Mulan II

Walt Disney’s corpse has been rolling around in his grave for the last decade as the incompetent people managing his famous animation department have slowly but surely dug his legacy in his grave with him. It was a lot to hope that “Mulan,” the one movie that was able to move Disney studios forward since the days of “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin,” might stand clean and idle. Scott Gwin said in his review, “Instead, like so many other Disney classics, Mulan has been unceremoniously dumped into the sequel mill only to be spit back out like sausage links in little overly-processed, bite-sized, turd-shaped lumps.” The story of Mulan and crew starts exactly where the first movie ended. Mulan (Ming-Na Wen) has returned home and picked up doing her household chores, Shang (B.D. Wong) has finally decided to propose to Mulan (Gwin said, “well, I say finally, but the two have only been a couple for a month when he pops the question”), and everything is well in China. Yes, everything is well, except for Mushu, Mulan’s guardian dragon. He is told that if Mulan gets married, his job of protecting Mulan will be passed over to Shang’s family ancestors, making Mushu to be laid off and going back to banging the ceremonial family gong.

As Mushu goes to find a way to break up Mulan and Shang’s relationship, the two are called by the Emperor of China, voiced by Mr. Miyagi himself, the late Pat Morita, to complete a very important mission to once again save China. This time, the Mongols are threatening to invade. The only way to keep the Mongols out of China is to create an alliance with the really small, and apparently less smart northern nation of Qui Gong. If that plot point doesn’t make sense, don’t worry. The whole movie makes even less sense. The only way to create an alliance is for the Emperor’s three daughters, voiced by the hot Lucy Liu, Sandra Oh, and Lauren Tom, to marry the three sons of the lord of Qui Gong. Obviously, in order for the marriages to occur, Shang and Mulan must safely escort the three imperial princesses to Qui Gong and their new fiancés. Gedde Watanabe, Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Tondo return as Chien-Po, Ling and Yao.

The biggest problem in the plan comes, not from outside the group, but from within. The three princesses, out of their duty to China, have agreed to marry three men they have never met. Gwin notes, “This doesn’t rest well with the extremely touchy-feely Mulan who believes the princesses should marry whom they wish, no matter how much danger it means for the entire nation of China. All of this is eclipsed by Shang and Mulan’s premarital problems as they discover, thanks to Mushu’s meddling, just how opposite their personalities are. Thank goodness for the Chinese wisdom of Yin and Yang showing them that no matter how different they are, they can still wear really cool matching necklaces to remind them of it.”

I agree with Gwin when he says, “Mulan II is a direct-to-DVD disgrace that takes everything excellent about its predecessor film, rips it to shreds, and uses it for rat cage lining. The honor and culture of the ancient Chinese people is gone, the songs are asinine, the dialogue contrived and the characters unrecognizably contorted into simplistic caricatures.” Should we be surprised? No, after all this is Disney we’re talking about. Should we be disappointed? More than ever. The land, music, story and characters that were so charming and enchanting the first time around have been reduced to complete absurdity. Now the first film was meant for all ages, this sequel, like so many others, is simply meant for kindergarten students.

Gwin said, “In that respect Disney has succeeded in creating a ridiculously infantile movie that parents will be able to put on eternal repeat play for their youngsters. That is, so long as they don’t mind their kids learning the questionable lesson that you can live your life however you want to, regardless of the law or the promises you’ve made. It won’t matter because your magical dragon will always be there to clean up the mess and make you look like you were right all along.”

Most of the famous voice actors from “Mulan” have returned except for Eddie Murphy, who has been replaced by Mark Moseley, who seems to imitate Murphy flawlessly. The animation and artwork are also pretty good for a low budget sequel. Sadly, those are the only things that help this complete waste of animation talent. Disney should be ashamed, but we know they won’t be. As they’ve shown repeatedly, their profits from a straight-to-video sequel will always be worth more than the truth of their storytelling.

As you might have guessed, this sequel is an insult. I didn’t really like Mushu in this movie, and overall, I can't really give them credit for trying. I don’t recommend this, and I strongly think everyone else should avoid this. This sequel insults the original and fans of the original movie, like myself, will be enraged after seeing this. Everything that made the first movie so epic was just tarnished in this sequel, and Mulan looks as though she didn't learn anything from the first movie. Instead, they took her from a brave, fearless warrior to a girly-girl, which is just embarrassing. With no Eddie Murphy, which is good since he probably was being paid more by DreamWorks to continue voicing Donkey from the Shrek franchise.

Look out tomorrow when I review the remaining two “Lilo & Stitch” sequels in “Disney Sequel Month.”