In the film Mulan, the title character fights to protect China. She joins the Imperial Army after the Huns invade, taking the place of her elderly father, Fa Zhou.
The 1998 Disney animated film is set in an unspecified period of imperial Chinese history. When the Emperor orders one man from every family to serve, Mulan disguises herself as a man named Ping and trains under Captain Li Shang. Her decision is driven by both filial devotion and the danger facing her country.
Mulan helps defeat the invading forces by causing an avalanche in a mountain pass, although several Hun soldiers survive. She later helps rescue the Emperor and defeats Shan Yu in the Imperial City. The movie is loosely based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, whose story appears in the medieval Ballad of Mulan. The animated film’s talking dragon Mushu and musical numbers are Disney inventions, not elements consistently found in the traditional legend.