I haven't watched this in a couple months, but I think I got the idea...I don't need to watch it again.

It seems like everything that I particularly liked about the first film was completely forgotten, and everything that I pretty much hated, well...there was even more of it in this one. Mulan is no longer a normal girl. She is now a butt kicking super woman kung fu warrior. And this one gets very preachy about the whole "a girl can do anything a boy can' thing. And then Mushu...he is in even more scenes in this one then the first! And it 10x as bad, because hes not even a good character anymore!! He was a pretty good character in the first but, now he is totally annoying and ridiculous!

The animation is very cartoony lookin. More bright colors and really quirky lookin characters, which I really wasn't crazy about, but I could tolerate it. And there are few new characters introduced, the 3 princesses, whom I liked. Not annoying like most new characters in Disney DTV's, but just nice, cute characters. And as far as music...eh. The song with Mulan in the beginning was terrible, the song with Ling, Yao, and Chin-Po, which was nothing more but "A girl worth fighting for" only with rewritten stupid lyrics, was pretty stupid. But, there is one winner in this movie! "I wanna be like other girls" was very catchy and fun, not exactly a fantasic song. Im actually pretty embarrased to say that I rewinded it back to that song at least 5 times when I first this movie...yeah...

This movie just goes from pretty darn stupid, but then, it kinda turns. It gets kinda dramatic, emotional, and actually...GOOD! And it lasts like that for awhile! But, before the movie ends, it turns back to the way it was before...stupid.

Pretty enjoyable...as enjoyable as a pretty stupid sequel can be. Compared to the wide range of Disney DTVs, this is one of their better ones but, its still a pretty poor continuation of the story.

I had heard from a lot of people that this was a really good sequel. I was disappointed, though. (Admittedly, I sort of expected to be.)

All the good old characters are there, and all nicely in character. (Except possibly Mushu.) What's more, I really liked the princesses, and thought their scenes were fun. Great stuff.

The music was unexceptional, but not bad. And the scenery and animation were fine.

Where it really falls down in in the plot, in my opinion.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

In the first place, the whole Mushu storyline. It's so...pointless, really. Was anyone ever in real suspense that Mushu would break them up permanetly?

The princesses' storyline is more compelling. They (and their lovers) are forced to choose between their own love and saving their country. Well, this is Disney, so the answer is, of course:DUH! Follow your heart and let the Mongols destroy China. No question.

So, why weren't Mongols overrunning China at the end of the flick? I'm still puzzled by that. Even ignoring the ridiculous notion that Lord Whatsis would have been satisfied with Mulan instead of three Imperial Princesses marrying into his family, all the Good Guys basically show up and insult him by marrying each other in his palace, instead of anyone marrying his sons. Sure, the Golden Dragon of Unity approved the matches, but that still gives Lord Whatsis no reason to honor an alliance when China has completely backed out of their side of the agreement.

In short, this is a very enjoyable film if you can totally disengage your brain. But if one little brain cell keeps piping up with "Why? Why? Why?" then you probably will not enjoy it as much as you could have with better plot-hole filling.

(Oh, and how did they get across the chasm once the bridge was destrpyed? Did I miss that?)

When I heard about Mulan II, I was a bit worried at first. But after it was released in the US and heard some good reviews (and even saw a little bit of it), I thought "WHy not?"

So I watched it (about a few months after its US release). I was impressed. Disney has finally done something right, in my opinion. The animation was smooth and colorful, and of course very similar to its original film. The story was so-so, with the obvious idea of having Mulan and Shang getting engaged, but the added parts of their duty to escort three princesses to be part of an arranged marriage (with the help of the Gang of Three from the original film) made the movie seem interesting. Sadly, I didn't care for Mushu's dillemma (mainly because of a new voice, which was very close to Eddie Murphy's from the first movie, and also because his character made him be way too selfish). He was okay as a minor character, but he just got really annoying to me. The Gang of Three, however, were just the comic relief that the film needed. I enjoyed the trueness of their characters and the fact that they too, get to have a chance at love. The songs were okay as well. The princesses' song "Like Other Girls" was one of the only songs that helped make the movie enjoyable (the other being the reprise of "A Girl Worth Fighting For" by the Gang of Three I love those guys!) and really helped show viewers (mainly the young girls that are watching) that life as a royal isn't all that it's cracked up to be (I guess . . .).
The voices also were great. Most of the original cast had returned for the sequel (except for Mushu's . . . which wasn't that bad) and I was glad about that (since it is a rarity for Disney DTV sequels to have almost all of the original cast to return for a sequel)!

Overall, this was quite an enjoyable sequel for Mulan and company. I hope that Disney can make more sequels of this quality in the future (if any more really good sequels will help us forget the really horrible sequels of the past (Cinderella 2, Atlantis 2, etc.), then make more!).

I was skeptical of this film, but I was determined to watch it without any prejudices towards other disney sequels (i'm lookin at you, Cinderella2) Anyway, the story was bleh, and I believe contradicted the source. The other guardians surely had to guard women and none of them lost their jobs. As for the princesses, they were just...meh. And the animation was sub-par. I suggest that if you watch it, only watch it once.

Wait. Wait. My eyes must be deceiving me. I think I just actually saw a GOOD Disney direct to video.

I think the strength of this movie lies in the fact that it doesn't try to craft a story that feels "big in a small package" like previous DTVs have done but instead focuses on what made the characters so appealing in the first place. This time around we get more of a charming side story, like we just caught a glimpse of a moment in the lives of our heroes. Naturally the menace of the villains from the first movie is absent in this movie, but making up for it are the charming three princesses, who sing a rather neat song.

Mulan II definitely has its exciting points, but it has a lot of boring blah points as well. The movie overall was worth making...for 12 year olds. I'm not sure if I would watch it at a party, but I would sit the kids down to watch it for a certain.

For all the huffing and puffing animation fans do over direct-to-video sequels, they are inescapable these days and evidently here to stay.

So, the better question is perhaps what qualities make for a *GOOD* direct-to-video sequel? DTVs will never have the budget for epic scale of feature animation so, within certain bounds, the animation level has to be forgiven. What's left at that point?

For me, I'd say the sequel needs to stay true to the characters, have a plot that entertains and generally comes off as being inoffensive to people that liked the original movie. And based on this scorecard, Mulan II scores well on all counts.

The story follows Mulan and Shang being interrupted by their preparations for their marriage with a job from the Emperor--escort his three princesses to an arranged marriage. Now, while my Asian heritage in me kinda raised an eyebrow at that idea of all these western ideals trampling all over Chinese tradition... it DOES remain true to Mulan's character and Shang taking the opposite position--duty to China above all--fits in with his established character. It's not the kind of epic conflict we had in the original Mulan with hordes of Huns pouring over the mountains, but it's enough conflict to sustain the story.

The songs are kinda weak--but I did like the reprise of "A Girl Worth Fighting For" from the Gang of Three. It did well to nicely re-establish their desire to find love and settle down... something which was also established in the original.

And the Mushu subplot... although there were a few entertaining moments (mostly at Shang's expense), the whole thing made Mushu seem even a more selfish character than his last time out... consistent, but definitely a step backwards for our little dragon... then again, I didn't really care for him much in the first movie anyways.

The verdict: Mulan II is acceptable DTV entertainment. It probably won't make you swoon with delight, but it won't make you want to claw your eyes out either.

I really had low expectations for this film. The previews made it looks incredibly cheesy, but really it turned out a lot better. The plot itself wasn't the greatest, but it could have been a lot worse.

The story follows Mulan and Shang, who are engaged. Mushu gets jealous and doesn't want to lose his pedestal so he attempts to break them up. Mulan and Shang are sent on a mission to guide three princesses to an arranged marriage. The trio (ling, chen po, and yao), are also there to protect them. They fall in love with the princesses and many obstacles follow along the way. Overall it was put together fairly well and had a pretty good moral. It's not a fast paced movie, like its predecessor, but instead it focuses on the romance side. It does have quite a bit of humor in it though like the first had. :)

The animation was really great. For the most part things ran smoothly and the coloring was nice. The music, although not the greatest, was ok. There were three or four songs, none were really amazing but they weren't incredibly horrible either. The score sounded nice, but it doesn't compare to what Jerry Goldsmith accomplished on the original.

The characters were fairly decent. They stayed, for the most part, true to their characters. Only once in a while did they stray from that. Mushu was a little too uncaring about Mulan until the end, but then again it still, somewhat, fit his personality to do the things he did.

Overall I think for a dtv it was pretty good. If you haven't seen it, it's worth at least a renting.

Mulan 2 was released in France (I'm wondering why nowadays, most DTV sequels are coming out everywhere in the world before the US...), and I've watched it. I must admit that this is one of the best DTV sequels from Disney. Maybe not at the level of TLK 1 1/2 (which had the best animation for a DTV sequel IMO), but the animation is still very good. However, I still didn't really like it. It is much different from the original : while the original was action-packed, this one is only based on love stories, and I found the story really boring and highly previsible. I didn't found Mushu particularly funny, and the songs weren't really good too, except from the main one ("I wanna be like other girls"). That's a shame that Disney can do rather well animated sequels like this (higher budget?), and can't give a solid content to it. IMO, Universal is doing exactly all the contrary...

Disney sequels have ranged from terrific to dreadful, with more than a fair share of the latter. However, if the test is how well the sequel shapes up against the original, Mulan II is one of the better ones. Mind you, I think the original was over-rated, though it was certainly better than the previous year's 'Hercules'.

I must admit, I wasn't expecting to enjoy this at all. When the original 'Mulan' was released I thought it was a notable improvement over the previous three Disney movies. In hindsight, I think those films made Mulan seem better than it really was. The real return to form came the next year with 'Tarzan'.

The original 'Mulan' suffered somewhat from trying to be an action comedy which somehow fell rather flat in the action department. 'Mulan II' is more of a romantic comedy, and by taking a rather more personal, narrower focus, it manages to be somewhat more satisfying and consistent than the original in certain ways. But only certain ways. In hindsight, it's actually pretty predictable and average.

Mushu is distraught when he finds out that Mulan's marriage will mean an end to his position as... whatever it is exactly that he does. Meanwhile, as Mushu determines to try to sabotage Mulan's upcoming marriage, she and Li Shang are entrusted to accompany three princesses across country to arranged marriages with Mongol royalty (accompanied by the trio of soldier sidekicks from the original film). This 'arranged marriage' business doesn't sit well with Mulan, or, truth be told, with the princesses.

This is where things could have gone badly pear-shaped. The film could easily have fallen into tiresome political correctness, and on the other hand it could have been yet another Disney excercise in cultural insensitivity. Whether it was culturally judemental I might have to leave up to a reviewer from somewhere where arranged marriages are still the norm, but the 'be true to your heart' theme is handled pleasingly lightly, without being overly preachy - though you really wonder why the film's target audience need to be told to only marry someone they love. A minor quibble though.

Visually the animation isn't up to the big-screen lushness of a typical Disney feature, but it's certainly good enough, and light years ahead of the godawful so called 'sequel' to 'Atlantis'. The songs are much in the vein of the original (including a reprise of one song from the first movie) and there's an unexpected power-pop track in the closing credits performed by Atomic Kitten.

Mark Moseley is very conspicuously not Eddie Murphy, but that sense of not-quite-rightness disappears pretty quickly, and after about 15 minutes Mushu seems like his old self. This is helped by the really excellant character animation, which does a lot to preserve his original personality (the animation, BTW, seems to have been done wholly by a Japanese studio)

I gave the original 'Mulan' only 2.5 stars, though it was teetering on three. Because my expectations of a DTV sequel are lower, this one originally got 2.5 from me as well, but a year or so later, going back, I'm knocking it back down to 2.0. Most will prefer the original, let's face it.

For what it's worth though, Mulan II is not the catastrophe that Disney foists on us about every other time with its sequels. It may not surpass its original, like the wonderful 'Lion King 1.5' (the only sequel I can think of which seemed to aim at an older audience than its parent) but I can't see any reason why fans of the original won't at least like this one, even if if it doesn't send them into raptures.

(Mulan II was released in Australia about four months ahead of its US release date. We'll have to wait until Feb 2005 to see whether most Mulan fans agree with me.)

(Oh yeah - is there something in US animation at the moment to give horses huge backsides? Is there a horse called the 'Tennessee Big-Butt' that they're all modelled on? It's weird, because at the same time, US animators seem determined to draw dogs with impossibly tiny 'waists' and spindly 'hips'. The horses in Mulan II sometimes look more like balloons. Actualy it's a kind of refreshing style though, and a nice contrast to the chiselled look of so many human characters over the last decade, some of them have looked less like humans and more like Kriton from 'Red Dwarf'.)

Oh, I forgot 'Spirit'. He's kind of the Kriton of the animated horse-world.