Parent Trap 2 (1986)

It would be a neat for Hayley to reprise her role in the Parent Trap wouldn't it?, 17 September 2008

There are several reason to make a sequel to a popular film.

1. The story is so big that 1 film can't contain it, like 'Lord of the Rings' 'Star Wars' and 'Rocky'.

2. The popularity of the film warrant's another adventure of the protagonist like 'Indiana Jones' 'James Bond' and 'Godzilla'. 3. A very good reason I thought of before writing this review, but I have since forgotten what it was.

4. The movie was a horror movie in which it is impossible not to make a sequel, like 'Friday the 13th', 'Scream', or 'Air Bud'.

5. The film was so popular that it would be way cool to make a sequel with the same crew and cast like 'Ghostbusters', 'Pirates of the Caribbean', or 'The Parent Trap'.

The 5th category usually suffers artistic merit due to the fact that the producers or director don't give a Cockily-doodily-doo about the script as long as they can make a film with the previous film' title in it. There may have been a time when Disney cared about the quality of their scripts and even made their TV movies as high quality as their feature length features. Pixar cares about this aspect of film making and so far has not released any schlock because of this.

The idea of a sequel to 1961's 'The Parent Trap', seems like a good idea on paper. At the end of the first film I wondered what became of the twins and what happen to their lives after the film ended. Someone else thought of this and got Hayley Mills to sign on to reprise her role as twins Susan and Sharon. Parent Trap 3 and 4 were also green lighted.

Was it worth the effort? Lets compare the two films.

Parent Trap (Original) Parent Trap (sequel)
Has a Compelling Story to be told YES NOOOO
Good Moral Message YES NOT REALLY
Charm YES NO
Original YES NO ,NO, NO
Funny YES FORCED
Wit YES NO WAY
Disney MAGIC HECK YEAH Tinker Bell was SHOT
Smiles BIG Frowns

The only reason to own or rent this film is because it is on the same disc as the Original Movie. Perhaps it is better that Disney has not released PT 3 and 4 on Disc or VHS because it shows someone somewhere still cares about artistic merit or quality. That person is working on a killer script where Hayley reprises her role as Pollyanna.