Wow! Such a good movie.

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

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.

"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.

Mulan was personally one of my all time favourite Disney movies and movies in general and so when the moment i saw this movie around I was puzzled as to why I have not heard of it, then I realized ... It was direct to DVD. I gave this movie a chance though despite my opinion on some of the other Disney straight to video sequels and boy am I glad I did as this movie is a ball to watch. The movie's plot is simple but perfectly functioning it is the story about Shang and Mulan being engaged to marry but before the wedding having to transport three princesses to another country for an arranged marriage that will end the war, all the time Mushu trying to destroy Mulan's wedding and the three princesses falling in love with three warriors from the first film. The movies scenery and animation are ace almost living up to the ridiculously high bar of the first. Now while the characters are flat and generic, with only the characters from the first standing out, they are funny and provide some cool character arcs. The direction lends this picture an amazing sense of pace despite the movie curiously lacking laid out acts. It makes for some funny jokes cute animation and fast paced even with a generic and schmaltzy plot. So overall a fun movie worth checking out in hd!

Alright, I saw this ages ago, and the only parts I can stomach at all are the first song (not the best I've heard from Disney, but for me, the best in a sequel they produced direct to DVD that wasn't from Aladdin) and an opening scene that was completely cut. These two things and the fact that Ming Na actually came back for the role of voicing Mulan are completely overcast by the many issues held in this film.First, I have to say that, aside from the Aladdin sequels (which need to be watched with the TV series as well as the main film to really be appreciated), none of the direct to home entertainment sequels produced by Disney have satisfied truly. So, frankly said, it's not as bad as it could have been, if we were to compare it to other non-theatrical sequels from Disney, if you enjoy them. It's not much to go by, though, in my opinion.Second, I have to state that a lot of these opinions are formed based on my being a feminist and an Asian-American. The first Mulan was refreshing, since it had clear feminist themes and a vastly understated romantic connect without having to re-imagine the characters from the original material, as Disney has done prior in the '90s. On top of that, the original feature film was actually a fair treatment of Chinese culture, or at least as you'd get from Disney. Yes, the exaggeration of the importance of honor was very much a western viewing of Asian culture that has tired itself out, but all things considered, it was a nice enough representation of Chinese culture to not out right offend. The serious action in the film and the comedic but helpful sidekick of Mushu was also a nice icing to the cake.In Mulan II, Disney completely disregards all of the things that made Mulan appealing.To start, a lot of the film feels more like it's about Mushu (who is utterly selfish and unlikable here), Mulan's three war buddies--Ling, Yao and Chien Po--and the three princesses they fall in love with. I honestly couldn't be bothered to care for Mulan and Shang past the first ten minutes and forgot that she's the central character until towards the end. The only good thing in this is that the two trios are endearing, if show-stealers, but not by much.The next point is that, where the first film simply exaggerates certain Chinese values, the sequel completely disregards them in favor of modern western ideals. The main theme in the first is duty to one's family and nation and the need to find your place in society while also being yourself. The sequel disregards duty in favor of personal desire. This is where Disney throws Chinese values out the window for their ideals of true (but shallow and unrealistic) love. The duty that was key is ignored for love matches, disregarding that the arranged marriage will secure national safety. Forget Asian values; I can't even imagine a soldier that has risked life and reputation for her country would disregard that on a basis of "my duty is to my heart". Nor would three princesses that agreed with their father's request, having likely be reared with the understanding that their position is because of their responsibility to their country. Anyhow, the short version of this point that got away from me is that the sequel disregards a valuable and universal idea of duty in favor of an unnecessary ideal of romance that's overly stressed on girls as is, thus taking away from a good thing and offering less.The final thing that makes this irksome is the offensive stereotyping this movie contains. Mulan I was actually researched to an extent and the worst of it was the exaggeration of honor and the treatment of women (which was more a dramatic device). While not deeply accurate, there is the illustration that much of the spiritual veneration in medieval China was ancestral, with totem-like guardians being much more secondary and more a device to bring in Mushu. Then, in the sequel, we get the "Great Golden Dragon of Unity". The first mention of this Dragon of Unity had me honestly asking, "What the hell is this, Disney?" aloud while watching Mulan II. It's such a blatantly stereotypical fabrication on Disney's part that I wouldn't be surprised to see it in Vegas as a tourist trap in some Chinese-themed casino and drive-thru chapel. The fabrication of the nation "Qui Gong" (again, a verbal comment was made at this mention, along the lines of, "The country of Energy Flow? Said incorrectly?") is also eye-roll worthy, as well as several other Chinese-stereotyping features throughout the film.These are the kind of stereotypes that are actually limiting what Asian entertainers can get jobs portraying in major western entertainment, and I can only picture the cast cringing internally at they things they had to say and see after getting to do the first film. I feel especially bad for Gedde Watanabe, since he's basically back to being in a film with the same stereotypes he had to do in Sixteen Candles twenty-one years before.At least he's not named for a duck's donger in this one...Honestly, my only advice is to borrow it from your local library if you seriously want to subject your kids or yourself to this, and if you had as bad a taste in your mouth as I did after credits roll, watch the deleted opening scene. Five minutes of cut footage gave me all of what I enjoyed in Mulan; scenery, action, and nice dialog between Mulan and Shang that only is outright romantic at the end. It only made it to pencils and storyboards with voice overs, but it's the best the movie has to offer.