I'm sure this topic has been made before, but I gotta say. Best Disney movie ever.
I watched it a couple of weeks ago with my girlfriend and tried not to tear up over it.
I was about ten or so when it came out and remember it hit me harder than ever that I was definitely different than the other girls and related a lot to Mulan. I remember my twin sister used to listen to Reflection song all the time, and I used to think, man she doesn't understand it like I do. And that was before I realized I was trans.
Years later I used to drink with an FTM friend of mine and listen to the music from it. Haha.
How old were you when it came out and how did it make you feel to watch it?
I just watched that again I think a year ago.
I LOVE the song Reflection, "Look at me I will never pass for a perfect bride or a perfect daughter, can it be I'm not meant to play this part? Now I see, that if I were truly to be myself, I would break my families heart. Who is that girl I see, staring straight back at me, why is my reflection someone I don't know? Some how I cannot hide, who I am, though I've tried. When will my reflection show who I am inside." - Then she wipes the make up from her face.
I think I was around seven or eight when it came out. It was instantly my favorite movie ever! I remember my mum would never buy me that movie for some reason though and it really depressed me. I didn't know why I liked it so much. And when I grew up and began repressing who I was, I claimed I just liked the dragon. Although...I still do! Freaking hilarious. I think this is the closest thing us trans people got to a trans kids movie! It's beautiful. I used to watch it over and over and over again at my babysitters. If I had to try and think about how it made me feel, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm going to say it made me feel safe. It's hard for me to think back that far since I don't have much of my childhood memory, but for some reason when I watched it last year I remembered EVERYTHING. I even knew all the words to the song! I was like...what?
Hahah that's awesome man. Yeah I can never fully explain how it really made me feel. It was like.... it made me feel that it wasn't too late to be a man even though I was female born. I don't know. weird. but I watched it aaaall the time. I remember even faking sick and staying home watching it all day.
I always had a rough time watching that scene. not so much because of the lyrics themselves, but more because I couldn't be a girl and make my parents happy :/ the entire concept of Mulan is so close to home. I like the movie a lot, but I watch it sparingly to stay in a good mood, heh.
Ahhh yeah I often knew that I was going to disappoint my family.
but it turns out I didn't. somehow out of everyone in my family I still ended up being the favourite. odd. hahahah.
To be honest, I like Mulan more then other people I knew. It was got a lot of heat for not being that great. But I thought it was a decent and entertaining movie. I don't remember watching it, and it definitely wasn't my favorite movie.
I was the little kid that ran around in a diaper with a plastic tape player with a mic attachment singing the entire Lion King soundtrack. Lion King was closer to home for me. And I enjoyed the carefree nature of the movie. I always wanted to be Simba and get the girl. Haha. I should go pick up Mulan and give it a watch, see if I remember the movie any.
Hahah yeah I also LOVE the Lion King too.
I remember at Christmas once, my mom and dad got me and my twin sister Simba and Nala stuffed animals that had magnet noses that kissed. I was soo happy because it was the first time I felt we were acknowledged as boy-girl twins since I had Simba and my sister had Nala.
Kinda creepy now but whatever.
Mulan was my favorite Disney movie for as long as I can remember. It wasn't until I came out that I realized why.
It's still my favorite, and probably always will be.
I thought mulan was going to actually live as a guy and I was sad when she didn't. I think I was like 10 when it came out, I was kinda sad with the way it ended because I thought that I wasn't alone till it ended :/
Haha I used to have Simba pajamas. Admittedly Mulan's not my favorite, I probably have a million favorites, but it's definitely high enough on the list to call it my favorite.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Land Before Time, used to collect the dvds!
Yeah I admit I have many favourites hahahah
Hm, I must be the only person who never until now thought about the connection between Mulan and transgenders.
I just thought Mulan wanted to be a regular girl (instead of the submissive, "proper", girl the Chinese culture said to be). I mean, Mulan still wore girls clothing when she went back home. And especially in the second movie, she was a total girl, but a tough girl.
Anyway, I just never noticed that about the Mulan story before. And I definitely didn't related because I'm so non-aggressive and I would never want to go into the Military. lol.
Well, I certainly am not the aggressive or military type. but it is just the fact that she challenges her gender or I guess, gender expression and doesn't quite 'fit' right with other women.
I actually didnt like this movie much when I was younger...I never really used to like movies with people in them, animals were better :P I was probably 8 when I last saw it. I do remember the part where Mulan goes swimming and I do remember feeling uncomfortable knowing that those other guys swimming would find out she was a girl ::) Haha, I really really really loved the lion king tho!
Mulan is definitely a "keeper". Never thought of it as a FTM situation, but yeah, now that you describe it...
Even more a keeper now.
I've actually never seen it, by the time it came out I was in this phase of "I hate everything even remotely reminiscent of my childhood and that means all of Disney".
Luckily, I've grown the hell up since then, and my boyfriend apparently really likes Mulan. We were on this Disney-youtube kick last week and he showed me that 'Reflection' song, and of course, I cried. And got pissed about it. But decided that we should absolutely buy it sometime soon. Because I love Eddie Murphy.
Pfft...I still watch The Lion King occasionally. And Pocahontas. Aw hell, I watch just about all the Disney movies that came out during the early-mid 90's. Especially Hunchback because that's my favorite <3 'Cause of the music.
I was always fascinated by the Shakespeare plays where the female character would disguise herself as male, most notably in my mind are Twelfth Night and As You Like It.
I actually got to play Rosalind from As You Like It in a few scenes from the play (back when I was still presenting as female), and even though it wasn't one of the cross dressing scenes I quite liked playing a character that would disguise herself as male.
And when they would get in love triangles like the Viola/Cesario - Olivia - Orsino love triangle in Twelfth Night, I would always root for the girl disguised as a guy to go for the girl, ha ha. I liked the idea of Cesario and Olivia together.
I didn't watch it when it first came out, I was probably 9 or 10 when I finally saw it. Instantly loved it. And I knew why. It wasn't even the first time I'd seen that plotline, when I was 8 I read the Song of the Lioness quartet, which is about a girl who says she's a boy so she can become a knight. And that she was living as a guy, I knew I wanted that so badly. Like Mulan, she ended up going back to living as a girl, and even enjoying life that way. And I felt betrayed when I saw that. I liked to pretend the ending never happened, because I couldn't understand why she'd give that up.
I think that convinced me to tough it out when I hit puberty, because I thought if I waited long enough, I might get used to it like Alanna (the protagonist) did. In a way Mulan was much less personal, practically comedic and she was clearly uncomfortable in a male role at times. But you got to see Alanna hitting puberty and freaking out entirely, just like I did, even though for her it was for mostly different reasons. The most valuable part of Mulan for me was the Reflection song, but lots of things in Alanna hit home.
Quote from: JayValentine on May 23, 2011, 01:50:37 AM
I LOVE the song Reflection, "Look at me I will never pass for a perfect bride or a perfect daughter, can it be I'm not meant to play this part? Now I see, that if I were truly to be myself, I would break my families heart. Who is that girl I see, staring straight back at me, why is my reflection someone I don't know? Some how I cannot hide, who I am, though I've tried. When will my reflection show who I am inside." - Then she wipes the make up from her face.
Reflection is the song that goes with my current avatar.
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(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.us%2Fm%2F21%2F148%2Freflectionb.jpg&hash=89a88154808bf46d815b20f28e21a489c4359f96)
There is a disney parody video called "After Ever After 2" where Mulan is transgender.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIQr_TrFTUk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIQr_TrFTUk)
I think that it's pretty cool.
Quote from: James-Alen on May 23, 2011, 01:59:11 AM
I always had a rough time watching that scene. not so much because of the lyrics themselves, but more because I couldn't be a girl and make my parents happy :/ the entire concept of Mulan is so close to home. I like the movie a lot, but I watch it sparingly to stay in a good mood, heh.
Same. I always wondered why I preferred this Disney movie over the others.
I remember watching this around 8 years old in theaters when it first came out. My dad took me during summer vacation to see it. The movie back then had a big impact on me. I loved it. I remember secretly feeling like a boy and scared to tell anyone. Since I was on vacation and my parents were divorced and living in different states, I asked my dad to take me to get a hair cut (something my mother would never let me do). Since he was all into doing stuff that would make my mom mad, he took me. I got her exact hair cut and was very proud of it. I felt just like Mulan. LOL I remember it like it was yesterday.
Quote from: 4736251 on July 14, 2014, 08:56:09 PM
There is a disney parody video called "After Ever After 2" where Mulan is transgender.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIQr_TrFTUk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIQr_TrFTUk)
I think that it's pretty cool.
OMG I didn't know he did a second one! It's even better than the first one, I love this kid.
As for Mulan, she's always been my favorite Disney Princess. It seemed like she was the first one whose romance subplot was really more of an afterthought; she didn't go out to get a man (though Belle didn't either). She went out to save her father's life (there are a shocking number of similarities between Mulan and Belle, now that I think about it). Mulan was my second favorite movie growing up; the first was, of course, The Lion King. I wanted to be Simba when I was four. My mom likes to tell the story thusly: "You wanted to be Simba! I said 'oh, for Halloween?' Nope. You wanted to actually be Simba. I told you that changing a person into a lion would be pretty darn difficult. You said you could do it, though."
But yeah, it bums me out that Mulan isn't on more princess merch. I mean, I get that she's not
technically a princess, but if Belle (who would be a queen) and Pocahontas (Chief's daughter, not a princess) count, so should Mulan. (I will grant that Pocahontas isn't on even as much stuff as Mulan, but that was because her movie was full of historical inaccuracies big enough to drive a truck through.)
wow, I *LOVED* Mulan from the first time I watched it as a kid. Something just clicked. Mulan and Lion King are at the top of my list for favorite Disney movies ever. :) Disney movies were basically my childhood, lol. I remember running around as a little kid and dancing to this song every time it came on while I was watching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSS5dEeMX64 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSS5dEeMX64)