Variations Of The Story Of Mulan In Disney Animation Movie

The North Dynasty Chinese ballad Mulan is widely known by the Chinese people, old and young.The ballad tells us the story that Mulan joins the army in man's outfit on behalf of her father. The story has been revised for many times in various samples, of which the most significant is the animation movie Mulan made by American Disneyland corporation.The story of Mulan forms a classic narrative symbol in the communicative process and takes on different textual forms in different historical contexts. The past research on the story of Mulan was mainly focused on Mulan's family name, her native place, the year of her birth, the examination of the authenticity of the story and the debate on the theme of the story. After the show of Disney animation movie Mulan, the academic research bursts into diversity. Some are from the narrative point of view, some are from a feminist perspective and others are from the post-colonial point of view, to name just a few.The paper, based on the unity of historical and aesthetic point of view, with cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective, using imagologie, thematology and technology intergration of comparative literature, analyses variations of Disney animation movie Mulan from the original, the reasons of these variations and the implications it brings into the development of Chinese animation movies.Firstly, the Disney Mulan has completely replaced the traditional female image of Mulan with a new modern western woman image and added some supporting roles. Secondly, the Disney Mulan adds the failure of the heroine's blind date and the love line of Mulan and Lixiang, and makes a detailed description of her military career, which has changed the narrative features of the original:single structure and simple plot. Thirdly, on the theme and ideology, Disney Mulan is in pursuit of self-realization, attaches emphasis on the status of women and promotes free love and free marriage instead of the traditional Confucian thought conveyed by the original. The paper also explores the reasons of these variations. Three factors are put forward:the differences between Chinese and American culture, the characteristics of Disney animation movies and the influences of post-colonism.The success of Disney Mulan offers us some experience, from which Chinese animation movies should learn, because there are some shortages and faults in our animation movies. They lay more emphasis on the instructional function of movies and ignore the interest among them. Moreover, the audiences have long been fixed on the age group under 12, while those above have been neglected. We need to change this unpleasant situation. In addition, Disney's variations of Mulan story remind us to make foreign literature serve our animation movie.