Mulan 2 : La Mission de l'Empereur

this was a fab movie a great carry on and if anyone thinks other wise they're mad. the true mushu was revealed and we saw a new side to chien po, ling and yao, plus the princesses ting ting, may and su are a great addition i can't wait to see if a third one is planned. it had me hooked when watching it the beautiful scenery the story of ying and yang combined the whole thing. it is a must buy a fab movie for both adults and children it shows china in a new light plus the costumes just keep getting better and better great emotion and reality it is funnier some great jokes from ling and ting ting you just can't miss this fab movie it's great i love it.

Mulan 2 was a decent sequel. Of course it isn't as good as the wonderful original, which is one of the better Disney movies of the 90s. As far as this sequel goes it isn't as good as Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Simbas's Pride and Beauty and the Beast:The Enchanted Christmas, but I do think it is an improvement over Cinderella 2 and Jungle Book 2. The animation wasn't so bad, it was nice and colourful, but nothing too fancy. The avalanche scene in the original made my jaw drop by the way. The songs and music are fairly decent and memorable on the most part, my favourite is "I want to be like other girls" but Jerry Goldsmith, who is my favourite film composer, is missed. The music he did for the original is beautiful, and I don't think is appreciated as much as it should be. I liked the three princess characters as well. And the voice acting on the whole was very good; Ming Na is a spirited Mulan and Pat Morita has little to do, but is fine as the emperor. However, I did miss Eddie Murphy, Mark Moseley did his very best, but Mushu isn't as funny as he was in the first movie, in fact he is annoying and unlikeable often. The story was clumsily handled at times as it seemed to focus on Mulan and Shang's petty arguments than upholding the country honour. And the film was devoid of humour, with the exception of Ling's very lame jokes. And I don't know why Shang is such a jerk in this movie, he isn't really the handsome and brave Shang I came to admire. On the whole, decent, but don't expect the original. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Let's get something out of the way... Mulan II is nothing compared to the original. But then again, what Disney direct to DVD sequel is? If you look at this movie for what it really is, you'll notice that it's actually pretty good. Keep in mind it's nothing extraordinary and you can skip this film with a clear conscience, but if you happen to get to watching it for whatever reason you'll probably find the film entertaining and definitely watchable.

The big difference between the first film and this one lies in the direction the development team went for: the original was an ambitious epic about a complex moral dilemma, while the sequel touches on simple black and white issues. Keep in mind that simplicity isn't necessarily a bad thing when done right.

But does simplicity hurt the film? Well, the dialogue is far from witty, the plot is super generic, the character development is a checklist, etc... Yet, does a child care about any of this? After all, direct to DVD sequels are aimed solely at children because a parent doesn't need to be present. No. The simplicity only makes the film more accessible to a younger audience. After all, bite sized lessons and issues are a lot more easy to swallow for a five year old.

To the film's credit, it also gets the essentials right. The plot makes sense, characters are developed, the songs are decent, the pacing works, and most importantly most of the voice cast returns so everything feels right.

Now of course, the film isn't without it's flaws. The biggest issue is this film features way less action than it's predecessor and way less Mulan (she practically disappears in the middle of the film). Mulan's bickering with Shang is also very badly written. Yet, minor complaints.

Overall a decent film. 7/10. It's not a must see and can be left to the children, but if you happen to end up watching the film for whatever reason AND you lower your expectations, you might enjoy it. Well, as long as you're not expecting it to compare to the first one.

I didn't think Mulan II was awful and I certainly didn't hate it. I found the material to be pretty sophisticated for a Disney movie, particularly for a sequel. The relationship issues were were complex and thoughtful, and I agree with a previous comment that the movie does a good job of building and expanding on what we saw in the first movie. I enjoyed the addition of the the three daughters as characters as well and the return of Ling, Yao, and Chien Po. Overall I thought the movie was charming, entertaining, and it made me grin. There were also some very dramatic scenes in the movie that I thought were just outstanding and ground-breaking for a Disney animated feature.

Having said that, I also have to say that I was disappointed that the feel of the movie did not match the first. In fact it was completely different, and I found many of the characters to be extremely out of character, particularly Shang and Mulan. They just did not seem like themselves, based on our understanding of who they are from the original film. There are moments in which the way they react to events is completely over the top (for example, Shang's anger when he thinks Mulan is gossiping about him to the princesses). His facial expressions even become exaggerated in cartoon fashion. Basically, the movie did not have the serene, serious, yet beautiful feeling of the first. Instead it was like the movie was completely thrown to a group of writers and directors who were given semblances of who the characters are and then ran off with it. Shang, Mulan, and Ling acted so off sometimes that it seemed like their voice actors changed. I was surprised that B.D. Wong, Ming-Na, and Gedde Watanabe were still doing their parts, despite how familiar I am with their voices.

Mulan II is enjoyable, but it's nothing like the first. I think I could best describe it as watching a Mulan fan fiction come to life.... entertaining but with a few ummms in there.

Disney is one of the kings of exploitation. For every successful (and unsuccessful) franchise film, there comes tons of merchandising, original soundtracks and sing-alongs and *shudder* direct-to-video sequels. Yes, these sequels go direct-to-video because we all know that they're going to be pretty bad, but parents are always looking for cheap ways to entertain their children (telling folk tales doesn't work anymore since no one knows them--another topic that's ripe for academic study, if it hasn't already been pursued) and so Disney somehow manages, by keeping their costs low and targeting their niche market, to keep churning out endless sequels of their hit films.

Mulan has a baby. It goes by the clever name Mulan II. This film, which amazingly contains the voice talent of Ming-Na (in terms of returning talent, that's all you get--ER apparently doesn't cover the bills), contains a cheesy uninspiring message of following your heart. (Even over duty! Oh wait, in the wonderful world of Disney, somehow duty gets accomplished incidentally to following your heart. I like the scary Brothers Grimm better, thank you very much.) Fa Mulan and her general friend/lover/dude are getting married. Stuff happens. More stuff happens. Who cares? Oh yeah, the film is a musical too. Do I remember the songs? Nope. Am I glad that I don't remember them? Yep. The animation was unimpressive, the story was unimpressive, the acting was unimpressive, the exploitation of other cultures by Disney in attempt to capture the almighty dollar? Impressive. It appears as though Disney doesn't really care all that much about their source material as a whole. Chinese history and culture is only so important as it helps Disney make Mulan and its direct-to-video heir to sell to the masses.

So what does this film have going for it? It's not as painful as Little Black Book. But it's close. I watched it on the bus and despite the fact that I wasn't sleepy, I had to the urge to fall asleep just so I could avoid it. If it were night, I would have. I think you can manage to distract kids with this mumbo-jumbo, but honestly, there are far better ways of entertaining your children. 4/10.