Hey, guys, Steven here! Today bringing you our Top 10 Best Animated Disney Prequels/Sequels/Midquels! Now as everyone is aware, and if you're not, you really should be. Disney has a penchant for sequels. Which wouldn't be so bad, as the entire film industry has a penchant for sequels now? But Disney has a penchant for making sequels to classics and making them TERRIBLE. So here are the best of these from Disney. 'The least sucky'. (Sorry to hurt your feelings super Disney fans!)
#10 Bambi II
Bambi II. A title that infuriates me as it's really not Bambi II. However, this can be forgiven as the original title was 'Bambi and the Great Prince' and later 'Bambi and the Great Prince of the Forest'. The first midquel on our list. Now it's probably just me, but midquels have always made me feel a bit iffy. I've always felt like making another movie take place during a movie was a weird thing to do. Now considering Bambi is an absolute classic this film never even comes close to replicating it. And it's weird watching it when the animation is so clearly different (something that also bothered me with the Jungle Book II as I loved the originals animation). However, the film is not terrible and you can actually enjoy seeing Bambi grow and having that story is really just like bonus material for super Bambi fans.... although I'm not too sure if there are actually any.
#9 The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea
Now if I remember correctly I had a discussion with admin Xebs and I recall him asking me to remove this movie. If so, SORRY BUDDY. I've never been a big Little Mermaid fan, I only saw it once when I was younger and had a massive crush on Ariel. But I watched this sequel later in life when I was quite a bit older, and without being hampered by obvious nostalgia, I enjoyed it. I liked that Melody grew up without any knowledge of where she belonged and still felt that desire to be under the sea, Ariel lying to her because of her experiences with Ursula. It was a Disney story with a new plot, a similar plot but a unique retelling. As far as Disney sequels go, it's one of the better ones.
#8 Tarzan and Jane
Now if you've read any of my previous lists before... because that seems to be all I write on here, you'd know I absolutely love Tarzan. So obviously I had to make a decision between this, and Tarzan II. Now Tarzan II wasn't bad. But it wasn't anything special. At all, and being a midquel and calling itself Tarzan II (as you recall, I hate that) so I went with Tarzan and Jane. Now, Tarzan and Jane just uses 3 episodes from the TV Series, the last 3 to be aired, thus the final episodes, and features a frame story linking them together and finishing up the TV series and giving a happy ending and conclusion to Disney's Tarzan. It's enjoyable and satisfying. Writing this now, I honestly feel like I've placed it too low and it should be higher, but I digress....
Another Midquel and this movie sorta summarise why I don't like them. It breaks up the flow of the original movie and makes you wonder when it happened. For the most part, though these films are usually set in between a moment in the original films where there is some sort of montage. However, rather than getting into detail on why this movie frustrates me the movie still manages to have the same charm as the original. It has a short and sweet story that helps build on Beasts feelings toward Belle so even with all the floors it's definitely one of Disney's better sequels.
Now Brother Bear ended perfectly. It sure didn't need a sequel. But it did and has a love story for the main character Kenai. The film is pretty basic and never compares to the original, but more gives some secondary story closure to the main character who now (and spoiler alert if you've never seen it and want to) can have a love who's a Bear... but not originally a Bear, so I guess he doesn't have to worry about feeling guilty about bestiality? Or does he? I dunno. Either way, the film is still pretty enjoyable to watch, but only really if you loved the original and adore the characters... mainly Rutt and Tuke, who should get their own spin-off movie.
When people think of Disney I really do feel like the original Disney crew are forgotten. Which is why I love Kingdom Hearts. Besides it's deep and complex story, fun, and everything else perfect with it. I love that you get characters like Donald and Mickey and Goofy. Now, I like the first Goofy movie, but I loved the whole idea of Max (Goofy's son) growing up and going away to college. I don't know if it's just because I was young but I also loved the whole skateboard thing. I guess it was just relate-able with the kid having a Dad he's embarrassed by but just coming to love and accept him for who he is.
I love Aladdin. However, I really feel like the second film was a huge letdown. I remember really liking it as a kid, but having watched it not too long ago I was disappointing by a few things, most notably that it just tries to replicate the plot from the first movie and the poor animation quality. I felt like the third film went deeper, it had Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding. Learning about where Aladdin comes from, it has awesome catchy songs, Genie was far more hilarious than in the second (probably thanks to Robin Williams coming back, R.I.P). The story about the Hand of Midas, and the bringing the story to a satisfying conclusion to end the series (including the TV Show) and bringing back the merchant to bookend the series really helped make it feel extremely fitting.
Now I always have this uneasiness making these lists, feeling like I should stick to pure Disney, and thus not include Pixar. But as Pixar is part of Disney and the two are just thought of hand-in-hand now I've included it. Now Monster's Inc had one of the most original stories ever to come out of Pixar. It was brilliant, however, it certainly wasn't a film I ever, EVER thought a sequel could be made to and ever do it justice. That might be true, as Pixar went and made a Prequel. The first and only prequel to make this list. Honestly, the idea of Mike and Sully studying at university held no interest to me. I thought it would be a very basic movie and never match the original, and for the most part, that's true. Not to say that it's bad. It was still enjoyable, but basic. That is, until the end of the film where Mike and Sully both go through a door into our world. Besides in this section of the film having some of the best animation I've ever seen the idea behind what happens next was really fascinating and took the film to a new level. Was it as good as the original? No way. But it still was a really good movie.
#2 Winnie the Pooh: The Search for Christopher Robin/The Tigger Movie
I love Winnie the Pooh. And I feel like I'm repeating myself here. I also feel like this answer has the biggest bias of all of them, but to hell with it. I couldn't even choose a movie I had to share them. I feel like they both had their own important messages. The Search had the idea of overcoming your fears as well as various other obstacles. It has a good message about believing in yourself. While the Tigger movie really has good messages about family and friends and both films are fun and completely enjoyable. They never feel like a step down from the original.
#1 The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
Now the Lion King is pretty much the pinnacle of Disney. I, and most other people who said it was, and still is the best Disney film. It is perfectly crafted. Beautiful music. Funny and engaging characters and a wonderful story. Something impossible to replicate. Being based off Shakespeare's Hamlet for the sequel they decided to go with another work of Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet. Some would argue that the sequel doesn't live up to the original, and it's hard to when the original is, you know, THE ORIGINAL, but it does the best possible job it can. With songs like 'He Lives in You' even being added into the broadway musical version of the show... I feel like I've said that before on another post....
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