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- "Honor to Us All" is a song written by composer Matthew Wilder and lyricist David Zippel for Walt Disney Pictures' 36th animated feature film Mulan (1998). Recorded by singers Beth Fowler, Marni Nixon and Lea Salonga, the latter two of whom provide the singing voices of Grandmother Fa and Fa Mulan, respectively, the song is a 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 ironic, "Honor to Us All" features lyrics that instruct Mulan on how to become an ideal bride by emphasizing her physical appearance, remaining obedient to her prospective husband and eventually bearing children. Parodying traditional gender roles and cultural expectations of women, "Honor to Us All" has been identified as an 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. (en)
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