Mulan Movie Facts, Easter Eggs and hidden details

Mushu spreading his wings and responding, "Your worst nightmare" is a reference to Batman

While fighting the Hun underlings at the palace we see Mulan breaking the arm of a soldier.

Mulan mentions 'Punctual' as one of the desirable qualities in a bride. This is a callback to Aladdin when the Genie accidentally tells him to say 'Punctual'

The movie only has musical numbers for the first half, until the characters find the destroyed village. From there on songs were avoided because the tone was meant to be darker.

the song I'll Make A Man Out Of You, the lines "We must be as swift as the coursing river", "With all the force of a great typhoon", "Which all the strength of a raging fire" are actually quotes from the book The Art of War of Sun Tzu.

Mushu is seen reading a newspaper from right to left. Traditionally, Chinese text was written in vertical columns which were read from right-to-left.

During the song "Honour to us all" Mulan retrieves a girl's doll from two boys playing with toy swords and returns it. Later in the movie, she finds another doll in a burned-out village, but not the girl who owns it, showing the stark reality of war.

After the "A girl worth fighting for" song they encounter a burnt village where they find the doll of a girl worth fighting for

Mulan is told "A girl can bring her family great honor in one way...by striking a good match." Both of Mulan's victories over the Huns involved lighting explosives.

2 of the ancestors resemble the people depicted in Grant Wood's famous painting, American Gothic. Wood wanted to capture the everyday struggles Americans were facing during the height of the Depression. These two ancestors worry aloud that Mulan's actions will lose the farm.

Shortly after the song 'A Girl Worth Fighting For', Mulan finds a girl really worth fighting for.

It can be seen that when Mulan is portrayed as a female, her jaw is smooth, but when she is pretending to be a male, her jaw is sharper and more masculine.

Mulan's Ancestors are mimicking the well known 'American Gothic' painting by Grant Wood!

There is no songs sung by the characters after "A Girl Worth Fighting For" is cut off when they find the aftermath of the burned village and lost battle. This is potentially due to them facing the reality of war.

She uses her hair as a safety anchor whenever she's upset, brushing it and messing with it, when she cuts it off it shows that she's growing up and not afraid anymore.

Chi Fu, the emperor's advisor, is so persistent that women aren't worth anything because most advisors were Confucianist and back then Confucianism wasn't very tolerant of women.

Yao pulls out a banana from his disguise, but Ling seems to be the only one who notices.

The emperor says that a single grain of rice can tip the scale. In the next opening scene, Mulan balances a single grain of rice in her bowl.

When Mushu and Lucky Cricket decide to go bring Mulan back, Mushu says to Cricket, "Then we'll see who's a loser. Me or you." but he points to himself when he says "you" and to Cricket when he says "me". Approximately 1:55 in video below.

Disney was able to cast Mulan as the correct race in this live action adaptation despite apparently being blind when casting the little mermaid.

And Hotep from Prince of Egypt (1998) are similarly animated

Li Shang is the only male character with defined lips, leaving open the possibility that he, like Mulan, is really a woman in disguise. All female characters, including Mulan, have similarly defined lips.