: (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
could be nominated for a best picture Oscar. In that
string of acclaimed animated musical features,
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
sequels that recycled footage from
television cartoons. The rumor mill speculated for quite some time that
two
ultimately caused the second sequel to be suspended
indefinitely. While Disney occasionally attempts to send these sequels
to the theatres,
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
, 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.
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: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Joel McNeely reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.38
(in 16 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.14
(in 8,446 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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