10 Movie Sequels That Were Way Better Than They Had Any Right To Be

The first Shrek film was a huge commercial and critical success and for good reason. It was a sneakily brilliant film that subverted fairy tale tropes while crafting a great and comical adventure story in its own right.

But that is precisely why a sequel seemed like a poor idea. In 2004, when Shrek 2 was released, the list of good animated sequels was exceedingly short. Essentially there was Toy Story 2 and Fantasia 2000... and that was all. So the announcement of Dreamworks delivering a Shrek sequel centered around Shrek having to meet Fiona's parents seemed like little more than an easy cash-grab for the studio.

Turns out, that couldn't have been further from the truth.

Eschewing the easy pathway that would have resulted in a lazier sequel, Shrek 2 takes a blindingly simple rom-com concept (meeting the parents) and delivers a film that is both hilarious and heartfelt. It builds on the story and message of the first film in new and interesting ways, has wonderful new additions to the cast like John Cleese, Antonio Banderas, and Julie Andrews, and has legitimately one of the best third act sequences of any film from the 2000s.

A stronger film in every conceivable way, Shrek 2 remains the gold-standard for Dreamworks animation.