Mulan II (2004)

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Mulan 2 is completely different from the first Mulan. It involves a tragic story about how the emperor of China sells his three daughters off to be married to princes whom they have never met to make a peace offering and end the war. Mulan could never imagine such pain as she is marrying the man she loves , general Shang. It is Mulan and Shang's mission to take the princesses to the princes. General shang hires three guards who are just a wreck but good enough to protect them. They are also hopeless romantic's , as are the princesses. Throughout the whole movie the guards and the princesses slowly fall in love with each other and one night decide to sneak out together to go to a festival in town . While in the meantime , Mulan's guardian Mushu , a dragon tries to ruin her and Shang's relationship so he doesn't loose his pedestal. Mei and Yao become a pair , Ling and Ting Ting , and Chien Po and Su. Mulan finds out and is extremely happy for them but soon after Shang wakes up and goes to the festival very upset . He ends their relationship and continued to take them to the princes. On the way Shang and everyone are ambushed by bandits , cutting the bridge , Shang let's go and falls off to save Mulan. Mulan morning him goes to the other emperor and demands that she she take the princesses places . She proceeded to get married but then Shang shows up , saves the day , marries Mulan , and the princesses live happily ever after. Everybody wins . It's a sweet movie and has alot of humor, romance , and some sad parts in it . I would highly recommend it to anyone .

**SPOILERS IN REVIEW***One of the more disappointing Disney sequels. Three princesses are set to be married. None of them are happy about this - OK, great. This story line could be going somewhere! Wait...what happened by the end of it? Well, all 3 of them plus Mulan got married. Not to who they were going to be forced to marry, but married nevertheless. This is terrible. I expected better from Disney writers. The fact there were 3 Princesses, they had so much potential to run with. They could've made only one (maybe even 2) Princess decide she didn't want to marry because she fell in love with ONE of Mulan's friends along the way. That would've been fine, it still tells people to listen to their heart.But, THREE?! All three of them decided the soul purpose to run away from being forced into an unwanted marriage, purely because they wanted to marry someone else? Where is the sense in this. Romance was their only motivation to not mindlessly sell themselves off. The THREE Princesses only seem to even be in this movie to serve as 'other halves' for Mulan's 3 old army friends. It could've been wonderful if they left at least one Princess or two, who decided she/they didn't want to marry, because they simply didn't want to be forced into love at all. They could be happy being single. They could've wanted to work. They could've wanted to take over the emperor's position some day and care for the country without having to fall in love and have children (I know they're royals, but if one sister married one of Mulan's friends like I say that wouldn't be a problem for them).They ruined a potentially good storyline. But this scores 4, as the animation was still good. The story concept COULD have been great, but wasn't used properly. So, it wasn't.

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.

Mulan was one of Disney's greatest films ever made with beautiful animation, excellent voice acting, intense action, and an entertaining story. So, when some of the Disney sequels came out at the time (Return of Jafar, Cinderella II, and Hunchback of Notre Dame II), I waited so desperately to see a sequel that would capture the magic of the original.Sadly, my expectations were quite low when after the first 10-15 minutes of this film since it failed to be the same positive levels that made the original such a masterpiece and the characteristic was one of the few main problems of this sequel. I'll show you by contrasting the characteristic of the original and this sequel.In the original, Mulan was a conflicted woman who was doing what is right for his family by protecting his father from getting himself killed. In this sequel, Mulan's personality is to now be a staunch feminist as she and Shang try to love each other. In the original, Mushu was a well-intentioned but slightly misguided sidekick who gave me some laughs with his comedic moments throughout the film. In this sequel, he's a selfish villain who attempts to break up the relationship between Mulan and Shang. In the original, Mulan's army buddies were hilarious and were quite enjoyable characters. In this sequel, they are now being one-dimensional characters repeating the same characteristic over and over again.With the characteristic out of the way, there are a few good things about this movie. The voice acting is very terrific and did their best with the material they've been given and the animation, while below the original's standards, is obviously quite good and is the best animation I've seen in a Disney direct-to-video sequel this far.Sadly, those two positive aspects got suffered by it's predictable story (with some overused clichés from other new direct-to-video sequels) and it's uninspiring message about "Following your heart" which makes it a little less entertaining for children and their adults.Although, not a horrible sequel (unlike Cinderella 2, which was by far the worst direct-to-video sequel I have ever seen), Mulan II lacks the heart of the original and has a uninspiring message that just doesn't measure up. I'm sure the kids will enjoy it, but in terms of direct-to-video sequels, the adults might have a hard time remembering this.Rating: 5.6/10