- Released: February 27, 2001
- Directed by: Darrell Rooney, Jeannine Roussel
- Running time: 1 h 9 min
- Rating 2.5/5
Synopsis
My Thoughts
This is definitely one of my most-watched Disney movies growing up. Yeah, I had a real thing for some of the sequels back then. Mostly this one, The Fox and the Hound 2, Bambi 2 and The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Now re-watching them again as an adult is always funny because some have really held up well, but others are trash.
Regarding this movie, I wouldn't say it qualifies as trash, but it's also not good. I'd say it's an okay movie to put on if you want to entertain some kids for an hour (except for the age thing, we'll get to it), but if you want an actual sequel of substance you'll have to look elsewhere.
I have a few major gripes with this movie. One: Scamp himself. He's such an unlikable and whiny protagonist, it makes the movie a little hard to watch at times because he's the protagonist. He's very selfish and keeps acting cocky throughout the movie while he's incompetent at best. It'd have been one thing if Scamp had been actively pushed away by his family leading to him running away, but literally everything he does in the first ten minutes or so before running away was his own fault. Yes, Tramp admittedly was a little hard during his scolding of his son, but still it's something Scamp needed to learn. If you're a part of a family you can't do your own thing all the time and will have to learn to make compromises, not do everything you want to do with no regard for others.
But Scamp doesn't learn any of this and just selfishly runs away to join the strays. Even Angel, the most morally good of the strays, repeatedly tries to talk this into Scamp, but he's just too darn stubborn and the moment he is double-crossed by the stray's leader, Buster, he instantly changes his tune and wants to go home to his family. So there's no real Scamp coming to a realization that he misses his family and needs to go back on his own. He's just officially made a part of the stray gang, minutes thereafter Buster betrays him and then Scamp is all whiny that he wants to go home. At this point it's far too late to root for the character because he's been acting like a selfish dipshit throughout the entire thing.
The other characters I'm honestly a bit mixed on as well. Buster is just...a villain. Very boring and standard (aside from one thing I'll get into later). The other stray dogs are really nothing more than comic relief and I really dislike how they instantly change their tune on having a home after Scamp goes home. Remember, throughout the entire film they've been utterly shunning the concept and even Angel because of this, but once Scamp mentions having a family suddenly all of them decide that they want to be pets too with no buildup whatsoever. Very jarring.
Angel is...Angel. I know a lot of people like this character but I've never been that into her. I guess I like that she has a bit more of a personality than Lady does in the original and this time around it's the stray teaching the pet about having a family, rather than in the first movie where the roles were reversed, but other than that Angel seems like very standard love interest material. I never really liked how often she gives him bedroom eyes even when they first met. Some of their interactions are nice but that's really it.
Speaking of: let's delve into the age thing. Okay, so this movie has some really weird age stuff going on regarding some of the characters. Obviously Angel and Scamp fall in love over the course of the movie, but you might also know that in the first part of the movie Buster was in love with Angel, even if the feelings weren't mutual, and claimed her as "his girl". Thing is, Buster is an adult. Scamp is a puppy. This is...really creepy.
Angel's age is honestly debatable. On the one hand, she could be a puppy like Scamp making Buster a major creep, but other parts of the movie seem to imply that she is an older dog, making Angel the creep for hitting on Scamp. Again, her age is never directly stated, but she does mention having had five homes where she settled before being dumped on the streets again. If she's the age of Scamp (who looks to be about a few months old) it's near-impossible for this to have happened to Angel five times since she was born in this time span. Of course, if she was older, this would be possible and much more believable, but that would make her significantly older than Scamp.
Whatever is going on here with this stuff regarding Angel, Buster and Scamp, it's creepy and I don't like it. Whether Angel is the creep or Buster, this shouldn't be in a children's movie especially if it's never even properly addressed. This also would've been such an easy fix. With a little alteration to his backstory, Buster could also have been transformed into a puppy or maybe a teen or something. And Scamp and Angel could've been aged up a bit. You can still have the love triangle, just please drop these pedophilic implications, movie.
Another thing: this movie has way too many humans on screen. Remember how in the first movie they almost always kept the humans mostly out of the entire frame, only really showing the legs to really hammer home the dog's point of view? Yeah, this film completely ditches that. I get that there were a few exceptions to that in the first film, but it was still an ongoing theme regarding the depictions of especially Darling and Jim Dear. Now like...all of the humans are on screen. Not just aunt Sarah and Tony and Joe, but also the entire Darling family and pretty much every human character we come across. It takes away an cool aspect of the first film.
That aside, my final complaint for the film would have to be the pacing. It flies by extremely fast. The first part of the movie isn't so bad, but Scamp and Angel really fall in love over the span of one montage and not long after that it just is paced insanely fast, specifically the last third or so. After ditching his father a final time, Scamp is promoted to be a part of the stray dogs and loves it there. Within like three minutes of being an official stray he however outs Angel's secret, resulting in her being banished. Suddenly he starts moping, then Buster betrays him, he ends up at the pound with an aggressive dog attacking him, Angel instantly gets help, Tramp saves him, Scamp goes back to the strays to declare he is leaving, the other dogs decide they want to have a home as well, and Scamp and Angel arrive back home where Angel is now formally adopted.
It's not that these events can't take place or anything, but the rapid fire pace of it all even in the relatively more relaxed scenes just feels super rushed. Sure, the climax where Scamp is being attacked should be fast-paced, but the scenes with him being an official stray and enjoying it going to instantly moping after which he is instantly kidnapped just feels like it's all done within five minutes. Which is just far too fast to convey so much happening and especially the emotional whiplash. Scamp is super joyous one moment, then super depressed and it's all like spread within a few minutes from one another. So; too many events too fast in the last third or so. An extra twenty, heck even ten minutes extra running time would've been better.
I guess another thing I could bring up (not really a complaint from where I stand, but definitely something to note) is that Lady is...barely in this movie. I get that this is Scamp's film, but Tramp gets a decent amount of screen-time and even character development. Lady meanwhile is mostly forgotten, she only shows up in some scenes to worry over her son and not do much else. Tramp is kind of the only proactive parent here, even in the climax Lady doesn't go with Tramp to the pound to save Scamp. I personally never found Lady to be a very interesting character, but it's still a tad disappointing she gets almost completely sidelined in the sequel.
That said, there are some positives to the movie. Not a lot, but some things. I like the visuals okay. They're not amazing and mostly flat, but the animation isn't bad or anything, neither are things like the backgrounds or character designs. I also like Scamp's sisters not being truly identical like they were in the first movie and at least being given glimpses of their personality here. And I guess "Always There" is a nice song.
However, the rest of the movie is nothing to write home about. An obnoxious protagonist, a very creepy love triangle, a rushed last third and overall it's just okay at best. I'd recommend you skip this one.
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