The New Woman a la Disney

I am watching Mulan. I can never get enough of this movie. My favorite song is “I'll Make a Man Out of You” because the montage is so inspiring! The montage moves from a hopeless bunch of unfit men (and woman) to a trained corps of incredible acumen. In true Disney fashion, they each entirely master the skills needed to complete the rigors of training. They all make rapid, unbelievable progress, though Mulan leads the group as they run. The only thing the fellows in the army are lacking is brains. They cannot figure out how to use the weights to climb the pole to reach the arrow.
The scope of masculinity is very broad—from the effeminate adviser, to the noble blockhead Yao, to the handsome and capable Li Shang. Mulan proves she cannot fit into her prescribed position in society in the meeting with the matchmaker. She is too full of personality... so we see another ideal of femininity as Mulan develops as a soldier. She fits well. She has more than physical stamina, for she is a problem-solver. She has emotional equanimity when the army passes through the razed village. She commemorates the dead, tries to comfort Li Shang, despite her own despair.
All told, she is no typical Disney leading lady. For example, Cinderella's claims to fame include a lovely singing voice, a fondness for animals, and extraordinary forbearance when treated poorly by relatives (not to mention a knack at scrubbing, sweeping, and sewing). Snow White is primarily maternal, exhibiting a keen household sensibility, a fabulous cook, a fondness for woodland creatures, her “fatal” flaw though, is being a tad too trusting when it comes to strange, old women. Sleeping Beauty, er...uh, Briarrose, is it?... a nice singing voice, dancing skills, a fondness for woodland creatures... Jasmine and Belle have a few more traits to recommend themselves: an independent spirit and a deep love of learning, respectively. But Mulan is the new woman: strong, smart, sensitive, beautiful—though her physical beauty is downplayed when she is dressed as a man. But she is not entirely new-fashioned: she follows in the rags-to-riches economic expectation, and she still talks to animals, though their responses are limited to typical animal-talk, excluding Mushu the dragon.
[Spoiler Warning] By the end of the movie, Mulan's fullest self is realized. She saves the emperor himself from the leader of the Huns, even dressed as a woman! She leads the other men with her strategy (now all dressed as women, to the “I'll Make a Man Out of You” reprise). She the personally beats (Attila?) the Hun with her wits.
Though set in China, perhaps the story is Western, with Western ideals, and Western heroes. As a product of Western society, I love it!