34. The Story Lacks Supernatural Elements
One striking element about the original version of Mulan is its lack of supernatural features. The Disney version has Mulan’s ancestors appear as spirits, along with the dragon Mushu, who awakens and goes out to help her.
But none of those things are present in the original. Supernatural elements, like ancestral spirits, are so common in ancient literature that ironically, one reason why scholars doubt that the story is based on a real person is that there is nothing supernatural in “The Ballad of Mulan.”
