor to the Fa family. Fa Zhou tosses them away and embraces her tightly; he says he cares more about ''her'', his only beloved daughter than about honor.
* SkinnyDipping: Mulan's bath in the middle of the night turns into this when other soldiers drop by. She is both [[NakedFreakOut embarrassed]] and afraid of blowing her cover.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: Had the soldier in the beginning not [[DefiantToTheEnd stood up to Shan Yu]] and lit the warning beacon, [[spoiler:the Huns' entry to China wouldn't have been noticed, Mulan and company wouldn't be around to defend the country, and the Emperor would've likely been killed]].
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Mulan, herself, is the only woman in the Chinese army. Her mother and grandmother feature prominently at the start but don't make more appearances until the end, whens she goes home. After all, [[JustifiedTrope there aren't supposed to be any women in the Chinese army.]]
* SnowMeansDeath: There's snow on the ground of the massacred village. It also starts snowing after Shang creates a memorial for his father.
* SoMuchForStealth: When Mushu sets off a rocket, the noise and smoke from the explosion alerts the Huns that they're being followed.
-->'''Shang:''' You just gave away our position!
* SoProudOfYou:
** The Emperor tells Shang this when he brings the sword of Shan Yu. [[spoiler:He later announces that Mulan has saved all of China.]]
** Shang gives Mulan a rewarding smile when she concocts a scheme using the first lesson he taught his men: how to climb a pole with just a sash. He uses his cape to join her, Chien Po, Yao, and Ling.
** The final one comes from Mulan's father: "The greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter".
* SpareAMessenger: After they are done with their latest massacre, the Huns capture two Chinese scouts. [[BigBad Shan-Yu]] decides to let them go to carry a challenge back to the emperor. Then he changes his mind on letting them both leave...
-->'''Shan-Yu''': How many men does it take to deliver a message? \\
'''Hun archer''': ''[Draws back his bow and aims]'' [[PreMortemOneLiner One.]]
* TheSpartanWay: "Let's get down to business..." Said business involves dodging flaming arrows and breaking bricks with one's face.
* SpitShine: Mushu tries shining up Mulan's helmet to cheer her out of her HeroicBSOD. It doesn't work.
* SquirrelsInMyPants: Happens during the musical number "I'll Make a Man out of You", when Ling slips a beetle down Mulan's outfit, making her dance around smacking everyone with her staff.
* StealthInsult: When Grandmother Fa gives Mulan a lot of trinkets to give Mulan good luck at the matchmakers, she ends listing them all with "... and even you can't blow it!"
* StrangeMindsThinkAlike:
** Both Fa Zhou and the emperor compare Mulan to "the rarest and most beautiful flower of all." (Mulan translates to wood-flower or magnolia)
** On a more comedic note: Mushu tells Mulan to punch someone because it's the man's version of saying hello. After she reluctantly punches Yao, Chien-Po says, "Look, Yao, you've made a friend!"
* StrollingThroughTheChaos: To show that Cri-Kee is a lucky cricket, Mulan's grandmother crosses a street while covering her eyes. Even Cri-Kee is scared by the ensuing chaos, but she's unharmed and describes it as proof of Cri-Kee's luck.
* SuddenlyObviousFakery: Mulan is drawn with several slight differences when disguised as a man, to aid the plausibility of her appearance (for example, she has eyelashes only when she's not in disguise). The shot in which her imposture is exposed as she sits up in bed has her drawn with the variations for her feminine appearance, even though all that has changed since the last scene is that her secret is known.
* SupernaturalAid: Mulan's ancestors send her a guardian spirit to help her and he does, albeit not in quite the way they intended.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** The Fa ancestors [[LampShading predict]] that although Mulan's actions were of good intentions, consequences are nonetheless riding on those actions: should she be discovered and/or killed, it could bring shame to her household, her family lineage will be cut off, and they could lose their land.
** Mulan in the original myth was an InstantExpert who mastered her training. There is none of that here: Mulan's physical activities include horseback riding and farm labor, not combat. At least the other men arrived at the training grounds earlier and have the stamina if not skill. Shang accurately pinpoints "Ping" as the worst student because he can't follow orders, cheats at complicated tasks, and fails at the rest. In fact, this leads to Shang kicking Ping out because the soldier would be TheMillstone in battle, especially when Mulan collapses while holding weights during a mountain trek. Mulan has to prove that she can stay and genuinely works to earn her place -- first by retrieving the arrows and then by mastering all the tasks that she previously failed.
** Although Shang did realize how noble Mulan was for battling alongside the army to defeat the Huns and protect her crippled father, he ends up not trusting Mulan after it is revealed that she was really [[SweetPollyOliver a woman disguised as a man]]. While Mulan did have good intentions, this doesn’t change the fact that she not only deceived Shang and the army about her true gender and identity since the day they met, but Mulan also brought dishonor to the Chinese Army and violated the law. Lying and deceiving people ([[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight even if you had a very good reason to]]) will cause people to deem you as untrustworthy.
* SweetPollyOliver: Mulan disguises herself as "Ping" to take her father's place in the muster.
* TakeMyHand: Silent version; when Mulan is pulling Shang away from the avalanche, Khan surges forward to rescue them. Mulan jumps on her horse and tries to pull up Shang. Unfortunately, the avalanche buries them both alive in the snow, and Mulan has to grab Shang's unconscious form when she sees him drifting towards the cliff.
* TakingYouWithMe: Li Shang intends to use the last of his cannons on Shan Yu. Mulan has a better idea: causing an avalanche that will almost certainly kill her and everyone else in Li Shang's troop, but also the Hun army.
* TemptingFate:
** When preparing Mulan to see the matchmaker, her grandmother sings:
--->'''Grandmother Fa''': Beads of jade for beauty / You must proudly show it / Now add a cricket just for luck / And even you can't blow it!
** Later, after narrowly escaping the lake with her disguise intact:
--->'''Fa Mulan''': I never want to see a naked man again.\\
''[A group of naked men run past]''
* TestosteronePoisoning: Mulan's portrayal of Ping is a hilariously bad attempt to be a stereotypical manly-man.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: In the mountain scene, Shan-Yu basically leads his entire army of thousands on horseback in a charge against a platoon of ''maybe'' two dozen people ''that he came across only by coincidence''.
* ThirdActMisunderstanding: [[spoiler:When Mulan's true gender is revealed, Shang, who carries a grudge over being deceived, isn't willing to trust her word when they ''really'' should, and her new friends have to reluctantly follow orders. However, even he is shown looking warily to either side as he approaches the palace -- as soon as the crisis breaks out, the other soldiers are quick to follow Mulan's lead, and Shang is only a little behind them.]]
* ThroughAFaceFullOfFur: Yao gets red-faced with ire after a disguised Mulan shoves him from behind as a way of greeting her fellow soldiers, but his face turns back to its normal color after Chien-Po picks him up and gets him to soothe himself by saying a chant or mantra.
* ThroughHisStomach: The song "A Girl Worth Fighting For" references this. Ling's ideal girl has pale skin and bright, shining eyes; Yao's will be wooed by his great strength; Chien-Po only cares if she's a good cook.
* ThrowawayCountry: The village that was razed to the ground to demonstrate Hun viciousness.
* TookALevelInBadass: This is the point of the "I'll Make a Man Out of You" sequence; turn rowdy recruits into polished soldiers.
** Mulan goes from Shang knocking her down in one punch to effectively dodging his blows and returning them.
** Yao effortlessly navigates the arrow training field, when before he was getting shot easily.
** Ling breaks blocks with his face rather than having them knock out his teeth.
** And Chien Po.... does cartwheels on top of poles lodged in water rather than walking carefully and holding up the line.
* TrainingFromHell: The training montage involves running through a field ''while being shot at by ArrowsOnFire''.
* TrainingMontage: "I'll Make a Man Out of You". Justified; this is boot camp.
* TrampledUnderfoot: Mulan's horse Khan does this to Mushu either because he appears to be a snake, or possibly because Mushu kept calling the horse a cow.
%%* TranslationConvention
* TrueBlueFemininity: When [[spoiler:Mulan properly changes back into women's clothes to sneak inside the palace]], the dress is blue. [[spoiler:Ling, Yao, and Chien-Po disguise themselves as concubines]], also with blue dresses.
* TrueCompanions: Mulan and the other named soldiers become close friends. Even after she's unmasked, they take her seriously, and follow her lead into the final battle.
* TruthTellingSession: Mulan, Mushu, and Cri-kee have a very cathartic one after they hit RockBottom. Mulan says that she wanted to prove that she could do something right after failing with the matchmaker, not just to save her father. Mushu says that her ancestors neither sent him nor like him. Cri-kee, while crying, confesses that he's not really lucky. It ends with a hug.
* TwelfthNightAdventure: Notice that the character is drawn differently when she pretends to be a man. Look at the movie poster where half of her face is reflected in a sword. Notice her nose and jaw. ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'' pointed this out at the time of the movie's release, and the DVDCommentary flat-out admitted it. WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick [[http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thedudette/nostalgia-chick/12823-mulan noticed]] that her eyelashes disappear whenever she's disguised. Looking closely, you can see that they even momentarily vanish when she draws her hair back up to reveal her identity to Shan Yu.
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[[folder:U-Z]]
* UncleTomfoolery: Mushu. Roger Ebert [[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980619/REVIEWS/806190302/1023 said]] it best: "A black dude in medieval China?" This is more a function of Creator/EddieMurphy's standard roles than anything else.
* UndressingTheUnconscious: This is how Mulan's gender is revealed to the army. Shortly after burying the Hun army with a snow avalanche, Mulan (as Ping) rescues Shang from a plummeting doom. This effort, plus a wound received in combat, causes her to lose consciousness. Mulan awakens in a camp tent mostly undressed, with {{Sarashi}}-like bandaging around the torso, done by the Chinese army medic. The first face she sees is that of captain Shang, who has learned from the medic that she is a girl posing as a male conscript. Mulan's reflex to pull a ModestyBedsheet to cover herself confirms her deception.
* UndyingLoyalty:
** Most of Shang's troops develop this for him, following his orders without question and respecting him. When Mulan sets off the avalanche, she takes the time to pull an unconscious Shang onto Khan before trying to rescue herself.
** Khan sees the avalanche about to bury his rider. He wrestles free from Chien-Po and surges ''towards'' the avalanche to save Mulan. Then he follows her directive to head towards Shang so that she can pick him up. That is one loyal horse. 
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Mushu's blowing of the rocket and blaming it on Cri-Kee seems like a random gag... Except it gives away the position of the remains of the Chinese army. A CurbStompBattle ensues (though it doesn't end as one might expect).
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee:
** Perhaps [[spoiler:General Li and his troops would have survived]] if he hadn't told Shang he was heading to the Tung Shao Pass to stop Shan Yu.
** Mulan and the Guy Trio don't say anything onscreen about how to get into the palace, save the emperor, and defeat Shan Yu. They just enact the plan as if they had. Slightly [[JustifiedTrope justified,]] given that Mulan specifically says she's [[IndyPloy making it up on the fly.]]
* VanillaEdition: A Limited Issue DVD of the film came out only a few months after the premiere Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection VHS tape, but this disc contained barely any bonus content. Mitigated in 2004, when Disney re-released ''Mulan'' as a 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, as a tie-in with ''Mulan II''.
* VileVillainSaccharineShow: It's as comedic as any Disney movie can get, but it still can make [[BigBad Shan Yu]], a mass-murdering warlord, a big terrifying threat.
* VillainousValor: Credit to Shan Yu, when Mulan disarms him on the roof and reveals she led him there on purpose, he tries attacking her anyway. He went out fighting, for what it's worth.
* VillainSong: Averted; Shan Yu is one of the more well-known Disney Villains to never have gotten one. One of the things the animators were going for with Shan Yu was to make him a man of few words and let his actions carry the character. Giving him a song would have derailed that.
* WakingUpElsewhere: Following Mulan being slashed just before the avalanche, she passes out and awakens in the infirmary tent, though it is unknown how much time has passed.
* WarIsGlorious: ''Be a Man...'' by going to war, killing the invaders, and protecting your country. That's the idea, anyway; the reality of it is closer to WarIsHell.
* WarIsHell: The village scene emphasizes that WarIsHell and there is no glory in finding the dead, especially when they are innocents and your loved ones. It's nearly silent apart from sound effects and scant dialogue, with visual expressions conveying characters' emotions. "A Girl Worth Fighting For" talked about the men looking forward to meeting ladies after they fought...only for Mulan to find a [[EmpathyDollShot little girl's doll]], and leaving it by Shang's sword and General Li's helmet, with her silently vowing to fight for her. All Shang can do is order his small retinue to go after the Huns, knowing they may also be slaughtered. Unsurprisingly, everyone is sober, including Mushu with a JerkassRealization on learning his ForgedLetter was accidentally correct. There are no more musical sequences after this moment.
* WeakButSkilled: Mulan can't overpower anyone, but she's fairly effective because she knows just where and when to hit.
* WeaponTombstone: [[spoiler:When General Li -- who also happens to be Shang's father -- dies, Shang buries him. In the absence of anything else that hasn't been burned or destroyed, he marks the grave with his father's helmet, placed on his ''own'' sword.]]
* WellDoneDaughterGirl: Both as a bride-to-be and as a soldier, Mulan seeks to make her father proud. This is her driving motivation thoughout the movie. Although, it should be noted that Fa Zhou already clearly loves his daughter, and Mulan is instead trying to avoid dishonoring him.
* WhamLine: During the exploration of the burned-out village, Chien Po comes to Shang with a helmet and a solemn expression. He only says, "The General" and everyone knows what happened.
* WhamShot:
** The destroyed village, hands down. Manages to outdo itself just ''moments later'' when Shang discovers his father's army, '''completely wiped out'''.
** Moments after the recruits pull "Ping" and Shang up to the safe ground, Mulan keels. She then places a hand to her stomach. Blood seeps out. Shang and the others go OhCrap as they realize "Ping" has been badly wounded. This later leads to Mulan being outed.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** Mushu accompanies Mulan rather than facing the ancestor spirits when he destroys the statue holding the spirit that was ''supposed'' to follow her. When they return as heroes, no mention is ever made of the destruction of the other (apparently much more competent and powerful) guardian spirit.
** What happened to the other remaining Huns following their leader's demise?
** What happened to Hayabusa?
* WhatTheHellHero: What makes Mulan unusual from other Disney heroines is that she is very imperfect, and other characters note that she messes up a lot:
** Her mother calls her out for arriving late on matchmaking day, the ''one'' day she needs to be on time. Fa Li starts by giving Mulan a DeathGlare, telling her the bathwater would have been warm if she arrived on time and rushing her to the cosmetologists who quickly clean her up.
** The matchmaker tells her off for setting her on fire. No one contradicts the matchmaker because that was Mulan's fault.
** Fa Zhou angrily tells Mulan she's dishonoring him by contradicting the emperor's representative. She's immediately cowed.
** Shang gets a slew of these; he yells at "Ping" for starting a brawl and causing a mess, even if Mulan was only following Mushu's advice. He also glares at Ping for cheating at shooting fruits with arrows -- Mushu's doing but Mulan is responsible -- and eventually kicks "him" out at the army for being incompetent. It is subverted when he finds out Ping is a woman and he's angry that she lied to him; she points out that he said he would trust Ping, and eventually he follows her lead to save the emperor.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: At the end of "I'll Make A Man Out of You," Shang kicks Mulan out of the army for incompetence. She could go home, having accomplished the mission of saving her father. Instead, due to pride and wanting to "do things right," she decides to climb for the arrow and prove that she deserves to stay. Shang is clearly impressed, especially afterwards, when she excels in the other activities she previously failed.
* WhoAreYou: Mushu heads over to the fireworks area during the final battle, and is asked by the guards there, "Who are you?" He responds, "Your worst nightmare," and they flee.
* WhosOnFirst: When Shang is trying to find out the recruit's[=/=][[spoiler:Mulan's]] name:
-->'''Li Shang:''' What's your name?\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' Uh... I, I, uh...\\
'''Chi Fu:''' Your commanding officer just asked you a question!\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' Uh, I've got a name, ha! And it's a boy's name, too.\\
'''Mushu:''' ''[whispering]'': How about Ling?\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' ''[looking at Ling]'': His name's Ling.\\
'''Li Shang:''' I didn't ask for ''his'' name. I asked for ''yours!''\\
'''Mushu:''' Try, uh, uh... ah... Chu.\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' Ah Chu.\\
'''Li Shang:''' [[PunnyName Ah Chu?]]\\
'''Mushu:''' [[IncrediblyLamePun Gesundheit;]] I kill myself.\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' Mushu...\\
'''Li Shang:''' Mushu?\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' No!\\
'''Li Shang:''' ''[losing patience]'' Then what ''is'' it?\\
'''Mushu:''' Ping! Ping was my best friend growing up.\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' It's Ping.\\
'''Li Shang:''' Ping?\\
'''Mushu:''' ''[to himself]'' Of course, Ping did steal my girl--\\
''[Mulan grabs his mouth to shut him up]''\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' Yes, my name is Ping.
* WholesomeCrossdresser:
** Mulan pretends to be a man so she can save her father.
** [[spoiler:Mulan's three friends make "Concubines." "''Ugly'' Concubines."]]
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim:
** Defied by Shang. He teaches his men to shoot to kill, always. He would have killed Shan Yu in their fight if he had gotten the chance.
** Defied by Shan Yu after Mulan starts the avalanche. Shan Yu slashes her, and the wound would have killed her if the army's doctor hadn't survived. If not for the avalanche and her being on the ground, he would have done much worse.
** Played straight when [[spoiler:Shan Yu first grabs a semiconscious Shang and starts threatening him with his sword, only to give chase to and corner Mulan on the palace roof. With the former he's in VillanousBreakdown mode after the emperor's rescued, and in the latter he's EvilGloating upon seeing her trapped. He does stab her paper fan, but she flips the fan to steal his sword.]]
* TheWorfEffect: Downplayed. Shang is the captain of the soldiers, but he is also an academy student who, although highly trained, hasn't exactly been in a lot of actual battles. So, when he fights Shan Yu, who is twice his body weight, he gets his butt kicked, but still manages to land a few good hits on the Hun in the process.
* WorthyOpponent:
** Shan Yu treats Shang this way, blaming him for the great losses that the Huns have suffered.
** Towards the climax, when Mulan reveals that it was she who destroyed the Hun army, Shan Yu isn't at all shocked and calls her "the soldier from the mountains." Then he comes at her without wasting any time with the usual "I can't hit a girl" or "I was beaten by a ''woman''?!" stuff villains usually spout when facing a female opponent.
* WouldHurtAChild: The Huns waste no time debating the morality of "returning" the doll to the girl whose village they destroyed.
* {{Wuxia}}: Set in an indeterminate era of medieval/ancient China, in an indeterminate part, with several fantastical elements such as dragons and ancestral spirits, this movie fits this to a T, though nobody generally thinks of it as one.
* YamatoNadeshiko: Mulan, herself, plays with the trope. She has the looks, is extremely devoted to her parents, and desperately tries to fit in as a perfectly feminine and demure daughter... without much success. However, when she learns that her old and infirm father will have to go to war against the Huns, she shows the core of steel part by dressing up as a man and taking his place, not for glory or to rebel against her family but to save her dad's life and the family honor.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre:
** After Chi Fu delivers a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Shang, who accepts it with TranquilFury, Mulan tells Shang that she thinks he is a great captain. Shang looks softened by this, though due to his position, he can't answer.
** When Mushu confesses to a depressed Mulan that the ancestors didn't send him, he tells her that whereas she risked her life to save her father, he risked her life to get his guardian job back. "At least you had good intentions."
* YouAreTooLate: For Shang, who didn't know that the note from his father was forged, he arrives in time to find the aftermath of the Huns' grisly slaughter. He can only create a memorial for his father, accept Mulan's compassion, and order his men to move out and stop the Huns from reaching the capital.
* YouShallNotPass:
** Shang's troops, heavily outnumbered and with few cannons, face the entire Hun army at the Tung Shao Pass. They fully expect to be slaughtered, as the rest of the Chinese army was, and without Mulan using their last cannon to trap the troops in an avalanche, they would have been.
** Shang attempts a one-man version of this against Shan Yu in the imperial palace. He succeeds as far as buying enough time for his subordinates to rescue the emperor. Shan-Yu is a second away from killing him when Mulan says IAmYourOpponent.
* YouWereTryingTooHard: It's the real answer to the arrow challenge, and climbing the pole with weights strapped around your wrists. All the soldiers initially try to ignore the weights and climb rapidly despite them, ignoring Shang's instructions to use them. Mulan figures it out eventually; she loops the weights together into a makeshift brace and uses it to hoist herself to the top slowly and gradually. You need strength as in upper-body strength and discipline as in knowing how to use the tools you have.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:M-O]]
* MadeOfPlasticine: The Fa family's statue of the Great Stone Dragon somehow falls apart just from Mushu breaking its ear off, due to RuleOfFunny.
* MakeoverMontage: Mulan goes through this twice: once at the hands of a pair of [[MakeoverFairy Makeover Fairies]] in "Honor to Us All" to look like a potential bride, and again when she "becomes" a man.
* MakeoverFail: Played with in the makeover Mulan is given before being presented to the matchmaker. Mulan's facial expressions indicate that she is initially taken aback by the change, though when it is finished it seems like she might be satisfied or at least have accepted it as part of her duty to impress the matchmaker. After she fails at the meeting with the matchmaker, Mulan sings "Why is my reflection someone I don't know?" She wipes off the makeup and takes down her hair. In effect, the makeover imposed on her is made symbolic of the role that she is expected to play in society and that does not reflect who she is inside.
* ManlyTears: Yao totally cries [[spoiler:when Mulan is honored]].
* MasculineLinesFeminineCurves: Mulan is drawn with an angular jaw when in her Ping disguise.
* MassOhCrap:
** Shang's company are shocked to silence when [[spoiler:they see the massacre of the main Chinese army]], then it happens a second time when Shan Yu attacks them, and then when they see the size of his army.
** Then just as the army is cheering on Ping for saving them, and for everyone being alive, they have this reaction when the soldier is revealed to have a serious stomach wound and passes out from blood loss. 
** ''Every citizen'' outside the emperor's palace panics [[spoiler:when they realize Shan Yu is still alive]].
* MauveShirt: [[spoiler:Shang's father gets killed, along with his RedShirt army. He was previously established as a ReasonableAuthorityFigure and a loving father. Shang's shock and grief carries a lot of weight when Chien Po finds General Li's helmet.]]
* MaybeEverAfter: It doesn't end with a wedding but with a 'get to know her family' dinner. The marriage takes place in the sequel.
* MermaidArcEmergence: Mulan throws her wet hair in a backward arc when she emerges from the water while she's bathing.
* AMillionIsAStatistic: '''[[spoiler: Averted]]'''. [[spoiler:The massacre of the village and the Imperial army both take place off-screen, and it is still horrific. An EmpathyDollShot is used to great effect.]]
* MisfitMobilizationMoment: Mulan is accompanied by her three friends--the short-tempered and surly Yao, the loud and awkward Ling, and the kind but huge Chien Po--and Shang in her plan to infiltrate the Imperial Palace. The trio take it further by doing so in ''drag.''
* MisplacedWildlife: {{Downplayed}}. In one scene, Mushu rides a panda - an animal that is native to China, but ''southern'' China, not the northern border where the scene takes place.
* ModelPlanning: When the general describes the planned advance to his son, he illustrates his example with a map and figures to represent his units and those of the enemy.
* MonsterAndTheMaiden: When [[SweetPollyOliver Mulan]] decides to join the chinese army in place of her elderly father, the (ex) guardian spirit of her family, a small dragon named [[LargeHam Mushu]] decides to take up with her. During her time in the army, Mushu does his best to make her into a hero to restore his place as Mulan's family proper guardian spirit.
* MoodWhiplash:
** After we see Mushu meeting Cri-Kee and cracking jokes about being a loser, we suddenly cut to a burning mountain village destroyed by the Huns.
** "A Girl Worth Fighting For" is an upbeat, comedic song in which the soldiers describe idealized women whom they wish to marry after they return home. However, the final utterance of the chorus is abruptly interrupted as the heroes arrive in a village that has been completely destroyed by the Huns, at which point their jovial enthusiasm is quickly replaced by despondent grief.
** While the heroes are in the snowy mountains, [[spoiler:somberness turns into humor when a rocket fires out of Mulan's cart, having accidentally been lit by Mushu (who, stunned, weakly tries to blame Cri-Kee); then humor turns into panic as the Huns take notice and attack]].
** [[spoiler: After burying the Huns under the avalanche, the army celebrate Mulan's brilliant plan and her promotion as Shang's second-in-command. Then Mulan winces in pain from the wound Shan Yu gave her, and passes out from blood loss.]]
** After Mulan's "Reflection" number, there is a heartwarming scene of her father cheering her up. Then the mood quickly switches again after Chi Fu arrives to deliver the conscription notices.
* MortalWoundReveal: Mulan is revealed to be injured after the initial defeat of the BigBad, but not mortally so. Although, given she passed out from blood loss and shock, it could have been had she not received medical attention.
* MostDefinitelyNotAVillain: In this case, Most Definitely Not a Girl in Disguise. Mulan trying to join the army.
-->'''Fa Mulan:''' But you know how it is when you get those ''manly urges'', and [[ARealManIsAKiller you just gotta kill something]]--\\
''[Tries to punch Shang on the shoulder and hurts her hand]''\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' Uh, fix things... cook outdoors...
* MotivationOnAStick: Mulan uses a dog and bone to feed the chickens. The bone-on-a-stick is tied to the dog's back so the bone is always in front of the dog, and the dog runs around with a feedbag leaking grain behind him.
* MrFanservice
** Captain Shang trains [[ShirtlessScene without a shirt]].
** [[AttractiveBentGender Ping]] is also one InUniverse, according to Yao:
--->"I bet the local girls thought you were quite the charmer."
* MultigenerationalHousehold: Mulan's household includes her parents and her grandmother.
* MusicalisInterruptus: The end of "A Girl Worth Fighting For" is the strongest, and the most horrifying, example of this trope in the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, and possibly the entire genre.
* NakedFreakOut: PlayedWith during the bath scene, while Mulan is freaking out at being naked in the water with the male soldiers, she is more worried about blowing her cover than being seen naked.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny:
** The entire sequence of Mulan trying to bathe in the river, while avoiding her equally naked soldier friends, is played for CringeComedy.
--->'''Fa Mulan:''' [[TemptingFate I never want to see a naked man again.]]\\
''[Fifteen naked men run past Mulan]''
** Hayabusa getting his feathers burned off is treated the same way, and is made more comical by making him look like a chicken.
* {{Nepotism}}: Chi-Fu heavily implies to Shang that he believes the latter only earned the title of Captain because his father is Imperial General.
* NervesOfSteel: Nothing unsettles ''The Emperor''. [[spoiler:He's a noncombatant, and the much younger and bulkier leader of the army that just crushed his own is swinging a sword at him. He doesn't flinch.]] When Shang saves his life, the Emperor walks away calmly.
* NeverTrustATrailer: The teaser trailer makes the film seem more like an action-adventure drama. The movie itself turns out to be a kids' musical with bits of action. Surprisingly, it doesn't shy from [[WarIsHell the fact that Mulan is going to ''war'']].
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Played with. Mulan's grandmother gives her a cricket to give her luck in order to help her with the matchmaker. Although Mulan doesn't perform well to start with, it's obvious that the cricket is the direct cause for her failing the matchmaking. Had she succeeded, she might not have joined the army in her father's place, in which case the Huns would have succeeded in their invasion. She also would not have won the heart of Shang, who is a better match than the matchmaker could have arranged for her. It's possible that Mulan still would have taken her father's place in the army had her meeting with the matchmaker been successful, but her having a match would have introduced a complication in her relationship with Shang.
** Some of Mushu's actions serve to make things harder for Mulan, such as when he accidentally sets off a cannon on the mountainside, inadvertently signaling their presence to the Hun Army.
** [[spoiler:After he learns the truth about Mulan, Shang disregards her warnings that the Huns are still alive. Though he credits her words enough to be cautiously glancing around the courtyard where he meets the emperor, the lack of a more proactive response allows the Huns to seize the emperor.]]
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: If Shan Yu didn't focus on making the emperor bow to him, then Mulan, Shang, and the others wouldn't rescue him in time. Also, Shan Yu chasing Mulan for revenge gives her the perfect position to launch lethal fireworks at him.
* NiceMeanAndInBetween: Mulan's three friends among her fellow soldiers count as this during boot camp. Namely, Chien-Po is the nicest one of the bunch; Yao is the hot-tempered bully; and Ling is somewhere in the middle. They all become FireForgedFriends in the course of the training montage.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Shan Yu versus Shang is brutal. Although Shang puts up a good fight, and his training pays off, by the end of it he's semiconscious before being disabled by Shan Yu. When Mulan lures Shan Yu away, Shang tries to get up but can't.
* NonHumanSidekick:
** Mulan has Mushu the little dragon, her horse Khan, and Cri-Kee the blue cricket.
** The falcon Hayabusa supports Shan-Yu.
* NoodleIncident: Mushu's previous chance to prove himself worthy of protecting the Fa family somehow led Fa Deng [[LosingYourHead to be decapitated]]. Fa Deng is still pretty bitter about the whole thing.
* NotQuiteDead: Despite being buried by an avalanche, Shan Yu and several of his men pop right out of the snow! ''Like daisies!''
* NotSoStoic: Even a sword to the throat doesn't faze the Emperor. What does is a loyal soldier bowing to him, picking him up and escorting him to safety using a sash and the nearby lantern wires as a zipline. The Emperor has a stunned expression while this happens.
* OhCrap:
** The Chinese soldier patrolling the Great Wall during the film's introduction. His facial expressions when the Huns start to scale the walls and at his first sighting of Shan Yu say it all.
** Mushu gets one when he accidentally destroys the statue of the Great Stone Dragon.
--->'''Mushu''': Stony? Stony? ''(knees shaking)'' Oh, man, they're gonna kill me...
** Shan Yu gets several. [[spoiler:He gets one when Mulan sets off the avalanche and an even better one when she launches him into a tower containing what seem to be half the fireworks in the country.]]
** Shang's company [[spoiler:when they find the mountain village has been utterly destroyed and that the Imperial Army led by Shang's father has been wiped out along with it]]. Their scond time comes [[spoiler:when they find out just how large the Hun army really is]].
** After the mishap with the Great Stone Dragon, Mushu gets three more. The first is [[spoiler:when he accidentally sets off a rocket and Mulan [[DeathGlare death glares]] at him. His face says it all. The rocket gives away the army's position and they are promptly attacked by the Huns.]] The second is [[spoiler:during the avalanche when he sees that he, Mulan, Shang, Khan, and Cri-Kee are about to go over the edge of a cliff]]. The third is after Mulan passes out from her wound, when the doctor treating Mulan tells Shang that Mulan is a woman, as Shang enters the tent to confront her.
** Mulan gets one when Shang enters her tent after she's bandaged up and she realizes that he knows she's a woman.
* OhCrapSmile: During "I'll Make A Man Out Of You", Shang catches Mulan cheating by putting apples on her arrows (courtesy of Mushu). Mulan reacts with the awkward smile pictured in the trope page.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Mulan loses her father's helmet in the fight with the Huns, and it gets buried in the avalanche she causes. At the end of the movie, Shang reveals he found the helmet and came to her house to return it, meaning he dug for it despite the snowfall being heavy. Isn't love great?
* OneHitPolyKill: Mulan [[spoiler:wipes out the majority of the Hun army with [[OneHitKO a single rocket]], defeats its leader with another, and then flashes Shan Yu a smirk when he has his OhCrap moment]]. This rocket is typically meant for only one person, so it counts.
* OnlySaneMan: Poor Shang is this while leading the recruits. They are lackadaisical and untrained, with Ping being the worst. He also has to deal with Chi-Fu reporting the lack of Progress to General Li and the superiors.
* OneSteveLimit: Mentioned when trying to find an alias for Mulan:
-->'''Mushu:''' Ling! How about Ling?\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' ''His'' name is Ling.\\
'''Li Shang:''' I didn't ask for ''his'' name; I asked for ''yours''.
* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Mushu is an Eastern dragon, but he is small and has relatively few powers. This may be because he was demoted from a family guardian after he failed. He can, however, breathe fire, a trait more typical of Western dragons.
* OutdoorBathPeeping: {{Inverted}} and GenderInverted. Mulan is mid-bath when Ling, Yao, and Chien-Po decide they want to wash up. The sequence is marked by Mulan sinking as low in the water as possible, desperately trying to make a hasty exit, maintain her disguise, and avoid getting an eyeful of her nude comrades, who are guilelessly trying to befriend "Ping" with a little good-natured water fight.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** Chi Fu is a {{Jerkass}} stick in the mud who thinks Shang got his way by nepotism. The one time he calls Shang "Captain" with sincerity is when he finds a battlefield dotted with corpses of General Li's men, and Li himself.
** Shang is normally a no-nonsense DrillSergeantNasty. He's lapsed into StunnedSilence when learning his father was slaughtered. Shang doesn't even say anything when Mulan tries to comfort him. Much later, when "Ping" steals the last cannon, Shang's more worried than angry when ordering "him" to come back, because from the look of it his soldier is pulling a SuicideMission to kill Shan Yu.
** Mulan keeps her gruff man voice up at all times while training, even when Shang is kicking her butt. She speaks in her real voice when saying, "I'm sorry" after he finds his father's helmet, knowing exactly what he's going through. Then when the avalanche knocks out her commander, Mulan screams, "SHANG" and goes over to pull him onto Khan. Shang both times isn't aware that her voice changed.
* OutrunTheFireball:
** [[spoiler:Mulan's "Get off the roof. Get off the roof. Get off the roof!" as Shan Yu is about to be blown up.]]
** [[spoiler:A colder variant occurs when everyone's outrunning the avalanche.]]
* OutSick: Mulan's dad has a lame leg when the emperor calls for men to push back the Huns, which is what motivates her to go out in his place as a man named Ping.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:P-R]]
* ParentsAreWrong: Mulan's parents expect her to be traditionally feminine so she can be a good bride. Mulan eventually proves her mettle as a soldier (and finds a love interest along the way), and her family relents.
* PandaingToTheAudience: Mushu disguised as a messenger delivers a fake message to Chi-Fu riding on the back of a panda, after Khan refuses to cooperate.
-->'''Mushu In Disguise:''' What's the matter? Never seen a black-and-white before?
* PapaWolf:
** TheEmperor is this to ImperialChina. He calls them "my children".
** The ancestors of the Fa family send supernatural guardians to aid their descendants.
* PervertRevengeMode: Mushu: "My eyes can see straight through your armor--" ''[Mulan slaps him]''
* PetTheDog: One of the elite Huns picks up an apple for an "ugly concubine". Unfortunately for him, said concubine was Ling in disguise and part of Mulan's crew to save the Emperor.
* PluckyComicRelief: Mushu seems to have the ability to break the rules of reality for his gags, brushing his teeth with a standard modern toothbrush and toothpaste, and referring to a panda as a "black-and-white", a reference to a police car. People don't see or hear him even when they reasonably should.
* PluckyGirl: Mulan doesn't let a little thing like [[spoiler:a bleeding wound]] stop her from [[spoiler:saving Shang's life]]. Aside from the initial pain, she doesn't even seem to ''notice'' it until things have calmed down.
* PostVictoryCollapse: PlayedForDrama. Shan Yu slashes at Mulan for the rocket trick, but Mulan perseveres to rescue Shang and herself from the snow. She stays conscious and alert, even when facing death by falling off a cliff. Then the soldiers manage to pull her, Shang, Mushu, Khan, and Crick-Ee up, with Shang both telling off "Ping" for being crazy and thanking him for saving his life as well as that of his fellow men. Just as Mulan starts to stand, she winces, realizes she's got a bad wound, and passes out from blood loss.
* ProtagonistTitle: "Mulan" is the name of the heroine.
* PutTheirHeadsTogether: In the final act, Yao, Ling, Chien-Po, and Mulan getting past two mooks on their way to the BossFight involves slamming melons on the mooks' heads and then slamming those heads together.
* RaceLift: In the original ballad, Mulan, her family, soldiers and monarch were all Xianbei, the ancestors of the Mongols, and rather than the Huns/Xiongnu, they were facing the Rourans, also ancestors of the Mongols. Interestingly, the Rouran may have been descended from the Xiongnu.
* RageAgainstTheReflection: A variation, as no mirrors are broken or water splashed -- it's a shiny, shiny sword.
* RaisedHandOfSurvival: The supposedly killed-in-an-avalanche Shan Yu pokes his hand out from the snow. (Like a daisy!)
* ARealManIsAKiller: "I'll Make a Man Out of You".
-->'''Li Shang''': ''Let's get down to business, to defeat, the Huns!''
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure:
** General Li is this. He sets up a strategy to protect the villagers of the Tung Shao Pass and ambush Shan-Yu when he will march through before he can cause more devastation. Li then promotes his son to captain but gives him a hard duty -- training the recruits -- so that Shang can prove himself with one of the more frustrating tasks a commanding officer can take. It's also a ploy to keep his son out of the actual battle since Li can see the men are a mess. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, both plans fail; Shan-Yu deduces the general's plan and ambushes ''him'', wiping out the army. Shang successfully whips his men into shape, and Mushu forges a letter from the older Li to get the recruits into battle]].
** Despite being a DrillSergeantNasty, Shang proves to be this. He kicks "Ping" out of the army initially for failing a number of the training exercises, but lets the recruit back in when the latter figures out the weight challenge and retrieves the arrow from the pole. After the recruits pass their training with flying colors, he defends them to Chi-Fu and silently accepts Mulan's compliment that he's a great captain. When Mulan defies orders and steals the last cannon, his first priority is for their safety in seemingly making a suicide run and praises the soldier when he and his men survive the avalanche and what would have been a CurbStompBattle. [[spoiler:He also spares Mulan after she's outed, albeit angrily, and when she's proven right about the Huns surviving the avalanche, he defers authority to her to save the emperor. Once Shan Yu is dead, Shang prepares to defend her actions to the emperor.]]
** The emperor recognizes the possibility that his standing army may lose to the Huns and so calls up new recruits. Also, although he is furious at Mulan's many transgressions, he recognizes the good she has done.
* RedIsHeroic: Shang, General Li, and the Imperial Army soldiers wear red capes as they march off to defend their homeland and families. The Huns do not because they are invaders.
* RedShirt: The soldier on the Great Wall in the opening sequence is a goner. We don't see him die, but we know he will.
* RedshirtArmy: [[spoiler:The supposed "elite" Imperial Army, led by Shang's father, is killed off-screen to [[TheWorfEffect demonstrate how dangerous the Huns are]].]]
* RefrainFromAssuming: Shang's training song is called "I'll Make a Man Out of You", not "Be a Man" or "We are Man/Men".
* RevealingInjury: The medic discovers that Mulan is a woman while treating her injuries.
* RhetoricalRequestBlunder: A mild one, played for laughs after Mulan escapes from her friends bathing in the river:
-->'''Fa Mulan''': I never want to see another naked man again.\\
''[A group of naked men runs down to the lake immediately after]''
* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Cri-Kee, the cricket sidekick of Mushu and the luck charm for the Fa family.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: When Mushu blithely forges a letter informing Shang that General Li is in desperate need of aid. Mushu only does so hoping to get Mulan on the front lines and make her a war hero. [[spoiler:It turns out the Huns had already wiped out General Li's men by the time Mushu wrote the letter. If Mushu hadn't forged that letter, the Hun army would have likely made it to the emperor's palace unopposed.]] Mushu himself has a JerkassRealization about it.
* RuleOfThree: Mulan's family is the third in her village to receive a conscription notice.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G-L]]
* GenderedInsult: The entirety of "I'll Make A Man Out Of You", and in particular the line "Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons?" Of course, seeing as the by far most competent member of the unit is SweetPollyOliver Mulan, this is PlayedForLaughs.
* GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity: Subverted at the end when Mulan is offered the position of imperial councillor, which she respectfully declines so she can return home:
-->'''The Emperor:''' Chi Fu.\\
'''Chi Fu:''' Your Excellency?\\
'''The Emperor:''' ''[Indicating Mulan]'' See to it that this woman is made a member of my council.\\
'''Chi Fu:''' A member of... what?! ''[Stutters]'' But there are no council positions open, Your Majesty.\\
'''The Emperor:''' Very well. ''[To Mulan]'' You can have his job.\\
'''Chi Fu''': [[OhCrap W-W-Wha?!]] My...?! (''faints'')
* GirlinessUpgrade: Mulan dresses like a warrior in the original Creator/{{Disney}} cartoon, but is dressed as a Chinese princess in the merchandising. Her usual costume in the Disney Parks is her matchmaker dress with her hair done up, but without her white makeup. The only aversion to this trope is her cameo in ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'', wherein she appears with loose, short hair and wearing her armor, and in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series, where her level features her during the war.
* GoofyPrintUnderwear: One of the soldiers is wearing anachronistic clothing and it falls on Mushu's face.
* GoryDiscretionShot:
** Shan Yu is shot with a massive rocket into a stockpile of fireworks, and this is carefully only seen from a great distance.
** One of the "messengers" Shan Yu sends to the emperor is killed by an archer.
--->'''Shan Yu:''' How many men does it take to deliver a message?\\
'''Hun archer:''' ''[Readies bow]'' [[PreMortemOneLiner "One."]]
** When Mulan gets slashed across the chest, she's clearly bleeding.
* GPSEvidence: Shan Yu's falcon brings him a doll from a village to which they are ''en route''. The doll has evidence on it -- pine tar, a white horsehair, and gunpowder -- that tells him the Imperial Army are there.
* GrandRomanticGesture: Downplayed. Mulan lost her father's helmet in the battle with the Huns. Shang found it and brings the helmet as a pretext to visit Mulan after she returns home. He starts stammering when explaining whose helmet it is and how he came to get it. Fa Zhou doesn't know the details, but he recognizes what it must mean and encourages Mulan to step forward.
* GrapplingHookPistol: Arrow variation; Yao uses a rope attached to an arrow to shoot at Mulan so she can use it to pull herself, Shang, and Khan (plus Mushu and Cri-Kee) to safety. Because Yao drops both the arrow and bow, Mulan has to use it going the other way, with the soldiers acting as the anchor.
* GrinOfAudacity: Shan Yu is about to cut down Ping, but stops when the helpless soldier in front of him smirks at something behind him.
* GymClassRopeClimb: One of the training exercises is a variation of this; you have to climb a ''pole'' and you have to do it with two heavyweights attached to your wrists.
* HandGagging: Mulan briefly silences Mushu this way during his "dishonor" rant.
* HateSink: Chi-Fu’s main role in the story is to prove the Huns don't have a monopoly on awful people.
* HardToLightFire: Mulan drops the flint and steel she needs to light the final cannon during the battle with the Huns.
* HaveAGayOldTime: The name Mulan uses while disguised as a boy is [[ADateWithRosiePalms Fa Ping.]] The name is a pun in Chinese as well for a pretty flower vase, as in eye candy; something pretty and useless.
* HeadgearHeadstone: When the general--who also happens to be Shang's father--dies, Chien-po, who found the body, brings back the general's helmet. Having no time for a burial, he erects a memorial by driving his sword into the ground and placing his father's helmet on it. Mulan also places an [[EmpathyDollShot abandoned doll]] she found in the village's ruins next to the sword.
* HeartbrokenBadass: Shang after he finds his father slaughtered at the Tung Shao Pass village. He's obviously grieving, but know logically that he and his men are the only ones who can stop Shan Yu and the Huns. So he mounts his horse, gives a short RousingSpeech to the troops, and orders them to move out.
* HellishHorse: The horses used by the Huns have red eyes and fangs.
* HellYesMoment:
** Ling, who's been the most suspicious bully towards "Ping," urges Mulan upward when she decides to try the arrow test and actually is close to the stop. He starts grinning and fist-pumping. When she makes it to the top, he's among the crowd cheering her.
** The capital citizens react this way when Chien-Po gets the Emperor to the safety of the ground, and Mulan cuts their ImprovisedZipline. They start cheering as Shan Yu can only yell.
* HerosMuse: The soldiers discuss their respective views on the ideal woman to marry in the song "A Girl Worth Fighting For".
* HeroicBSOD: Mulan has a mild one after [[spoiler:her cover is blown and she is abandoned by the army]].
* HistoricalFantasy: Downplayed: the only fantasy elements in a story otherwise about an Ancient Chinese war hero are the ancestral spirits and Mushu the dragon.
* HitYouSoHardYourXWillFeelIt: Mushu tells Mulan that punching and butt-slapping are a form of friendly gesture among men. Mulan does this to Yao in the wrong way, and naturally, it causes a stir in Yao's rather short temper.
-->'''Yao:''' I'm gonna hit you so hard, it'll make your ''ancestors'' dizzy!
* HopeSpot:
** When they come to the village in the Tung Shao Pass, Shang tells his men to find survivors. They all fan out, wanting to have done some good. Mulan finds a doll, and Chi Fu finds a battlefield of corpses.
** Shang actually overpowers Shan Yu and gets him in a painful hold while his men save the Emperor and escort him to safety. Shan Yu is so enraged about the Emperor getting away that he frees himself and takes down Shang with a well-placed headbutt.
* TheHorde: The Huns pour into China from over the Great Wall to rampage and raze and generally bring out the end of the Chinese way of life. All of them look sinister.
* HumanLadder: The soldiers form one to try to find Mulan during the avalanche.
* HumanNotepad: Mulan writes notes in her arm when she goes to meet the matchmaker.
* HumanTrafficJam: In the TrainingMontage, when the soldiers are jumping along some poles jutting upwards in a line, Chien Po falters and stops moving forward. Shang, coming behind him, [[DefiedTrope defies]] the trope by stopping in a controlled manner before running into him, but that just makes the jam form behind ''him'' when everyone else fails to do the same.
* HypocriticalHumor:
** Chi Fu: "...And I do not squeal like a girl!" ''[Panda eats Chi Fu's slipper and he squeals like a girl]''
** Mushu: "Dragon, ''dra-gon'', not 'lizard'. I don't do that tongue thing." ''[Does the tongue thing]''
* IAmYourOpponent: When Mulan reveals herself to Shan Yu. Impressively, he doesn't seem to care that she's a girl. He simply recognizes that she's the one who defeated him.
-->'''Shan Yu:''' ''[Preparing to kill Shang]'' You! You took away my victory!\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' ''[Throws a shoe at him]'' No! ''I'' did.\\
''[Mulan pulls back her hair into a soldier's topknot]''\\
'''Shan Yu:''' The soldier from the mountains...
* IHaveJustOneThingToSay: [[spoiler:The emperor lists all the many things that Mulan has done that violate rules and tradition -- and then bows to her for her having saved China]].
* IfOnlyYouKnew: The song "I'll Make a Man Out of You" has the line, "Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons?" Shang thinks he's turning boys into men, but of course, with Mulan the starting point is a bit different. Though, ironically, she becomes an even more capable soldier than her male comrades-in-arms.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Completely subverted on both sides. Shang's TrainingFromHell ensures that when his soldiers fire cannons, there's always an impact. Mulan's cannon in particular saves the entire army with her aim. The Huns in the meantime manage to hit Shang from a distance.
* ImpliedLoveInterest: Mulan and Captain Li Shang. They blush around each other and Mulan asks the captain to stay for dinner, but no one outright says that they are a couple.
* ImportantHaircut: Part of Mulan's soldier transformation is to cut her long hair so that she can more easily pass for a man. Bonus points for using her father's sword to do it.
* ImportantHairAccessory: Mulan is given a floral hair comb before her disastrous appointment with the matchmaker. When she decides to take her father's place in the army she takes his conscription notice and leaves the comb in its place.
* ImprovisedZipline: [[spoiler:Mulan uses a string of lanterns to zip down from the roof of the Imperial Palace.]]
* IndyPloy:
-->'''Mushu:''' What's ThePlan?\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' Uh...\\
'''Mushu:''' You don't have a ''plan?''\\
'''Fa Mulan:''' I'm making this up as I... [[EurekaMoment go]].
* IncomingHam: Mushu's "IIIIIIIIIII LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"
* InsistentTerminology: "Dragon, ''dra-gon'', [[IAmNotWeasel not 'lizard']]! I don't do that tongue thing."
* InstantlyDefeatheredBird: Shan Yu's falcon is intimidating... until Mushu sets fire to him and he instantly looks and sounds like a featherless chicken. He even appears headless for a moment, as he had tucked it into his neck. A few scenes later, Mushu is riding him.
* InterchangeableAsianCultures: More than one example.
** Shan Yu's pet saker falcon is named Hayabusa, which is the Japanese word for [[NonIndicativeName peregrine falcon]]. Saker falcons do not even exist in Japan, so you cannot handwave the bird as an exotic import. The word for saker falcon in Mongolian (or an ancestor of it; this is hundreds of years ago, after all) is ''idleg shonkhor'', which apparently does not roll off the tongue.
** The Huns themselves are this. They should properly be called the Xiongnu, and the Chinese dub does correctly refer to them as such. The confusion came about because the Huns were a nomadic confederation who invaded Europe at roughly the same time as the film's events and, like the Xiongnu, also hailed from somewhere in the Central Asian steppes.
** The costume and make-up Mulan wears for the Matchmaker is often thought to be this but [[AluminumChristmasTrees actually isn't]]. The dress resembles a kimono but is actually a hanfu (a traditional Chinese dress). The geisha-like make-up is also traditionally Chinese. The kimono and make-up are Japanese things that were influenced by Chinese culture.
** But perhaps the most egregious example would be that in the hospital tent scene, one of the tents [[https://andrerants.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/mulan_86ce03_20332811.jpg has a Japanese flag]] on the outside.
* IOweYouMyLife:
** [[spoiler:Shang to Mulan. This life-debt becomes immediately useful when Mulan is found out, and the punishment for a woman joining the army is death. Instead of killing her, Shang lets her go free. In the next scene, we're shown that he did leave her a good amount of provisions and her horse, which she promptly rides back into town after learning the Huns are alive.]]
** With the Emperor, [[spoiler:he thanks Mulan for not just saving him, but all of China from falling. As thanks, he bows to her. When she turns down his council job, he gives her his crest and Shan Yu's sword, so that she is sufficiently rewarded]].
* IronicEcho: A reprise of "Make A Man Out Of You" plays with unabashed glee while Mulan's friends are getting tarted up in full concubine drag to infiltrate the palace. Later, all four of them use the combat moves they were shown learning during that musical number against the Huns... while still dressed as women.
%%* IWantSong: "[[Music/ChristinaAguilera Reflection]]" and "A Girl Worth Fighting For".
* {{Jerkass}}: Chi Fu is a chauvinist prick [[spoiler:who condemns Mulan with the death penalty once her gender is found out, despite the fact she saved them all from the Hun army in the mountains. He tries this again after she and the others save the emperor and ''all of China'' from the Huns, still insisting she will 'never be worth anything'. When the emperor demands Mulan be made a member of his council, Chi Fu appears to be lying when he says there aren't any council positions open, so apparently saving China still doesn't impress him. [[UngratefulBastard Some gratitude]]...]]
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** The Matchmaker is definitely not a nice lady, and her nitpickiness wins no points with Grandmother Fa, but Mulan didn't just fail the matchmaker exam but also ''set her on fire''. All she had to do was pour tea and recite some memorized text, but Mulan couldn't do either. The Matchmaker is right to tell her off, even if she goes too far by saying Mulan will never bring honor to her family.
** Chi Fu points out that Shang is an academy student, who hasn't been in battle, and so someone with more experience should be captain instead of him. Indeed, when Shang fights Shan Yu, he is outclassed despite his training. Mulan's creativity saves him twice.
* JerkassRealization: Ling has one after "Ping" starts excelling in the training regimen. They notice the kid is shying away from them while bathing in the lake, and is making excuses to leave. Ling apologizes, saying they were jerks before, and can they start over fresh? Mulan accepts reluctantly; the reason she was trying to leave is they'll see her naked and realize she's a woman.
* JustTheWayYouAre: When Mulan returns home with gifts of honor, Fa Zhou, who has been worried sick about his daughter getting killed and [[PartingWordsRegret her running away after they had a big fight]], envelops her in a hug and tells her that ''she'' is the greatest gift and honor.
* JuxtaposedHalvesShot: The home video covers show one half of her face hidden by a sword. The other half is reflected in the sword, but as her [[SweetPollyOliver male soldier persona]].
* KarmaHoudini: No one seems to notice (or possibly care) that Mushu accidentally killed the Great Stone Dragon, though it is possible that A. it was dead to begin with, B. it was the wrong statue, or C. the statue is just a vessel to incarnate in the mortal world--the dragon got stuck in the astral plane, but he is all right and the ancestors cut him some slack because he helped save China. [[note]]It has been interpreted that the Great Stone Dragon's spirit has already left the statue. Mulan does sit under it before lightning flashes and she suddenly decides to go in her father's place. Perhaps it goes with her?[[/note]]
* KeepTheReward: After she's offered [[spoiler:a council position, Mulan turns it down because she wants to return home. The emperor then gives her his pendant and Shan Yu's sword so that her family will know how she has saved China.]]
* KickTheDog: [[BigBad Shan-Yu]] captures a pair of Chinese scouts (and mockingly congratulates them on finding his army), then lets them go to tell their Emperor he is coming. As they flee, he turns to one of his henchmen, an archer:
--> '''Shan-Yu:''' How many men does it take to deliver a message?
--> '''Archer Henchman:''' [nocks arrow] "One."
* KickedUpstairs: It's strongly suggested that General Li gave Shang his own division because the general wanted his son to stay well away from the real fighting -- not for incompetence, just a bit too much protective instinct.
* KneelBeforeFrodo: [[spoiler:The emperor and then all of China bow to Mulan in the end.]]
* KneelBeforeZod: Shan Yu attempts to invoke this, but [[spoiler:the Emperor]] refuses. Shan Yu decides to kill him instead.
* KnightOfCerebus: Shan Yu and the Huns. They are treated with a '''colossal''' degree of seriousness and, seeing as they managed to invade China's borders and slaughter the emperor's best armies, there's a very good reason why everyone (except the emperor, himself) fears them. The moment the protagonists [[EmpathyDollShot directly confront their work]], the movie literally ceases to be a musical.
* KungShui: Shan Yu's pursuit of Mulan breaks many walls and ceilings of the Emperor's palace.
* LamePunReaction: The recruits on the first day of training.
-->'''Chi Fu:''' Order! People, order!\\
'''Recruit 1:''' I'd like a pan-fried noodle!\\
'''Chien-Po:''' Ooh, ooh, sweet and pungent shrimp.\\
'''Recruit 2:''' Moo goo gai pan.\\
'''Chi Fu:''' ''[amid laughter]'' That's not funny.
* LampshadeHanging: [[spoiler:Yao asks, "Is she allowed to do that?" when Mulan hugs the Emperor at the end. Strictly speaking, ''no'', she is absolutely not. The Emperor of feudal China was seen as a semi-divine personage, and touching him without permission was punishable by death.]]
* LargeHam: Mushu. ''[++'''"I LIIIIIIIIIVVVVEEEE!!!!!!"'''++]''
* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: General Li praising his son. "Number one in his class, extensive knowledge of training techniques... ''[smiles and strokes his chin]'' and impressive military lineage."
* LastVillainStand: After [[spoiler:his army gets wiped out by an avalanche and his generals have been captured]], Shan Yu still tries to kill the one who stole his victory.
* LaughOfLove: {{Invoked|Trope}} and {{exploited|Trope}} when Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po disguise themselves as concubines and giggle while approaching Shan Yu's guards in order to take them out.
* LeaveNoSurvivors: [[spoiler:The Huns destroyed General Li's army (and the village they were stationed at) so thoroughly that there was literally no survivors left to even send a message of their imperiled fate. In fact, [[AccidentalTruth it was only through a forged message from Mushu]] that Shang's division even found out of the massacre]].
* LeParkour: Shan Yu uses this to chase Mulan in the climax.
* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand:
** An [[MoodWhiplash awful, jarring, highly effective twist]] on this trope occurs at the end of "A Girl Worth Fighting For":
--->'''Ling:''' Wish that I had...\\
'''Crew:''' A girl worth fighting--\\
''[All catch sight of blood-red sky and village burned to the ground; music echoes, then dies.]''
** A [[DownplayedTrope smaller example]] occurs in the middle of the song, when Mulan suggests that a girl worth fighting for is one "who's got a brain, who always speaks her mind". Her fellow soldiers don't see the appeal, and apparently neither does the BGM.
* LipstickAndLoadMontage:
** Used when the soldiers are applying drag to infiltrate Shan Yu's guard in the royal palace (set to a brief reprise of "I'll Make A Man Out Of You", no less!).
** Mulan getting dressed up during "You'll Bring Honor to Us All" is treated with the seriousness of preparing for battle. This would be her "battlefield" after all.
* LiteralMetaphor: Shang tells his recruits that they'll need "Discipline" and "Strength" (two heavy weights on ropes) to retrieve the arrow from the top of the pole. The secret is to loop them together around the pole like a belt.
* LockAndLoadMontage: Mulan dons her father's armor, dons his weapons, and cuts her hair in this fashion.
* LongingLook: What totally gives away Mulan's crush on Shang to Mushu is one of these. She does it a second time after he points it out.
* LoveMakesYouDumb: Shang is an incredibly competent and professional soldier, not even letting his father's death distract him from the task at hand. Then he falls all over himself trying to speak to Mulan while she's a girl, but by that point he doesn't really need to be focused on Huns.
* LyricalDissonance: "I'll Make a Man Out of You" gets more pessimistic, even defeatist, the further it goes while still being a chest-thumping anthem of masculinity.
-->''You're unsuited for, the rage of war\\
So pack up, go home, you're through\\
How could I make a man out of you?''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:D-F]]
* DancePartyEnding: Cri-Kee sounds the gong at the end of the film, starting the instrumental of "True to Your Heart," which the guardians all dance to, leading into the closing credits as the vocal begins.
* DareToBeBadass: The song "I'll Make A Man Out Of You".
-->''Tranquil as a forest\\
But on fire within.\\
Once you find your center\\
You are sure to win.''
** The chorus is not only this, but practically a BadassCreed.
--->''Be a Man!\\
We must be swift as a coursing river\\
Be a Man!\\
With all the force of a great typhoon\\
Be a Man!\\
With all the strength of a raging fire\\
Mysterious as the dark side of the Moon!''
* DarkIsEvil: The Huns are gray skinned and wear all-black. Even their horses are black.
* DarkerAndEdgier: This film, unlike most [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon Disney movies]], thoroughly addresses the subject of war and the grim consequences thereof, including the implied large-scale murder of the innocent and the grieving family members of those killed. This is softened '''somewhat''' through frequent comic relief.
** [[spoiler:Mulan's strategic avalanche-triggering makes her personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of men]], something that cannot be said about any other Franchise/DisneyPrincess.
** Shan Yu may also be the only Disney character to actually hit a real person with a sword, using the sharp edge, on-screen.
* DavidVersusGoliath: Shang is a tall and well-built man but Shan Yu is larger and stronger. Goliath wins that round. Mulan, who is even more of a David in comparison, wins by refusing to fight him on his terms.
* DeadpanSnarker: Shan Yu has his moments, such as just after his soldiers capture two Chinese scouts:
-->'''Shan Yu:''' Good work, gentlemen. You've found the Hun army.
* DeadHatShot: The helmet of Shang's father is found in the snow after the troop reaches the town destroyed by the Huns.
* DeathOfAChild: When walking through the ruins of a raided village, a single doll is found, as a G-rated signal that there were children killed here.
* DebtDetester: [[spoiler:Shang spares Mulan's life after she dishonors the Chinese army in return for her saving his life during the Hun attack.]]
* DefiantToTheEnd:
** The unnamed soldier on the wall at the beginning. He desperately runs to the nearest signal, and when confronted by Shan Yu he lights the beacons knowing full well he's about to die.
--->'''Soldier:''' Now all of China knows you're here.
** The emperor also counts, since he refuses to KneelBeforeZod and knows that he'll die for it.
--->'''The Emperor:''' [[BadassBoast No matter how the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it.]]
* DefrostingIceQueen: Shang despairs over Ping more than the rest of his raw recruits but gradually comes to respect "him" as he proves himself. After the defeat of the Huns, he unthaws enough to offer his unconditional trust, but freezes again when the deception is revealed. When Mulan shows her courage and nobility -- as herself this time -- he falls for her but CannotSpitItOut until given some unsubtle prompting by the emperor.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance:
** Several (but not all) male characters at least start out pretty sexist because, hey, it's ancient China. It's also lampshaded when [[spoiler:Mulan, after being honored as a hero, gives the emperor a big hug; Yao asks, "Is she allowed to do that?" (No, it would have been punishable by death; then again, after all the rest that happened, the emperor is perfectly fine with letting it pass.) The other guys just shrug.]]
** Mulan's crippled father going off to war just because he is the only man in his family is precisely what was expected of men at the time, even if they were old and/or infirm. It was seen as the honorable thing to do, whereas the modern age would see it as pointless and/or cruel.
** There's the song "You'll Bring Honor To Us All." The entire piece is about how a woman's sole purpose is to marry well and be a dutiful, obedient wife but this part in particular can come as a shock to those hearing it again as adults:
--->''We all must serve our emperor, who guards us from the Huns -- a man by bearing arms, a girl by bearing sons!''
* DescriptionCut: When Shang is promoted captain and is about to step out of his tent.
-->'''Li Shang:''' Captain Li Shang. Hmm... "Leader of China's finest troops"--no, "The greatest troops of all time!"\\
''[Exits his tent to find the recruits in an all-out brawl with the camp in total chaos]''
* {{Determinator}}:
** Shang dismisses Mulan midway through the "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" segment, which would have relieved Mulan's family of their war duty, but also potentially disgraced them. Mulan refuses to just walk away, and proves she is worthy of being a soldier.
** Yao finds himself holding an arrow tethered to a safety line for "Ping" and Captain Shang. Despite nearly being pulled over the cliff as well, he won't let go, digs his body into the ground as the other soldiers grab on, and does his best to get them up.
** Many Huns survive the avalanche and go right back to marching.
** Shang finds out his father and China's best men were slaughtered. He tells his troops, after making a ShrineToTheFallen, that they have to go and stop Shan Yu to keep the capital and Emperor safe. Then when it seems the odds are hopeless, he orders everyone to fight anyway. Only an avalanche-- and Shan Yu himself -- can keep this guy down.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Mulan writes notes on her arm, with ink. They're not completely dry when the beauticians force her in the bathtub, and get wet in the water. Thus, when she gets to the matchmaker, the lady touches her hand and obliviously smears it over her face. Mulan goes OhCrap, realizing she ought to have thought ahead about this.
* DiggingYourselfDeeper: Mulan does this to herself whenever she gets into trouble as Ping because she is flustered and makes further mistakes.
* DisneyAcidSequence: "A Girl Worth Fighting For," with its ArtShift into the comic trio's imagination.
* DisneyDeath: Shan Yu and a few members of his army survive the avalanche, and are able to sneak their way through the Imperial City to capture the emperor.
* DisneyVillainDeath: ''Averted'', deliberately. Shan Yu does ''not'' die from falling. [[spoiler: He dies from a fireworks rocket shooting him horizontally into a fireworks cache.]] The DVD's audio commentary has LampshadeHanging.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Mulan exploits this to save the emperor. One Hun is besotted with the "ugly" concubines and picks up an apple that Ling drops.
* DodgeTheBullet: Part of the training for the new recruits is to learn to run through a hail of burning arrows without being hit. This starts as an inversion in that when they are no good at it they do some actual dodging, but once he's got the hang of it, Yao runs through without being hit and without making any visible effort to dodge.
* DoesThisMakeMeLookFat: [[spoiler:Said by Yao when dressed as a woman, which is also an ActorAllusion (his voice actor has performed in drag). He gets a DopeSlap for his trouble.]]
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: After the Imperial Army leave with the general, Shang appears to the recruits during their fight ("Soldiers!"). They all point at Mulan and say, "He started it!" Sort of like a fight in a school interrupted by a teacher.
* DoNotGoGentle: When the Huns prepare to bear down on Shang and his troops, who are outnumbered and with one last cannon, Shang orders his men to prepare to fight. They aren't going to lie down for the Huns. Fortunately, Mulan finds another way.
* TheDragon: Hayabusa the falcon, who acts as Shan-Yu's chief reconnaissance scout (bringing back a doll that leads to the Huns attacking the village), who frequently brings his boss whatever information or items he may need.
* DramaticIrony: The entire "Be a Man" sequence -- Shang and the other soldiers may be oblivious, but the audience knows that Mulan [[SweetPollyOliver is, in fact, a woman]]. The song later gets a reprise when [[spoiler:the male soldiers disguise themselves as concubines to infiltrate the Emperor's palace]].
* DrillSergeantNasty: Shang has a ''song'' illustrating just how nasty he is, and it sounds ''exactly'' like what a DrillSergeantNasty is supposed to sound like, just with the language cleaned up. Besides the language, it's downplayed in that he isn't ''that'' nasty -- he's tough but good, and reacts with approval when he sees his [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits band of miserable slobs]] becoming efficient and disciplined soldiers.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Even after Mulan has [[spoiler:single-handedly wiped out the entire Huns army and saved all of China]], she loses the trust she's earned from her former allies simply because [[spoiler:they find out she's really a woman]]. It takes her doing it ''again'' to regain their trust, and even so, [[UngratefulBastard Chi-Fu]] orders her to be executed.
* DwindlingParty: At first, Shang's retinue has at least forty men, enough to get into a camp brawl when Mulan accidentally starts one. Then Shan Yu's army successfully assaults them when Mushu accidentally gives away their location; given the number of arrows and that one hit Shang, one can assume the body count was high. By the time Mulan sets off the avalanche, only about eight to ten men survive, including Ling, Yao, and Chien-Po. It's unknown how many didn't survive the snow.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Mulan goes through a lot of hardship, both physical and mental, but ultimately achieves her goal of honoring her family, and then some!
* EatingTheEyeCandy: Mulan's eyes go wide when she sees Shang shirtless. Yao does admit Shang is a pretty boy, if derisively.
* EffeminateMisogynisticGuy: Chi-Fu is a NonActionGuy known for his GirlyScream, yet when told that Mulan is a hero, he simply says, "'Tis a ''woman.'' She'll never be worth anything!"
* EmpathyDollShot: Shan Yu's falcon retrieves a doll from a small village that lies in his way. The Huns determine the presence of the imperial army from it and suggest going around, but Shan Yu opts to go through the village because it's the quickest way to the Forbidden City, smirking as he remarks that they should return the doll to the girl who owned it. Later, Mulan discovers the doll in the smoking, empty ruins of the village.
* EntertaininglyWrong: The matchmaker seems suspicious when Mulan is reciting the lessons a good bride must have, but she mispronounces a few words due to misreading them on her arm. She checks Mulan's fan for notes instead, suggesting other would-be brides tried the same trick.
* EpicFail:
** Where to start with Mulan's matchmaking exam? She seems okay enough when stumbling over her notes, but then Cri-Kee escaped and she thought it was a great idea to hide him in her mouth while still talking. Then the Matchmaker gets ink on her hand from Mulan's cheat notes and smears it all over her face. Mulan is so shocked she pours the tea too much and spills it on the table. When handing the cup to the Matchmaker, she sees the cricket taking a bath and tries to politely take it back. This leads to her setting the Matchmaker on fire, and emptying the pot of scalding tea to put it out. It's a miracle that all the Matchmaker did was chew her out in front of everyone for being so incompetent.
** Mulan tells a worried Mushu to stand watch while she bathes. Mushu prepares to do that while complaining that it's risky. Before he can blink, three men rush past him. It's Ling, Yao and Chien-Po who had the same idea to bathe. Mushu goes OhCrap on realizing he didn't give Mulan ''any'' warning and goes to correct the sitaution.
* EtiquetteNazi: The matchmaker marks down Mulan for everything she does. After calling for Mulan, [[MundaneSolution the girl says "present,"]] and yet the matchmaker mutters "speaking without permission." Even Mulan's grandmother thinks this is too far.
--> '''Grandmother:''' [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior "Who spit in her bean curd?"]]
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** Grandmother Fa looks insulted on Mulan's behalf when the Matchmaker docks her a point for answering that she was here for her matchmaking evaluation. She asks who spit in the lady's bean curd.
** Mulan is prepared to impersonate a man to save her father. She tells Mushu that she would rather not be a dirty man, as she prepares to bathe in the nearby lake.
** When Mulan seems to be pulling a SuicideMission by stealing the last cannon from Yao and running towards Shan Yu, Shang's reaction is not anger for "Ping" defying orders. It's ''fear''; he starts running and shouting for Ping to stop because he's more concerned about the recruit not dying by Shan Yu's hands than about the insubordination.
** Among the Emperor's summation of Mulan's crimes and misdemeanors, he pointedly says that she deceived Shang, her commanding officer. Shang when listening silently admits that it's a legitimate point given his expression, and is touched that the Emperor cared about him in the summation.
* EvilPlan: Shan Yu goes to war against China out of spite because he sees the Great Wall as a challenge.
* ExactlyWhatIAimedAt: [[spoiler: Instead of shooting at Shan Yu and killing only him, Mulan shoots at a mountaintop and creates an [[HairTriggerAvalanche avalanche]] that wipes out most of his army, turning what could have been a rout for the Hun force into a victory for the Chinese.]]
-->'''Mushu:''' ''[Flying towards [[spoiler:the mountain on cannonback]]]'' YOU MISSED! HOW COULD YOU MISS?! HE WAS ''THREE FEET IN FRONT OF YOU!!!''
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Almost happens at the Huns' ambush.
-->'''Li Shang:''' If we die, we die with honor.
* {{Facepalm}}: Mushu facepalms upon seeing Mulan involuntary smacking the other soldiers around because of her SquirrelsInMyPants moment.
* FailureMontage: The song "I'll Make a Man Out of You" opens with a montage of all the soldiers trying and failing to [[WhenYouSnatchThePebble retrieve Shang's arrow from the top of a pole]].
* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: [[spoiler:Shan Yu]] is blown to bits by several fireworks lit by Mulan and Mushu. Arguably at the village too, [[spoiler:since it's implied no one is left alive. Not even the little girl missing her doll]].
* {{Fanservice}}:
** [[MrFanservice Shang]], [[ShirtlessScene shirtless]] and swinging a pole around while singing "I'll Make A Man Out Of You". Hilariously reviewed by ''Series/TheDailyShow'''s CampGay film critic Frank [=DeCaro=], who responded "Yes, PLEASE! ...And bring the pole."
** [[MsFanservice Mulan]] also; it's notable that compared to other Disney princesses, she is the one that has the most nude scenes (two bath scenes, one of which is fairly extensive), except perhaps for [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ariel]].
* FauxActionGuy: Shang is introduced as a mighty soldier; he fights circles around his recruits, trains them to perfection... and from that point on becomes consistently less competent than Mulan. It's downplayed in that he is still a good warrior, but his lack of success with brute force to defeat the Huns shows that the Chinese will have to use guile and cleverness to win. He provides [[BigDamnHeroes perfect timing in disarming Shan Yu]] and even lands a few good hits on him in the ensuing fight. The problem is that Shan Yu is [[LightningBruiser bigger, meaner, and devastatingly good at headbutts]] -- it takes more than being a Badass Army Captain to beat this guy.
* FeelingTheirAge: Though Fa Zhou retains his sword skills, his old age, bad leg, and an implied heart condition prevent him from performing as he used to, as shown when he collapses doing basic exercises. This is the main reason why Mulan runs off to take his place in the war, knowing he won't survive if he goes off to fight.
* FeminineMotherTomboyishDaughter: Fa Li is an accomplished {{Housewife}} and ProperLady. Her daughter Mulan is fairly feminine, but questions her destiny of ending up in an ArrangedMarriage, fails at all her attempts to be a ProperLady, and flourishes as a warrior when she runs away to join the army in her father's place. [[MostDefinitelyNotAVillain Note that Mulan's masculine behavior is atrocious.]]
* FeministFantasy: Based on the Chinese legend. Mulan is resourceful and brave, choosing to disguise herself as a man in order to take her father's place in the Imperial army. Through her quick wits and determination, she becomes an accomplished soldier and goes on to defeat the BigBad and save China. [[spoiler:Her love interest follows her home, to return her helmet. When awkwardly complimenting her, he focuses on her fighting skills.]]
* FireworksOfVictory: A firework is actually part of the victory, as Mushu launches a huge one ''right at'' Shan Yu. This not only kills him, but sets off a huge fireworks display as Mulan [[OutrunTheFireball outruns them]] and jumps off the roof with an ImprovisedZipline.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: When Khan, Mulan and an unconscious Shang are caught in the avalanche snowdrift, Mulan looks behind her as Mushu and Crick-Ee reunite with then. She goes OhCrap and says, "We need help!" When Mushu and Crick-Ee look as well, they also go OhCrap because they're about to fall off a cliff!
* FlagpoleChallenge: Shang fires an arrow into the top of a pole and challenges the recruits to retrieve it while carrying two heavy metal discs. None of the recruits are able to do so, until Mulan wins the challenge by taking the two heavy discs she was given, tying them together, and wrapping them around the pole to hold her tight to the pole while climbing.
* {{Foil}}:
** Shan Yu is one to Mulan, surprisingly. While completely different in personality and appearance, they have similar goals. They are both trying to prove themselves; Mulan wants to prove herself as a soldier, and Shan Yu wants to prove himself as a conquerer. Also, they are both TheDeterminator and TheUnfettered (Shan Yu commits multiple atrocities to achieve his goals, and Mulan destroys the ''entire'' hun army with an avalanche).
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** During the matchmaker song, Mulan saves a girl's doll from two boys with toy swords. Later, she is able to save a doll, but not the girl who owns it.
** She also demonstrates some cleverness by turning the tide of a game of chess with just a single move. Later, one clever move is enough to bury the Hun Army.
** A StealthPun "A girl can bring her family great honor in one way/by ''striking a good match''." Both of Mulan's victories involved firepower.
** At the end of "Honour To Us All", Mulan is visibly out of step from the rest of the girls, showing that she is the only one who doesn't know what she's doing and foreshadowing that her interview with the matchmaker won't go well.
** When the conscription notices are being handed out, a man in the second family says he will join the army in place of his father. Mulan ends up doing exactly this a few scenes later.
** She shows she's good at aiming a thrown slipper when she chastises Khan for laughing at her first attempt to be "manly." Later, she distracts Shan Yu the same way when he's about to finish off Shang.
** [[spoiler:Subverted with the fact that if Mulan's true identity as a woman in the army is exposed, she will be executed. This is brought up first by Fa Zhou, then by Mushu. When she is exposed, it looks like Shang is about to kill her, but because she had saved his life in the avalanche, he refuses to kill her and flings the sword to the ground.]]
** Mulan spends the morning of her matchmaking session avoiding the "proper" way of doing things and instead using shortcuts such as getting her dog to feed the chickens and writing a supposedly-memorized speech on her arms. It seems lazy and dysfunctional at the time, but it's exactly this kind of "work smarter, not harder" attitude that will soon turn her into a respected CombatPragmatist in the army.
* ForgedMessage: Mushu gets Mulan's company into the war by having Cri-Kee write a fake letter from the general urgently ordering the new recruits into action. Unknown to him, said message turns out to be true and desperately needed. See AccidentalTruth example above
%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The four soldiers -- Ping (Mulan) is Melancholic, Yao is Choleric, Ling is Sanguine, and Chien-Po is Phlegmatic.
* FruitOfTheLoon: The boys stuff their dresses with a variety of fruit, including... a banana.
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