Mulan Production Cels

Mulan is a young girl who wants to please and honor her family, but seems destined to fail. When she is sent to a matchmaker to win a good husband, her gawkiness and lack of grace lead to shame and rejection. These problems pale, however, when her aging father is summoned to join the Chinese army and repel the invading Huns. Realizing that her father could never survive in battle, Mulan's courage and ingenuity eventually distinguish her in the eyes of her commander, Captain Shang. With the help of her pint-sized dragon protector, Mushu, Mulan is key in turning back the Huns in battle. When she is wounded, it is discovered that she is a woman, and Shang abandons her as a traitor. Left behind, Mulan sees the Hun army heading for the Imperial Palace and races there. When Mulan defeats Hun general Shan-Yu and saves the Emporer, she brings honor upon herself and her family and wins the heart of Captain Shang.

The story of a brave Chinese woman named Mulan has been told in China for nearly 2,000 years. Mulan is rumored to have been a real person. "Mulan" is the first feature primarily produced at Walt Disney Feature Animations Florida, Disney's state-of-the-art animation studio in Orlando, which began operation nearly 10 years ago.

The artistic approach to the film was based on the Chinese "sing" style of "negative," or empty, spaces balanced by "positive" detail -- almost a "yin and yang" concept. The movie's artistic supervisors spent three weeks in China sketching, photographing, and soaking up the culture. Computer animators used the latest technology to add detail and mimic camera techniques that were previously unavailable in animation -- like crowd scenes of up to 30,000 people. They used a computer program called "Atilla" to make an incredible sequence featuring 2,000 Huns on horseback.