Oh, sure, Orville’s not around anymore, due to the passing of Jim Jordan, who voiced that character. However, many of the beats from the original film are repeated here, down to the overly chatty albatross who flies them from New York City to the destination of the rescue. The locale, as evidenced by the title, is new as is the child in danger. As in the first film, we follow a pair of heroic mice from the world-renowned (on a miniature level) Rescue Aid Society as they attempt to save a child who’s been kidnapped by a loathsome villain accompanied by an equally foul animal sidekick. The Rescuers Down Under, though, is a straight sequel, as direct as they get. 4.18, “American Gothic”: Elijah reenters the fray in underwhelming episode If The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh tells stories that comprise three chapters of a novel, Winnie the Pooh tells another chapter or two of the same book. Milne’s naturally episodic storytelling and writing style, the film feels less like a follow-up than a simple check-in on these adorable stuffed animals. Winnie the Pooh, of course, brings back all the characters in the cherished and beloved Hundred Acre Wood. Outside of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence, however, Fantasia 2000 has all-new segments, which we can connect to those in Fantasia, though only with implicit connections posited by the filmmakers.
Fantasia 2000 is a sequel on the surface, in that it echoes similar themes and concepts demonstrated in Fantasia, attempting to let various pieces of classical music inspire animators to weave a tale to correlate with each crescendo. And this 1990 return of Bernard and Bianca is the most commonplace continuation in Disney’s theatrical canon. You could argue that The Three Caballeros is a sequel of sorts to Saludos Amigos, although it’s not as definitive a follow-up as Fantasia 2000, Winnie the Pooh, or The Rescuers Down Under, nor is it qualified as a sequel in the canon officially. The Rescuers Down Under was the first official sequel in the Disney animated canon, one of only a handful as of this writing, as well as the first film to utilize the CAPS system that allowed computers to be involved in the animation process. And sometimes, they’re head-scratching, as in the case of The Rescuers Down Under.Ĭhildren seeing this film in 1990 likely didn’t pay any mind to the major leap this film represented.
Thus, sometimes the choices Disney executives make or have made seem logical. The trouble is, the fighters aren’t always treating each sign of their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses accurately. Every so often, we take part, driving each gladiatorial decision, but the warriors will act as they please when their backs are to the wall. Whether we like it or not, Disney fans are something of spectators at the sport of this cutthroat entertainment business. However, the Mouse House’s modern era, beginning in 1984, when Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the late Frank Wells began their tenure in various high-level positions, has been concurrently maddening and glorious to behold. Thus, the faith placed in the product has always shifted. Each era at this massive corporation is so categorically different from what came before, well back into when Disney was still a struggling film studio desperately trying to pay the bills with its shorts or, at the time, a handful of massively ambitious feature-length animated films. The level of faith the Walt Disney Company places in its own products never ceases to be amazing if inexplicable. Starring Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, George C. Written by Jim Cox, Karey Kirkpatrick, Byron Simpson, Joe Ranft Directed by Hendel Butoy and Mike Gabriel