What do you think about... Mulan SE & Mulan 2 ?

Anthony · November 16, 2004, 09:27:14 PM

They were released here in the UK yesterday and around the rest of Europe around now aswell, so what do you think of the Mulan SE and the sequal to Mulan? Post all your thoughts here please!

I got my DVD today, in the Mulan SE/Mulan 2 double pack for about £22.50 which aint bad.

Not watched either yet, infact I don't think i've seen Mulan all the way through since I saw it at the cinema! First impressions: The double pack box is OK, but I would have preferred a nicer looking box that looked nice on your shelf and didnt just focus on advertising the DVDs. The *inside* of the box where I can just see some nice artwork looks mushc better than the cheap outside.

Ah well, it was cheaper than buying them seperately and i'll have it with the DVD spines facing outwards so it doesn't matter. Plus I think I might be wittering on a bit too much now.

So - your thoughts!

Kristof · November 17, 2004, 02:51:05 PM

I can tell you within 2 weeks............

Anthony · November 20, 2004, 06:26:53 PM

Today I watched Mulan and the extras on Disc 1.

The film is simply stunning. I couldn't remember it being so powerful and exciting, but it truly is and it exceeded my expectations in every way. It's quite clever in some areas aswell, and the humour is pretty good. And if you've got a 5.1 setup then watching the attack scene in the mountains is awesome - it really feels like the army is thundering down the mountain into your living room. Brilliant.

The deleted scenes are good aswell. Each one is introduced and explained by the director and other members of the crew, and they explain pretty well why they were cut. They're quite good, lengthy scenes with sketches aswell.

The music videos are a bit strange. First there's a hilarious Christina Aguilera "Reflection" video - it's amazing how she turned out! :roll: And then there's lots of other videos on both discs in a variety of languages from Cantonese to Mandarin to Spanish! :?

I haven't watched much else yet, but the extras on Disc 2 seem pretty good even if they are in featurette form. People comparing this style to the Lion King probably shouldn't since here the organisation is top notch and there are wonderful extensive art galleries and interesting featurettes on lots of different areas of production. Disney has also brought possibly its greatest DVD invention to Europe again aswell - where instead of a line or symbol to show show a menu selection the running time of the feature is shown next to it - wonderful! I think it was used on Aladdin aswell, but it's something I really appreciate and would like to see on more DVDs.

So to sum up - from what I've seen so far the set is an essential purchase, for a fantastic presentation of the film with excellent picture and amazing sound and for some pretty good DVD extras. I guess Aladdin just spoilt us a bit...

Now, I'm off to buy the fantastic soundtrack... :wink:

experiment627 · November 23, 2004, 06:13:45 PM

Thanks for the review!

I love "Mulan" - a truely wonderful movie... I had already bought the "bare bones" edition that came out a couple of years ago when Disney first started putting movies onto DVD...

But guess what my sister is now getting for Christmas from me... :wink:

Anthony · November 23, 2004, 06:34:42 PM

Quote from: "experiment627"But guess what my sister is now getting for Christmas from me... :wink:

Ahh clever! I take it you live close enough so it can easily be borrowed in the future if you so wished..? :wink:

Kristof · November 24, 2004, 09:01:46 AM

I finally got to see Mulan for the first time (:oops:) this monday. It's indeed a great movie!!! And I just love the song "I'll make a man out of you".

The music video by Jacky Chang looks quite... weird. Didn't know he could sing.... :-s :-k

Anthony · November 24, 2004, 06:43:57 PM

Quote from: "raptor1982"The music video by Jacky Chang looks quite... weird. Didn't know he could sing.... :-s :-k

Yeah, i've not managed to sit through the whole music video yet - not that I do on most DVDs unless it's a proper singer like Elton John on The Lion King.

experiment627 · November 24, 2004, 10:45:17 PM

Quote from: "Baloo"I take it you live close enough so it can easily be borrowed in the future if you so wished..? :wink:

Actually, no. <lol>

Currently, I'm living in Bonn (until next spring) while my sister is still living at my parents place about 450 km down south.

Patrick · April 23, 2005, 01:05:17 AM

Well me being very slow finally tonight just saw Mulan 2 and can say that I enjoyed it since it was nice to see a consistant decent storyline in a sequel. Also the animation was quite good and really I just have to say that I enjoyed watching it, so I think I might start buying more sequels you never know they may just get better :wink: .

Anthony · April 23, 2005, 03:52:33 PM

Quote from: "PATMAGIC"Well me being very slow finally tonight just saw Mulan 2 and can say that I enjoyed it since it was nice to see a consistant decent storyline in a sequel. Also the animation was quite good and really I just have to say that I enjoyed watching it, so I think I might start buying more sequels you never know they may just get better :wink: .

:shock: :shock: :shock:

What have you done to Patrick? Where is he?

You made some good points though - the story in Mulan 2 is indeed quite good for a DisneyToon movie, and the animation has come on leaps and bounds since the likes of Hunchback 2 (which I've never seen, but it looks awful in the trailer). I think to succeed with the upcoming Lilo & Stitch 2 and Tarzan 2, they need to just improve the animation a tiny bit (mainly add more detail and put more effort into backgrounds) and then really work hard on the stories.

The animation in Lilo & Stitch 2 looks excellent, whilst Tarzan 2 looks just about OK. There's "Bambi and the Great Prince of the Forest" aswell, isn't there? The animation in the trailer looked pretty nice but I still feel that that sequal was unncessary - wasn't the whole point of missing that middle bit out of the film to create a more powerful effect? Anyway, I'm going off topic now...

Disneyana · April 25, 2005, 01:17:07 PM

So I only have the Mulan SE, but I have it now since November last year, because here in Germany it came out at this time. So I love that movie. It has a lot of funny sketches, great music, very nice animation and a wonderful story. And so the DVD is in a very good quality. The Extras are in my opinion not so interesting as the Aladdin ones. But the menus are nice animated. All the music videos are weird. You have the song Reflections sung by Christina Aguilera, who looks just very different then now, and again the same video just with the Spanish and I think the Chinese female singer. And oh yes the music video with Jackie Chan, to what I need to say is .... not my taste. :wink:

The deleted scenes are very good and very interesting to look at. And I like it to have the experience to watch the song I'll make a man ou of you in different languages. I still haven't watched the other Exrtas, but I will do so in the next time. For most I'm interested in the extra music scene and the journey through China.
Mulan 2 I haven't seen yet. I'm waiting to get it from the Library, because I'm normally not a fan of the sequels. The only ones I liked were Jungle Book 2 and Peter Pan 2, this were the only ones I bought too.
The next SE DVD I'm looking forward is Pocahontas, because it's one of my favourite Disney movies.