However, another trend has been developing at Disney during this time—that of creating sequels. Apparently devoid of new ideas for new characters and new settings, Disney has gone back to the “classics,” recently making sequels for Cinderella (Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True), Peter Pan (Return to Neverland), The Jungle Book (The Jungle Book 2), The Lion King (The Lion King 2), Winnie the Pooh (A Tigger Movie and several other films), Toy Story (Toy Story 2), Aladdin (The Return of Jafar and The King of Thieves) and several “sequels” to Beauty and the Beast.
The situation has gotten so bad that Disney has resorted to making sequels for films that were never even any good in the first place. Movies like The Little Mermaid, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Pocahontas never deserved to even run in theaters themselves, but thanks to Disney we now get to watch sequels that are, unbelievable as it may sound, even worse than the originals.
What’s next? Sequels for movies like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmations?
Oh wait—Disney produced a sequel for 101 Dalmations in 2003, titled “Patch’s London Adventure.” This followed up on Disney’s 2001 sequel to The Lady and the Tramp, which was titled “Scamp’s Adventure.” Apparently people at Disney not only lack the creativity to come up with fresh characters and fresh ideas, they also lack the ability to come up with decent names for their sequels. Is it possible to get more boring than “Insert-name-here’s Adventure”? And of course, no movie title quite says top-notch, first rate film the way “Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True” does.
Disney still has the ability to produce quality films that score big at the box office when it exerts itself and makes the effort to come up with new material. In 2001, the entertaining and original movie Monsters, Inc. raked in nearly 260 million dollars, while The Incredibles was one of the best movies of 2004 and took in over 260 million dollars. (True to pattern, Disney is planning a sequel to The Incredibles.) Unfortunately, these solid efforts seem to be coming more and more infrequently as the years go by.
When Walt Disney first created the Disney Studio, his goal was to remake all of the children’s book classics into movies. Disney has long since passed this milestone, and it would be interesting to see his reaction to today’s Disney movies that not only have become rife with humanistic thought, but are made up of increasingly bad plots, bad characters, and recycled material.
But how much of what was good in The Incredibles, Toy Story, and Monsters, Inc. can be attributed to Disney? I was under the impression that Pixar produced these and Disney merely distributed them. Pixar’s contract with Disney ends after the release of Cars; I doubt that Disney would have the ability to produce a sequel to The Incredibles.
In my opinion, the last decent Disney animated features were those produced in the early 90s: The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. Perhaps it’s just me being nostalgic for films that were released when I was 5-10 years old, but I think Disney was still cranking out creative family entertainment at that time. I doubt we’ll ever see anything like that again from this company.
That’s a good point about Pixar and Disney, Jacob, and is something else that should probably be taken into consideration.
Good article. And its not just Disney. It’s sad the state of “entertainment” today. Since I have entered college, I have seen a significant number of movies…and so many movies today are simply – well, just not that great. For instance, being in ROTC, I naturally watched “Platoon.” Besides being a completely pointless movie, it doesn’t hold a candle to such war classics as We Were Soldiers (which surprisingly only made $80 million in the box office). Let’s hope that Christians stand up and take over the gap, providing wholesome, God-honoring classics that will stand out as a testimony to our culture.
Good comments on this old article. Kevin Swanson, a Christian radio host from Colorado, gave a great talk at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival about why a morally degenerate culture eventually loses ALL artistic value in its art. Eventually, without a moral fabric as a guide, “art” will become primitive, barbaric and worthless.
Eventually, without a moral fabric as a guide, “art” will become primitive, barbaric and worthless.
And it’s not too hard to find examples of that type of “art” in America today, unfortunately. You’ve probably heard of some of the “art” the NEA helps spawn and promote.