My Review of Mulan 2 · 1:23am Jul 31st, 2021
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, my beloved brethren! This is yours truly back once again with another Disney sequel to review! For tonight, I will be discussing this direct-to-video follow-up to the first film: Mulan 2. Oh boy, most of these Disney sequels have nearly the exact same quality that often really annoys me. This is yet another one of those poorly written, underwhelming, laughably bad sequels that fail to top their respective predecessors. I personally consider this film to be the second worst direct-to-video Disney sequel in existence, following The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2.
This movie is supposed to continue the story of our main character, Mulan, as she is planning to marry her fiancée Li Shang. At first, her dragon guardian Mushu is happy for her but later learns that if she marries Shang, she won’t need him as a guardian anymore and therefore will lose his position. Terrified of the imaginary and arbitrary outcome, he does everything in his power (and fails) to break the couple apart to keep his job. But that’s not all...
The Emperor informs Mulan and Shang that the war between China and the Mongols would only cease if a marriage between both parties of both nations occurs to unify them together. Only then would the war be over to save many lives. This is literally the plot of the film. Unfortunately, this movie blatantly abandons its own story, derails its potential with a half-assed moral, and forgets what they were actually going for.
First of all, the writers did Mushu dirty in this movie. He actively became the movie’s main antagonist by jeopardizing Mulan’s and Shang’s relationship, putting them and the princesses into dangerous situations where they could have been killed, manipulated Mulan to do his dirty work, indirectly tricked Shang into thinking that Mulan talked bad about him behind his back, and sabotaged their happiness... just to keep his job. WHAT THE HELL, MUSHU?!
Even though Mark Moseley did a pretty good Eddie Murphy impression as Mushu, his very characterization is what I have a huge problem with. It made his deeds so unforgivable and despicable. Character assassination at its best.
As for the moral, I was so annoyed that they incessantly shoved it down the throats of the audience. “My duty is to my heart.” I know, the princesses wanted to marry the men whom they actually loved and cared for as opposed to being forced in a marriage. But here’s the problem: you girls do realize that the lives of all China is at stake, right? Because if you don’t marry the princes to stop the war, then everyone will die.
“Nah, marriage to stop a war is not what my heart tells me to, but falling for a random stranger whom I don’t even know is definitely okay!”
But guess what? You want to know what happens next? They literally get together at the end of the movie while the foreign princes remain unmarried. Great job, idiots, you just doomed everyone to death and destruction.
WHY?? The movie made this plot a big deal, and it completely forgot about it at the end! They were supposed to marry these princes to avert the war, and they didn’t do that because “my duty is to my heart! Deal with it!” That is the most infuriating part of this whole dumpster fire.
The slapstick comedy was wack, the plot was atrocious, the animation was lovely although a bit over-the-top, and the movie itself is a huge mess with sewage as a disgusting salad dressing. This gets a 2/10. The movie is so patronizing, frustrating, and overall idiotic that it doesn’t deserve to be a sequel whatsoever.
Peace out.
It was kinda funny how Mushu pretended to be the Golden Dragon of Unity.
I’ll tell you one thing:
For me, this movie was something I wouldn’t bother watching over and over again. My experience towards it was relatively neutral, but compared to its predecessor it hardly had much in the ways of great quality. Mark Moseley’s portrayal of Mushu was among the elements for why I think this, because despite him being able to capture Eddie Murphy’s overall comedic style and speech patterns there was an uncanny valley effect sort of vibe in his performance.