Mulan II (2004)

While preparing for their wedding, Shang and Mulan are suddenly sent off on a secret mission. Mushu starts to meddle, and a surprise attack by Mongolians doesn't help either.

Directors:

Darrell Rooney, Lynne Southerland

Writers:

Michael Lucker (screenplay), Chris Parker (screenplay)

Stars:

Ming-Na Wen, BD Wong, Mark Moseley

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ming-Na Wen	...	Mulan (voice) (as Ming-Na)
BD Wong	...	Shang (voice)
Mark Moseley	...	Mushu (voice)
Lucy Liu	...	Mei (voice)
Harvey Fierstein	...	Yao (voice)
Sandra Oh	...	Ting Ting (voice)
Gedde Watanabe	...	Ling (voice)
Lauren Tom	...	Su (voice)
Jerry Tondo	...	Chien-Po (voice)
Pat Morita	...	The Emperor (voice)
George Takei	...	First Ancestor (voice)
June Foray	...	Grandmother Fa (voice)
Freda Foh Shen	...	Fa Li (voice)
Soon-Tek Oh	...	Fa Zhou (voice)
Frank Welker	...	Cri-Kee (voice)

Storyline

Fa Mulan gets the surprise of her young life when her love, Captain (now General) 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 Qui Gong, 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. After the princesses unexpectedly fall in love with the Gang of Three, Mulan decides to help them escape the fate of marrying men they do not love. This contradicts the Emperor's orders and forces him to put Mulan's relationship with Shang into question. They are attacked by Mongolians, and the fate of China hangs in the balance.

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Plot Keywords:

china | female protagonist | princess | presumed dead | interrupted wedding | 

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Taglines:

Saving China was just The Beginning

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Comedy | Family | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Disney [United States]

Country:

USA South Korea Singapore Russia Malaysia Kazakhstan Taiwan Hong Kong Japan China India Syria Iran Egypt Pakistan

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 January 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mulan II

Company Credits

Production Co:

Disneytoon Studios,SD Entertainment,Walt Disney Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

79 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Judy Kuhn provides the singing voice of Princess Ting Ting.

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Goofs

When Shang arrives at Mulan's house to speak with her, he leaves his horse standing in the middle of the field when the girls come running to him. But after Shang hands his helmet to Sha Ron, we see her running across the field but Shang's horse is no longer there.

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Quotes

Captain Li Shang: [after being asked about having children] As many as possible!
Fa Mulan: Oh, maybe one or two!

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Connections

Referenced in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Episode #7.133 (2009)

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Soundtracks

(I Wanna Be) Like Other Girls
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Lyrics by Alexa Junge
Performed by Atomic Kitten
Produced by Brian Rawlings and Graham Stack for Brian Rawling Productions Ltd.
Atomic Kitten appears courtesy of Innocent/Virgin Records Limited

User Reviews

Beautiful animation and flawless voice work suffered from it's predictable story and uninspired message

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