Before we continue, I'd like to let you know that I picked two #1 picks. Also, all the movies in this section were released in theaters, so the Emojis will not be used.
5. Shrek 2 (2004)
In the sequel to the first Academy Award winner for Best Animated Feature, Shrek and Fiona are happily married. After hearing their daughter is free from her prison, the king (John Cleese) and queen (Julie Andrews) invite the two ogres and Donkey to a party at their kingdom, Far Far Away. When they arrive, however, the king and queen were very surprised. Feeling Fiona isn't happy with being ugly, Shrek, along with Donkey, go on a quest to find a potion that would turn him and Fiona human.
The first Shrek tackled elements that were, at the time, very difficult in computer animation, such as water, mud, hair, and fire. Shrek 2 took computer animation further by having more human characters, hyper-realistic (at the time) backgrounds and scenery, sparkles, transformations, and in some scenes, snow.
Shrek 2 also has a more threatening villain. While Lord Farquad was basically a copy of Prince Humperdink from The Princess Bride, the Fairy Godmother doesn't think ogres should live happily ever after. She will do whatever it takes for Fiona to fall in love with Prince Charming, who's closer to Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.
Like I said back in this post...
Shrek 2 may not be as good as the original, but it does has some memorable moments. Who could ever forget this moment with Puss in Boots?
There's also a scene, though it upset me as a child, in which a mermaid, who suspiciously looks like Ariel, ends up besides Shrek. Fiona then grabs the mermaid and throws her into the ocean, in which sharks feast on her.
No wonder Shrek 2 earned over 900 million dollars at the box-office! Not only do it and Shrek 1 tweak Disney by the nose, they also told compelling stories and brought computer animation to new heights. Too bad the next two Shreks didn't meet critical expectations.
4. Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
In the sequel to the 2008 hit animated film Kung Fu Panda, Po is now officially the Dragon Warrior and even has a few fans. However, an evil peacock named Lord Shen plans on destroying kung fu by replacing it with fireworks. Now it's up to Po and the Furious Five to save China from certain destruction.
Kung Fu Panda 2 has the honor of being the first American animated feature to be solely directed by a woman: Jennifer Yuh Nelson.
Prior to directing Kung Fu Panda 2, Jenny worked on the story department for Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (not to be confused with Spirited Away), Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, and Madagascar. She also supervised Po's dream sequence in Kung Fu Panda 1.
After Kung Fu Panda 1 was completed, the crew for Kung Fu Panda 2, including Jeffery Katzenburg and Jenny Nelson, went on a research trip to China and visited the city of Chengdu, which is considered the "panda hometown". In addition to seeing real pandas at the Giant Panda Research Center, the production design crew learned about the local culture. Katzenberg has stated that the sequel incorporates many elements of Chengdu in the film. The film's landscape and architecture also found inspiration from those found at Mount Qincheng, a renowned Taoist mountain.
Kung Fu Panda 2 is different from its predecessor, as well as other DreamWorks films, as it focuses more on story and action sequences than comedy.
Another notable difference is that Kung Fu Panda 2 switches back and forth from 3D to 2D animation.
Prior to Kung Fu Panda 2, many fans were curious as to why Po's father, Mr. Ping, is a goose and not a panda. In this film, we learn that Po is actually adopted. When he was a cub, his parents sacrificed themselves to save their son from Shen's army.
After their 'deaths', Mr. Ping finds Po in a radish cart and raises him as his own.
During a very rough year for movies, both animated and what not, Kung Fu Panda 2 grossed more money and better reviews than Pixar's feature that year, Cars 2. As for Kung Fu Panda 3, it's okay. However, I would nominate it over the KCA for Best Animated Movie instead of The Secret Life of Pets or Trolls.
3. How To Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
In the sequel to the groundbreaking DreamWorks movie How To Train Your Dragon, everyone is now five years older than in the original film. Hiccup and Toothless discover someone named Drago Bludvist, who wants to capture all the dragons to build an army with them. Stoick, Hiccup's dad, is pressuring him to become chief, while Hiccup just wants to make peace with Drago. Hiccup then discovers an island covered with ice that holds a secret to his past: his long-lost mother, Valka (Cate Blanchett). Valka loves dragons, and the island she lives on has tons of them. Now Hiccup, Valka, and his friends have to stop Drago Bludvist from world domination.
While How To Train Your Dragon 1 had six prominent dragon species, Dragons 2 has 20, or even 30 new dragons! Some of which don't even have names!
Drago Bludvist is also a threatening, and kind of scary, villain. He used to be part of Berk, and suggested to free mankind from the dragons' tyranny, but only if the vikings bowed down and followed him. However, the other vikings laughed, but Drago felt insulted and said 'Then see how well you can do without me!
''Dragons 2' also contains one of the most tragic death scenes in an animated film since The Lion King: the tragedy of Stoick the Vast, Hiccup's father.
When the 2015 Oscars came along, many fans were upset that Big Hero 6 won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature instead of 'Dragons 2'. However, it did win the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.
2. The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
The Rescuers Down Under continues the adventures of Bernard and Bianca, in which they have to rescue a boy in Australia named Cody, who was taken hostage by poacher Percival C McLeach (George C. Scott) and his pet goanna named Joanna (Frank Welker). McLeach kidnapped Cody because he had a feather that belonged to a golden eagle that is worth a fortune.
The Rescuers Down Under was the first Disney movie to use the CAPS system, which stands for Computer Animation Process System. That means the characters were colored digitally, but were still drawn and animated by hand. However, the backgrounds were still painted by hand.
Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor reprise their roles as Bernard and Bianca in this movie. All of the new characters are really enjoyable, including Frank the frilled lizard, Percival C McLeach, the threatening villain in the movie (and one of my personal favorite Disney Villains), and Jake, a kangaroo rat who's a bit like Indiana Jones.
There's also one of my favorite Disney sidekicks, Wilbur. He's the brother of Orville, the albatross in the original Rescuers. When the Disney filmmakers discovered that Jim Jordan, who voiced Orville, passed away, Roy Edward Disney (Walt's nephew) suggested that there should be a new character: Wilbur, named after Orville and Wilbur Wright.
While Orville was strict and serious, Wilbur is laid back, carefree, and downright hilarious. In fact, he gets more screen time then McLeach!
Unfortunately, The Rescuers Down Under was a box-office flop: It was released the exact same day as Home Alone. However, many Disney fans, myself included, think The Rescuers Down Under is an amazing film that deserves more credit.
Before we get to the #1 spot, I'd like to give an honorable mention.
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
In the long-awaited sequel to The LEGO Movie, a war has raged on against the Master Builders and the Duplo aliens. A mysterious figure in pink captures Emmet's friends and brings them back to her home planet, and now it's up to Emmet, along with a new face named Rex Dangervest, to save them. The LEGO Movie 2 is an overlooked sequel with a story that greatly expands upon the world of the original film, brilliant animation, some surprisingly catchy songs, and important messages about friendship, sibling bonding, trust, cooperation, and teamwork. Congratulations, Mike Mitchell. You finally directed a good film other than Sky High.
PS. This song will get stuck in your head.
1A. Toy Story 2 (1999)
In the sequel to the animation phenomenon known as Toy Story, Woody gets kidnapped by Al McWiggen (Wayne Knight), a greedy toy collector. When Woody finds himself in Al's apartment, he discovers that he was part of a popular TV series from the 50s called 'Woody's Roundup'. He also meets a perky cowgirl named Jessie (Joan Cussack), a loyal horse named Bullseye, and a boxed prospector named Pete (Kelsey Grammer). Little does Woody know that Al wants to sell him and his 'Roundup Gang' to a toy museum in Japan! Now it's up to Buzz Lightyear, along with Hamm, Rex, Slinky, and Mr. Potato Head to rescue Woody and remind him what a toy's true purpose in life is.
Toy Story 2 takes everything that made Toy Story 1 good and amplifies it by 100%. There are also some enjoyable new characters, like Buster, Andy's dog from the end of the first Toy Story, Mrs. Potato Head (voiced by Estelle Harris), Wheezy the squeaky penguin, who was originally going to be in the first Toy Story, the persuasive 'Stinky' Pete, and the hilarious Utility Belt Buzz, a doppelganger of Andy's Buzz.
We also get more of Rex, one of my personal favorite Pixar characters. In this movie, he gets stuck on a Buzz Lightyear video game, and at Al's Toy Barn, he finds a player's guide on how to beat Zurg in the game.
Toy Story 2 got really good reviews (and is called the rare sequel that lives up to its predecessor), earned nearly 500 million dollars worldwide, and won the Golden Globe for Best Picture. Toy Story 2 was also the first animated sequel to gross more than its predecessor.
1B. Toy Story 3 (2010)
In the final chapter of the beloved Toy Story trilogy (or at least, until five months ago), problems mount as Andy grows up and goes to college while the toys end up at a daycare center for destructive toddlers, ruled by a sinister teddy bear who smells of strawberries. Meanwhile, Woody gets taken by a gentle and imaginative 4-year-old girl named Bonnie Anderson, and he meets a new group of toys including a unicorn plush named Buttercup, a plastic triceratops named Trixie, a hedgehog plush named Mr. Prickle Pants, and a plush of Totoro, mascot of famous Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli. Now it's up to Woody to return to Sunnyside to rescue his friends and once again return to Andy.
One problem Pixar faced with Toy Story 3 was that the animators have been used to animating organic characters (humans and animals), and they needed to animate plastic toys. So the animators went into the old models on the computers, dating back to the 1990s, and examined them and saw notes from Pixar veterans like William Reeves, Eben Ostbey, and Ed Catmull. For recreating the returning characters for Toy Story 3, the Pixar staff didn't have to do much. They just had to be true to what was already there.
In the original Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear's eyebrows, on the computer, had three controls each. For films like The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, and Up, each brow on a character has 20 to 25 controls, so they chopped out a lot of the controls and limited it to a much smaller subset that was closer to classic Buzz. Carlos Baena, one of the animators for Toy Story 3, animated most of the scenes when Buzz is in Spanish mode.
Baena admitted that he based Spanish Buzz off of Flamenco dancers and bullfighters.
For stuffed animal characters like Lotso, Lee Unkrich wanted him to be a believably plush figure, so the Pixar crew brought in a toy designer who works specifically with stuffed animals. That way, the animators would know how to animate Lotso properly.
When Toy Story 3 premiered on June 18th, 2010, it got overwhelmingly positive reviews, with some fans even shedding a tear, earned a billion dollars at the box-office, and won the Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. Toy Story 3 even got the Oscar nomination for Best Picture, one of only three animated movies to do so.
So, which sequel is better? Toy Story 2 or Toy Story 3? Once again, I'll leave that up to you.
Well, that wraps up Top 10 Best Animated Sequels Redux! Next week or so, I will post my review of Frozen 2, and on December 2nd, I will determine where each Pokémon introduced in Sword and Shield will live! But first, there will be a recap of one of my older blog projects, Pokémon Around the World, on November 27th.
PS. After much thought, as well as rewatching Toy Story 4, I decided that TS4 is better than How To Train Your Dragon 3. I know feel I was way too generous on the film, and my new rating for it is 3.75 stars out of 5.
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