Heh, point taken. However, the reason I enjoyed Lion King 1.5, and not, say, The Little Mermaid II or even The Lion King II, was because TLK 1.5 never pretended to be anything other than what it was. Besides that, TLK 1.5 had some incredible animation, and IMO, a very clever take on the original story.shdwrlm3 - you dislike other sequels for being repetitive, yet you enjoy Lion King 1.5, which was by definition a rehash of the original.
When I said that Disney's TV shows showed more imagination, I was actually referring to all of Disney's TV toons-- not just those based on movies. There are really only 3 cases that I can remember where a movie spawned both a DTV sequel and a series. Those would be The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Lion King. Out of those, I'd really only like to see Aladdin on DVD (favorite scene: "Stick out your tongue and touch your nose."). As you pointed out, TLM was incredibly repetitive, and Timon & Pumbaa, while funny at times, also tended to be repetitive....you can't accuse the sequels of being cheap and repetitive, and then support the TV series too.
Hercules and Tarzan don't really belong with the other three, because we haven't seen their true sequels yet. I loved Hercules from the few episodes that I've seen, but The Legend of Tarzan felt kind of off to me. The new guy they got to play Tarzan (Michael Weiss, I believe), just played Tarzan so cold. And how they found anyone whose New Yawk accent was even more out of place than Rosie's is just beyond me.
So, coincidentally, the two series that I didn't much care for also had corresponding "II" sequels I didn't much care for either. As for Return of Jafar...
Despite the terrible animation (well, not so much terrible but inconsistent), I actually didn't think Return of Jafar was that bad, especially when you consider that it was originally meant to be a pilot for the TV series. I think the reason why many people do dislike it is because it showed Disney that they could make more money on unnecessary sequels.I'm always amused people who disliked Jafar would love to Aladdin the series on DVD (although that is slightly better).
But yes, I do agree with your point that the sequels have been getting better and better, which gives me a lot of hope for Mulan II. However, I just can't shake the feeling that most of the DTV sequels just seem so unnecessary.
If the latter is the case, I'll be buying 10 copies of Treasure of the Lost Lamp to make sure they release the rest of the series.Also, it's just occured to me that it's possible a DuckTales release could either coincide with - or be entirely dependant upon sales of - the Treasure of the Lost Lamp DVD
As for Hercules, I just would want it. Such a brilliant show.
