It may seem hard to believe now, but there was a time when Disney didn’t really do sequels to their animated films – or at least not theatrically. Outside of The Rescuers Down Under back in 1990, for a long time, Disney always did cheap, direct-to-video sequels to their biggest hits, which boggles the mind now given that of the ten highest-grossing movies of the year (so far), nine of them are sequels. Yet, in the nineties, Disney’s sequels to their animated classics, Aladdin and The Lion King, went straight to video, as the company focused on original projects as far as the big screen went. This all changed with Toy Story 2. Initially, it was supposed to be another cheap direct-to-video sequel, but the brain trust at Pixar balked and ended up redeveloping the film as a full-on theatrical feature. The result was one of their best-loved and most successful films ever, and while they continued churning out DTV movies, they became a lot more open to doing theatrical sequels. Now, one could argue they’re too focused on sequels, but given the success of Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 (which became life as a straight-to-streaming series), it seems likely that more and more sequels will be on the way. As far as their theatrical sequels go, which is your favorite? Take the poll below and let us know!
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