Top 5 Disney Sequels I Loved/Hated

Top 5 Disney Sequels I Loved/Hated

I can't believe I haven't talked about this before. Of course Nostalgia Chick did a great job reviewing these last year.

We all remember the flood of direct to video sequels that Disney churned out awhile back. They were mostly bad, but some weren't bad. They were AWFUL! Well, some of them anyway.

Unfortunately for me, my now ex was a bit of Disney nut so I got to see many of these films. I decided to rank the five I absolutely hated, and the five I actually kind of liked. I do want to point out that I have not seen every one, so it's possible there is something far worse than what I am listing. For example I have heard good things about the Aladdin sequels, but don’t remember ever watching them.

Since this has been done to death and I have talked about some of these things before I will try to keep it brief, and just explain exactly why I liked and/or hated the film.

LIKED (because love is a strong word)

#5. Beauty & The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas

If there is one thing I disagreed with Nostalgia Chick about it was her opinion on this movie. Yeah if you compare it directly to Beauty & The Beast there are problems, granted. The animation is not as strong and it does not really work in the continuity of the original movie. But taken on its own it’s not the worst movie ever made.  And I actually like the song, “As Long as There’s Christmas”, which is a nice little tune. Not much else to say, not my favorite Christmas special but I also don’t hate it and even watch it when it’s on every year.

#4. Leroy & Stitch

The reason this is one here is because I loved the animated cartoon series “Lilo & Stitch”. It’s one the better shows, a bit underrated in my opinion. This movie was an attempt to wrap up the series which Disney finally cancelled. So is it great? Probably not and I imagine it would be confusing to someone who never watched the series at all. But for a fan of the series it was a nice way to wrap it up. One of the things I liked about Lilo & Stitch is the whole message of family, even if they are not blood. And I just like stitch.  J

#3. Bambi II

I feel like I am in the minority on this one. But I kind of liked this movie. It picks up right after the mother is killed, and we see what happened when Bambi went off with his father. As has been pointed out, the original skips ahead a little too fast. We go from the mother being killed to sunshine and flowers with no stops in between. I also hated the second part of Bambi because the romance stuff was so forced and lame. But in this sequel we get to meet the female doe, and learn a little about her like her name and why Bambi falls for her (in the first movie no reason is given) and we learn about his future rival Ronno. In the original they fight, but why exactly? In the sequel we get that motivation, it even ends with Ronno vowing to get revenge on Bambi setting up the fight in the first movie! I am not saying this was a great movie, but I thought it did a great job capturing the feel of the classic film and telling its own story while at the same actually fleshing out the story from the classic movie just a bit.

#2. Lion King 2:Simba’s Pride & Lion King 1 ½  

I think I have to do some explaining here. I don’t think I would get to many arguments about Simba’s Pride. Yeah it wasn’t as strong as the first film but it wasn’t all bad either. In fact the second film even took some risk such as killing a character. True the idea that Scar could have a mate who is now seeking revenge is a bit farfetched, but it’s not worse than Little Mermaid II with the aunt who is basically Ursula all over again! As for Lion King 1 ½, well I am a sucker for the gimmick the film uses. I love when we can see things from a different point of view. It’s one of the reason Back to the Future II is a favorite as well as Vantage Point and other things like that. Is it a good movie? No not really in fact parts of feel like it belonged in the Timon & Pumbaa animated cartoon show. But the gimmick makes me tolerate it, even if if I should know better.

#1. Cinderella III-A Twist in Time

I was very surprised by this movie. After the horribleness of Cinderella II (which I will get to), I didn’t have high hopes. Then the fact that the ending to the original was going to be changed didn’t thrill me. But you know, once you past the silliness of the first five minutes this film actually tells a decent story. It has character growth for the two main leads, and it’s even exciting in parts. It’s true I didn’t like that the retcon of the original ending was made permanent, but all in all this was a satisfying film and I was pleasantly surprised. It was nice to see Cinderella go from wishing to actually having to work for her happy ending, and let’s be honest that is a much better lesson for kids these days.

Hated

#5. Tarzan & Jane- I know this was the Saturday Morning cartoon just crammed into a video release, but does that mean it has to be terrible? I rented this from a video store, and it was just dull. Then the tape stopped working and I was very happy. So glad I never purchased this thing. I liked Tarzan, but this was just dull.

#4. Lady and the Tramp 2-Scamp’s Adventure

It’s a toss-up which is worst, this or Little Mermaid II. But the worst crime that Little Mermaid committed was rehashing the same story over again. Lady and the Tramp II was just dull and uninteresting.  Where most Disney films I come away with something, this one just left me with nothing. The only thing I remember was a scene where Jim Dear calls out to Lady and Tramp, by name. I always wondered, how did he know that was Tramp’s name anyway? And wouldn’t he have changed it after adopting them?

#3. The Fox & The Hound 2

I was never a big fan of the original Fox and the Hound. I don’t remember when I saw it as a kid but I just recall being bored. I did see it again as an adult, and it was ok though still not a favorite. It was a story of friendship between two animals who would one day have to become enemies. Nice idea and the movie handled the story very nicely. This sequel killed me. It is one of those “between scenes” films which happened in the middle of the original. Ok, nothing wrong with that. What’s the plot? Tod and Copper join a country band. That sounds utterly ridiculous, and what’s worst the movie is freaking stupid!  I mean, at least Bambi 2 and The Enchanted Christmas tried to keep some of the feel of the original material, this just abandons it entirely! I heard Dumbo II was going to be something similar and I am just thankful that project never happened. This movie was one of the worst things ever!

#2. Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie-I commented on this the other day in Moviefan12’s article and decided to elaborate a bit. This is kind of breaking the rules but it was a direct to video release from the same company as the rest and is sort of a sequel to The Heffalump Movie so I decided to count it. I hated this! This film does something I never thought I would see, it makes Pooh Bear into a jerk! Let me set the scene (and this won’t spoil the plot if you’ve never seen it). Rabbit has collected candy from all over so the gang can trick or treat later. During a song sequence, Pooh’s tummy causes him to eat all the candy. Every morsel is now gone, and he has let down all his friends. Yes I have seen Winnie The Pooh so I know Pooh tends to think with his stomach, but that scene killed me! Pooh was never selfish and thoughtless! And what does he do to make it up to them? Nothing!  Roo and Lumpy take the charge to rescue Halloween, but Lumpy is a bigger wimp than Piglet so we get a flashback to a much better Halloween special, “Boo To You Too Winnie the Pooh” which is just crammed into the middle of the film, and in the end we learn the same lesson so why not just watch Boo To You Winnie the Pooh!!!  The other characters are made even dumber than usual, and Roo is suddenly the only one with half a brain. I hated this movie, and not surprisingly another never appeared. The only thing good about it is that this is the final time John Fiedler would provide the voice of Piglet, which he had done in everything prior.

#1. Cinderella II-Dreams Do Come True

Ironic that I hated this while loving the next. What makes this worse than Tarzan & Jane? With Tarzan & Jane the Saturday morning cartoon feel was intentional. That’s what it was, taking three cartoons and blending them into a DVD release. When this came out there was no Cinderella cartoon (unless this was a rejected idea which I am not sure of). This thing isn’t bad because it’s three stories. It’s bad because it’s three boring stories! The worst being the one about Jaq.  It’s some dumb thing about making him a person and the Fairy Godmother acts more like a sweet grandmother or something. This is just an insult to the characters from the first movie, which I did like. The first story is about Cinderella adjusting to her surroundings and is just flat out boring! I will admit, I kind of liked the third story. Not because it was good but because it fleshed out Anastasia’s character a bit so that she wasn’t just a whiny bitch. While the character development is nice the story is as flat as the rest of the film. This feels like it was made for very small children to entertain them before bedtime, which would be fine except I know that wasn’t the intention. It’s boring, it as a weak as heck story structure, and insults many of the characters.

Finally, since this was not a sequel I could not include it on the list. But I had to mention Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeer. I found this movie so boring I fell asleep while watching it, and that’s all I am going to say about it.

As I said I am sure there are worst out there, but I didn’t see Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame 2, or any of the others. Peter Pan 2 was a theatrical release and, I kind of liked it. Not enough to make this list but it was decent.

Thankfully, not that I am not married anymore I hope that I never have to. Also happy that the studio which turned these out went out of business.  It could have been worst, at least Dumbo II never saw the light of day.