The ladies at my office are apparently very excited for ‘Monsters University,’ the sequel to Pixar’s ‘Monsters Inc.’, though I’m not entirely sure why. Not that I’m not up for more Billy Crystal and John Goodman (I’m actually thinking about casting them as Stephen and I in a Major Spoilers biopic, assuming Zac Efron and John Leguizamo are available to play the other half of the MSP team) but I hadn’t considered the movie to be widely known or beloved. If I had to pick a movie that screamed sequel, I’d have picked ‘The Incredibles’ or perhaps ‘Goof Troop II: The Umpire Strikes Out.’ (Of course, I say that as at least a casual fan of ‘Cars 2,’ which Stephen likes to mock for its derivative plot and Mater-centric fart-jokes.) Still, knowing that there’s a Dane Cook-starring sequel to Cars on the way, at least I have faith that MU won’t be the bottom of the sequelitis barrel, which begs a query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) can’t believe that Sully went to college, but apparently, so did Fred Flintstone and Foghorn Leghorn, proving that cartoon schools may not be as choosy, asking: Which cartoon (of ANY era) most deserves a sequel in your eyes?
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Anything Bruce Timm ever touched. Give me more Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: TAS, or especially, Justice League Unlimited! They’re basically some of the finest superhero stories ever told, the absolute, hand-down best superhero cartoons ever, and generally all-around awesome. Well…as long as you don’t count the revival of the Batman: TAS with Nightwing and the more childish plots. Anyway, give Bruce Timm tons of money and tell him to make awesome DC cartoons. It could only be amazing.
Samurai Jack. I wouldn’t say it ended but it needs to continue and have an ending.
Seconded!
Thirded! We need to see Jack finish his quest!
I’d love to see a continuation of the Batman: The Animated Series, Superman:TAS, JLU and Batman Beyond timeline. While there was a recent DC Animated movie with a lot of the voice talent returning to their old roles, it wasn’t the same setting. Ideally, I’d love it to be an anthology style series similar to JLU, telling various stories of the different DCU characters past, present and future. And since most of the people who watched those series are adults now, they could tone the series a smidgen darker for an episode or two (although it shouldn’t be too dark or adult, JLU had a few decent stories that had the drama without being unfriendly to kids watching).
I’d also love to see a direct sequel to Digimon Tamers (a.k.a. Digimon Season 3). While some of the characters do appear in one of the recent series, it wasn’t the same setting (it had characters from every series appearing apparently, most series taking place in different timelines). I just loved the idea that their world was similar to ours and that Digimon was a franchise created from a Tamogatchi-like toy, and the original prototype to that toy gained advanced A.I. over the years and ended up creating the Digital World.
Also, the recent Thundercats series that got put on indefinite hiatus. Why am I listing it here when we’re talking about sequels? Because they had an episode that introduced elements of Silverhawks and Tigersharks sharing the same universe.
While I didn’t find the Thundercats reboot terribly compelling, I would love to see a slightly more faithful return to the well there, and it would be a ton of fun to get dual shows, Thundercats AND Silverhawks. The latter could really benefit from a slightly less goofy reboot, as the universe created in the first one is a really imaginative place. After all, the ridiculously creative settings were the strengths of both shows and held me enraptured as a kid.
I had my own thoughts on what I would like to see, but both Benton and Samuel have better ideas.
That said, More Fantasia and an Enchanted sequel that takes place in the animated world.
Mighty Orbots
Holy crap, that’s what I was going to post, I thought I was the only one that remembered that show.
I want to see more of my fav Adult Swim cartoon, Harvey Biiiiiiiiiiiiiird Man: Attorney at Law. Maybe a sequel focusing on Peanut.
If there’s an extremely ambitious Writer and Director duo out there, I’d suggest WALL-E. While the original movie reached a very satisfying and organic conclusion, I’d still live to see more in a sequel, maybe a story about the search for more of those starship ocean liners and their return home to Earth.
Well, I don’t see the need of continuing a cartoon (or book) that has reached a satisfying conclusion. The novels Tom Sawyer Detective and Tom Sawyer Abroad are good example of why not to do it, as is CARS 2. And most American cartoon shows suffer the same weakness as American comic books. They are designed and written to be endless and episodic. The Flintstones (with Pebbles and Bam Bam going from crawling babies to instant teens with a rock band) and the Simpsons are both examples of what can happen when a cartoon show is allowed to go on too long.
That said, I would like to see Tenchi Muyo continued to a logical conclusion. I am talking about the original 12 OVA series. It just ended without a conclusion to the main story line – which is a problem inherent to the “harem” anime genre. Yes, I know, there have been seemingly countless “Tenchi” sequels, but they are all set “alternate” versions of the Tenchi universe and don’t continue the original storyline. And even the Techi Muyo series that was sold to a gullible public (including me) as a direct sequel of the original OVA wasn’t – it was really a bait and switch bl__ j__ that introduced the characters and storyline for a new “Tenchi” television series that didn’t even have the original characters in it!
So if i could magically have any cartoon I wanted extended to a satisfying finish, it would be Tenchi Muyo. I’d like to see if Tenchi finally chose between Ryoki or Ayeka or if little Sasami snuck in behind them while they are fighting over him and steals Tenchi away, which was the main premise set up in the original OVAs and then completely ignored in ALL of the “sequels”.
If well done well (aka, better than the original) a few more seasons of Star TreK: TAS could be a lot of fun. or even a new series for them Alternately they could make an animated series that takes place After Voyager that uses a mixture of the characters from TNG, DS9, Voyager in a new setting. (people in military assignments like Starfleet do get transferred regularly).