MOVIE REVIEWS

End the madness: stop buying Disney sequels

by Diane Ivey

There are some things that just shouldn't be messed with.
Skunks, for instance, and cranky parents should just be left alone. But never, ever mess with my childhood memories. I mean, sure, I had some bad ones. There was the time everyone made fun of me for wearing my princess crown to school, and the time I kicked a boy on the slide, only to find out his mom was the playground monitor. The point is, I don't like my good memories screwed around with.

That's why I am thoroughly miffed at Disney.

On February 7, Disney released yet another straight-to-video sequel movie: Bambi II. This would be just a simple cinematic transgression, if it weren't for the fact that in the last six or seven years, all Disney has been producing is sequels. It started innocently enough, with The Return of Jafar in 1994. At the end of the golden age of fairy tale movies, one Aladdin sequel couldn't hurt. However, it seems the sequel bug bit Disney animators in the proverbial bottom, and ever since, not a year goes by without one more addition to a formerly beloved classic.

As a child, there was nothing I enjoyed more than a quality Disney movie, especially if it was one that involved princesses. Now, when ever I see my favorite fairy tales on a shelf, all I can think of is, "How long until they massacre that one?"

Whatever happened to “happily ever after?” Didn’t “the end” mean it was really the end and not “to be continued…”?

In case you've been living under a rock all this time, and don't believe this madness is happening, I now give you a partial list of all the Disney sequels:

• Aladdin And The King Of Thieves;
• Atlantis: Milo's Return;
• Beauty And The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas;
• Cinderella II: Dreams Come True;
• The Hunchback Of Notre Dame II;
• Lady And The Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure;
• The Lion King 1½;
• The Lion King II: Simba's Pride;
• The Little Mermaid II: Return To The Sea;
• Mulan II;
• 101 DalmatiansII: Patch's London Adventure;
• Pocahontas II: Journey To A New World.
  Mind you, that's only a partial list.

Whatever happened to the concept of new ideas? It's not like there aren't writers out there who can come up with new stories, who are just dying to work with Disney.

Another idea is to take older, less well-known stories and update them into movies. It's not like there's a world literature shortage or anything. If The Hunchback of Notre Dame can be made into a lighthearted kid's movie, I'm sure there's plenty more where that came from. Just image: War and Peace animated, with singing and dancing Russians.

The scariest part about this trend is the precedent it sets for other pseudo-Disney animation studios. Pixar (which has now been officially bought by Disney) could very well make Finding Nemo II: Lost Again. Now that's just wrong. The more sequels Disney produces, the longer I'll have to shelve knockoff fare such as The Land Before Time 205.

So come on, Disney, let's do the right thing and give the children of today some fresh movies for their enjoyment—ones that don't include a number after them.

In the mean time, look for my personal sequel to this article entitled, "Why there should not be sequels."