Buy it... if you have long appreciated Joel McNeely's often underrated orchestral work and are open to this short but entertaining large-scale effort for an otherwise miserable Disney sequel.

Avoid it... if you can find absolutely no merit in any aspect of a Disney sequel that does not retain the full musical identities of its predecessor(s), for in this case, Jerry Goldsmith's themes are completely absent.

McNeely

Mulan II: (Joel McNeely) There have been some truly terrible products to result from the low-budget sequel division at Walt Disney Pictures since the 1990's. The quality of these sequels is so wretched that each one serves as proof that the studio is about profit first and artistry second, draining every last dollar out of any and every original idea that someone else at the place had conjured in the past. If only Disney would take this money from the sequel division and pump it into fresh new feature films, then maybe the studio might achieve the same quality and respect for its overall product line that it received in the early 1990's, when a project such as Beauty and the Beast could be nominated for a best picture Oscar. In that string of acclaimed animated musical features, Mulan came right at the end of Disney's dominance in the 1990's, buoyed by a fresh ethnic perspective and a strong pairing of Jerry Goldsmith score and popular Matthew Wilder songs that officially ushered out the Alan Menken era. Many critics have argued to some extent that the direction was down the toilet for Disney's quality in the musical genre thereafter, and it's no coincidence that this era of poorer Disney output coincided with the release of atrocities like The Little Mermaid 2 and The Return of Jafar or, if you want to behold the absolute worst, the Tarzan and Atlantis sequels that recycled footage from television cartoons. The rumor mill speculated for quite some time that two Mulan sequels were in the works, though delays and rewrites on Mulan II ultimately caused the second sequel to be suspended indefinitely. While Disney occasionally attempts to send these sequels to the theatres, Mulan II was another "straight to video" (or DVD, in these days) venture for 2004, which is the studio's way of admitting, according to some, that their product doesn't even attempt to generate high expectations. The problem with these inferior sequels most specifically is that the money doesn't exist to rehire the original songwriters, composers, actors, and other crew that often made the original a success. Some of the original cast returned for Mulan II, but the musical aspect of the project was a complete turnover, leaving Goldsmith's score and Wilder's songs largely absent from the renewed equation.

The story of Mulan II could have utilized musical continuity with its predecessor, for primary characters Mulan and General Li Shang, set to be married just a month after the previous story's end, return to escort the Emperor's daughters across the country for their own arranged marriages and encounter battles and issues of choice and true love that also occupied Mulan. But the soundtrack was handed over to composer Joel McNeely, whose career at the time was almost as frustrating as one of these Disney sequels. Joining the likes of Mark McKenzie and Cliff Eidelman, McNeely has always resided amongst the 1990's generation of composers who have immense talent, have shown it at certain times, but have never been able to burst through into major Hollywood pictures on a consistent basis. Even more so than the others, McNeely's career has been all over the map, with his compositions during the ten years prior to Mulan II including television shows, mini-series, IMAX pictures, animated sequels, light comedies that few paid attention to, and even some additional music for feature projects with mainstream composers. His entry into the world of Disney has been intriguing in its consistency and quality of output, despite the fact that he has typically been stuck in that sequel division of the studio that serious cinema enthusiasts love to hate. His scores to Return to Neverland and The Jungle Book 2 in 2002 and 2003 led to Mulan II and Pooh's Heffalump Movie in 2004 and 2005, and by the end of the decade, he was massively overachieving in his music for equivalents such as the Tinker Bell movies. Even in his early efforts for the studio's low budget messes, McNeely's work was often really quite good, a result that at least showed that Disney hadn't completely cut off their budgets in the music area of these sequels. Most of McNeely's work for such projects is orchestral on a large scale, and with top vocal talent sometimes lending a hand, a few of these soundtracks could easily suit a feature film. In the case of the Mulan franchise, he was at an immediate disadvantage, for any aware adult or pre-teen will recognize that the songs and score themes from the first film are absent from the second. The studio banks on the fact that screaming young children being pacified by the movies in the back of an SUV won't care about artistic continuity, but film score collectors are another matter.

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For some dedicated enthusiasts, including those who are discouraged by the changeover of the voices, the music for Mulan II will leave a slightly sour taste in your mouth regardless of McNeely's best intentions. Only one of Wilder's songs ("A Girl Worth Fighting For") is shortly reprised and none of Goldsmith's material is adapted or present. The songs for Mulan II are written by Jeanine Tesori, composer of the plays "Thoroughly Modern Millie", and "Caroline, or Change," and despite her talents (she was recognized in 2004 for being the first female composer to have two hit musicals running concurrently on Broadway), her work for three songs in Mulan II does not compare favorably to Wilder's originals. McNeely seems to have studied the score from the feature film and does his best to skirt the probable rules that hindered direct transferring of Goldsmith's themes by incorporating similar instrumental and structural ideas in clever ways. He composes a magnificent new title theme for his score, though, and its song version, "Here Beside Me," is superior in melody, vocal performance (Hayley Westenra of James Horner's The New World and Debbie Wiseman's Lesbian Vampire Killers is lovely as usual), and the depth of orchestral accompaniment compared to the other songs on the album. Its feature film quality, foreshadowing Tinker Bell in many ways, carries over to the score, which exists at a considerable ratio of length in the absence of the normal number of songs. While not as robust as Goldsmith's original entry, McNeely's work once again holds its own, showering the sequel with vibrant, dynamic instrumental depth. He maintains the oriental spirit of Mulan and incorporates a chorus into his ensemble to maximize the non-vocal renditions of the film's song material. Thematically pleasant and occasionally powerful with an immense scope, McNeely provides always competent and sometimes outstanding work for Mulan II. The triumphant statement of his main theme late in "Shang Lives!" reflects a decently coherent narrative, too. On the Disney album release, his score occupies two-thirds of the total running time (but amounting still to roughly only 20 minutes), which is far more generous than the one equally strong but sadly inadequate McNeely score cut available on the concurrent album for Pooh's Heffalump Movie. Overall, for film score collectors, and especially those who bemoan the absence of McNeely from the spotlight, Mulan II is a surprisingly rewarding score despite the weaknesses of the film and its songs. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For Joel McNeely reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.31 (in 16 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.14 (in 7,298 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.