Sequels and Prequels: Waste of time or Hidden Disney gems?

I liked the second National Treasure movie as much as the first. I liked Cars 2 more than Cars.

I thought Cars 2 was pretty solid, too, JoAnn. I don't know if I liked it more than Cars, but I don't think that it deserved the criticism that it got. It doesn't hurt that it has a character named after me--Holley Shiftwell (although they spelled me name wrong )

Toy Story 3 is my favorite of the franchise--but I do love all of them. I think the only other sequel/prequel I've seen was one of the Aladdin sequels. I didn't know there was a sequel and the way the packaging was done on that VHS, I thought it was Aladdin. I had only seen it once before I I remember being thoroughly confused until I looked at the box about half way through and realized my mistake.

Are we considering live action, too?

How do you spell Shiftwell in your family

'Worst' sequel would depend on whether you mean the ones that went direct-to-video or the ones cinematically released or both. In my view, the ones that were released cinematically should be more polished and worthy of being released that way. The Pixar sequels - Cars 2, Planes - Fire and Rescue, Toy Story 2 & 3...all are very good movies by themselves. Planes - Fire and Rescue was meant to be DTV, but someone saw the footage and deemed it good enough for the cinema.

Trying to craft a modern sequel to some of the classics - Bambi 2, Cinderella 2, etc...these are the 'worst' ones. They're done out of time context plus the views and sensibilities have changed over time, so there's a certain amount of adjusting to become more 'street' and the animation doesn't match the original either.

Live action wise, Herbie Goes Bananas is a movie I'd consider to be a bad sequel - not for the story but it's a mile away from where it started - a little car that goes racing - but then this was made during the 80s when Disney's quality output was also quite lacking...! Herbie Reloaded is another one...they had a good go at trying to recapture the Herbie magic, but to turn him into a NASCAR racer is a little too hard to accept...

For most movies, I will not consider a sequel viewing unless its to a movie I enjoyed the first time or it doesn't read as a re-tread of the first part. To me, The Empire Strikes Back is still the superior sequel as is Winter Soldier. Both managed to surpass the original whilst progressing the story of the core characters.

Pirates of the Caribbean. First one was loads of fun. Second one was horrid - too dark and disturbing, not fun at all. Third was okay. Fourth started to be fun again and is my second favorite of the series, but IMO none of the sequels is as good as the original movie.

Toy Story 2 is my favorite, then Toy Story 3, then Toy Story (though I love all three!) so those get an A+ in my book. I've seen Belle's Enchanted Christmas (watched it as a kid and now own it as an adult, though I'll fully admit it's pretty bad). I also own the two sequels to Aladdin since I watched them as a kid, as did DH as he is a huge Aladdin fan. Again, not great but they are included in our childhood memories so I won't bash them too much. Most of the other sequels I refuse to watch. Little Mermaid 2? No. Cinderella 2? Not a chance.

Over here, apart from the Disney channels, Sky also has the Disney movie channel so we'll get a lot of the movies, live action stuff, etc...

I still love to watch Herbie but generally what I consider to be the trilogy of movies - The Love Bug, Herbie Rides Again and Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo. I have Bananas and Reloaded to be a completist but they rarely get watched. I'd love to see the short lived 1982 show and the 1997 remake of The Love Bug...they remain extremely difficult to find! As you can guess, I'm a Herbie fan...best car ever in the world - after an Alfa Romeo and KITT...!

I like the original That Darn Cat better than the remake.

Have to say the two cars I always wanted were the General Lee or Christine .

I liked the General, but I grew up with Herbie and Beetles were always a part of the family...

If we're including live action...

I liked Son of Flubber better than the Absent-Minded Professor and I liked The Monkey's Uncle at least as well as, if not better than, the Misadventures of Merlin Jones.

I like the Love bug, but my favorite of the Herbie movies is Herbie Rides Again. I also like Herbie goes to Monte Carlo, but you're right on Sid Man. Herbie Goes Bananas is horrid.

As much as I enjoy the Pirates attraction, I didn't care much for the franchise. Though I think I enjoyed the third movie the most. I liked the possibilities it set up for the fourth movie, but apparently not enough because even though Benn bought the 4th one, I still haven't bothered to watch it. I've been too busy watching Saving Mr. Banks ten million times.

Speaking of...are we calling Saving Mr. Banks a Mary Poppins sequel? I think I am nearing the point where I love both movies equally and I rarely watch one without watching the other.

I wouldn't call Saving Mr. Banks a Mary Poppins sequel. Which order do you watch them in?

It depends on my mood...but inevitably, whichever one I pop in makes me want to watch the other one when I'm finished. I read somewhere that the reason that SMB was made the way that it was is because in the original contract, P.L. Travers insisted that a sequel could never be made, so doing a "making of" film was Disney's way around that. Maybe a more appropriate term would be to call them "companion films"

The legend is that PL Travers refused permission to Disney for as long as she was alive. This softened toward the end of her life as she allowed Disney to adapt Mary Poppins for the stage, but had a stipulation in that the Shermans were not allowed to be involved. Disney got around this by agreeing to her terms but set the Shermans up in a consultation role.

I can't remember where I read it but apparently Disney was ready to go on a sequel but was unable to secure rights before his death. As it stands, MP became one of the most beloved, if not the most, Disney movies until Frozen came along...

I think the sequels that get the worst wrap are the ones that came out during the 90's when Michael Eisner was putting out all of those direct to video movies. Not only did many of them have weak plot lines, but they reused a lot of base animation and it just wasn't a very high quality product. I think that the sequels released in theaters tend to have more care and consideration to them.

The one place that I really loved the subsequent work of Disney Animation was the Lilo and Stitch television show. It was really cute and maintained the fun and feeling of the original movie.

I'm also not a fan of the straight to video sequels. I hate that the main characters have different voices. Especially Return of Jafar. No Robin Williams as Genie? Totally not the same character.

I really like the Toy Story movies and Monsters University.

This reminded me of one of best quotes in a sequal (George of the Jungle 2).

"Me new George. Studio too cheap to pay Brendan Fraser."

That line is genius I love it.

I am a fan of the Santa Clause 2 (3 was not as great) and both of the Princess diaries films are on par, in fact 2 gives her more depth.

Toy story and Monsters have also handled sequels well, unlike the little mermaid, lion king, Aladdin and lilo franchises.

For me, I like to pretend those notorious direct to video sequels of all the animated features films did not exist. The only one I thoroughly enjoyed was Aladdin and the King of Thieves. It just showed that Robin Williams was, is and always will be the Genie. No disrespect to Dan Castellaneta who is talented in his own right. It's mind-blowing and hard to grasp that John Rhys-Davies, who was Sallah in the Indiana Jones movies, was Aladdin's father and I thought he did a great job.

As for the rest, well, I liked Toy Story 2 and 3. I have concerns about Toy Story 4. I mean, Toy Story 3 ended on a bittersweet note but it was the perfect one in my book. National Treasure 2 was alright and the Pirates sequels were good, but not exactly great in comparison to Curse of the Black Pearl. As for Cars, I thought the first was good but not great. The second on the other hand left a lot to be desired. Wasn't really a fan of the story. And I quite liked the Rescuers Down Under. A very underrated film and is often the "forgotten" film of the Renaissance with great animation, good character development and just a pretty darn awesome animated adventure movie.

One that I liked growing up was The Shaggy Dog followed by the Shaggy DA. Haven't seen those mentioned in the thread yet.

My all time favorite sequel is Toy story 3. The Shaggy Dog remake was ok if you never saw the original