Mulan II [DVD] [2004] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Well I have to say my jaw was on the floor most of the way through because I was so surprised at the quality of this film! The story (which I will briefly describe in a minute) was rivetting it had depth you feel for the characters! At points I was so shocked that a cheaply made film, made by people who had nothing to do with the original would be so brave to do such drastic things with the characters! Also the animation has come on leaps and bounds! Remember all those ugly off model scenes from Hunchback 2 or the jerky movements of the characters in the Return of Jafar? Well they are almost irradicated, I have to admit there was one short scene which only lasted about ten seconds that was horrible to look at!

The music also is surprisingly good! Normally the sequels have songs which are anything but memorable or they just recycle the songs from the original, but here there are some songs that are actually quite catchy!

Anyway onto the story. After being proposed to by Shang, he and Mulan are sent on a very important mission by the emperor of China. Their mission, to safely escort the three daughters of the emperor to a distant country where they have been betrothed, to the sons of this land, in order to bring peace between the two countries. After what happened to Mulan in the first film Mulan is against arranged marriage and everything it stands for, and reluctantly she accepts the mission. (See what I mean about the more grown up story lines?) Anyway the main part of the film is the journey of the princesses and the company to this new country and the obstacles that face them (Some which are what I talking about earlier, very impressive and quite extraordinary for a direct to video Disney sequel, although don't worry there are no scary mosters for those parents who may be worried). And when their destination is reached there are some even more intersting developments. The overall story and theme is very similar to the first Mulan, so if you or your child enjoyed that I am sure you will enjoy this. If you haven't seen the original Mulan although it is fit for girls as their is a heroine, don't expect fairies and magic spells.

Even though this film is surprisingly good, please do get the original first, if you do not already have it. As it will not only help you to understand this sequel better, but as I know DVDs can be expensive and if it comes to a toss up between the two, always go for the original.

Although not quite at the same level of brilliance as the original it is a worthy sequel, and definitely Disney's best Direct to video effort. Let's hope we can say goodbye to Disney's cheaply produced, badly animated sequles for good, especially now they have proved that they can do them well!