The Hun Army are the murderous and bloodthirsty enemies of China, and the primary antagonist group in Disney's 1998 animated feature film, Mulan. They are led by Shan Yu.
Background[]
Personality[]
Little is known about their personalities with the exception of Shan Yu's Elite, but the Huns all share a thirst for power and murderous intent, as well as fierce loyalty to Shan Yu.
Role in the film[]
Shan Yu is the leader of the Huns. There are also a group of Huns known as the Elite Hun Soldiers.
The Huns are first seen with Shan Yu in the burning down of a village (though only the aftermath appears on-screen). In their invasion of China, the Hun Army wiped out the entire Imperial Army under General Li in (another) off-screen battle. Several Hun archers shot fire arrows at Li Shang's troops from a mountain top after Mushu accidently set off a cannon giving away the troops position (or they had possibly already spotted them before the cannon went off) the archers are killed by Shang's troops firing the cannons they managed to save either directly from the cannon explosions or they were knocked off the mountain and fell to their deaths. Almost all the Huns and all their horses were wiped out in an avalanche while they were pursuing Mulan, Shang, and his elite soldiers, including Yao, Ling, and Chien Po. However, Shan Yu and five of his Elite Hun Soldiers managed to survive, breaking out of the snow and heading to China to capture the Emperor. It is unknown what happened to them after they failed to capture the latter, though it is likely that if they survived, they were arrested, put in the dungeon for life, or executed.
Live-action appearances[]
In the Niki Caro remake of Mulan the Huns are replaced by the Rouran Army. They are now instead the ones who directly cause the avalanche through Mulan tricking them into firing a catapult in the direction of the mountain that triggers it.
The Rourans are first seen riding on their horses following their leader Böri Khan planning to attack the northern garrison where several attack the marketplace as they attack the merchants in battle. Meanwhile, the Emperor signs a decree to the Chancellor that the Rourans have invaded China, planning to send every man of a family member to contribute to the Imperial Army to fight against the Rourans to defend the kingdom and protect the Emperor.
The next day, Böri Khan welcomes the twelve leaders of the Rouran tribes planning to kill the Emperor while relying on Xianniang whom the other Rourans think she cannot be trusted which Böri Khan tells the soldiers that Xianniang serves the Rourans just as Böri Khan plans to take revenge against the Emperor after surrendering to their last battle as well as avenging his father's death after the Emperor killed him which the Rourans ready themselves for revenge.
The Rourans, led by Böri Khan, later invade the Silk Road and fight against various guards protecting the garrison, causing mayhem across the marketplace while Xianniang takes on more guards during the ambush. Having ransacked the marketplace, Böri Khan and his troops continue proceeding to fight against the Imperial Army where the Rourans face the Imperial Army in front of them just as both armies clash against each other throughout the battle. When Xianniang transforms into thousands of blackbirds attacking the Imperial Army which the soldiers of the Imperial Army shield themselves to avoid getting attacked as a defensive position just as the Rourans ready themselves to use a catapult to fire flaming boulders at the Imperial Army.
Seeing the Rourans attacking the Imperial Army, Mulan calls in Black Wind to help her out just as she sees a snowy peak from a distance planning to cause an avalanche to engulf the Rourans which Mulan distracts them, causing them to turn left so that Böri Khan's army, causing a flaming boulder to hit the snow to cause an avalanche just as Mulan rides on Black Wind to escape from the avalanche engulfing the Rourans, followed by the Imperial Army retreating. After the Rourans were engulfed in an avalanche, Böri Khan and several other Rouran members are shown to have survived the avalanche, just as they plan to raid the Imperial City in a plan to kill the Emperor.
Soon as the Imperial Army arrives, the Rourans take part in a battle against Tung's army while Mulan finds the Emperor in a plan to protect him from Böri Khan just as the battle rages across the Imperial City. After Mulan kills Böri Khan in battle, the Rouran army surrenders with their leader killed. With the Rourans defeated, the Imperial City celebrates their victory against the Rourans with the Imperial Army who won the battle.
Appearances outside of the film[]
In Disney's Arcade Frenzy the Huns appear in the Mu Shoot game. The player has to shoot fireworks at them to stop them reaching a village at the bottom of the mountain pass. Unlike the movie they simply run on foot instead of riding horses.
In Kingdom Hearts II, the Huns are completely absent and Shan Yu has an army of Heartless instead of them. However, Mushu still referred to Shan Yu as the leader of the Hun army, implying that the army exists or that the Heartless Shan Yu controls are actually Huns that were turned into Heartless.
In the manga adaptation of Kingdom Hearts II, the Huns are with Shan Yu, as in the movie, but also with the Heartless too. It not completely clear if the army was a mix of Heartless and Huns, or if the entire army was Huns that had been turned into Heartless and were simply disguised as their original selves, or if the entire army was Heartless disguised as Huns. Despite this, the manga implies that at least some of the Heartless were on loan from Organization XIII. The army still gets wiped out with an avalanche.
In Disney Sorcerer's Arena, Hun soldiers (particularly archers) appear as non-playable enemy opponents in battle. They attack by shooting arrows.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- A deleted scene featured a Hun soldier trying to save and hide a little bird that was tossed aside after the army had raided a village and trashing the contents of a cart they have taken back to their camp, only for him to be spotted by Shan Yu who was using the unused ability of him seeing through Hayabusa's eyes, he then brutally kills the soldier by stabbing him and feeds the bird to his falcon. This implies that not all of the Huns in the army are full on murderous, cold blooded killers and some do have a sense of good in them, but would be eliminated because of it.
- During production when designing the scene where the Huns charge down the mountain the soldiers carrying flags had a crescent emblem on them possibly meant to be the crest of Shan Yu and the Huns. This was not used in the final product and the flags were changed to just being plain black.
- This was likely to avoid offense to Muslim viewers.
- The army was intended to return in an earlier version of the story for Mulan II where along with Shan Yu they would all be ghosts haunting Northern China. The finale was going to involve the army fighting against Mulan and her allies, including the Fa Family Ancestors [1]
- Although being called Huns, this is a historical misconception; the Xiongnu were the tribal raiders that attacked China during the age of Mulan. The Huns did not exist around the same time as the Xiongnu and never attacked China; they are agreed to have first appeared in Europe around 370AD, where they became one of the greatest threats to the Roman Empire. The misconception comes from the fact that both Huns and Xiongnu originated from the Eurasian Steppe and shared many cultural and militaristic similarities. French scholar Joseph de Guignes proposed that the Huns were descended from the Xiongnu, but this theory remains under intense debate.
- This is further supported by Shan Yu's name, as a "Shanyu" or "Chanyu" was what the Xiongnu leaders were called, much like a Mongol leader would be "Khan."
- However the Chinese dubs of the movie do call them Xiongnu instead of Huns. This is likely because the Huns are more historically well known outside of China and the Xiongnu are more historically well known in China. It is also likely because the word "Hun" is an easier word to use and understand for the English audience as "Xiongnu" would be more difficult to pronounce.
- Despite that the real Huns and other similar nomad societies were believed to allow women to be soldiers (as shown with Shan Yu not underestimating Mulan for being a woman) none of the soldiers in the army are women and appear to be all just men. However this could just simply be that the women Huns stayed behind as in most common cases in war the women usually were not called to the front line staying behind to defend the territory, look after the livestock, children or to look after property while the men were away fighting.
- To create 2,000 Hun soldiers during the Huns' attack sequence, the production team developed a crowd simulation software called Attila.
