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Q: My kids love Disney's "Mulan," but every time I watch it, I can't figure out who does the singing for the main male character. I know I've heard that voice before -- can you help?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

It certainly was a new experience for former teen star Donny Osmond. Stepping in as a ringer on an animated film, to do the singing for a character while another actor handles the dialogue was a new feat. However, it can't really be called a departure, since Osmond's had no real pattern to depart from.

Osmond has held just about every gig there is in the entertainment business, and he has even done voice acting -- in 1995 he did a voice in the Canadian made-for-TV animated film "Nilus the Sandman: The First Day" -- however, he didn't get to do it in the 1998 Disney hit "Mulan."

In "Mulan," Osmond provides the singing voice of Capt. Li Shang, who trains the disguised Mulan at a military camp, performing the song "I'll Make a Man Out of You."

Having started out as an adorable child star, singing in his family band The Osmonds, Donny soon became a teen heartthrob. He later tried his hand as a variety show host alongside his sister, on "Donny and Marie."

Of course, the natural next step was acting, starting with the forgettable 1978 film "Goin' Coconuts" (again, along with his sister). He later combined the acting and singing on Broadway, most notably in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."

Along the way, he's tried just about everything else -- film producer, reality show star, talk show host, and more.

Despite all of that, Osmond said in an interview with CNN that he took his kids to see "Mulan" in theaters, and it was then, he said, that they finally decided their dad was successful.

Oddly enough, the actor who did the speaking voice of Osmond's "Mulan" character was "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" star BD Wong, who found fame after winning a Tony award for his portrayal of an opera singer in the classic "M. Butterfly."

 

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