Shan Yu is then blasted to the New Year's fireworks tower and is killed in the explosion. Mulan is deemed China's bravest warrior, and as a reward for his assistance in restoring the Fa family honor, Mushu regains his job as a family guardian (to the reluctance of the First Fa Ancestor).
Mushu was once a guardian spirit of Mulan's family, but he has been demoted to the unappreciated position of an incense burner and gong-ringer for the deceased Fa ancestors ever since he failed to protect a family member, a soldier named Fa Deng, resulting in the soldier's demise by decapitation.
Though the director shared that Mushu was removed to allow Mulan to better enhance her relationships with her fellow soldiers, his absence may have also been more about not offending viewers, who found Mushu to be insensitive in the 1998 animated feature.
Also, the fact that Mushu is a dragon may be a nod to the fact that, while Mulan is a mighty force on her own, she requires a little bit of guidance to be whole and achieve her goals. Ultimately, this would mean that Mushu couldn't awaken the Great Stone Dragon because it was awake all along.
Mulan's ancestors plan to send a dragon guardian to protect her and summon Mushu, a small dragon who was previously demoted, to awaken him. When the dragon spirit fails to awaken, Mushu seizes the opportunity to accompany Mulan instead, with his own intentions of redeeming himself by becoming her guardian.
Disney Theory: Mushu Isn't Mulan's ONLY Guardian!: Discovering Disney
Why did Mushu turn evil?
If any of you watched Mulan 2, for exapmle buying it on DVD, Mushu turns evil after losing his pedastol, so he tries to tear apart Mulan and Shang, which worked.
"Using it as a silly sidekick didn't play very well with the traditional Chinese audience." But perhaps the most significant reason why the new Mulan film features a phoenix instead is due to the symbolism of the mythical bird for Chinese women in particular — or at least according to Caro's vision.
For better use, the animators shrunk Mushu to a smaller size. Around the time when the music of the film was to be created, the songwriters had written a piece for Mushu for him to sing to assure Mulan that he'll be there to help her.
Though Mulan introduces Mushu to Shang at the end of the film's inferior sequel, he is oblivious to Mulan's little red dragon friend through the entirety of the first film. The fact that he, along with everyone else in the army, never saw him is hard to believe.
It turns out that the traditional Chinese audience did not particularly think that was the best interpretation of the dragon in their culture. That the dragon is a sign of respect and of strength and power and sort of using it as a silly sidekick did not play well with a traditional Chinese audience."
A clause in Eddie Murphy's contract for doing Shrek 2 (2004) forbade him from reprising the role of Mushu in this film, therefore having his other voice actor Mark Moseley (a man best known for filling in for Murphy's characters like Mushu and Donkey in their TV and Video Game appearances) fill in for this film.
Mulan star Liu Yifei's comments supporting Hong Kong police sparked criticism of the film, which quickly led to a call for boycotts among Hong Kong pro-democracy protestors, as well as Thai and Taiwanese activists, among others.
Mulan's surname was rendered as the Yue Chinese (aka Cantonese) "Fa", though this was to pay respect to the poem being originally written in that language.
Shan Yu was inspired by the real-life Attila the Hun. Though while Shan Yu died by the hands of fireworks, Attila died by choking on his own blood the night he was to be wed to his future wife, Ildico. Coincidently the name of the computer system that was used to animate the Hun army charge was called Attila.
Although Mushu and the phoenix are both guardians of the ancestors, and both are stone statues brought to life for Mulan's protection, the phoenix is never a true replacement for Mushu. Mulan and the phoenix never really interact, compared with Mushu's constant involvement in the animated film.
Mushu, at last, is restored to guardian status in the family temple. Mulan thanks him for his help in her adventurous plan, and the ancestors celebrate that the Fa family is complete again.
In reality, the filmmakers claimed that they were influenced by the #MeToo Movement, finding it inappropriate for Mulan's love interest to be her commanding officer. Considering how poorly the animated film performed in China, Disney made an active effort to appeal to the Chinese market in its live-action film.
USC professor Stanley Rosen said the character was seen as trivializing Chinese culture by Chinese moviegoers. "Mushu was very popular in the U.S., but the Chinese hated it," they said. "This kind of miniature dragon trivialized their culture." "You have to deliver on the war of it," Caro said.
China blocked the release of Disney's animated “Mulan” for eight months in the late 1990s after the company backed Martin Scorsese's “Kundun,” a film seen as sympathetic to the Dalai Lama. The animated “Mulan” bombed in China as a result.
The men finish their training, but Chi Fu, the Emperor's counsellor, refuses to let them go to battle. He believes that they are not prepared to go to war. Mushu writes a fake letter from the General, however, ordering Li Shang to take his men to battle.
This expensive live-action version from Disney has everything you remember and more. Well OK, it doesn't have singing. Forget the songs you grew up with: they didn't fit the vision of director Niki Caro from New Zealand (Whale Rider), who has now helmed the most expensive film ever made by a woman.
The cinematography is great and the colors are often vibrant, but the story is pretty dull. The lead actress is awfully bland as well. The action and music are standouts, but get bogged down by some pacing issues. My biggest issue with this film though is Mulan herself.
Scholarly consensus is that Mulan is a fictional character, probably developed in Northern China in response to the greater independence women enjoyed there, whose legend was then revised in succeeding eras to reflect the values and challenges of the times.
