It appears that Disney were getting fed up with Alan Menken not winning Oscars year after year and so they turned to a new team of artists for their latest outing. Matthew Wilder is a name I've not heard of before and to be honest, I'm not terribly surprised. His songs range from extremely mediocre to pretty good. The first and fourth songs start sounding really bad. To me, they sound more Japanese that Chinese, but rather too much like the cheesy Western ideal of that type of music. When they get going, they improve quite a bit and are actually pretty enjoyable in the end. The two standouts are Reflection and I'll Make a Man Out of You. The first is a typical, yearning Disney song where the heroine (in this case), puts across her hopes and inner feelings. This makes a nice change from the more outging Menken efforts and as the title suggests, is much more reflective and contemp lative than striving. My favourite song is I'll Make a Man Out of You. It is a superb, robust song that is well performed by Donny Osmand no less and a group of would-be Chinese soldiers. It certainly is the only one with an extremely memorable tune, although the others should get grained in with enough listens. I hope that Alan Menken returns eventually as he really gets the best out of the Disney musical format and while Wilder is good, he's not really a match for Menken. Another gripe is that the lyrics aren't especially witty. Where in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Zippel produced long and complex songs, here he doesn't succeed nearly so well and the lyrics tend to get a little generic. Overall, I'd say that the effort doesn't quite compare with the recent Anastasia in terms of songs. Perhaps if they had been a little longer and more complex they would have come off better, but they just seem short and incidental rather than crucial. The Stevie Wonder song is awful, skip it at all costs, whereas the pop version of Reflection is just as good as the movie version.
Songs Rating ~ 
Jerry Goldsmith's score will be the main thing that people will be buying this score for. This is hist first venture into animated films since his good, if not excellent Secret of NIMH score. I must admit that in the end it doesn't come off as well as I'd hoped. Goldsmith does stick to a more grown-up style for this score, unlike NIMH which had a tendency to sound rather excessively cute, which I found grating at times. The suite from Mulan is a very well arranged selection of the first two songs, but I can't seem to hear the other two songs in there. Whatever, it makes a good start to the score, although it does seem to be the only place where the songs and score mingle to any great extent. Goldsmith's main theme is somewhat akin to his Star Trek: First Contact theme (like quite a few of his grandious main themes of late it seems!). However, I don't feel that it, or the tunes from the songs appear quite as often as they might. The first few tracks are re ally quite slow and thoughtful and perhaps get a little bogged down at times for my liking. Perhaps a little bit more a mixture of styles would have helped. The best moments are in the last score tracks. The Huns Attack is a good action cue, although I don't think it quite matches the impressive precedent set by First Knight, nor is it as well constructed as the action cues on that. However, there are some great moments (and there are better action cues in the film that sadly didn't make it to the score). The Burned Out Village is very sobering and is a perfect musical realisation of the kind of desolation that is brought to a village during war. It does seem a little at odds with the end song afterwards since that is somewhat more upbeat, but otherwise it makes a fine conclusion to Goldsmith's efforts.
Perhaps the rating is a little harsh, but I just feel that this score has been ever so slightly overrated on the whole. Sure, there are some great moments, but the score and songs don't seem to intermingle. In fact, the score is almost two albums stuck together, with the score and songs not quite as inseparable as they are on most Menken efforts. Also, I don't think the combined efforts of Wilder and Goldsmith quite match those of Flaherty and David Newman on Anastasia, which to me had a much more striking score and songs that had a more substantial role in the story. However, it does make an enjoyable listening experience and Goldsmith is pretty much always worth listening to and the songs are worth hearing for Reflection and I'll Make a Man Out of You.
Score Rating ~
Total Time ~ 45:40