Creation and casting

Mushu is not mentioned in the Chinese legend about Hua Mulan or the Ballad of Hua Mulan, on which the film is based.^[1][2] He was created specifically for the animated adaptation of the film.^[3] Disney was initially concerned that a dragon sidekick would make Mulan appear too small in comparison.^[4] Disney chairman Roy E. Disney suggested the character of Mushu upon learning that dragons in Chinese folklore can be different sizes,^[5][6] ultimately replacing a panda sidekick named "Moo Goo Gai Panda".^[7] At one point, Mushu was intended to be two characters: a gryphon and a phoenix.^[8] Producer Pam Coats said they had originally planned for Mushu to be featured in the film much more prominently.^[9] Inspired by the success of Robin Williams' performance as the Genie in Aladdin (1992),^[10][11] the producers hoped to cast a comic actor in the role, and had considered Joe Pesci, Steve Martin, and Sinbad.^[12] Pesci was originally cast, with an early version of Mushu being described as a serpent with two different heads and personalities voiced by Pesci and Richard Dreyfuss, respectively.^[13][14] The filmmakers had originally envisioned the character having a "New York, tough guy, streetwise" accent reminiscent of actors Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito, but felt these traits were too derivative of supporting characters from previous Disney films.^[15]

According to director Tony Bancroft, Mushu had always been described as the opposite of Mulan's personality, and felt an African-American character would deliver the perfect contrast to the heroine's more traditionally Chinese characteization.^[15][17] They started interviewing several African-American performers,^[15] with Disney executive Michael Eisner ultimately selecting comedian Eddie Murphy,^[18] who had expressed interest in doing an animated film at the time.^[10] Tom Bancroft, Mushu's supervising animator and Tony's twin brother, was initially unsure about contrasting the film's serious depiction of Chinese culture against an urban voice, but ultimately felt the character would bring dynamic chemistry to Mulan.^[19] Mushu's role was expanded to that of one of the film's main characters as the story evolved.^[20]

Murphy accepted the role partially because he wanted to make some films that his own children could watch, having mostly starred in movies intended for adults prior to Mulan.^[21] He was also one of its few non-Asian main cast members.^[22] Due to his busy filming schedule,^[23] Murphy requested that Disney allow him to record his part from his home studio in Englewood, New Jersey,^[24][25] to where Disney brought character sketches.^[24] According to Tony, they were forced to comply with Murphy's demands to avoid the risk of not completing his animation on time, which he admitted ultimately benefited the performance.^[23]

Songwriters Matthew Wilder and David Zippel had written at least two songs intended for the character to sing when he introduces himself to Mulan.^[26][27] One of them was entitled "Keep 'Em Guessing", in which Mushu would have taught Mulan how to be a convincing male soldier.^[28][29] The song was cut because Murphy did not want to sing in the film,^[30] despite several attempts to re-write it to his liking.^[26] Tony felt Mushu's songs ruined the pacing of the film.^[15] They decided to replace it with Mushu introducing himself to Mulan in the manner of an African-American preacher because they felt they needed a big introduction in the song's absence.^[15] In 2020, Ming-Na Wen, who voices Mulan, revealed that she had yet to meet Murphy in person, despite having voiced characters in the same film.^[31] Murphy is one of the film's few original cast members who did not reprise his role in the sequel Mulan II (2004).^[32] Mushu was Murphy's first voice acting role,^[11][33] and Tom theorizes this inspired DreamWorks to eventually cast him as Donkey in the Shrek franchise.^[34]

Design and personality

Tom Bancroft, Tony's twin brother, was Mushu's supervising animator,^[35] while Chris Sanders was one of his character designers.^[8] Tom originally expected to be assigned a less prominent character, but Mushu ultimately became his first job as a supervising animator.^[20] Hired to work on Mushu a year before production began on Mulan, Disney had yet to cast the character or decide on his personality.^[34][36] Additionally, character designer Harald Siepermann drew concept art for Mushu from his studio in Germany for the first few weeks on production,^[37] but remained uncredited due to working less than 200 hours on the project.^[38] Since the script was constantly being revised, Tom drew generic versions of the character, avoiding poses and facial expressions.^[36] The animators had considered several animals, including a two-headed serpent.^[13] At various stages of development, Mushu was changed from two different dragons who become one dragon by the end of the film, to a phoenix, and finally a dragon.^[34]

Tom drew inspiration from many aspects of Chinese culture when designing the character, including wood block print artworks and sculptures in Chinese temples.^[39] Although Disney had drawn several European-style dragons in previous projects, Mushu was the studio's first Chinese dragon, and Tom worked to differentiate the character from his animated predecessors.^[34] The animator realized that Chinese dragons are very different from European dragons, describing the former as "thin and snake-like while the European dragons were often thick and more like a crocodile".^[40] Tom also researched dragon and dragon-like characters from previous Disney animated films, including Elliott from Pete’s Dragon (1977), Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty (1959) and the Hydra from Hercules (1997), as well as The Reluctant Dragon (1941) to study how animators approached a simplified, humorous dragon during the 1940s.^[41] Tom was also inspired by the cartoonish work of animator Eric Goldberg, who had briefly sketched Aladdin's Genie turning into a dragon.^[41] He described the final design of Mushu as a combination of many different animals, possessing "whiskers like a catfish, scales like a fish, cow ears, the hairy lip of a camel, horns like a goat and talons of an eagle".^[39] Although the animators had wanted Mushu's tale to be purple, a Disney executive insisted that they make it red like the rest of the character much to the chagrin of Tony.^[42] As an act of protest, they secretly colored his tail purple in one scene in the film.^[42]

Tom then refined his facial expressions and poses once the character's personality was determined and Murphy was cast.^[34][36] Murphy's performance greatly influenced Tom's drawings, claiming he would spend up to a week animating a particular scene while listening to tape recordings of Murphy's recording sessions.^[36] He was also inspired by Murphy's work in Trading Places (1983) and Saturday Night Live, specifically his facial expressions, line delivery, and how he uses his hands,^[36] as well as prints of the actor's face.^[43] He maintains that the character is very similar to Murphy personality-wise, despite their difference in outward appearance.^[34] Despite Murphy's influence on Mushu, Tom maintains that he incorporated more of himself into the character than his actor,^[44] and considers him a favorite out of the characters he worked on.^[20] He claims he learned from friends working at DreamWorks that their animators had reviewed animation footage of Mushu when developing Donkey for Shrek, who was also voiced by Murphy.^[34]

Critical response

Film critic Roger Ebert said the character "quickly grows on us" despite sounding disconcerting initially due to the film's setting.^[45] Several reviewers compared Mushu and Murphy's performance to the Gene from Aladdin, voiced by Robin Williams.^[46][47][48]

Murphy received positive reviews for his performance in Mulan.^[49][50] Film critic Richard Corliss found him "very funny".^[51] Essence considers Mushu to be one of his most iconic roles,^[52] while both Entertainment Weekly and Gold Derby ranked it the 11th best performance of his career.^[47][53] Variety ranked Murphy's performance as Mushu the 11th best voiceover performance from a Disney film,^[54] and MovieWeb ranked it 8th.^[55] Backstage ranked his performances as both Mushu and Shrek equally among the 14 "Best Voice Acting Performances of All Time".^[56] ComingSoon.net named Mulan his best film performance of the 1990s.^[57] Mushu is also noted to have begun a family-friendly period of the actor's career,^[47] which he followed with appearances in several other family-oriented films.^[58] Writing for Paste, Josh Jackson said "It seems like all of Eddie Murphy’s best comedic performances since Coming to America are animated".^[59] Tim Grierson of Cracked.com ranked Mushu his second-best performance in a family film, citing it as a precursor and inspiration to his long-running role as Donkey in the Shrek franchise.^[60] According to a Metacritic article published in 2023, Mulan was the sixth best-reviewed film of Murphy's career to that point.^[61] According to Alex Vo of Rotten Tomatoes, Mulan contributed to the actor becoming known by virtually "every kid out there".^[62] After Mulan, the actor did not appear in an R-rated film until 2019.^[47]

Film critic Todd McCarthy described the character as jarring and off-putting, despite finding his lines amusing at times.^[48] Writer Mari Ness found Murphy to be an irritating, unnecessary addition to the film, criticizing his reliance on anachronistic humor and deeming him an obvious but unsuccessful attempt at replicating the success of the Genie.^[6] The Animated Movie Guide author Jerry Beck called Mushu "the wrong character in the wrong film", explaining that his jokes clash weaken the film and clash with its otherwise serious subject matter.^[63] According to Country Living, some viewers found his characterization to be an insensitive depiction of Chinese culture.^[64]

Anthony Brett of The Daily Telegraph and Petrana Radulovic of Polygon panned Mulan II for undoing Mushu's character development by having him attempt to sabotage Mulan and Shang's wedding.^[65][66] Brett also criticized Disney for replacing Murphy with white actor Mark Moseley, calling it "voiceover blackface".^[65]

Legacy

Mushu has been called a beloved and fan-favorite character from the Mulan franchise.^{[3][67][68][69]} Phil Pirrello of The A.V. Club ranked Mushu the 44th best Disney character of all-time, describing him as a more fully-realized supporting character than the Genie.^[70] HuffPost ranked Mushu 14th on their "Definitive Ranking Of Disney Sidekicks",^[71] and Country Living ranked him 29th.^[64] In 2022, Entertainment Weekly reported that "everyone" seems to love the character.^[72] Several publications consider Mushu to be among the greatest dragons in popular culture,^{[73][74][75][76]} including MTV News,^[77] USA Today,^[78] Polygon,^[79] and Comic Book Resources.^[67] Collider ranked him the second greatest dragon in the history of cinema.^[80] In an article for The Guardian, young adult fiction author Julie Kagawa ranked Mushu the sixth best dragon across films and books,^[81] while The A.V. Club ranked him the ninth best movie dragon.^[82] Dictionary.com cited Mush among pop culture's most famous dragons in 2022, writing, "This depiction differs from typical Chinese dragons, who are often portrayed as being elegant, imposing, and wise".^[83] The character's popularity has led him to appear in various tie-in media, including sequels, video games, and theme parks.^[82]

Chinese viewers are reported to have disliked the character upon initial release of the film.^[84][85] According to the University of Southern California professor Stanley Rosen, the character was well-received in the United States, but accused by some Chinese audiences of trivializing their culture and Mulan's story.^[86][87][88] When the trailer for the 2020 live-action adaptation of the film was released, several fans complained on social media that Mushu was not featured in the preview.^{[89][90][91][92]} By July 2019, the Twitter hashtag "There’s no Mushu dragon in Mulan" had been viewed over 310 million times.^[93] Director Niki Caro confirmed that the character would not appear in the remake, and dispelled theories that the phoenix was an "an updated version" of the same character".^[94] Producer Jason Reed explained that Mushu was omitted because "the dragon is a sign of respect and of strength and power and sort of using it as a silly sidekick did not play well with a traditional Chinese audience".^[95] Believed to have been written out of the film due to being "deemed culturally inaccurate and racist",^[96] some academics and culture writers defended Disney's decision to remove Mushu, describing it as their attempt "to represent Chinese culture and history in a more authentic manner".^[97] Olive Pometsey of British GQ found the adjustment necessary to adapt Mulan respectfully.^[88] Tom also appreciated that removing the character from the remake would allow its team to create their own version of Mulan without the pressure of adapting Mushu, a character he created.^[35] However, Jeva Lange of The Week reported that Chinese fans also voiced their disappointment over Mushu's exclusion on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo.^[98] Lange opined that Mushu's absence deprives the remake's version of Mulan of meaningful conversation by removing the supporting character with whom she shared most dialogue on her journey, suggesting that that he could have "been updated along with Mulan to have a more serious part; he could have even been re-imagined as a female dragon, or another sort of character entirely, just so long as Mulan had someone to engage with on her journey".^[98]

Disney Rewards described Mushu as "One of the most beloved sidekicks in Disney history".^[99] Sketches and concept art of Mushu was featured in Tom's book The Art of Disney's Dragons (2016).^[100][101]