Honor to Us All

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"Honor to Us All"
Song by Beth Fowler, Marni Nixon and Lea Salonga
from the album Mulan: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack
ReleasedJune 2, 1998
Recorded1996
Length3:03
LabelWalt Disney
Composer(s)Matthew Wilder
Lyricist(s)David Zippel
Producer(s)Wilder

"Honor to Us All" is a song written by composer

character number
performed by several older Chinese women and female members of Mulan's family as they prepare the main character to be evaluated by the Matchmaker in the scene towards the beginning of the film.

Songwriter

Stephen Schwartz was originally enlisted to write the songs for Mulan, and had written a song called "China Doll" intended for the scene in which Mulan prepares to meet the Matchmaker. After the songwriter resigned from Mulan in favor of writing songs for rival studio DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt (1998), Schwartz was ultimately replaced with Wilder and Zippel, who wrote "Honor to Us All" with which to replace "China Doll". Nixon's casting as Grandmother Fa's singing voice ultimately influenced Disney to recast the voice actress who had originally been hired to supply Grandmother Fa's speaking voice with actress June Foray
due to closer similarities between Nixon's and Foray's voices.

Intended to be

East Asian-influenced song that heavily incorporates Asian instrumentation, more-so than any other musical number in the film. The song's use of pentatonic scales and Chinese flutes also help establish the film's setting, as does referencing the Chinese tradition of praying to one's ancestors. "Honor to Us All" has received mixed reviews from film and music critics
, who were divided over both the song's quality and intended message.

Background and recording

ghost singers, as the singing voice of Grandmother Fa, Mulan's paternal grandmother.[5] Nixon received the sheet music for "Honor to Us All" to review prior to auditioning for the role.[6] The filmmakers then showed Nixon a drawing of the character, by whose comedic appearance the singer was immediately "enchanted", telling herself "you've just got to give her a voice ... or, in this case, an unvoice."[6] Nixon decided to make the character sound as though she was merely attempting to sing, rather than actually singing, keeping in mind that the elderly character is toothless.[6] Nixon made no effort to sound like the actress who had been cast as Grandmother Fa's speaking voice, at the time,[6] and almost reconsidered auditioning for the role upon realizing how different she sounded from Grandmother Fa's speaking voice actress.[7]

Nixon's approach impressed the studio, and her recording, which took the singer only thirty-two minutes to complete, was ultimately kept.[6] In the score of Mulan, Nixon performs only one verse in the song.[5] Her musical contribution to "Honor to Us All" marked the singer's return to film roles following a lengthy hiatus.[8] Mulan was also Nixon's first Disney film in 10 years; she had previously performed in the musical film Mary Poppins (1964).[7] Nixon was eventually joined by Broadway performers Beth Fowler and Lea Salonga, although the three singers never recorded together.[6] The studio enjoyed Nixon's performance so much that they ultimately decided to recast the actress who had been providing Grandmother Fa's speaking voice at the time with someone who sounded more like Nixon, hiring June Foray to provide the speaking voice for the role.[6][7] Disney had been considered hiring actresses Lauren Bacall and June Havoc to record "Honor to Us All" prior to hearing Nixon.[6][9] The songwriters first based "Honor to Us All" on a rough cut they had seen of the scene; the animators eventually synced the animated characters with the singers' voices.[6]

Author Jennifer Fleeger wrote in her book Mismatched Women: The Siren's Song Through the Machine (2014) that the studio's decision to cast Nixon, an American who had previously done similar work as the singing voices of a Puerto Rican and Englishwoman in the musical films West Side Story (1961) and My Fair Lady (1964), respectively, as an elderly Chinese woman "speaks volumes about the desired singing voices of these supposedly diverse new characters."[5] "Honor to Us All" was one of Nixon's final film performances before her death in 2016.[10]

Context

Use in Mulan

The film's use of "Honor to Us All" has been described as "

character piece, "Honor to Us All" is performed by several older Chinese women,[14] including Mulan's mother and grandmother Fa Li and Grandmother Fa, respectively, to Mulan as they prepare to the character to present her to the Matchmaker, hoping that she will be paired with a suitable husband and ultimately uphold their family's heritage.[12] Before Mulan is introduced, the character can be heard reciting the "Final Admonition": "Quiet and demure. Graceful. Polite. Delicate. Refined. Poised. Punctual", values that are later visualized during "Honor to Us All".[15] The musical number is preceded by a scene in which Mulan's father, Fa Zhou, asks his ancestors to help his daughter impress the Matchmaker, and decides that more prayer is required upon realizing that Mulan is already late for her appointment.[16] Meanwhile, Fa Li is growing impatient waiting for her daughter to arrive at the village bathhouse, regretting not having prayed to her ancestors herself earlier that morning, to which Grandmother Fa responds "How lucky can they be? They're dead."[16] Preparations begin once Mulan arrives on horseback.[16]

Throughout the musical sequence, Mulan is taken to various shops and stores in the village,

Salon's Jenn Shreve described Mulan as "clumsy in her woman's body, caught in that awkward limbo where the body belongs to an adult but the child inside hasn't quite caught up."[23] In an effort to make her granddaughter even more appealing, Grandmother Fa bestows traditional Chinese gifts upon her.[5] The sequence also features a prayer from Mulan to her ancestors, during which she asks that they help her not disappoint them or herself,[12] reminding herself that failure to conform to society's expectations of her as a young woman will ultimately result in "uproot[ing] her family tree."[22]

Towards the end of the scene after her makeover has finally been completed, Mulan stumbles through the marketplace to join a line of several young women, nearly identical to each other, who are also waiting to be evaluated by the Matchmaker; Mulan struggles to accept the idea that she is expected look and behave exactly like them.[17] In the song, the girls demonstrate their understanding of the consequences should they fail to impress the Matchmaker by equating the character to an undertaker, meaning they believe disappointing her is "more powerful than death itself".[17] A "playful rendition" of "Honor to Us All" can be heard during composer Jerry Goldsmith's "Suite from Mulan" score, which was released as a track on the film's soundtrack.[24]

Interpretations

Similar to Disney's

Consequence of Sound's Dominick Suzanne-Mayer cited "Honor to Us All" as an example of Mulan spending a significant portion of the film at the mercy of other characters, framing "her preparation rituals for courtship as a gauntlet of demands from ... her entire village" while "instructing her about how important it is for her to be complacent and attentive."[18]

Tim Brayton, writing for the film review website Alternate Ending, believes that the song is intended to demonstrate "the idea that

Imperial China was founded on unusually strong patriarchal principles".[26] Author Phyllis Frus, writing in her book Beyond Adaptation: Essays on Radical Transformations of Original Works (2010), observed that the musical number offers examples of women and men occupying different roles in society: "a man fights for his country, whereas a woman gives birth to sons."[19] The New York Times's Janet Maslin believes that scene's images of girls playing with dolls while boys play swords are used to show viewers "how wrongly and repressively [Mulan] is being treated" during "Honor to Us All".[13] According to Sputnikmusic's Irving Tan, the song "opens and recounts the massive struggle that girls in the Han Dynasty had to face due to the repressive cultural norms of that age."[27] Writing in his book Diversity in Disney Films: Critical Essays on Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality and Disability, author Johnson Cheu observed that every ideal characteristic of femininity described by the characters during the scene are "fabricated rather than natural", none of which are naturally associated with Mulan's gender but instead resemble "culturally constructed markers of femininity" that girls are forced to assume once they transition into womanhood.[17] According to the book East-West Identities: Globalization, Localization, and Hybridization (2007), "Honor to Us All" helps establish Mulan as a tomboy.[28] Hough Believes that "feminine-centric songs" that appear during the beginning of the film, such as "Honor to Us All", are eventually abandoned and replaced by more masculine numbers to indicate that Mulan "has become, as far as the audience is concerned, 'a man.'"[22]

Music and lyrics

According to the song's official sheet music, "Honor to Us All" was written in

ethnic instrumentation" out of all of the songs on the film's soundtrack,[21] remaining distinctive in terms of its style, instrumentation, themes discussing cultural expectations of women, and vocal arrangements.[33] The performance is influenced by traditional East Asian music.[11] The Disney Song Encyclopedia author Thomas S. Hischak identified "Honor to Us All" as an "Oriental-flavored number" that features "a trace of Asian sound" courtesy of Wilder and Zippel's songwriting and Fowler and Nixon's performances,[12] the latter of whom sings using a "lilting soprano".[34] In Nixon's verse, Grandma Fa bestows traditional Chinese gifts upon Mulan that are intended to make her more appealing to a man,[5] which is followed by a prayer performed solo by Salonga.[12] Instrumentally, "Honor to Us All" is intended to represent the cultural characteristics of China by incorporating pentatonic scales and a Chinese flute.[5]

According to the book Heroism and Gender in War Films (2014), the lyrics of "Honor to Us All" outline the "perfect woman".[15] The phrase "Honor to us all" is constantly reiterated throughout the song.[35] Identified by Hough as an "ultra-feminine satirical number",[22] its "witty" lyrics are intended to be highly ironic,[14][36][37] expressing that a daughter can only honor herself and her family by marrying, stating:[17] Beginning with the line "This is what you give me to work with",[29] the performers offer an extensive list of examples and qualities required to create an ideal bride,[17] including the lyrics "Wait and see, when we're through, boys will gladly go to war for you" and "With good breeding and a tiny waist you'll bring honor to us all."[13][23]

According to Hough, "A Girl Worth Fighting For" references "the

literary device alliteration, as heard during its final verse "Destiny, guard our girls/And our future as it fast unfurls/Please look kindly on these cultured pearls/Each a perfect porcelain doll".[39] Thought Catalog contributor Chelsea Fagan felt that the song's lyrics make it appropriate for single women whose loved ones are constantly pressuring them to pursue romantic relationships despite the fact that they would much rather remain single: "the kind of girl who doesn't need to be put into a tight-waisted outfit to go find herself a husband and pop out a bunch of sword-wielding sons. You’ve got other plans".[40]

Critical reception

"Honor to Us All" has received mixed reviews from

family film. It’s even more shocking to think we didn’t blink twice at this 20 years ago."[42]

"Honor to Us All" has not particularly enjoyed a reputation as one of Disney's "classic" songs.

The Odyssey Online ranked "Honor to Us All" one of "The Best Disney Songs From The 90s", at number seven,[44] while BuzzFeed ranked it the 63rd greatest animated Disney song, out of 102.[45]

Cover versions and parodies

In January 2017, a group of Chinese children garnered significant attention when a video of them reenacting the "Honor to Us All" musical sequence in their native language was released to the Internet and

Facebook page Disney Power,[47] the video was eventually identified as a segment from a Chinese television show that features children reenacting scenes from popular films.[48] The child actress who portrays Grandmother Fa in the reenactment has been widely commended for her performance,[48] who Oh My Disney described as "in it to win it."[49] Boing Boing's Caroline Siede wrote that the actress "perfectly captures Mulan's grandmother".[47] Praising the children's accuracy upon reviewing a video that compares the live-action reenactment to the animated original side-by-side, Refinery29s Michael Hafford wrote that the children "remind how ridiculous it is that Hollywood more or less refuses to cast non-white actors in lead roles", specifically referring to the whitewashing controversy surrounding American actors Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson's casting in the films The Great Wall (2016) and Ghost in the Shell (2017), respectively.[48] Hafford continued, "if literal children can be great in a scene from Mulan, why can't movie studios give roles to, like, adults?"[48]

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[50] Gold 500,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

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  5. ^
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  8. ISBN 9781495025945
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  9. ^ Hill, Jim (November 26, 2006). "Marni Nixon's autobiography is a treat, Depp bio a dud, while new Alwaleed biography offers real insight into the financial bail-out of Disneyland - Paris". Jim Hill Media. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
  10. ^ Langer, Emily (July 25, 2016). "Marni Nixon, uncredited star of Hollywood musicals, dies at 86". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 4, 2007.
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  23. ^ a b Shreve, Jenn (June 19, 1998). "Honor thy daughter". Salon. Archived from the original on April 19, 2000. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
  24. ^ Thomson, Colin. "Soundtracks Reviewed: Mulan". Soundtracks Reviewed. Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
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  45. ^ Zafar, Aylin (April 21, 2014). "The Definitive Ranking Of The 102 Best Animated Disney Songs". BuzzFeed. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
  46. ^ "Chinese Kids Reenact "Honor to Us All" from Disney's Mulan". Oh No They Didn't!. January 7, 2017. Archived from the original on January 10, 2017. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
  47. ^ a b Siede, Caroline (January 6, 2017). "Watch talented Chinese kids bring Disney's Mulan to life". Boing Boing. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
  48. ^ a b c d Hafford, Michael (January 8, 2017). "Amazing Kids Perform Mulan's "Bring Honor To Us All"". Refinery29. Retrieved June 4, 2017.
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  50. ^ "American single certifications – Lea Salonga, Beth Fowler, Marni Nixon, Chorus - Mulan – Honor to Us All". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
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