The Napoleon of Crime!

[tealin]

I just finished watching The Great Mouse Detective for the first time in what feels like ages.

And it struck me (not for the first time): why hasn't Disney tapped this movie for sequels? It's made for sequels! The ending practically sets it up for a whole franchise! It's got interesting characters and an interesting setting and you could have no end of fun with it. On top of all the intrinsic franchisability just in terms of the story, to be brutrally honest, the production values set a fairly low bar. The animation is very good, but the Sequel Studios (or what's left of them) have gotten just as good if not better, and as for art direction and background painting, most of the cheapquels are an improvement. Not only would a Great Mouse Detective sequel not be a travesty upon the original (depending what they did, of course – they'd probably insist on throwing a romance in there, the blaggards), but the original is practically crying out for a sequel. I can think of two reasons they haven't got one on the slate already:
1. Eve Titus' estate is being persnickety with the rights (though if the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate let them make Tarzan II, I can't see how they wouldn't be able to overcome it).
2. The original is so overlooked by the purchasing public that it hasn't even registered on the Disney board's collective mind.
The only reason I, personally, wouldn't greenlight it is if they couldn't get Barrie Ingham (or a perfect replacement) to do Basil's voice. That is an essential ingredient.

Comments

[thorn-of-blood.livejournal.com]

Almost any sequal is doomed to faliure in my opinion, apart from Toy Story 2. That I liked. But the Disney sequals? Most of them are awful, Little Mermaid 2, Lion King 2, Cinderela 2...the list goes on and none of them have the...the magic that the originals have.

They don't seem to be able to make their characters grow up realisticaly, Ariel in her 2 movie was nothing like her younger counter part, I can not imagine her doing the things that she did in that film.

I haven't seen Mulan 2 and quite frankly I don't want to, I adore the Mulan Movie, the songs, the plot, the characters and I couldn't bear to see them destroyed.