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Never seen it, probably never will unless someone forces me. I'm a Princess movie kinda guy, so Mulan isn't really my interest. However...*goes to make Tarzan thread*

I thought that movie was kinda a let down. I didn't care for it too much. Plus Eddie Murphy didn't do Mushu...Mushu's french voice sounded more like Eddie Murphy (yes....i watched it in french...and some of it in spanish)
But the music was awesome. I loved the reprise of A Girl Worth Fighting For (and when Yao said "I'd even kiss you...for a girl worth fighting for" xD)

I'll be honest and I'm sorry for all who might get mad at this. I hated it. I took it as ancient chinese torture (and considering I rented it mostly for myself made me want to weep) Now mind you it's been years. So my list has grown shorter just because my memory is horrible.

Why?

1. Cliché/Predictable levels were too high for me. I knew everything that was going to apen after 20 minutes of the movie.

2. Lack of action. Just a bandit fight that lasted 5 minutes. stare I wanted to see Mulan's intelligence and inner strenght shine in battle as much as it did in the first one. Instead we just get 90 minutes of couple issues.

3. I didn't laugh. The first one made me laugh, and even now I still grin.

4. The only song I can remember was corny as hell and it had nothing to do with the values impossed in the first movie. Mulan 1 had better songs. I love Reflection above all (In all 3 spanish versions, english, and mandarin) Reflection shows Mulan's bare soul as she feels that she will never find a place in the world. "I want to be like any other girl" wouldn't even apply. This shall be addressed in the last point.

5. Last point! What did we learned in Mulan? That women should be seen, not heard. That honor comes in being a good wife. And the role of women are to be pretty, barefoot, and pregnant. ALL women shall be this way. We learn this from Chi-foo, we learn this from Mulan getting ready with all the girls, we learn this from the rules about the military, AND we learn this from Mulan always getting reprended or ignored when she's a woman.

Is Mulan a "normal" girl? Yes. She's a middle class chinese female. As such she has no more freedom or rights than the princesses has. After all Mulan was also to be married (in the original screen play version it's shown). The whole matchmaker session was to get her hitched.


And what does she do? She defies everything and gets her neck in the line for the sake of kicking butt. She goes from ordinary to extraordinary. And in return she gets all the people of China bow down to a "weak and ignorant " female.

Now the sequel takes all this and steps and spits on it. We have 3 princesses assuring us that normal woman "GASP!" can do what they want. That being forced to marry comes from being a princess. I wanted to smack them as that escaped their lips.


So in conclusion this movies underminds Mulan. And seeing as she was my childhood hero (I was 11 when I saw it) I felt insulted. I wanted to throw a shoe at the makers for changing the world of Mulan into a damn cupid. She should be kicking butt and taking names with brilliant plans. Damn it I wanted the war that the emperor said! But alas that didn't happen.

I have never seen it, but I want to.

*claps* heart

I never analyzed a movie in such a way, but you make a good point. Mulan goes from being strong-willed to almost giving up. WTF?