It's easy to complain about how mainstream cinema is dominated by sequels, but at least they tend to be good (or are trying to be). In days gone by sequels were desperate cash-ins made on the cheap that never purported to have any worth. The conventional trajectory for a series was always downhill (see the Christopher Reeve Superman), which is the reason films like The Godfather: Part II and The Empire Strikes Back were such a big deal; sequels had never been this impressive before. One area where the old idea that sequels mark a decrease in quality still holds is in animated movies. While this year has seen a eighth Planet Of The Apes, seventh X-Men and tenth Marvel that are not only awesome movies, but box office hits, to find an animated sequel that actually betters the first is hard to come by. Due to the prerequisite that family movies need an impenetrably happy ending, coming up with a sequel at all is a tricky writing prospect; second, third and fourth parts in animated franchises can easily lose whatever spark made them work in the first place. To highlight that, today we're looking at ten upcoming animated sequels that the world really doesn't need. There are, of course, exceptions. How To Train Your Dragon 3 has the potential to, like this summer's first sequel, actually improve on what's already there, while the superhero genre has changed so much a second Incredibles (currently in pre-production) is almost required. But for now let's put our cynical caps on and look at what less than stellar cartoons are on the horizon.
