Happily Never After: Disney's Direct to Video Legacy (Mission Statement)

"Aladdin 4" isn't that far fetched a concept at this point.


With the Mouse House sitting happily on top of the entertainment industry its funny to think that not even a mere two and a half decades ago, the power over the asylum held by the inmates was so great that the company built an entire business plan around story contrivance.

From 19xx all the way to 2008, Disney pumped out sequels to their cannon of animated classics almost seasonally in an effort to milk every dime out of their properties regardless of whatever dignity was left. While the end of Michael Eisner’s reign over the company, along with the numerous properties that they have acquired, has inspired something of a creative renaissance within the company, we mustn’t forget the sins of the past lest they dictate a second rise of hubris in the future.

So that having been said, I thought it’d be “fun” to look back on a few mistakes of the last 2 decades that I’m sure Disney would rather forget at a time when the future of the Animated Classics seemed to be in question.

While the direct to video sequels to the Cannon provides a lot of material to unpack, not all of it will be covered here; only what fits the criteria that I’ve laid out of being direct to video and a standalone extension of the narrative of a Disney Animated feature. To this end, the following are noteworthy but ultimately excluded.

Winnie the Pooh sequels

While the dumbing down of something charming and subversive in story structure to appeal directly to the lowest common denominator of an audience with no discernible filter would seem to be the prime candidate for fodder in this series, Winnie the Pooh is exempt by virtue of having its sequels released both theatrically and/or more closely tied into the cartoon series rather than the original film.

Rest assured, that makes them no less painful. Their existence is vindicated almost solely by the release of the wonderful and severely underrated 2011 “Winnie the Pooh.”

Television Tie-ins

Building upon that base, this of course excludes any television specials or pilots in disguise for cartoons that managed to take off. In some cases, this is good, seeing as I have far fonder memories of “Lilo and Stitch 2” than I do of anything related to that tv series.

In other ways its worse as I would rather be reminded of the better moments of “The Legend of Tarzan” than sit through any of Tarzan 2.

Formatting

And last but not least, while the general format of the series will be to run down the chronological timeline of release, the first two entries will be focused on covering the sequels to “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast” back to back.

Due to their alignment early in the business plan as well as being released virtually back to back with one another without interruption, it makes little sense to waste entries on two stories that would see no continuation beyond the release of these final respective entries.