MULAN
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Barry Cook
Robert Clotworthy
Mitch Carter
Miguel Ferrer
Susan Boyd
Eddie Murphy
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Based on a Chinese folk-tale, Mulan is a young high-spirited girl who tries hard to please her parents but always feels like she is disappointing them. Her father is drafted into the army which amounts to certain death because of his old age. Mulan disguises herself as a man and takes her father's p
Cast
Robert Clotworthy
Mitch Carter
Miguel Ferrer
Susan Boyd
Eddie Murphy
Peter Renaday
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/MarniNixon.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Marni Nixon
Julianne Buescher
Pat Morita
Mary Kay Bergman
Tom Amundsen
Huanani Minn
Elisa Pensler-gabrielli
Maurita Thornburg-phillips
Steve Bulen
Mark Moseley
Luisa Lechin
Conan Lee
David Cowgill
Arminae Austen
Sandie Hall
Linda Kerns
Donny Osmond
Miriam Margoyles
Gedde Watanabe
Edie Lehmann-boddicker
Claudette Wells
Edie Mirman
Beth Fowler
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/v5cache/TCM/Images/Dynamic/i61/harveyfierstein_cu_188x141_100820071225.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
Harvey Fierstein
Frank Welker
Susan Mcbride
Richard S Horvitz
June Foray
B.d. Wong
![](https://prod-images.tcm.com/Master-Profile-Images/JamesShigeta.176410.jpg?imwidth=188&height=141)
James Shigeta
John Walcutt
Jerry Tondo
George Takei
Sally Dworsky
Dana Lee
Ming-na Wen
Soon-tek Oh
Jack Gilpin
James Hong
Patrick Pinney
Matthew Wilder
Freda Foh Shen
Matthew Labyorteaux
Lea Salonga
Don Fullilove
Christina Ma
Corey Burton
Crew
Dominic A'vant
John Aardal
Benjamin William Adams
Adeboye Saburi Adegbenro
Susan Adnopoz
Christina Aguilera
Julius Aguimatang
Faris Al-saffar
Joyce Alexander
Graham S Allan
Philip J Allora
Paulo R Alvarado
Carmen R Alvarez
Leyla Amaro-pelaez
Raul E Anaya
Bruce R Anderson
Scott W Anderson
Bill Andres
Merritt R Andrews
Jonathan Annand
Tony Anselmo
Sunny Apinchapong
Ruben Azama Aquino
Carlos R Arancibia
Stella P Arbelaez Tascon
Janice Armiger
Debra Armstrong
Stephen Nelson Austin
Kirk Axtell
Gregg Azzopardi
Hans Bacher
Robert Bagley
Kathleen M Bailey
D Jay Baker
James Baker
Tom Baker
Dorothea Baker Paul
Tom Bancroft
Kevin A Barber
Judith A Barnes
Richard M Barnes
B H Barry
Augusto Borges Bastos
Robert Bayless
Brian Orlando Beauchamp
Guner Behich
Rob Bekuhrs
Carl Angus Bell
Glenn Bell
Janelle Bell-martin
Savino Bellini
George Benavides
John Bender
Lon Bender
Michael Benet
Bob Bennett
Rune Brandt Bennicke
Theresa Bentz
Bill Berg
Fred Berning
Douglas Berterman
Douglas Bertermann
Ron Betta
Munir A Bhatti
Matt Bialosuknia
Rachel Renee Bibb
Peter Bielicki
Phyllis Bird
Katherine Blackmore
Gary Blair
Aaron Blaise
Travis Blaise
Robert Blalock
Russell Blandino
Diana Blazer
S J Bleick
Saul Andrew Blinkoff
Mike Blum
Allen Blyth
Kirk Bodyfelt
Paul Bogaev
Cyndy Bohonovsky
Michael Bolds
Jamie Kezlarian Bolio
Daniel Bond
Charlie Bonifacio
Jason Boose
Eugenia Bostwick-singer
Bruce Botnick
Patsy L Bouge
Elliot M Bour
Bryan Bowen
Verrell Bowers
Philip S Boyd
David Braden
Chris Bradley
Susan Bradley
Patti Braskie
Russell Braun
Jo Ann Breuer
Paul Briggs
Todd Bright
Brad Brooks
Kristine Brown
Jeanette Browning
Jim Brummett
Paul Buckmaster
Kristen Ann Bulmer
Letha L Burchard
Scott A Burroughs
Jason Leonard Robert Buske
Joey Calderon
Ofra Afuta Calderon
William J Caparella
Scott Caple
Rodolfo Cardenas
Mark R Carlson
Vince Caro
Dominic M Carola
Chris Carpenter
Irma Cartaya
Hortensia M Casagran
Nhi Casey
John Cashman
Janice M Caston
Darko Cesar
Arden Chan
Mimi Chan
Chen-yi Chang
Lillian A Chapman
Alex Chatfield
Richard P Chavez
Ray Chen
Karen N China
Jerry Yu Ching
Chang Yei Cho
Inna Chon
Carol J Choy
Loren Chun
Peter L Chun
Wesley Chun
Joey So Chun Yin
Anthony M Cipriano
Terry Claborn
Michael Clay
Caroline Clifford
Stephanie Clifford
Pam Coats
Diana Coco
Casey Coffey
Earl Scott Coffman
Ron Cohee
Dan Cohen
Sarah J Cole
Ray C Coleman
Shirley Collier
Charles Collins
Beth Collins-stegmaier
Brad Condie
Lorna Cook
Tod Cooper
Frank R Cordero
Robert O Corley
Tony Cosanella
Alexander Courage
Stephen R Craig
Sheri Croft
James Michael Crossley
Caroline Cruikshank
Don Crum
Jefferson Crutchfield
Lynnette Cullen
Antoine Cunnigham
John R Cunningham
Sherrie Cuzzort
Sybil Cuzzort
Florida D'ambrosio
Val D'arcy
Michael D'isa
Lea Dahleen
Deborah G Dalton
Dan Daly
Tammy Daniel-biske
Eric Dapkewicz
Andrew Davenport
Cheryl Davis
Sandy De Crescent
Dean Deblois
Antony Defato
Ron Defelice
Peter J Deluca
Jean Cullen Demoura
Marcelo Fernades Demoura
John Derderian
Tom Derosier
Peter Deseve
Kevin Deters
Robert Edward Dettloff
Jeff Dickson
Frank Dietz
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Score (Musical or Comedy)
Articles
Pat Morita (1932-2005)
He was born Noriyuki Morita on June 28, 1932 in Isleton, California. The son of migrant fruit pickers, he contracted spinal tuberculosis when he was two and spent the next nine years in a sanitarium run by Catholic priests near Sacramento. He was renamed Pat, and after several spinal surgical procedures and learning how to walk, the 11-year-old Morita was sent to an internment camp at Gila River, Arizona, joining his family and thousands of other Japanese-Americans who were shamefully imprisoned by the U.S. government after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
His family was released after the war, and Morita graduated from high school in Fairfield, California in 1950. He worked in his family's Chinese restaurant in Sacramento until his father was killed in a hit-and-run accident. He eventually found work as a data processor for the Department of Motor Vehicles and then Aerojet General Corporation before he decided to try his hand at stand-up comedy.
He relocated to San Francisco in 1962, where at first, there was some hesitation from clubs to book a Japanese-American comic, but Morita's enthusiasm soon warmed them over, and he was becoming something of a regional hit in all the Bay Area. His breakthrough came in 1964 when he was booked on ABC's The Hollywood Palace. The image of a small, unassuming Asian with the broad mannerisms and delivery of a modern American was something new in its day. He was a hit, and soon found more bookings on the show. And after he earned the nickname "the hip nip," he quickly began headlining clubs in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Morita's stage and television success eventually led him to films. He made his movie debut as "Oriental #2," the henchman to Beatrice Lilly in the Julie Andrew's musical Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). Although his role, complete with thick coke-bottle glasses and gaping overbite, was a little hard to watch, it was the best he could do at the time. Subsequent parts, as in Don Knott's dreadful The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968); and Bob Hope's lamentable final film Cancel My Reservations (1972); were simply variations of the same stereotype.
However, television was far kinder to Morita. After some popular guest appearances in the early '70s on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Morita landed some semi-regular work. First, as the wisecracking, cigar chomping Captain Sam Pack on M.A.S.H. and as Ah Chew, the deadpan neighbor of Fred and Lamont Sanford in Sanford & Son. His success in these roles led to his first regular gig, as Arnold Takahashi in Happy Days. His stint as the owner of the soda shop where Ritchie Cunningham and the Fonz hung out for endless hours may have been short lived (just two seasons 1974-76), but it was Morita's first successful stab at pop immortality.
He left Happy Days to star in his own show, the critically savaged culture clash sitcom Mr. T and Tina that was canceled after just five episodes. Despite that setback, Morita rebounded that same year with his first dramatic performance, and a fine one at that, when he portrayed a Japanese-American internment camp survivor in the moving made for television drama Farewell to Manzanar (1976). After a few more guest appearances on hit shows (Magnum P.I., The Love Boat etc.), Morita found the goldmine and added new life to his career when he took the role of Miyagi in The Karate Kid (1984). Playing opposite Ralph Macchio, the young man who becomes his martial arts pupil, Morita was both touching and wise, and the warm bond he created with Macchio during the course of the film really proved that he had some serious acting chops. The flick was the surprise box-office hit of 1984, and Morita's career, if briefly, opened up to new possibilities.
He scored two parts in television specials that were notable in that his race was never referenced: first as the horse in Alice in Wonderland (1985); and as the toymaster in Babes in Toyland (1986). He also landed a detective show (with of course, comic undertones) that ran for two seasons Ohara (1987-89); nailed some funny lines in Honeymoon in Vegas (1992); was the sole saving grace of Gus Van Zandt's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993); and starred in all of the sequels to The Karate Kid: The Karate Kid, Part II (1986), The Karate Kid, Part III (1989), and The Next Karate Kid (1994). Granted, it is arguable that Morita's career never truly blossomed out of the "wise old Asian man" caricature. But give the man his due, when it came to infusing such parts with sly wit and sheer charm, nobody did it better. Morita is survived by his wife, Evelyn; daughters, Erin, Aly and Tia; his brother, Harry, and two grandchildren.
by Michael T. Toole
![Pat Morita (1932-2005)](https://prod-images.tcm.com/img/film-participant-detail/Featured-Artilce_Placeholder.png)
Pat Morita (1932-2005)
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States Summer June 19, 1998
Released in United States on Video February 2, 1998
Released in United States on Video February 2, 1999
Released in United States 1998
Released in United States August 1998
Released in United States September 1998
Released in United States 2014
Shown at Locarno International Film Festival (opening night) August 5-15, 1998.
Shown at Bangkok Film Festival September 18-26, 1998.
Began shooting January 1, 1995.
Released in United States Summer June 19, 1998
Released in United States on Video February 2, 1998
Released in United States on Video February 2, 1999
Released in United States 1998 (Film had its overseas premiere at the 1998 Locarno International Film Festival.)
Released in United States August 1998 (Shown at Locarno International Film Festival (opening night) August 5-15, 1998.)
Released in United States September 1998 (Shown at Bangkok Film Festival September 18-26, 1998.)
Released in United States 2014 (U.S. Features)
Completed shooting spring 1998.