It’s Time to Face the Music
The soundtrack you’ve always wanted.
Mulan’s soundtrack is (mostly) superior to all other soundtracks. It is both powerful and uplifting. This movie’s music has the (almost) perfect balance of lightheartedness, emotional impact, and danceability. It is one of the best movie soundtracks ever (one of them). Zero (or a couple) question(s) about it. No one will ever be able to convince me otherwise (probably). Here are some of the highs and lows of the soundtrack. Let’s get into it.
When you think of Mulan, chances are you think of the songs “Reflection” or “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”, both of which are fan favorites. “Reflection” began as “Written in Stone” but was eventually replaced with the song that ended up in the movie. It was originally a 4-minute power ballad, but it was shortened to a little less than half that length. The original song focused more on the way Mulan’s path in life was already laid out for her and in “Reflection”, the lyrics take on a more introspective tone. The verse, “Who is that girl I see staring straight back at me? Why is my reflection someone I don’t know?” is meant to pull at the audience’s heartstrings. This song reveals one of the movie’s themes: self-image. It illustrates Mulan’s struggle with finding her true self and sets a turbulent tone.
We quickly transition to “Mulan’s Decision (Synthesizer Version Score)”, which plays during the scene in which Mulan cuts her hair, steals the armor, and flees into the night. The version of the score used in the movie is slightly different from the version that appears on the official album but the emotion conveyed by the song is the same. It’s that little bit of synth-y music that is slightly out of place among the rest of the album, but is still effective. By the end of the scene, the audience is properly hyped for Mulan’s journey while the atmosphere retains a touch of sorrow and sympathy for the family Mulan left behind.
The next major song we hear is “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”. Following Mulan’s rough entrance into the training camp, the General’s son Shang begins their work with a tune to get them motivated… or something like that. Putting aside the major sexism in the song’s lyrics (which we’ll get to later), the song’s pounding drum beat aides in making the audience feel ready to get up and fight a battle of their own. Mulan’s retrieval of the arrow near the end of the song is really where dislikers of the movie will have to give Mulan credit for her strength and determination.
As for the song’s problematic lyrics, though they are realistic for the time and the place in which the movie is set and they emphasize the discrimination Mulan faces as a woman, that does not excuse them. Other songs from the soundtrack such as “Honor to Us All” and “A Girl Worth Fighting For” exhibit highly sexist lyrics and incorporate stereotypes that, while remaining partially realistic, were entirely unnecessary in getting the songs’ points across. For example, in “Honor to Us All”, the women sing, “We all must serve our emperor who guards us from the Huns- a man by bearing arms; a girl by bearing sons”. In “A Girl Worth Fighting For”, the marching men sing, “You can guess what we have missed the most since we went off to war. What do we want? A girl worth fighting for”. This verse is accompanied by Mushu whistling at women working in nearby fields. Lyrics and scenes like these are peppered throughout the soundtrack and can be easily missed or overlooked, but they can also be incredibly influential on younger viewers. Disney would do well to be more accountable for the sexism, stereotypes, and occasional colorism that run rampant throughout its movies centered on princesses of color such as Mulan.
Between the songs with characters singing along, the background music is made up of a combination of Western components and traditional Chinese instruments such as the zither, fiddles, chimes, and bamboo flutes.
Overall, Mulan’s soundtrack is beautiful and distinct and one of Disney’s best. The songs are easy to sing along to and are able to inspire powerful emotions in their listeners. If you put aside the problematic lyrics in some of the songs, the tracks are brilliantly crafted and are able to tell the story through their melodies.
