The Little Mermaid

[Daniel]

I too consider Cindy III a great sequel, but best ever?

I'm sorry to hear your not a big fan of Disney DTV's, Charlie. While I am a big fan, I do see them for what they are, and loathe the idea of all new everything (voices, artist, etc..) on older, specifically Walt era films.

Ignoring all that though, I do think, with the exception of 5 or 6 sequels, they're all really enjoyable. To add to Ben's RTN-L suggestion, I think Bambi II fits into that catagory, too. Very beautiful, faithful film. Heck, its in my top 5!

[EricJ]

Thought RTN-L was the best argument for "You can dress Disney videoquels up, but you can't take them out in public."
Ie., for all the "nice" looking animation, and Corey Burton's imitation of Hans Conried, the plot simply recycled LM2's "Daughter of franchise character disgruntled enough to fall sucker for villain's plot, until she realizes the good guys were having fun all along" default cookie-cutter, and the gags (eg. the octopus) were so Toon Studio attention-deficit, they made the Lost Boys act like they'd come out of some 90's Cartoon Network toon.

FMM, the only sequels that "worked" were the TV-pilot sequels for Aladdin, L&S and Atlantis, provided you knew they were TV series:
Particularly in the last two cases (and throw "Hercules" in there too), where the discipline of doing a weekly series helped the writers finally figure out and sharpen who the heck the characters were and what the original movie should have been....Can't do that as much with classics.

[Daniel]

Its all in the execution, which I feel varies between the two. Both were tricked, but Jane's situation seemed more reasonable, since she was beginning to get home sick.

The big difference I think, is how both conflicts ended before the big showdown. I mean, Ariel told Melody not to hand over the triton, but she still did it. Jane on the other hand, threw the whistle after being knited the first 'lost girl'. Than of course, the skunk kid found/blew it, making Hook appear to get Peter's treasure and him & the lost boys.

Difference being, Jane tried to prevent what she had been tricked into doing, Melody did not. So I wouldn't say it was completely recycled.

[Ben]

I think when looking at the Disney sequels, the <I>first</I> thing that should be taken into account is the animation. Does it meet the right standards that it could sit alongside other Disney content and not look cheap or out of place.

Then the success of the film, artistically, is down to the story. So in terms of the Disney sequels, I would place an ability to fit in to 80 years of animation content above how the story came out.

For these reasons, and TV origins aside, I can't take anything like the Aladdin follow-ups or those others "seriously" as anything other than TV movies. Fine for what they are, but not much else.

Story-wise, once you've evaluated the technical aspects, you can drop a few more out of the list. Arguably, and as much as I enjoyed certain aspects of these two films, I think anything called "II" or "2" should be a follow-up, a continuation, so I wouldn't put Bambi II or Tarzan II in any line-up of "successful" sequels.

Ultimately, a Disney follow up being exhibited as a "Disney Movie" should: 1) meet the basic standards of Disney animation (and let's be honest and come right out and say that Disney animation has had a lot of looks over the years and not all of them were pretty or indeed particularly well animated), and 2) create a compelling continuation storyline.

Under these "rules", I'd say the only sequels worth considering (and I'm neither endorsing or dismissing here) are:

Lion King II: Simba’s Pride
An Extremely Goofy Movie
Lady And The Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure
Peter Pan: Return To NeverLand
101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure
The Jungle Book 2
Mulan II
Lilo And Stitch 2: Stitch Has A Glitch
Cinderella III: A Twist In Time


So it's actually quite a small list of artistically and creatively successful pieces. To this list, I would add several others, produced by the Disney TV studio but in formats true to their original nature:

DuckTales The Movie: Treasure Of The Lost Lamp
A Goofy Movie
The Tigger Movie (the only true theatrical Pooh follow up)
Doug’s 1st Movie
Recess: School’s Out
Teacher’s Pet: The Movie
Mickey, Donald And Goofy: The Three Musketeers


For good measure, the "inter-quel" The Lion King 1½ should be included for being something quite special - a rare "what if?" attempt to subvert Disney on nothing less than their most successful feature film.

That's my criteria, anyhoo!

[Once Upon A Dream]

Yep,amazing and also it's the first time i think that a plot of a Disney sequle is intersting it was just amazing.
And agreed about Jane not being a sucker,altought Melody couldn't think Morgana was bad thanks to her mother (oh Disney,what have you done to my Ariel!? why!?).

[Daniel]

Agreed. Unlike Pocahontas, I hate what they did to the Little Mermaid -- but I'll leave it at that, since I've ranted way to much about it in the past.

Are you saying amazing for Cindy III? At times like that, its ok to quote or address the person your responding to.

[EricJ]

And don't know whether I'd already mentioned it in the CindyIII thread, but LM3 looks like it was greenlit as the official "apology" for LM2, in the same way that C3 was the apology to people who thought C2:the Series was a movie...

LM2 was officially the first cheapquel ("Return of Jafar" was a TV pilot, remember), and they were still finding their way out of the days when they thought "Rescuers Down Under" would be their only post-happily sequel--
It wasn't the cheapness or Cruella-recycling that turned us off, it was that they were just coming off of Lion King, and "Who the HECK thought putting Timon & Pumbaa in any picture would improve it??"

They may have been able to repackage CindyII later as a post-Enchanted Tales "We meant to do a TV pilot!"
But with LM3, the motivation seems to be...shh, we've never heard of Dip & Dash. We deny any such rumors. No such creatures ever existed. Everything is under control.

[Once Upon A Dream]

I hate both Little Mermaid II nad Pocahontas II,Cinderella II is actually nice.
Yeah,i think Cinderella III is amazing ,okay,in times like this i"ll quote .

[Ben]

LM2 was officially the first cheapquel ("Return of Jafar" was a TV pilot, remember)

Return Of Jafar wasn't the first time TV fare had been dressed up as something more: both The Wuzzles and Gummi Bears pilot episodes were released as full animated featurettes internationally in theaters in the mid-1980s.

We also got a couple of Duck Tales movies, which didn't come out on home video but featured on TV around the world, as did a Chip 'n' Dale's Rescue Rangers TV feature. There were also other compilations that came out on video as a "movie" before Jafar, but it's true that it was the first one put out on video with all the fanfare that usually greeted a feature.

Sales of that title generated the thirst for the sequels, but you're incorrect to name The Little Mermaid II as the first "official" one.

After The Return Of Jafar (1994), and way before LMII (2000), we had:

Aladdin And The King Of Thieves – 1996
Winnie The Pooh’s Most Grand Adventure: The Search For Christopher Robin – 1997
Beauty And The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas – 1997
Belle’s Magical World (compilation feature) – 1998
Pocahontas II: Journey To A New World – 1998
Lion King II: Simba’s Pride – 1998
Hercules: Zero To Hero (compilation feature) – 1988
Winnie The Pooh: Seasons Of Giving (compilation feature) – 1999
Doug’s 1st Movie – 1999
Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas (compilation feature) – 1999
An Extremely Goofy Movie – 2000
Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command: The Adventure Begins – 2000


The Little Mermaid II: Return To The Sea didn't hit until late 2000, followed by Lady And The Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure in early 2001. So the Disney sequel wagon was well and truly rolling before Arial turned up for seconds!

[paxitos]

Confirmed: No Ariel's Mom in TLM3

Paxito,
Thanks so much for your sweet e-mail!
I don't know the exact release date of the movie, butit will be early next year. Ariel's mom doesn't appear in the movie, but they talk about her. I can't say too much about the plot or I'll get in trouble!Keep looking for more info on the internet in 2008.

Thanks again for writing,
Kari Wahlgren

From email of: [email link removed]

[Ben]

I removed the email link above...not a good idea to publicise something like that and I'm sure it wouldn't have been appreciated.

It should also be pointed out that Kari Wahlgren is playing Ariel's sister Alana in The Little Mermaid III.

[paxitos]

I removed the email link above...not a good idea to publicise something like that and I'm sure it wouldn't have been appreciated.

Sorry!

Paxito

[Once Upon A Dream]

Bah,this suckes many people (incolding me) wanted to see Ariel's mom and now she won't be there .
Well,if they won't be good updates about the plot i won't be exited about this movie (also the plot that she need to bring music to Atlantica (which has been confiremed as the plot by everywhere) sounds like that episode Giggles from the series).

[Daniel]

It makes sense, since Disney never said we would "see" her. But if its true, it does stink.

Should also mention, that I wrote Tara Strong a few weeks ago, asking for any info she might have (plot/release date) so hopefully I'll get good news.

[Once Upon A Dream]

I hope that she'll have good news,too.
I also wonder is she'll have a realese date.