Study on the reasons for the success of Mulan in the Disney cartoon film in the aspect of the change of permanent and values

Abstract

In 1998, Chinese Hua Mulan went abroad to the USA, originated from a legendary story in ancient time, which was adapted to a cartoon film version, Mulan by Walt Disney Company. Soon, Mulan became very hot. The theme song immediately skipped to the top of all the music charts for several weeks, like the theme song, my heart will go on, from titanic. There came another astonishing phenomenon that some American parents even name Mulan for girls that they have adopted from China. The musical adapted from this cartoon film was popular in Mexico, then spread to Asia, Philippines, all of which was full of audience. In Hong Kong, taking photos with the image of the cartoon character was one thing must do if any one had a chance to visit Disneyland. to sum up, Mulan has became the character that no one had unawareness. Such miracle brought huge benefit to Walt Disney Company. As was assumed, Mulan had put more than $300 million into Disney’s pocket.

By examining the reason for the huge success obtained by Mulan, this thesis argues that the transformation of the temperament and values (mainly the individualism) of Chinese figure, Hua Mulan, is the important reason for the success. This paper will focus on the adaptation of Hua Mulan from the perspective of the national temperament and individual. This thesis contains six chapters. Chapter one, the introduction, includes the brief introduction about the success Mulan has got, the motivation of this research, the importance of research. Chapter two, the literature review, in this chapter, the author gives a brief survey of the critical works, on the reasons for the success of Mulan. Chapter three, introduces the theory that will be used in the further discussions. Chapter four, is the review the story of both Hua Mulan and Mulan, and then a review of historical adaptation of Mulan Ci. Chapter five is the discussion and analysis of the adaptation. There are two parts in this chapter, one for the aspect of temperament, one for the values (mainly the individualism). This chapter will make comparison and analysis for the temperament and values expressed in the two masterpieces, Mulan Ci and Mulan, combing the Chinese National Temperament, traditional values, and western National Temperament, values (mainly individualism). It is concluded that the success of this Disney film owes much to the fact that the temperament and values it reflects correspond with the psychological needs of the audience.

Key words: Hua Mulan, Mulan, National Temperament, values