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Lady & The Tramp 2:
Scamp's Adventure
Click
picture above, to order this film on DVD
The Film :
Regardless of a completely canine main cast of characters, Lady & the Tramp
remains one of the most charming animated romance/comedies that Disney ever made.
Now, after successful video-only sequels to Little Mermaid
and Pocahontas, a sequel to this memorable dog-only film has
been released. As always, the question remains: can any modern remake be
as good as the original classic? Read on for my answer...
The story takes up where the film left off:
Lady and the Tramp are the proud parents of four pups; three females like
Lady, and a mischievous male pup named Scamp. Scamp deals with the deep
desire for outdoor life and freedom that his father felt was so important
in the original film. In the opening, he deals with some of the
not-so-great parts of being a house pet, like being put out in the fenced
yard when he's been bad, and being forced to take a bath when he doesn't
want to. His yearning for freedom leads to one of the better songs on the
video, showing all of the many things he wishes he could do if not merely
chained to a little dog house in a small backyard.
He gets his chance for such freedom after
seeing a gang of junkyard dogs overcome a nearby dog catcher. Finally
slipping through his chained leash, Scamp sets out to follow the group he
feels will show him the better side of life. After all, they're the ones
that are "free"! The first of the stray dogs he catches up with
is Angel,
who finds enough of a kindred spirit in Scamp to introduce him to the
other "junkyard dogs." Once there, he sees the dogs doing everything
they want: "They're jumping on the furniture...breaking
stuff...chewing hats...Woo-hoo!" Scamp feels he's finally found the
right place for him...though is it?
As you'd expect, the no-place-like-home
message is a good one, no matter how many times it's been done before. However, the story still suffers from a few flaws
elsewhere. For one, the original film was a romantic-comedy, and since
Scamp is merely a small pup, this film's love story between Angel and
Scamp (if any) can never
truly be anything other than "puppy love," so to speak. Add to
that a whole subplot about Scamp not liking baths, which I feel was a tad
overdone. The film even goes so far to have one of Lady's
female pups utter a rather saccharinely-sweet line about how she just
loooooves baths: they make her fur just so clean and silky-smooth! Oh,
brother.
The best successes are in the animation.
The Disney animation department for video-only fare such as this, gets
better and better with each video release. Their best success is in giving fans what they
want: the chance to re-visit the most memorable areas of the 1955 classic.
From the back alley at Tony's Italian restaurant, to the sidewalk where
Lady and Tramp imprinted their paws in a "heart" in the cement,
nearly all of the original film's best scenes are saluted. This is definitely reason enough for a
fan of the original classic to see the sequel, if only as a
rental...though personally, I did see enough reason to purchase it.
Voices for the film are well chosen,
particularly when you consider how unlikely (if not impossible) it would
be for the original, 1955 voices to reprise their original roles. Jodi
Benson (The Little Mermaid)
is the voice of Lady, and cartoon voice veteran Jeff Bennet takes on the
role of the Tramp (if video game enthusiasts remember his voice most, it's
because he's been the voice actor for several RPG and adventure games,
including Escape from Monkey
Island and Baldur's Gate ][). Scamp is voiced by
Party of 5's Scott Wolf, while Charmed's
Alyssa Milano is the voice of Angel. If the voice of the dogcatcher is so
familiar it's driving you batty to place the voice to a face...it's Don
Knotts! Such well-chosen voice casting enhances the enjoyment of the
video, although, as I've implied earlier, it could have used a tweak in
the story here and there.
The DVD :
Much like Little Mermaid 2, the amusement here is that the DVD version of
the film is in Widescreen, even though it never was released in theaters.
Dolby, Digital Sound enhances the viewing experience. Audio commentary
fans will like the audio track with Director Darrell Rooney,
co-director/producer Jeannine Roussel, and director of animation Steve
Trenbirth. It might have been nice to have audio commentary by Milano or
Wolf --or perhaps any surviving member of the original film's cast or
crew-- though a three-person commentary is still pretty good as it is.
There's also a making-of documentary,
called "From Tramp to Scamp," showing the road from classic film
to video sequel. Kids will like a Where's-Waldo type game, where they must
look for Scamp and his friends in a big picture. The most inspired
addition, however, would have to be classic Disney shorts starring --who
else?-- Pluto. The DVD includes the following three classics: Bone Trouble (1940),
Pluto Junior (1942), Pluto's Kid Brother (1946). Are these
additions enough to buy the film on DVD...? Well, let's just say that if
interested, there's more than enough reason to buy the DVD if you can, and
not just the VHS version. If you're wondering if buying the film is
actually worth it, I can only say...perhaps, if you loved the original
film very much. Lady & the Tramp 2 could've used a little work in its script,
though it still is more than acceptable.
Click
picture above, to order this film on DVD
| All text, Title
graphics, and pix not of reviewed products, are created by Techtite,
copyright 1999-2001; all rights reserved. Picture of DVD cover is used only for the purpose of review (and to make shopping for
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