Mulan II

Mulan 2 was a decent sequel. Of course it isn't as good as the wonderful original, which is one of the better Disney movies of the 90s. As far as this sequel goes it isn't as good as Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Simbas's Pride and Beauty and the Beast:The Enchanted Christmas, but I do think it is an improvement over Cinderella 2 and Jungle Book 2. The animation wasn't so bad, it was nice and colourful, but nothing too fancy. The avalanche scene in the original made my jaw drop by the way. The songs and music are fairly decent and memorable on the most part, my favourite is "I want to be like other girls" but Jerry Goldsmith, who is my favourite film composer, is missed. The music he did for the original is beautiful, and I don't think is appreciated as much as it should be. I liked the three princess characters as well. And the voice acting on the whole was very good; Ming Na is a spirited Mulan and Pat Morita has little to do, but is fine as the emperor. However, I did miss Eddie Murphy, Mark Moseley did his very best, but Mushu isn't as funny as he was in the first movie, in fact he is annoying and unlikeable often. The story was clumsily handled at times as it seemed to focus on Mulan and Shang's petty arguments than upholding the country honour. And the film was devoid of humour, with the exception of Ling's very lame jokes. And I don't know why Shang is such a jerk in this movie, he isn't really the handsome and brave Shang I came to admire. On the whole, decent, but don't expect the original. 6/10 Bethany Cox