When you're an adult revisiting your favorite films from childhood, you are likely to catch all kinds of things you didn't notice when you were young and innocent. Some Disney classics like Mulan hold up pretty well, but there are still some moments that you see in a new light when you watch them as an adult. If you know a bit about Chinese history, you know the portrayal of the Huns isn't completely accurate, and you might even know that the story Mulan is based on is even more fascinating. Let's take a look at some things that only adults notice in Mulan.
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00:00For all its groundbreaking aspects, there are some pretty problematic things in Mulan,
00:05not that you would notice any of them as a kid.
00:08Here are some things only adults would notice when watching Mulan.
00:12When it comes to movies, Disney has typically been more focused on telling an entertaining
00:17story than being factually accurate, so historical inaccuracies should be expected.
00:23While it's easy to let a lot of these errors slide, the bad guys in Mulan are pretty hard
00:27to ignore.
00:28Nice work, gentlemen.
00:30You found the Hun army."
00:32Historians agree that the Hunnic Empire reached its height under the most famous Hun, Attila,
00:38whose life would have overlapped with Mulan's.
00:40There's just one problem, though.
00:42Even at its largest, Attila's territory stopped 3,000 miles away from where Mulan takes place,
00:48and his efforts to conquer land were focused mostly toward Europe, not China.
00:53Disney is infamous for altering the source material that their films are based on.
00:58Often it's to make the stories more appropriate for younger audiences.
01:01In the case of Mulan, her legend becomes a lot less epic.
01:05In both the original story and its various retellings, Mulan did volunteer herself in
01:10order to save her father.
01:12In the legend, however, Mulan was never raised to be a docile wife.
01:16Instead, her father trained her in martial arts from childhood, and she became an expert
01:20in military strategy.
01:21My little baby, I have to destroy people."
01:24Unlike in the film, Mulan's parents knew what she planned to do and eventually supported
01:29her.
01:30She ended up staying in the army for 12 years and was highly honored at the end of the war.
01:34It's still an interesting story, but not quite as dramatic as Disney made it look.
01:39It seems pretty strange that the Farr family only has one child.
01:43Judging from their home and the vast expanse of their property, the Farr family is probably
01:48fairly well off, and could afford to have another one.
01:50The absence of more children is especially strange given the long-held preference for
01:55male children in Chinese culture.
01:57"...little brother, little brother."
02:01Even if we were to assume that Mulan's mother couldn't have any more children, it would
02:05have been common at the time for a man to have relationships with concubines, not that
02:09Disney wants its audiences thinking about that.
02:12Had the Farr family had a son, there would have been someone to take the place of Mulan's
02:16father.
02:18Rockets may have been developed in China, but at the time that Mulan would have lived,
02:23military rockets hadn't been invented yet.
02:25That wouldn't happen for some time.
02:27While 10th century Chinese fighters did have access to crude bombs, and sometimes attached
02:32firecrackers to arrows on the battlefield, they wouldn't learn how to fire full-on explosive
02:37projectiles until two centuries later, meaning that Mulan and the Chinese army would most
02:42likely have fought the enemy with arrows, swords, or hand-to-hand combat.
02:47For a movie that's meant to show how a woman can do anything a man can do, it seems pretty
02:51strange that Mulan doesn't question traditional gender roles at any point.
02:56When she is sent to the matchmaker, she genuinely tries to conform to the feminine ideal and
03:01feels like she has failed her family when she doesn't.
03:04"...you may look like a bride, but you will never bring your family honor!"
03:10Even when she joins the army, it's because she wants to save her father, not because
03:14she believes that she is equal to a man.
03:17Women in ancient China were generally treated as inferior and were typically expected to
03:21be subservient to men.
03:23While Mulan does eventually rebel against these gender roles, she never actually questions
03:28them, which takes a little bit of the radical edge off of what otherwise feels like a pretty
03:33progressive film.
03:35Mulan thankfully doesn't end with Mulan and Shang falling in love and living happily ever
03:39after, but their eventual romance is heavily hinted at by the time the credits roll.
03:44If Mulan had truly evolved into a strong, independent woman, she would have sent Shang
03:49packing instead of asking him to stay for dinner.
03:52At the very least, Mulan should have demanded an apology for Shang's despicable behavior.
03:57When you look at it too closely, the fact that she lets him off the hook so easily is
04:01a disappointing way to end the film.
04:03But it's not anywhere near as disappointing as Mulan 2.
04:07Shang, the problem isn't as bad as it seems.
04:10The problem, Mulan, is you.
04:12What?