Summary
Grandma prays to the ancestors to keep Mulan safe while she fights in the army. We see the spirit of an ancestor coming to life on the Fa's land just as she says this. The ancestor summons Mushu, a small dragon who acts as a gong-ringer, and tells him that he must summon a family guardian to help Mulan, even though Mushu wants to do it himself. The ancestor reminds Mushu that he has been demoted, and his job is to ring the gong and wake up the ancestors. He hits the gong and awakens the other ancestors, who assemble and argue about Mulan.
They want one of the guardians to bring Mulan back, and decide that the Great Stone Dragon ought to be the one to do the job. Mushu protests that, as a dragon, he is up to the task, but the ancestors send him to awaken the larger dragon to get Mulan. Mushu wanders away to awaken the stone dragon, but accidentally causes the stone statue to crumble in the process.
When the ancestors call to the stone dragon to see if he has awakened, Mushu covers for himself by holding up the stone head and pretending to be the guardian. "The fate of the Fa family rests in your claws," says the ancestor, sending Mushu on his way. After falling down a hill, Mushu encounters the lucky cricket, who encourages him to go get Mulan himself. Mushu is intrigued by this plan, exclaiming, "I make Mulan a war hero and they'll be begging me to come back to work!" Mushu and the cricket go off in search of Mulan.
We see Shan Yu leading the Huns. His men reveal imperial scouts who have been searching for them, and Shan Yu tells them that the Emperor has challenged him by building such a giant wall. He lets the men go, telling them to tell the Emperor to send his strongest armies. As they run away, Shan Yu has someone shoot one of the imperial scouts, suggesting that it only takes one person to deliver a message.
Mulan rehearses her male affect in front of her horse, who seems unimpressed. "It's gonna take a miracle to get me into the army," Mulan says, sadly, when suddenly, Mushu appears, and tells her that he is that miracle, sent by her ancestors to help her get in the army. When Mushu reveals himself, Mulan's horse stomps on him, and Mulan questions the fact that her ancestors sent a little "lizard" to help her. He tells her to trust him, and leads her to the military camp.
She walks through the camp, noting how disgusting men are. Mushu advises her to pay attention and take notes, since she will have to blend in. A man nearby opens his shirt to reveal a tattoo that he says will protect him from harm, and another man, Yao, punches him. "I don't think I can do this," Mulan says, but Mushu tells her to punch Yao, which she does. She punches him directly into another large man, and then on Mushu's instructions, slaps Yao on the backside. Yao swirls around and threatens Mulan, but the larger man tells him to chant and Yao calms down.
When Mushu talks back to Yao, Yao begins a brawl, which throws the whole camp into chaos. Meanwhile, General Li instructs his son, Captain Li Shang, on what their plans are for the army. Li tells his son to stay back and train the new recruits, while he embarks, promising that he will make him a captain soon.
Shang comes out of the tent to find his troops fighting and in a state of chaos. He interrupts the fighting, calling them to attention, and they all blame Mulan for starting the fight. He asks her name and she tells him she is named "Ping," and shows him his conscription papers. Shang gets angry at the men and tells them that they have to pick up every single grain of spilled rice that evening. The other soldiers are angry with Mulan for giving them more work.
That night, Mulan, Mushu, and the cricket sleep in a tent nearby. Mushu wakes Mulan up with a bowl of porridge, shovels it into her mouth and tells her to get going. They are interrupted by Mulan's horse, who tells them that the troops just left without her. She hurries to catch up, but forgets her sword in the process.
Analysis
No sooner has Grandma prayed to the ancestors to protect Mulan than they come to life and deliberate about how to do so. The joy of the animated film is that spirits and supernatural manifestations can so easily come to life on the screen, and we see the ancestors gather in a magical assembly to discuss Mulan's fate. Mulan is brave and industrious, but in this meeting we see that she also has her ancestors on her side, ready to protect her from danger if need be.
In this section we are introduced to Mushu, a small dragon voiced by Eddie Murphy, who acts as comic relief in the film. Eddie Murphy's unmistakable speaking voice, brimming with goofy excitement, gives the character of Mushu a very different tonality than the others. While the comedy of the rest of the film often comes from the situations that the characters find themselves in, Mushu's humor comes from Mushu himself, his whacky voice, small body, and consistent disappointment. Mushu has been demoted to gong-ringer after being a guardian, which gives him even more to prove.
After Mushu breaks the statue, it seems like he has completely ruined the ancestors' plans, but he soon sees—with the help of the lucky cricket—that this debacle is actually an opportunity. The cricket encourages Mushu to go help Mulan himself, which leads Mushu to see that he might just have a chance to get back into good favor with the ancestors. If he can help Mulan succeed as a soldier, he will be rewarded by the ancestors and be returned to his prestigious position in their ranks. In this, we see that Mushu is not only concerned with righting what has gone wrong, but in pursuing his own happy ending.
Mulan's entrance into the army is not a particularly discreet or graceful one. Spurred on by Mushu, Mulan tries to posture as a man by getting into a fight with one of the other men, which only leads to chaos. The blame for the chaos all falls on her, and she must face Li Shang as an awkward and disorderly misfit in the army. Not only that, but she has not even come up with a boy's name when Shang asks her to tell him hers, and must improvise in the moment. Mulan already has a great hurdle to get over as a woman pretending to be a man in the army, but this is made more difficult by the fact that she makes such a loud and unruly entrance.
While Mulan is undertaking her mission in the army alone, she has plenty of company and subtle help between the three animals that are accompanying her. Mushu, the cricket, and her horse are all conscious, active participants in her mission, and work hard to keep her in line, even when she is falling behind. While they can also create more chaos for her, they are primarily invested in seeing that she succeeds in the army. Thus, Mulan finds herself with a motley community, even as she faces an unknown and treacherous future.
