Mulan II

2004 "She's primped. She's engaged. She's back."
5.6| 1h19m| G| en| More Info
Released: 13 November 2004 Released
Producted By: Disney Television Animation
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Fa Mulan gets the surprise of her young life when her love, Captain Li Shang asks for her hand in marriage. Before the two can have their happily ever after, the Emperor assigns them a secret mission, to escort three princesses to Chang'an, China. Mushu is determined to drive a wedge between the couple after he learns that he will lose his guardian job if Mulan marries into the Li family.

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Reviews

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
Blake Rivera If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
ironhorse_iv For the longest time, Disney had produce some of the worst direct to video sequels to their classic hand-drawn films, I have ever. Thank God that it is starting to die-down, due to the company new direction of remaking the classic animation movies into live-action films, instead. Because of that, we might one day, relive the adventures of Fa Mulan in the big screen, in an action packed war movie remake, rather than watching this crappy, 2005 direct-to video sequel to the 1998's film of the same name. Don't get me wrong, I really wanted to like this film directed by Darnell Rooney and Lynne Southerland. I really did. The original film is a near-masterpiece- great songs, beautiful animation, and epic action, with a heroine that young women can look up to. So, I was hoping this movie could been, just as good. However, it wasn't. I will tell you, why. For starters, I really didn't like how the film delivered on, the story of Mulan (Voiced once again by Ming-Na Wen), being sent on a special mission: escorting the Emperor's three daughters, Princess Mei (Voiced by Lucy Liu), Princess Ting-Ting (Voiced by Sandra Oh) & Princess Su (Voiced by Lauren Tom) across the country to a neighboring kingdom for an arranged marriage there in order to cement an alliance against the Mongols with the help from her fiancé, General Li Shang (Voiced once again by BD Wong) and his crew of misfits: Yao, Ling and Chien-Po (Voiced once again by Harvey Fierstein, Gedde Watanabe, and Jerry Tondo). I get that the sequel is trying to attempt to retain some of the woman empowerment feeling that made the first movie, so likable, but, the film went for it, the wrong way. For starters, I found Mulan's choice of believing the princesses should marry whom they wish, no matter how much danger it means for the entire nation of China, very odd. I get that, being forced to marry somebody else is wrong, but she doesn't know, that the marriage between the princesses and the princes would be loveless. Maybe, they will fall in love, with each other. Really, what right, does she has to play matchmaker. If anything, the princesses should be the ones to make the decision, marry or not to marry. In short, she risk the lives of her people on a hunch that the princesses would be unhappy. Doesn't Mulan see that royal intermarriage do serve to initiate, reinforce or guarantee peace between nations, during a time of a serious threat to their well-beings. I don't mind, that she question it, but sabotage the mission, before understanding, what's in stalk, felt a bit misguided, self-centered and acting on emotions. The morals of her story are directly at odds against the message of the original. At least, she tries to make it up, toward the end, by sacrificing her love-life for the duty of her nation, even if it doesn't make any sense, seeing that she isn't from any royal bloodline. Without spoiling the movie's ending, too much, I have to say, it's really bad. It turns into yet, another cheesy romantic clichés wedding interruption, with a guy coming up to confess his love to a woman, who is marrying somebody else. It's follow up by something really, really dumb with the main characters playing against the dumb-minded town folks with their spiritualism beliefs. It's really awful! Another problem with the film is the fact that the film never addressed what happen to the alliance after the fact that the wedding was ruin. For all, I know is that there was no treaty and China was invade by the Mongols. To make it, any worse, the writers turn the lovable, comedic, guardian dragon, Mushu (Voiced by now, Mark Moseley, replacing previous actor, Eddie Murphy) into a unforgivably evil jerk, who nearly kills Fa Mulan, throughout the film, because the fact that if Mulan and Li Shang get married. He will be, out of a job. I don't think, these Disney writers, even research Chinese culture, when, making this movie, because they would know, that the Tianlong AKA 'heavenly dragons" and Nāgas AKA 'heavenly dragons gods' still guard the afterlife and the life, regardless if marriage happens. Plus, dragons are used a symbol to represent good luck and harmony, not bad omens and foolish selfish actions. Not only that, but its sloppy research; seeing how dragons also represent imperial power, hints unity. So, why is Mushu trying to break up the alliance between the nations, just as much as Mulan!? Oddly, the discomfort doesn't end there. The voice acting from Moseley is just as bad. There are so many cringe-inducing "black" catchphrases and slang, by Moseley, a white actor that I wanted to turn it off. Even, the original, Mushu's voice, sound out of place. I never truly, understood, why a black man was voicing an Asian character in the first place. Regardless, it's offensive. Despite that, everybody else was alright in the voice acting. The singing was not that, bad. However, none of the new songs were that memorable. The animation, while smooth and colorful, also kind of looks out of place, because how cartoony, the range of emotion were. The expression of Li Shang is a great example. This film animation by the DisneyToon Studios felt a little too goofy, so I couldn't take, anything in the movie, really serious. Overall: I really don't like this film, at all! There were plans for a Mulan III, but thank God, they were cancelled by John Lasseter, when this movie fail to make bank. In the end, take my advice and watch the original movie, any day over this crap. It will save you, the headache and the pain. Plus, the embarrassment of owning, such garbage.
TheSeaLion "Mulan 2" marks the fourth Disney sequel to an animated movie I have seen, the other three being "The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride", "Tarzan & Jane", and "Kronk's New Groove". While "Mulan 2" is easily better than both "Kronk's New Groove" and Tarzan & Jane", it is still a terrible movie that can't even rise to the ranks of the mediocre "Simba's Pride". "Mulan 2" is a sequel where they had no idea what to do, so they packed in so much that the movie overflows with too many characters, multiple subplots that aren't very interesting, and bad songs.One month after the events of "Mulan", Shang (BD Wong) proposes to Mulan (Ming-Na Wen). As their proposal in announced, both Shang and Mulan are summoned by the Emperor (Pat Morita) for an important mission: escort his daughters (Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, Lauren Tom) to arranged marriages in a neighboring kingdom to gain an alliance with them. Along for the mission is Mushu (Mark Moseley), Cricket, and the three soldiers from the first movie (Harvey Fierstein, Gedde Waranabe, Jerry Tondo). The most surprising thing is there are no supporting characters in this movie. There are side characters, such as the Emperor, but all of the characters we are focused on have their own subplots that occur throughout the movie which we focus on. Mulan and Shang's relationship, the soldiers and the princesses falling in love with each other, and Mushu attempting to break up Mulan and Shang so he doesn't lose his job as Mulan's guardian because when she marries Shang, his guardian becomes hers as well. All of these subplots are given a lot of focus throughout the movie, making each of the nine characters stand out as main characters with no supporting case. I guess, technically, Cricket could be considered a side character, but he isn't utilized much other than occasionally trying to stop Mushu from breaking up Shang and Mulan.The majority of the characters in this movie only take part in the plot because they need to. Based on the plot, the Emperor, princesses, and several soldiers were needed to make the story work. Shang was okay in the story because as the Emperor's general, he is one of the few who would be trusted to look after the Emperor's daughters. The three soldiers from the first movie did not have to be there. They could have had new characters take their place, but they were reused because people recognized them. Strangely, the most forced in character to the entire movie was Mulan. She was not a soldier, yet she was still selected to go on the mission, for some reason. With Mulan being forced in, Mushu and Cricket were forced in. This movie turned Mushu into one of the worst Disney characters ever. I doubt I'll be able to enjoy his shenanigans in the first film as much now because of how he was portrayed in this movie. In the first film, Mushu was selfish, using Mulan risking her life as a means to try and get back his old job as family guardian. By the end of the movie, he had moved past that and had formed an actual relationship with her and stopped using her. In this movie, he tries to break Mulan and Shang apart to keep his job. That is something he would have done in the first movie before his character change, that is not something he would have done now.The musical numbers in this film are atrocious. Some parts of the songs do not rhyme, like with the song "I Want to be Like Other Girls", other songs are completely pointless and not good at all like "Lesson Number One", and they reuse "A Girl Worth Fighting For", only changing the lyrics in between, "A Girl worth fighting for," which usually don't rhyme anyway.There is no investment in any of the subplots throughout the entire movie. Mushu is so terrible and diabolical in this movie that you want him to lose his post and do not sympathize with him at all when he feels bad about breaking Mulan and Shang up. The daughters fall in love with the soldiers and vice verse almost immediately, with the exception of Ting Ting (Lucy Liu) who holds off on her feeling because of her duty to marry the prince in another kingdom. All of the characters falling in love happens spontaneously that it does not feel real, even by Disney standards, and it happens with characters that should be supporting characters so they don't really have much existing personality. The Mulan and Shang subplot, you know they'll end up back together so why do you care? It's one of those things they do in sequels where they break up a likable pair just so they can get back together again.Like "Tarzan & Jane" and "Kronk's New Groove", "Mulan 2" is a terrible movie, one of the worst I've ever seen. But unlike them, there was at least a consistent story and a side character was not given their own movie. It is still a terrible movie with too many main characters, bad songs, and nothing to be invested in, but it is not the worst Disney sequel ever made.
Chris Kay 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.
whatever_123 The first Mulan is one of my all time favorite Disney movies. Just for the heck of it, I watched the second one with my friend... and it sucked.For one thing, the songs were stupid and completely forgettable. For another thing, the animation looked weird to me. Mulan was a lot less pretty in this movie than in the first one, I don't know how. Anyway, the plot was a predictable piece of garbage. They are taking the three princesses to their pre-arranged marriages, they fall in love with the other guys, and they get to choose who they marry at the end. I was also really disappointed in Mushu in this movie. In the first Mulan, Mushu provided a great comic relief and he seemed like a really respectable guy. In this movie he turned into a complete jerk. He wanted to break up Mulan and Shang (who is the hottest cartoon character ever!) because he wanted to maintain his Guardian status??? How selfish can you get?! There's a part in the movie that amazes me, and not in a good way. (SPOILER) At one point, Mulan and Shang are hanging off a broken bridge that has to be at least ten thousand feet high. Shang's hand slips out of Mulan's and he falls TEN THOUSAND FEET TO THE GROUND. Later in the movie, he comes back, completely fine. What???? From where I come from, if you fell ten thousand feet, you would be dead!! Although, I am happy he lived (because he's so hot!!) The most annoying thing about this movie is the one sentence they say, no joke, fifty times. Every scene they have to remind us that "your duty is to your heart". I swear I almost threw up the forty fifth time they said it.Everything that the first Mulan did right, Mulan 2 did totally wrong! No great songs, terrible plot, ridiculous situations, and an sickening message. Please don't watch this movie. There's a reason why it went straight to DVD!!!