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Nightmare Fuel / Mulan

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"The finest soldiers of China... slaughtered senselessly by the Huns."
This movie is the reason why war is not what kids expected as cool when they grow up to be soldiers.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.


  • The Huns can be downright creepy.
    • As Epic Voice Guy put it in the Honest Trailer for Mulan:
      Epic Voice Guy: Good Lord, Disney! These were an actual people, not the Uruk-hai!
    • Shan-Yu has enough Nightmare Fuel on his own. And it's not just from the fact that Miguel Ferrer's performance is just so gravelly and husky that it gives you the chills.
      "How many men does it take to deliver a message?"
      "... One."
      • Even worse, he doesn't snarl those words or growl them. He asks them with utter nonchalance, a smirk plastered across his face as he does so. He knows what he's asking and simply doesn't care.
    • "Besides, the little girl will be missing her doll. We should return it to her."
      • Even before this scene, Shan-Yu gives his men the doll to inspect. With just a second each, they correctly deduced that the Chinese Army is stationed at a village in the high mountains. This shows why the Huns are to be feared, they aren't just strong brutes, they are dastardly smart.
    • Shan-Yu's appearance at the beginning during the invasion of the Great Wall.
      • Just the sheer implication of what he did to the nameless soldier who lit the signal flare that alerted all of China to his presence. Shan-Yu snaps a flagpole off its post, burns the flag in the fire and just grins while responding to the knowledge that his presence is known by quipping back "Perfect." We don't see what he does to the soldier, but he was burning the flag off of a very sharp stick...
  • Mulan and her comrades are singing a cheerful marching song when WHAM, they come across a burned-out village, the aftermath of a Hun massacre - not just of the villagers, but of the Imperial Army led by Shang's father. There are bodies on the ground. In a Disney film. And then Mulan finds an abandoned doll among the wreckage...
    • After said cheerful marching song, the musical part of the movie is over. This tells the audience and the soldiers alike that this is war, and War Is Hell.
  • The Matchmaker getting her dress on fire, while funny, is still quite violent and disturbing. Mulan dumps tea on the Matchmaker, extinguishing her, but the resulting look on matchmaker's face, the tears and the already makeup is quite a horror. Not to mention her rage bordering on a nearly maniacal level.
  • Mulan is clearly horrified to hear the family name being called, meaning that her elderly father will have to go to war and will likely die.
  • The reaction of Mulan's mother, father and grandmother when she has gone off to join the army. Especially given the time period.
    Fa Li: You must go after her! She could be killed!
    Fa Zhou: If I reveal her... she will be.
  • Chi Fu ordering Shang to execute the exposed Mulan. Despite it being the law that women who join the army are sentenced to death, Yao, Ling and Chien-Po are horrified and try to rush to defend Mulan, but Chi Fu reminds them of the law and they can only watch. The look on Shang's face is cold and scary as he slowly and menacingly walks toward Mulan with the sword in his hand. Mulan closes her eyes, ready for death as Shang raises the sword...then flings it to the ground in front of her.
  • The Huns crawling out of the snow like frigging zombies. While it's only Shan Yu and his elite (the credits directly call them that), it's still unsettling how these guys just. Won't. Die.
  • The aftermath of the Chinese army's rocket barrage against Shan Yu's forces. As the dust settles, there's Shan Yu astride his horse completely unharmed… and then he is joined by two of his lieutenants… and then they are joined by more… and more… and more. The music swells as it dawns on the Chinese Army (and the audience) that, for all their vaunted firepower, the Huns have literally just shaken off their best effort. If it wasn't for Mulan coming up with a ridiculously creative solution, the Huns would have won right there.
    • As it dawns on Shang that this could be it, you can hear his voice cracking a little bit as he tries to maintain morale for his troops… even though he knows it's all over.
    Shang: Prepare to fight. If we die, we die with honor.
  • The avalanche, once Mulan triggers it. It wipes out most of the Huns, yes, but it also nearly wipes out Mulan's entire battalion. Shang has a moment to comprehend the danger before Mulan tries to pull him away. They and Khan get caught by the snowdrifts, while the rest of the battalion takes cover behind a rock. It's one of the few times "Ping" calls out to Shang in her real voice on seeing him unconscious and being carried away. If not for Yao shooting that arrow, and Mulan shooting it back in record time, she, Shang, Khan, Mushu and Cri-Kee would have fallen off the cliff.
    Mushu: WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIE! We're definitely gonna die! No way we survive this! DEATH IS COMING!
    • Even so, the safety rope nearly pulls Yao, Ling and the men off as well until Chien Po picks them up and walks backward. It's hard to blame Shang for afterward calling Ping "the craziest man I know."
  • Shan Yu's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown against Shang in the climax. Mulan's plan, after taking out the Huns guarding the palace doors, didn't account for Shan Yu being twice her Captain's body weight. While Shang puts up a good fight, Shan Yu defeats him with a head-butt and leaves him semiconscious.
    • When he realizes Mulan is "The Soldier from the Mountains", he just tosses Shang aside like trash and heads towards her. That moment is terrifying already, but when he corners Mulan on the roof, his smile is that of a serial killer! You just know that he would've made her death a painful one.

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