Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Kronk's New Groove (2005)

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus 

Kronk's New Groove (2005)

Even though The Emperor’s New Groove(2000) was only a mild success, Disney decided to bring the entire cast back for a sequel focused around the bumbling evil sidekick Kronk. I will admit Kronk was my favorite part of the first movie so I thought maybe this could be fun.  But nope I was wrong. 

In Kronk’s New Groove we reunite with Kronk who is now a full time chef.  When he gets a letter from his dad saying that he is coming for a visit, Kronk freaks out.  Kronk desperately seeks approval from his dad and has written letters saying how well he is doing, including owning a house on a hill and having a wife and kids.  Unfortunately none of those things are true.  We see in flashbacks how Kronk ended up owning a house on a hill by defrauding some old people.  In another flashback we see how he fell in love at a summer camp but things ended badly so now he doesn’t even have a girlfriend.  At the end Kronk does learn that he has friends that mean the world to him and he wouldn’t change a thing.  Finally he gets the thumbs up from his dad he so desperately wants.  

I’ll start with the positive.  Kronk is a great character.  I love that he is a bumbling fool with a good heart, and Patrick Warburton does a great job of voicing Kronk.  Unfortunately sometimes a character only works in small doses and that may be the case with Kronk.  As the comic relief of the original film he made me laugh every time he was on screen.  But having to carry the whole movie it just didn’t work.  Or, it could be a case where the story didn’t do the character justice.  

The movie does what other Disney sequels have done and breaks the film up into vignettes.  This was done in Cinderella II and Tarzan II.  Tarzan II actually took clips from unaired episodes of the Tarzan and Jane TV show.  And that is what this felt like.  It felt like they were setting up a TV show hoping to use this as a proof of concept.  Unfortunately it just didn’t work.  The flashbacks felt kind of forced and not at all organic and it was pretty unclear how long ago these things took place.  

One of the weirdest things about this movie was the sexuel innuendo’s.  While most of them will go over kids’ heads it still feels a bit jarring while watching a Disney Direct to Video film.  The two scenes that stand out are when Kronk puts a movie in and it’s called “Stag Party” and he looks instantly embarrassed like it’s a naughty tape.  And towards the end when Kronk and his girlfriend are making bread but definitely feels like they are talking about something else.  

Overall: One of the few Disney Sequels that had all of the original cast return but that doesn’t stop it from being a mess.  The story doesn’t flow and it’s just not that funny.  Maybe it’s too much of a good things but I really think given a good story Warburton could make a great Kronk movie.  

Disney Movie Challenge: Frozen II (2019)

 

 Disney Movie Challenge

Frozen 2 (2019)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021. 

The second sequel in a row for Disney, and with lots of remakes of their classic films it made me wonder if Disney ran out of ideas.  This movie came out at the end of 2019 and was one of the biggest films of the year.  When the pandemic hit in 2020 Disney surprised everyone by releasing it months early on Disney+.  That’s when I first watched but honestly didn't remember much about it.  

Frozen II picks up 3 years after Frozen and everyone is living happily ever after.  That is until Elsa hears a voice.  She sets out on another adventure but Anna isn’t going to let her go alone this time.  And if Anna is going then so is Kristof, Sven, and Olaf.  The 5 of them head into the enchanted forest to try to figure out how to reverse the curse and find out whose voice Elsa keeps hearing.  Along the way they meet the 4 spirits, Wind, Fire, Water, and Earth.  Elsa and Anna learn secrets about their past and how Elsa got her magic powers.

After denying they would make a sequel to Frozen for a couple of years Disney finally officially announced the film in 2015.  After making the short film Frozen Fever the creative team of Jennifer Lee (writer-director), Christopher Buck (director), and Peter Del Vecho (producer) decided they wanted to spend more time with those characters and decided to have it focus on Anna and Elsa’s history.  The most interesting thing about the production is that they went to Norway, Sweden, and Finland and worked with the indigenous population there to try to get the culture right.  A partnership formed between Disney and the representative’s of the Sámi people.  Here is an interesting article about the agreement from Arctic Today https://www.arctictoday.com/how-a-collaboration-with-disney-shaped-the-way-sami-cultural-details-were-portrayed-in-frozen-2/ . 

The years between the first and second film saw some technological advancement in animation and Disney wanted Frozen II to show that off. The big advancements came from the way they animated items moving in the wind, especially hair, and how the water spirit looks.  They wanted to have the water look more realistic than in Moana.  They managed to do it so well that the photorealistic water looked out of place from the rest of the movie and had to be toned down.  

Despite the advancement in technology the movie felt kind of boring.  I have been having trouble figuring out what it is that didn’t work.  The most obvious thing is that the songs just aren’t as good.  While “Into the Unknown” feels like a good follow up to “Let it Go” the rest of the songs aren’t memorable or fun.  The harder thing to figure out was why the story didn’t work.  I think the film tried to take the Frozen story into a darker more emotional place but it might have gone too far (both Elsa and Olaf die at one point).  The documentary Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II reveals that this was indeed the case.  After a surprise test screening in San Diego it was made clear that people didn’t understand what was going on and kids were generally bored.  Based on that feedback they added more jokes by Olaf to entertain the kids, and added more of the fire spirit since he was a big hit.  The additional jokey material gave the film a disjointed tone.   Olaf just seemed to be more annoying in this film and overused as the comic relief. 

Similar to Ralph Breaks the Internet this movie has no main villain.  The movie is more of a mystery and trying to find out what is going on.  There are a lot of “false villains” like the fire spirit.  It's interesting because I always felt that the first Frozen would have been better if they didn’t have a villain as that villain seemed tacked on.  Now they don’t have a villain and this movie doesn’t work.  It just doesn’t hit the emotional beats that it should. I’m not sure if it was just me but when Olaf died it should have affected me more, but maybe because it’s a Disney movie I kind of knew he would be back. Another aspect that the film has in common with Ralph Breaks the Internet is that they both have a character going through an existential crisis. In this one we see Olaf asking lots of questions about growing up and how to deal with things constantly changing. While we really got to see Vanellope deal with her questions in this one Olaf questions is just played for jokes. I wish they delved more into that and see him get some resolution. Looking back at it know it could have been prescient with the amount of changes coming with the pandemic.

Overall: The movie just doesn’t work for me.  It’s kind of boring and it’s unfortunate that a lot of the fun of Frozen is missing in the sequel.  It could also be that when I first watched it at the beginning of the pandemic and wasn’t quite in the right headspace for this movie.  I believe that how you are feeling going into a movie can have an effect on how you enjoy the film.  But even watching it again it still didn’t do anything and really isn’t that many memorable scenes.   I also forgot how similar to The Fifth Element  certain plot points are.  

Random Facts

Since Frozen won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars it was surprising that Frozen II wasn’t even nominated.  Although “Into the Unknown” was nominated for Best Song.  Toy Story 4 won Best Animated Feature and “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman won Best Original Song.   

When I started the Disney Movie Challenge Frozen II was the last movie on the list  But Raya and the Last Dragon and Encanto both were released prior to finishing.  

During production Jennifer Lee became head of the Walt Disney Animation Studio following the controversial exit of John Lasseter.  Lasseter had been the head since Disney purchased Pixar in 2006.  Lee is the first female to hold that job.    

Highest grosing animated film of all times. 

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Tarzan and Jane (2002) and Tarzan II (2005)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

Tarzan and Jane (2002) and Tarzan II (2005)

Tarzan is one of the most confusing trilogies ever.  Tarzan II is really the third movie in the trilogy but takes place mostly before the first one.  

Tarzan and Jane was released as a direct to video film but consisted of 3 unaired episodes of the short lived The Legend of Tarzan animated show on Disney.  Similar to Cinderella 2 the movie is an anthology film.  This time the wrap-around story is about Jane trying to come up with a gift for Tarzan on their anniversary.  The first story tells about Jane’s friends coming to visit from England and trying to make Tarzan fit into their idea of what society is.  This story has some fun action but also one of Jane’s friends is constantly fawning over Tarzan’s physique and makes it oddly sexual.  The next story has Tarzan getting tricked to look for diamonds in a volcano, and the last one has some pilot that is trying to steal something from Jane.  All of the plots are convoluted.  Mostly because none of these characters have any reason to be in the jungle.  Also, for a sequel to a movie about a man raised by apes, these stories are noticeably absent of apes (aside from Terk).  

Tarzan II is more of a midquel to Tarzan, similar to Bambi II and Fox and the Hound 2.  The film shows Tarzan as a child trying to adapt to living with apes and not really knowing who he is. He realizes that he isn’t an ape and doesn’t fit it.  He runs away from home and finds himself on Dark Mountain where he encounters a monster called Zugor (George Carlin). Also trapped on the mountain is a gorilla family consisting of a mother (Estelle Harris) and her two grown and incompetant sons (Brad Garrett and Ron Perlman).   Tarzan befriends Zugor who really isn’t a monster just a gorilla who wants to be alone so he scares everyone. In the end Tarzan learns to just be himself and finds courage to take on the bad guys.  It’s a typical morality tale about not trying to be anyone else and everyone has special talents.  The best thing about this one is that it features the return of Glenn Close and Lance Henrikson as Tarzan’s adoptive parents.  

The biggest problem for me with both films is that all the characters seemed really annoying, especially Terk.  Everyone’s voice just really got on my nerves.  Maybe it was just me but really bothered me.  Neither of the movies had much of a compelling plot.  It was obvious Tarzan II was better funded.  It got bigger names and was more cohesive.  It did seem weird to have George Carlin in a family film but then I remembered he was also in Cars.  

Overall: Probably two of the least interesting direct to video sequels I have seen.  Both reuse Phil Collins songs and while I guess Tarzan II has a new Phil Collins song I can't say I know what it is.

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002)

When Disney decided to do a sequel to The Hunchback of Notre Dame they looked at the response to the first one and thought “remember how everyone thought the first one was too dark for kids, let's do the opposite of that”. So a fun lighthearted love story was born.  

The sequel picks up years after the first one.  Esmerelda and Phoebus are married and have a kid named Zephyr. Quasimodo still lives in the bell tower but is frequently visited by Esmerelda, Phoebus, and Zephyr.  This year at the Le Jour d'Amour festival Quasimodo wants to explore the city and see if he can find someone to love, instead a beautiful girl named Madellaine comes to the bell tower and he falls for her.  She seems to be interested in him but once she sees his face she runs away frightened.  It turns out the girl was sent there by an evil magician, Sarousch,  who wants to steal a bell full of jewels called La Fidèle.  Sarousch wants Madellaine to pretend to like Quasimodo to distract him from the bell.  But of course Madline starts falling in love with Quasimodo.  Eventually Quasimodo figures out the scheme and is hurt that Madeleine didn’t really love him.  But she proves her love to him by betraying Sarousch in the end and Quasimodo finally finds love.  

First thing I need to do is be honest.  I watched this movie once and fell asleep towards the end.  Don’t think I missed much so never went back and rewatched it.  With that out of the way let's start with the most amazing thing about the film.  Somehow Disney got pretty much the entire cast of the first one to come back for the sequel, including Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Kevin Kline, and Jason Alexander.  Usually Disney animated sequels are a lot cheaper and they can’t pay for A-List talent but maybe by 2002 this cast wasn’t considered A-List.  Joining the original cast are some other high profile newcomers including Jennifer Love Hewitt as Madellaine, Haley Joel Osment as Zephyr, and Michael McKean as Sarousch.  Even with the stars of the film returning Disney didn’t put much effort into the film.  The animation doesn’t look good, the songs are bad, and the story is just bland. 

Overall: A mostly forgettable film.  The whole movie feels like a reaction to the complaint that the first one was too dark.  Here the hero gets the girl and Quasimodo finally gets his happily ever after.  Not having read the book I am going to assume Victor Hugo didn’t have any of this in his story. 

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World (1998)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World (1998)

Considering the original Pocahontas strayed far from the truth it’s not surprising that the second one strayed even farther from the truth.  I finally did a little bit of research on Pocahontas since it is not a story I know well.  I recommend reading this article https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/pocahontas  from History.com that has a quick recap of the story.  The problem is there is a lot of conflicting information and no one really knows what the whole truth is.  But one thing is certain. Almost everything in this movie is wrong.  

The movie starts with John Smith running from the king and supposedly being killed.  When word reaches Pocahontas she is devastated to learn of his death.  But then John Rolfe comes to the New World and wants to bring the chief of the natives back to England.  Pocahontas says she will go as a representative to England.  There she and Rolfe slowly fall in love but at the same time the big bad from the first film Governor Ratcliffe wants to start a war and sets up a trap to make her look bad.  After convincing the king that the “savages” can’t be tamed Pocahontas is sent to jail.  But she is rescued by John Rolfe and in a surprise return John Smith.  She must once again decide what her destiny is.  Does she go back to the New World and fight with her tribe? Does she stay and try to convince the King not to go to war? Which John will she decide to marry? 

I don’t want to spend much time talking about this movie since it’s not very good.  Here are few quick thoughts. 

-The movie has more action and is more fast paced then the original, but it makes Pocahontas more of a damsel in distress.  

-We don’t get to see much of the strong steadfast Pocahontas from the original.  

-The songs are really bad.  I don’t know why when Disney does a sequel to a successful film they just can’t seem to write good songs for them.

-After watching this one it became pretty clear how good the animation in the original was.  This movie looks really bad in comparison.  

As far as positives go. If you like the silliness of Pocahontas’ sidekicks you get more of that.  Flit, Meeko, and Percy are all back and given more silly things to do.  For the most part the characters work and really delivers the comic relief.  But, again it’s a weird contrast to what we are supposed to believe is a true story.  

Overall: It’s a pretty bad movie. It just abandons any semblance of truth. And it looks and sounds bad.  

Random Fact:

Unable to get Mel Gibson back for his role as John Smith they did the next best thing (I guess) and got his younger brother Donal Gibson to play the role.  

Disney Movie Challenge: The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

 Disney Movie Challenge

The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020.

The first true Disney Sequel. It’s hard to believe that after making movies for over 50 years this is the first time they made a sequel to any of their films.  But of all their films this one makes the most sense for a sequel (would have also liked to see one for The Great Mouse Detective). This is also an oddball film in the Disney Renaissance era. It’s lack of songs and princesses makes it feel more like a leftover from the pre-renaissance era.  

Obviously based on the title the two mice from The Rescuers are headed to Australia. It reunites the two main cast members of the original with Ava Gabor as Miss Bianca and Bob Newhart as Bernard.  The villain McLeach  is voiced by George C. Scott.  This time they have to rescue a kid who was kidnapped by a poacher, McLeach.  McLeach is a poacher with his sights set on his ultimate prize a rare golden eagle. When he finds out that this kid, Cody, knows where it is he kidnaps him and tries to coerce the whereabouts of the eagle from him. Meanwhile Miss Bianca and Bernard team up with a local hopping mouse named Jack to find Cody.

This film isn’t quite as dark as the first one.  Cody isn’t an orphan and he is an adventurous kid and really good at getting in and out of trouble by himself.  While we never meet his parents we learn that they are looking for him and that McLeach has tried to make it look like he was eaten by some crocodiles. The strongest part of this film is George C. Scott as the villain.  He has such a unique voice and totally plays it up in a terrifying way.  You never once got the feeling he had a good side. If you like romance there is a little subplot where Bernard wants to ask Miss Bianca to marry him and how he is jealous of Jack always showing off.

Besides being Disney’s first sequel the importance of this film is that it was the first one made entirely using the CAPS system.  CAPS was developed by Pixar as a way to scan drawings into the computer and gives directors more tools to manipulate the film.  While the film is still hand drawn it no longer needs to be inked and placed on cels. It also doesn’t need to go through the Xerography process to transfer it to films.  I wish I knew more about the process of animating films so I could understand it better, but this was a huge advancement and allowed for the films to be made more quickly.  It also opened up a lot of camera movements that weren’t possible before.  The weird thing is that Disney really kept the process under wraps.  They felt that if people knew they were using computers to make their animated films it would lose some of the mystery.  It wasn’t until 1994 (a year before Toy Story came out) that Disney opened up about the process.  

Overall: It’s a great adventure movie and I love adventures movies so I had a lot of fun with it. It also has one of the most underrated villains as George C. Scott brings a lot of menace to the character. The oddest thing to me was there weren’t that many Australian actors in here besides Jack and a few side characters.

Random Facts: 

John Candy plays Wilbur.  Jim Jordan who played Orville in the original had died before production on the sequel, not wanting to replace him they created a brother Wilbur. Both were named after a Wright Brother.  

I’m pretty sure this is the first Disney Animated Film I saw in the theatres.

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000) and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000)

and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008)

Once again Disney couldn’t leave a classic alone and felt the need to make sequels. Actually it is one sequel and one prequel. 

Return to the Sea picks up soon after the first one. Ariel and Eric have a daughter Melody.  Ursula’s sister, Morgana, wants revenge and tries to kill Melody as an infant. They are able to fight her off but fearing her return they swear never to let Melody go in the ocean and will keep the fact that she is part mermaid a secret from her. Jump to 12 years later and Melody is defying all the rules and swimming in the ocean. Once again Sebastian is tasked with keeping an eye on her but unable to control a teenage girl. Of course Morgana finds out and grants Melody’s wish to be a mermaid and convinces Melody to steal Triton’s trident.  Ariel must turn back into a mermaid to save her daughter before Morgana’s evil plan can come to fruition.  

The premise isn’t bad but it hits pretty much the same plot points as the first one. One of the differences is that in this one Melody is joined by a penguin and a walrus on her journey as two comic relief characters . Unfortunately these two side characters are just annoying and add nothing to the story. It’s interesting to see Ariel in the role her father was in during the first movie although that aspect is not really explored much.  The songs aren’t very good, definitely not as memorable as the songs in the original. 

Ariel’s Beginning is a prequel to the original as the title implies. The movie is pretty much Footloose underwater.  King Triton banned music after his wife died.  His daughters are miserable and miss the happy times when music was a part of their life.   Ariel meets Flounder who is in a band, she learns that Sebastian has a secret club where they play music.  There is also an evil mermaid, Marina Del Ray  who is trying to take over Sebastian’s spot as the King’s advisor.  When Marina finds out that Sebastian is disobeying the King she sees this as an opportunity to take over his role.  Eventually Ariel has to convince her dad to allow music to come back and that Marina is really evil.  

The worst thing about this movie is that there is only like one original song and it’s pretty bad.  They use "Jump in the Line (Shake, Shake, Shake, Señora)” a number of times which makes it feel like they couldn’t come up with their own music.  It’s also a song that brings to mind Beetlejuice, a much better movie so makes the filmmakers seem even more lazy.  Sally Field does the voice of Marina Del Ray which is fine but the song she sings is just really bad.  She also had a sidekick Benjamin that I couldn’t figure out what kind of fish it was supposed to be and assumed it was a blobfish (according to Wikipedia it’s a manatee). The film ends betraying the beginning of the original.  Since in this one  it’s clear that Ariel wants to bring back music and please her father it makes no sense that in the beginning of the original she is skipping singing classes and forgetting about a performance.  But maybe that’s only a problem if you watch the two movies close to each other.  

Overall: Don’t go in expecting too much from these movies and you won’t be disappointed.  Return to the Sea is the better of the two but lacks the magic of the origins.  Ariel’s Beginning just feels lazy and boring. Reading about it on WIkipedia I found out there are 2 original songs in Ariel’s Beginning but I must have fallen asleep for one of them so that’s how exciting that is.  

Random Facts: 

Tara Strong was 26 when she played Ariel’s 12 year old daughter. She also returned for Ariel’s Beginning and voiced one of her sisters. 

Ariel’s Beginning release was delayed due to production on Cinderella III. Neither was very good. 

 

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: The Fox and the Hound 2 (2006)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

The Fox and the Hound 2 (2006)

The Fox and the Hound is a strange movie.  It touches on some deep themes like friendship and the effects societal pressures can have on that friendship.  It was a struggle between the old school animators and the new younger animators.  Now what if we took that same film and tossed out any of the social commentary? You would get a movie like The Fox and the Hound 2.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  One of the problems with The Fox and the Hound is that it kind of skirts the issues.  It brings them up but never really feels like it deals with them, so the question is why even bring them up to begin with.  The Fox and the Hound 2 feels like the film that the older animators wanted to make.  A fun light hearted film that focuses on the friendship between the fox and the hound.  

Similar to Bambi II the movie takes place during a time jump in the first film.  Both Tod and Copper are still pups and the best of friends.  Copper hasn’t developed his hunting dog instincts yet and thinks he is pretty useless.  But one day a fair comes to town and Copper and Tod find a group of singing dogs called The Singin' Strays.  When Copper starts singing along they realize he has a great talent. When Dixie leaves the band because she feels like she is not appreciated Copper ends up joining the band.  Copper and the band practice to impress a talent scout from the Grand Ole Opry.  Tod, who initially encouraged Copper to join the band, now feels left out when Copper spends all his time with the band and ignores him.  Eventually Tod and Dixie team up to ruin the band. At the end of the day there is reconciliation between Tod and Copper and also the band.  

At the end of the day this takes the original film and boils it down to a simple tale of friendship, jealousy, and reconciliation.  It’s the kind of morality tale you expect in a kids film.  It doesn’t do anything unexpected and from the start you can pretty much predict what will happen.  What actually does work well and keeps the film from feeling to dull is the voice cast.  Reba McEntire and Patrick Swayze play Dixie and Cash, the two lead dogs in the band.  Their interactions are fun and they bring the characters to life in a way that really works.  As for the songs they aren’t too bad.  I’m not a huge fan of country music but the songs really work well in the film.  

Overall: A film that knows exactly what it is trying to do and executes it perfectly.  It tells a tale of friendship that ends with a happy ever after (although we know from the first one that it’s anything but).  Reba McEntire and Patrick Swayze are perfect in their roles and it’s already a good reminder how good a singer Swayze really was.  

Random Facts: 

Director Jim Kammerud also directed other DTV sequels including 101 Dalmations 2: Patches London Adventure, and The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Return to Neverland (2002)

Return to Neverland

In the early 2000's DisneyToons kept pushing out sequels to classic Disney Films. And they weren't going to miss a chance to make a sequel to Peter Pan.  But they decided they were going to release this one in theaters which is hard to believe since it has a direct to video feel to it.  

The sequel takes place long after the first one. Wendy has grown up and now has children of her own.  She still likes telling stories about Neverland to her children Jane and Danny.  They live in London during WWII and while their father is off fighting in the war Jane decides she will not believe in childish stories anymore and mocks her younger brother for believing in stories about Peter Pan.  One night Captain Hook shows up and confuses Jane for Wendy, and brings Jane to Neverland.  Still unwilling to believe in fairies and just wanting to go home she makes a deal with Captain Hook to set a trap for Peter Pan.  But she ends up learning to have fun with Peter and the Lost Boys and eventually she learns her disbelief is killing Tinker Bell. Despite changing her mind on the deal, Captain Hook manages to kidnap everyone. Jane goes back and starts to believe in fairies and Tinkerbell is resurrected.  With Tinks help Jane rescues everyone.  When she finally returns home she apologized to Danny and begins to tell him about her adventure.  Also instead of a crocodile haunting Captain Hook this time it's a giant octopus that shows up randomly.  

I had a lot of issues with the original Peter Pan but this one was just boring.  They thankfully avoided any Native American depictions so that was an improvement.  The believing in fairies bit hearkens back to the original play and was something that was ignored in the first film so that was a nice addition.  But it just felt flat.  There were some rock songs in the film which felt out of place in the Peter Pan universe (specifically the remake of "Do You Believe in Magic").  It sounds like the story went through a lot of edits and maybe not having a clear vision really hurt it. 

Overall: I think a girl living through a tragedy and then has to be reminded what it's like to be a child again could be a good story. Unfortunately this movie just feels flat and boring.  Tinkerbell also does not try to murder anyone so that is a good improvement also.  

Random Facts

 

Kathryn Beaumont, who voiced Wendy in the original, recorded all of her dialogues for the sequel, but then was replaces. 

Mermaids were given clothes in this film since they were considered to sexualized in the original.  

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Cinderella II (2001) and Cinderella III (2007)

DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE BONUS

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True

and

Cinderella III: A Twist in Time

Did you know there is a Cinderella Trilogy? It's ok if you didn't.  Cinderella II and Cinderella III are direct to video films released in 2001 and 2007 and didn't get much fanfare.  Walt Disney was notorious for not wanting to do sequels to his films, but times change.  In 1990 Disney Studios already released their first official sequel with The Rescuers Down Under, but in 1994 Disney discovered they can make more money with Direct to Video films with a newly created DisneyToons Studio.  So, 50 years after Cinderella hit theaters Cinderella II hit home video.  

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True has three short stories inter-cut with Cinderella's mice friends making a book for her.  The first short in the film picks up with Cinderella coming back from their honeymoon and the King tasks Cinderella with making a party.  Still not comfortable living in a castle she ends up rejecting a lot of what is considered appropriate for royalty and brings her own style to the event.  The second short has Jaq the mouse wanting to  help Cinderella. Finding that Cinderella doesn't need as much help now that she is a princess he wishes to be human.  The Fairy Godmother comes back to grant him his wish and things of course done go as he planned.  The last short has one of Cinderella's step-sisters Anastasia falling in love with a baker and having to stand up to her mother.  There is also a subplot in the last short where the cat Lucifer from the first movie falls in love with a cat living at the castle named Pom-Pom.  

Cinderella III: A Twist in Time is a time travel film that rejects everything that happened in Cinderella II (especially Anastasia's love story) and starts at the 1 year anniversary of Cinderella and the Prince's wedding.  After stealing the Fairy Godmother's magic wand Anastasia gives it to her mother who uses it to turn back time and make the glass slipper fit on Anastasia instead of Cinderella.  As wedding plans are started for Anastasia and the Prince to get married Cinderella must do whatever she can to stop the wedding from happening and make the prince realize it was her that he dances with at the ball. 

The quality of the films are what you would expect from DTV films.  It doesn't look great but not the worst either.  The stories are definitely more modernized.  In both films Cinderella has a bit more agency and needs to do things and make decisions to get results.  If you like your Cinderella with more action then I recommend Cinderella III.  There is a fun scene at the end where The Prince has to rescue Cinderella from a boat.  The weird thing that bothered me the most about both movies was the rules of the magic.  In Cinderella there was a finite time that the magic will work.   Neither one of the sequels addressed that.  Granted not much magic was used in part II but part III is just the evil Stepmother saying Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo every 10 minutes to get what she wanted.  I kept expecting some of the magic to wear off after a while but nope that never came up.  

OVERALL: Don't go in expecting much and you won't be disappointed.  This definitely plays to younger kids (both my kids actually like these films) but if you loved the original probably just skip these.  

Random Facts:

Cinderella II was made at Disney's Japanese Studio

Cinderella III was the last movie made by Disney in their Australian Studio.  

Christopher Barnes who did the voice for both of these films also did the voice for Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid.  

Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: Bambi II (2006)

What’s fun about watching a movie on Disney+ is it gives a recommendation on what to watch next. After I watched Bambi it said I should watch Bambi II and figured why not? The movie was released as a direct to video film in 2006. Despite the direct to video status it somehow was able to get Sir Patrick Stewart to do the voice of the Great Prince.


One of my complaints about Bambi is that they time jump and skip large parts of Bambi growing up. The most noticeable time jump is when Bambi’s mother dies and we just skip ahead to him as a young adult. Well if you want to know what happened during that time watch Bambi II. The movie is not much of a sequel as a fill in the blank left in the original. The movie starts right after Bambi’s mother dies and we see him with his father The Great Prince.. The movie then follows as The Great Prince struggles with being a single dad and doesn’t know how to raise a kid. Bambi II ends right before the part in the original movie where Friendly Owl explains Twitterpatted.


I kind of wish that they had included at least some of this story in the original film. It gives more depth to Bambi’s character and also gives The Great Prince an expanded role. Coming over 60 years after the original film it kind of feels out of place. The biggest thing the movie has going for it is Patrick Stewart. He brings a gravitas to the character that is very much needed. The story itself is pretty generic. A father doesn’t know how to raise a kid but realizes that he does have a lot of knowledge he can pass down.


Overall: A good story but kind of generic. It feels like the made for video movie it is. I wish this part of the story was included in the original film.