@Pipes: Be like San from Mononoke? No no no, be like Lady Eboshi and watch em become cutthroat CEOs... CEO's who may or may not collect Lepers.

Look out Bono, Steve Jobs is now leading the "make the world a better place" movement. But... I'll bet you can download "Little Mermaid 7: Chicken of the Sea" onto your new iPhone for ten bucks.

To me, it's like when American artists draw comics in a Japanese style. Sure, it looks Japanese to those who don't know any better, but since it lacks the rigorous foundation of culture and art that Japanese artists base their own styles upon, it's just a cheap imitation. These Disney sequels lack all of the artistic values and integrity that Walt Disney brought to the table.

Miyazaki is fantastic. For one of my college classes I did a comparison between Disney and Miyazaki films as far as female role models (it was a Women's Studies class - surprise!) I love Disney, but I never realized how very far short they fall on the feminist scale. So I'm constantly amused when people say Disney used to be good "back then" - they were by far the worst Disney films on a female role model scale. Even as recent as The Little Mermaid were Disney films pretty bad (she was obsessed with "things", the female villain was ugly and fat). Girls should at least check out Mononoke before wanting to be a Disney Princess.

As far as funding the future ventures, etc. I suspect they make MUCH more money in the franchising rights to the characters than they do with making crappy sequels. I don't know if is possible to do more of that, but I'll bet they'll try.

we are big Hayao Miyazaki fans

Toy Story 2 was good, but that was the EXCEPTION to Disney sequels. We can at least thank Steve Jobs and whoever else recommended that there be no more sequels.

I mean, once you make "Cinderella 2", it's sorta gone down the tubes...

They didnt outright kill it since a lot of production was already being put into place, but they are not going to rush it, with Eisner was going to do without Pixar's help.

Of course it's about the money.

Toy Story was ALSO not supposed to have a sequel. Pixar was forced into it by Eisner by basically saying either you do it, or we (Disney Studios, which still existed at that point) will do it ourselves.

Two of the biggest things in Disney to save the company image came out of the Pixar buyout. Jobs has become a major power behind the rebirth of Disney, forcing through a slew of changes to the structure of the company that will reshape it back into Walt's image from the 50-70's, and Lasseter taking over as CCO for Pixar, and bringing back everything Eisner killed off from Disney Animation (essentially the entire studio since Eisner cut Disney Animation as a cost saving measure) with a renewed focus on quality.

Its only too bad Joe Ranft was killed. While Im sure Pixar will soldier on, we have yet to see what a Pixar without Ranft will be like. WALL-E will be the first post Ranft film, though going by the recent teaser he was apparently influential in the early development.

You can draw a line with your kids too (if you don't like the product).

Sure, Disney was creative and had some merit in the old days, but now? Yes, the stories are heartwarming and cute to the same type of people who read novels with Fabio on the cover, but have they really come up with anything new? They sell the same stories and exact movies over and over again, and then create artificial scarcity, making people believe their Pinnochio VHS is actually a "collector's item".

Aww shucks, and here I was waiting for Toy Story XXIV, Buzz Lightyear and the quest for the retirement home.

[Rant] I despise Disney for swooping in on a culture, homogenizing it's fairy tales and folklore to make a cute and cuddly cartoon with endless marketing possibilities and tie-ins, and then swoop out like nothing happened. Their 'originals' are merely watered down "edits" of cautionary tales handed down through the generations. Their Sequels show you the true creative genius that is Disney... or the complete lack thereof. [/Rant]

They don't care how good the movie is or isn't. As long as it isn't sexually molesting their children it'll do just fine as a babysitter. (Even if it is mentally molesting them.

The crappy sequels were purely to exploit an easy target demographic. It definitely cheapened the brand. While I used to think highly of Disney, they turned into one of the worst examples of corporate greed.

As for the kids that like watching the same thing over and over and over, eventually they'll grow out of it. Until then, there's plenty of "DVD Backup" software. Back it up and burn it to a DVD-R. Let the kids watch it, and smear jelly on it, and step on it, and lick it, and throw it until it doesn't work anymore, then burn another copy. You can keep that up even after the DVD goes out of print. Legality vs practicality, Disney isn't likely to sue an individual who actually bought "Aladdin 3" for making legitimate, fair use backups for their kids to ruin.

For bonus points, rip the DVD and put it on a digital video player that you keep on a high shelf. Then you'll only have to replace the kids' cheap universal remote control. I can't imagine a kid could wear out a hard drive watching the same movie over and over.

Lion King 1 1/2 was funny, Aladdin 3 was funny, and Fox and the Hound 2 was good.

Other than that, most are good for renting, not buying.

Bambi 2 is the work of the devil and I pray for the screaming deaths of every artist who worked on it and for Patrick Stewart to piss himself every time he goes into public for the next year (Unless its for coming back to life in the next X-men). That would be fair punishment.

These people didn't think about making Bambi 2 like the second book felix salton made?

Did anyone have to suffer through Mulan II? You then know the pain of horrible sequels.

They ruined the charecters...

I know there are a lot of real big cultish fans out there of everything and anything Disney, but the same goes for William Shatner's TekWar novels, so that's not saying much.

Also: wtf? There was a "Little Mermaid II"? [puking sound]

Everything has its purpose...You could even say its the Circle of Life...