Mushu

Mushu is the small, wisecracking red dragon of Disney's animated film Mulan (1998), voiced by Eddie Murphy, a demoted family guardian spirit who tags along to protect Mulan in hopes of winning back his post.

The Story

In Disney's Mulan, a young woman disguises herself as a man to take her aged father's place when the emperor calls up soldiers to fight the invading Huns. Her family's ancestors, worried by what she has done, decide to send a guardian to bring her home. Mushu, who once served as a family guardian but was demoted to the job of ringing the gong after an earlier failure, is told to wake the Great Stone Dragon for the task.

Instead, Mushu accidentally smashes the statue. Hoping to redeem himself, he goes after Mulan himself and pretends he was the one chosen. Along with a lucky cricket named Cri-Kee, he coaches her through army life, often badly, and causes trouble as often as he solves it. In the end, Mushu's fire and courage help Mulan defeat the Hun leader Shan Yu, and he wins back his place as a guardian.

Appearance and Powers

Mushu is tiny, about the size of a lizard, red with a yellow belly, with small horns and whiskers. He has four legs and no wings, like a traditional Chinese dragon, though he cannot fly. He breathes small bursts of fire, which come in handy for lighting fireworks. His big personality and fast-talking comedy, written for Eddie Murphy, are what define him.

Origins and Sources

Mulan comes from the old Chinese Ballad of Mulan, which has no dragon. Mushu was Disney's invention, built on the general idea of ancestral spirits and on the Chinese dragon as a symbol of protection and good fortune. His design borrows the long whiskers and serpentine head of Chinese dragon art, but his size and attitude are pure Hollywood comic sidekick, in the line of the Genie from Aladdin.

Legacy

Mushu became one of Disney's most popular sidekicks and returned in Mulan II (2004), voiced by Mark Moseley. He was left out of the 2020 live-action Mulan, which gave the guardian role to a phoenix instead, a choice that disappointed many fans.

Related

• Lóng (Chinese dragon): The lóng is the Chinese dragon: a long, scaly, usually wingless creature with four clawed legs that rules rain, rivers, and seas and became the emblem of the emperor and of Chinese culture.
• Shenron: Shenron is the Eternal Dragon of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga (1984) and anime, a vast green Eastern-style dragon who appears when all seven Dragon Balls are gathered and grants a wish.
• Haku: Haku is the river spirit of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001), who appears as a boy and as a flying white dragon, and who helps the girl Chihiro survive in a bathhouse for spirits.
• Puff the Magic Dragon: Puff the Magic Dragon is the gentle dragon of the 1963 Peter, Paul and Mary song by Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton, who lives by the sea and plays with a boy named Jackie Paper until the boy grows up.
• Chinese Dragons
• Dragons Across Cultures

Sources and Further Reading

• Mulan, directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook (Walt Disney Pictures, 1998)
• Jeff Kurtti, The Art of Mulan (Hyperion, 1998)

Cite this entry: “Mushu,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/mushu.