These are a few things about Mulan that you probably don't know yet. Unless you are a major Mulan Fan like me!



Mulan was a very exciting movie for the animators in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Because Mulan was the very first Full Length Animated Feature that was created mostly in Orlando! All other Movies were mostly created in DisneyLand in California. I believe that they did this because they needed time in Disneyland to create the next Full Length Animated Feature "Tarzan".



Mulan is actually a Chinese Legend that was inspired by a poem that has been around for over 2,000 years! It is believed that the poem was based on an actual girl who lived in China years ago. This is the first time that Disney has ever done a movie off of Chinese culture. In my opinion, they did a very good job on it!
Click here to read the actual poem that Mulan was based on



Many artists working on Mulan were sent all the way to China for 3 whole weeks to absorb the Chinese art, atmosphere, and culture. I heard that they took over 300 pictures in 3 weeks! That's a lot of snapshots!!



To get the Chinese Art look for the creation of Mulan, Disney Animators used China's ancient concept of "sing" style artwork which is empty spaces balanced by "positive" detail. This art style is a very difficult concept to grasp. The Animators did a good job of recreating this style that took 2,000 years to perfect!
Click here to view the list of cast and producers



For the scene called "The Charge Of The Evil Huns", Disney Animators used CGI (Computer Generated Imagery). They used the brand new computer system called Attila to create this scene. Disney also used a special effect using a hand-held camera. To make the avalanche dramatic, the directors imitated the shaky effect by projecting a penciled version of the scene and filming it with the camera. There is an estimated 2,000 soldiers in this scene alone!



If you look very closely, you might notice that Mulan's eyes are a slightly different shape than they are when she is Ping. At the start of the scene when Mulan is in training, you see many pale colors. At the end, the colors become vibrant, and bold, the artist put so much red in the scene because the color red symbolizes Chinese patriotism and energy. Most of the armies exercises are actually based on the training moves from the ancient Shoalin Temple, which is the birthplace of martial arts! Some exercises, although were made up by the Disney writers. The recruits weren't actually forced to run through a field of burning arrows!!



For the creation of the scene where Mulan is disguising herself as a man, the footsteps of Mulan fall in place with the beat for effect. Mulan's producers decided not to use word in this scene. They decided to use music and color to tell the story. At the start of this scene, you dark and gloomy colors. At the end of the scene, when Mulan is a soldier, the colors become bright orange and yellow. This is the most inspiring scene in the movie.



If you have any inside information on Mulan, and you want credit for it up here, E-Mail it to me at TiggerOne@Earthlink.net. ,Thanx