Favourite Animal Character in Animation

Mushu (Mulan, 1998)

Mushu is the selfish and motormouthed Chinese dragon companion of the main character, Fa Mulan. He is, by far, the stand-out performance in 1998's Mulan, owed largely to a great performance from Eddie Murphy.

Murphy would later go on to provide the voice of Donkey in Shrek, a very memorable role that he may well ss have been considered for because of his performance as Mushu.

Murphy is much better known in animation for the role of Donkey than he is Mushu. However, if you analys! both performances, they aren't all that far removed from each other - Funnily enough Donkey would marry a dragon in the Shrek series. Initially conceived as two dragons then later a two-headed dragon, Mushu was finally developed as a single-headed, physically-diminutive dragon, that is impulsive to his detriment.

Mushu - a demoted Fa Family ancestor - joins Mulan as her guardian when he inadvertently destroys the stone dragon that was originally chosen to guide and protect her on her journey into the Chinese army. He is introduced as an incense burner in the Fa Family Temple and it is soon revealed he serves as a servant to the ancestors- a consequence of his ineptitude leading to the death of a Fa ancestor. As previously mentioned, his own lack of care around the stone dragon also leads to its destruction and Mushu takes the position but only to fulfil his own selfish desire.

Mulan is one of the first movies that I remember being taken to see in the cinema (in the Barrbridge Showcase) I also remember being taken to the nearby Mcdonalds afterwards and upon asking the staff, getting the Shan Yu toy - undoubtedly the best in the collection. Toys in Mcdonalds today aren't even comparable to the 90s and 00s.

I recently noticed during trips to Disneyland Paris that Mushu is quite a popular figure amongst the merchandise, which is different from Disney World in Orlando - I can only assume he was particularly well received in France when the film was released.