Mulan was originally conceived as a straight-to-video film called China Doll, about a poor, oppressed Chinese girl who is whisked away by a white guy to live a happier life in the West. When a writer discovered the Chinese poem "The Song of Fa Mu Lan," the studio decided to combine both projects and create Mulan. Knowing the film's slightly racist, tone-deaf origins, on the other hand, casts the film in a whole new light.