1. The music.
You’d be lying if you didn’t belt all of the words to “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” or laugh happily along to “A Girl Worth Fighting For.” Let’s also not forget how “Reflection” knew how to bring about the feels in more ways than one. Now that you've probably already started humming either tune, here's some nice background music to play while you read on.
2. Mushu.
Not only does this pint-sized, sassy red dragon have an entire BuzzFeed article dedicated to him, but he also had many a memorable moment in the film. Mushu provided some hilarious one-liners, challenged the rules, and always took one for the team. Who can forget the final fireworks scene that helped save basically all of China, or when he slides down a snow-covered mountain on a shield looking for Mulan?
3. It made you want to get up and be a badass.
Let's be real, here: the entire bootcamp scene looked like so. Much. Fun. The entire movie is energizing—it made you want to either take up Kung Fu, go out and do cartwheels while throwing punches, break a board, or climb up a pole using a roped weight.
4. It challenged gender roles.
...and not only for women, but also for men! Mulan is able to switch freely between masculine and feminine roles, ultimately figuring out what works best for her given certain situations, showing the multidimensionality of people as whole, and the importance of choice. Chien Po, Yao, and Ling all dress up as women to help Mulan save China in the final scene, shattering the ideal that women are only good for being pretty faces. Bottom line, this movie completely destructs heteronormativity.
5. It made you think about the image you project to others versus how you truly feel.
One of the main themes of this movie is honor—that is, bringing honor to yourself. Even though you may not have the end result of getting crowned by the Emperor of China, it's an important message. Mulan demonstrated it by looking at the mismatch between the pressures to which she felt she had to conform and how she actually felt. Going to war in place of her injured father helped her learn her strengths and embrace her differences.
6. It portrayed a historical event (aka the invasion of China by the Huns).
Even though, generally speaking, Disney movies tend to grossly distort historical events and people, it at least sparked your 6-year-old mind’s interest in learning about Chinese history and culture!
7. Literature! Did you know it was based on an ancient Chinese poem called "The Ballad of Mulan"?
"The Ballad of Mulan" was originally a poem that came about sometime between 386 and 533 AD but continued to be adapted through to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), with "The Female Mulan Joins the Army in Place of her Father" by Xu Wei. The general plot between the film and its literary inspiration is relatively similar: a girl cross-dresses as a man to go to war in place of her father. However, again, there are some discrepancies. It is Disney, though, and suffice it to say, you got at least a little excited when you got to read "The Ballad" in your middle school English class.
