Two Is One Too Many

Remember when the production company that put out your favorite movie decided to make a sequel and by doing so effectively ruined the memory of the first? Warner Bros. (the production company that brought us The Hangover and unfortunately also brought us Hangovers 2 and 3) did it, Dreamworks and Paramount did it with Transformers and yes, Disney did it too. Actually, to be completely honest, Disney did it a lot and still does and while I will admit to loving sequels and prequels and anything franchise worthy, what I will not admit to is the importance or the necessity of stretching out anything that was better left short and sweet.

One franchise that Disney let run till it was tired was Aladdin, a tale whose first film installment was entertaining and enjoyable and who’s second and third left that same tale feeling weary and overworked. Three is a crowd, Disney, three is a crowd. On top of having more than one sequel, the beloved genie voiced by Robin Williams in the first movie was not voiced by him in the second. Instead the genie was voiced by one Dan Castellaneta.

But besides the voice actors not living up to their predecessors and the general raggedness of a story reaching passed its end, the only other problem with these sequels is the replication. The majority of them were the first movie’s doppelganger. For example, while I am very happy for Wendy and her two children, I did not need to see her daughter, Jane, embark on the exact same journey as her mother a of couple decades or so later. The same goes for The Lady and the Tramp’s continuation, in which their son, Scamp falls for a dog of lesser status and then goes on to recreate some of the more prominent moments of his parent’s adventure, including a take on the much lionized spaghetti scene. However, in good sense, a wide number of these movies never made it to the big screen and went straight to VHS and now DVD. In fact, I was ignorant to the very existence of many of these movie's counterparts, Mulan and The Fox and The Hound being among them.

     But to end on a more positive note, Disney has put out some sequels that can live up to their originals such as the Lion King and the Toy Story franchise. After all, if Disney had never been so clever as to create the prequel The Lion King 1½ then we never would have gotten the banter filled scenes of Timon and Pumbaa watching their own lives play out on a movie theatre screen. And what would we have done if we never knew about Buzz, Woody and the other toy’s misshapen adventure with the furnace? Well, actually, we probably all would have been better off without that emotionally jarring furnace scene. 

     All in all, Disney’s sequels have all been relatively hit and miss with a few more misses than hits.