“My name is Mulan.”
Disney’s Moana makes a big deal of underlining that Moana is not a Disney princess.
“I’m not a princess.
I’m the daughter of the chief.”
This moment feels like Disney trying to update its brand
and get away from the idea of its heroines all being girly-girl princesses.
“[SINGS] Someday, my prince will come.”
But way before Moana, there was another not-a-Disney princess:
Mulan.
“I’ve heard a great deal about you, Fa Mulan.”
Since 1998, Mulan has been the go-to Disney heroine
for little girls who feel like tomboys,
or who feel that the typical Disney performance of femininity
just isn’t for them.
“She’s a hero”
“She’s a woman.
She’ll never be worth anything!”
And that’s a really important representation to have.
“You said you trust Ping.
Why is Mulan any different?”
Still, Mulan has been a part of the Disney Princess franchise
ever since its debut.
So, thanks to 20 years of merchandising and marketing,
Mulan exists in the collective consciousness as a Disney princess.
And it can be easy to forget
that Mulan fundamentally is not any such thing.
She’s a soldier, with no royal connections,
and she doesn’t follow the basic princess story arc.
“[SINGS] Can it be, I am not meant to play this card?”
And that begs the question: what is a Disney princess,
and why was it so significant that Mulan really didn’t fit the type?
[SINGS] ”A girl can bring her family Great honor in one way
By striking a good match And this could be the day”
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What actually makes a character a Disney princess?
“If you wear a dress, and have an animal sidekick,
you're a princess.”
In the story sense, there are essentially two ways
for a Disney heroine to become a princess.
She can be born royalty,
or she can fall in love with and marry a prince.
Unlike almost every other Disney heroine,
Mulan has no relation to royalty or nobility of any kind.
Her father was a war hero,
“Fa Zhou?
The Fa Zhou?”
so she comes from an impressive background, but not a royal one.
And she doesn’t marry into royalty, either--
her love interest, Li Shang, is a captain in the military,
decidedly not a prince.
“Leader of China’s finest troops.
No, the greatest troops of all time!”
[Chuckles]
Moana is technically much closer to being a princess --
as the daughter of the chief,
she is in line to take over an important governing role.
A Disney Princess also tends to be defined
by some other common patterns in their stories.
The Wreck-It Ralph 2 trailer gives us a pretty comprehensive and comical
list
of these princess qualities.
“Do you have magic hair?”
“Magic hands?”
“Do animals talk to you?”
“Were you poisoned?”
“Cursed?”
“Kidnapped or enslaved?”
“Do people assume all your problems got solved
because a big, strong man showed up?”
Strikingly, at least one of these somewhat ridiculous trademarks
does apply to every Disney princess, except for Mulan.
So even by the princesses’ own definition of a princess,
Mulan doesn’t fit.
The princess archetype doesn’t only relate to being royal
or to these surface-level features, though.
On a deeper level, princesses embody traits
like optimism, kindness, empathy and caregiving.
These gentle traits are traditionally considered feminine in our society,
and are therefore, undervalued.
But Disney princesses always use their kindness to save the day.
What’s more, as royalty, they hold a position of power while they do it.
This is one of the most positive aspects of Disney princesses.
“Our people look to her for wisdom and strength.
Someday, they’ll look to you as well.”
Unfortunately, this kind of representation is still rare --
female characters still overwhelmingly play supporting roles to male heroes
who succeed thanks to their traditionally masculine strengths.
“Now go be a hero.”
And little girls watching so often have to find themselves in side characters.
That’s a big part of why Disney princesses
have such an enduring and powerful appeal
for young female viewers.
Seeing women heroes whose feminine qualities are celebrated
is pivotal for many young girls,
or for anyone who sees themselves reflected in that type of character.
Mulan definitely isn’t devoid of these more profound “princess” characteristics.
She’s very kind, and she’s motivated by love for her family above all else.
“You shouldn’t have to go!”
“Mulan!?”
“There are plenty of young men to fight for China!”
These personality traits just aren’t the focus of her story.
She’s busy fighting a war and saving China,
so the features of a typical princess, like caregiving, don’t get the spotlight.
Mulan’s most salient quality is her intelligence.
[Shouting] “How could you miss?
He was three feet in front of you!”
She’s always thinking outside the box
and solving problems in an unexpected way.
She’s also brave enough to trust in her mind
and do things her own way --
and in the story, that means not worrying about
conforming to traditional masculinity or femininity.
“And what if somebody sees you?”
“Just because I look like a man, doesn’t mean I have to smell like one.”
During the song, “I’ll Make a Man out of You,”
she proves she thinks differently than everyone else,
because she doesn’t not assume brute strength is the only possible solution to every problem.
So she might be posing as a male soldier, but she doesn’t approach challenges
the way the other men around her do.
“It looks like you’re out of ideas.”
[Mulan grunts, inhales] “Not quite.”
Challenging gender roles with her ingenuity and creativity
is how Mulan saves the day,
and that’s very different from the traditional princess arc.
“You have saved us all.”
There are certainly other Disney princesses who are very intelligent.
No one would question Belle’s knowledge of literature
or Ariel’s intellectual curiosity.
But Mulan’s intelligence -- her different way of thinking --
is actually the crucial factor in shaping her plot.
If the traditional princess arc centers on achieving justice through love or compassion,
Mulan’s story is fundamentally about problem solving
and defining self-worth on one’s own terms.
[Whistles] “Hey guys, I’ve got an idea!”
As of 2017, there are eleven princesses
officially recognized as part of the Disney princess franchise --
and that includes Mulan.
The “official” princesses include the obvious choices,
like Belle, Ariel, Cinderella, and Aurora,
as well as some fairly recent additions, like Merida and Rapunzel.
This lineup seems a little strange
when you realize that Mulan, not a princess, makes the cut,
when actual Disney royalty are conspicuously missing,
like Anna, Elsa, and arguably Moana.
But, this is a shrewd marketing and business decision:
Anna, Elsa, and Moana came to be during a time
when the world found the princess archetype a little tired and limiting.
[Raising her voice] “I suppose a Princess just does what she’s
told?!”
“A princess does not raise her voice.”
These new heroines have been praised for being less “princess-y” --
and for pushing aside love interests in favor of their own independence.
So, it was pretty logical for Disney to distance recent heroines from the “princess” brand.
Back in 1998, though,
Disney’s approach was to expand the Princess identity.
Including Mulan helped the princess brand appeal
to kids who might not identify with the hyperfemininity of the other princesses.
It was a very deliberate way of allowing some sort of gender fluidity
into the definition of “princess.”
[Shrieking] “Your great-granddaughter had to be a CROSSDRESSER!”
So today Disney’s marketing gets the best of both worlds --
having new franchises for modern “independent” heroines,
while maintaining its widely appealing past “princess” franchise.
And thus appearing progressive,
while still selling as much merchandise as possible.
Unfortunately, Mulan’s representation as a “princess”
waters down a lot of the progressive work
that the movie itself actually does.
“I knew there was something wrong with you!”
“A woman.”
[gasps]
“Treacherous snake!”
Every other Disney heroine before her is overtly feminine,
and most have an iconic dress associated with them.
So even just the fact that Mulan spends most of the movie disguised as a man
sets her apart from the others.
“Excuse me, where do I sign in?
Ah, I see you have a sword!
I have one, too.
They’re very manly and...tough!”
But in all of the Disney princess ad campaigns, Mulan’s wearing a dress.
And in most of these promos,
her dress is a version of the one she wears while she sings in “Reflection,”
about how her appearance in this clothing doesn’t reflect the person she really is.
[Singing] “Who is that girl I see, staring straight, back at me?”
It’s the dress she wears to try to impress the matchmaker,
and when she has to confront the fact that she doesn’t fit the role laid out for
her.
[Shouting] “You are a disgrace!
You may look like a bride,
but you will never bring your family honor!”
So this dress is symbolic of the disconnect Mulan feels while she tries to perform femininity
in the way that’s expected of her.
By marketing Mulan in this dress that’s so not her,
Disney is fitting Mulan into girlish conventions,
even though Mulan’s entire character arc is about defying those conventions,
and pointing out how alienating they can be if they’re not right for you.
[Singing] “We help you.
Washed and dried.
Primped and polished ‘till you glow with pride!
Just my recipe for instant bride!”
In Disney movies where the heroine isn’t born a princess
but marries into royalty,
her newfound “princess” status is usually a reward for her pure-heartedness.
For example, Cinderella’s kindness is rewarded with the prince’s love
and her escape from her abusive family.
In Mulan’s case, it’s almost as if Disney decided--
after the movie was over --
to “reward” her achievements with the princess title,
even though the story itself didn’t make her a princess
But Mulan is a movie about how there are multiple ways to earn honor,
and society is wrong to recognize only one.
“Is she allowed to do that?”
So even if Disney views this label as a way to elevate Mulan,
falsely labeling her a princess sends a message
that there’s only one role a female heroine can have,
which runs counter to everything Mulan stands for.
“You don’t meet a girl like that every dynasty.”
What’s even more fascinating is that the plot of the movie sort of
tries to make Mulan royalty, and she refuses.
“See to it that this woman is made a member of my council.”
“With all due respect, your excellency, I think I’ve been away from home long enough.”
By the end of the movie, Mulan is sure enough of herself
that she doesn’t need external validation.
She can refuse something that others would consider a great honor.
Just because it’s not that important to her.
“The greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter.”
What matters to her is her integrity,
proving that she can stay true to herself and creating a space for her unique identity.
“Maybe what I really wanted was to prove I could do things right.
So when I looked in the mirror, I’d see someone worthwhile.”
So all evidence points to the fact that,
if given the choice, Mulan would turn the princess label down.
For little kids,
it’s a lot of fun to imagine being a Disney princess.
And there’s nothing wrong with relating to the Disney princess identity,
if that’s for you.
But Mulan is really for the girls out there who don’t feel
that Disney princess is a fit for them.
“Uh...You fight good.”
Mulan reminds little girls that,
even if they don’t identify with the princess archetype,
there’s still room within femininity and girlhood for them.
So, it’s time we stopped labeling her as a princess,
because, if anything, the point of Mulan’s story is
that you don’t need to be a princess --
or hold any other title --
to make your mark on the world.
You just need to be you.
“You are the craziest man I’ve ever met.
And for that I owe you my life.”
I'm Debra.
I'm Susannah.
We're the creators of ScreenPrism.
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Down there!