If movie studios love anything, it’s a sequel.

But what’s a movie studio to do with all of their potential movie franchises that might not be the next Spider-Man, Pirates Of The Caribbean or Harry Potter? Well, they make sequels to them anyway. But what about those movies that are just aching to be sequelized but might not have the same box office draw of Daddy Day Care, Hostel or National Treasure?

That’s where the “direct to DVD” sequel comes to the rescue. By skipping over the hassle and expense of an actual theatrical release (not to mention the hassle and expense of paying to bring back the original cast or director), movie studios have been able to summon forth a nearly endless deluge of sequels to movies you probably forgot even existed in the first place.

Have you been prowling the aisles of your local video store, clenching your teeth and muttering “Damn, I fucking loved Road House, but I really dislike Patrick Swayze”? They made a sequel just for you. Have you been writing fan-fiction based on Behind Enemy Lines only without Gene Hackman, Owen Wilson or a decent special effects budget? Your movie studio pals have made your dreams a reality.

One of the biggest proponents of the direct to DVD sequel has been Disney. Disney’s never been shy about cranking out a sequel, as anyone who’s had to sit through Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo or The Shaggy D.A. will tell you. But until the home video era Disney mostly shied away from making sequels to their animated feature movies, with The Rescuers Down Under being the (rather obscure) exception. That changed in 1994, when the combination of raging consumer demand for all things Aladdin and the quite understandable yearning to tell Robin Williams to go fuck himself led Disney to have their TV animation division whip up the Williams-free direct-to-VHS sequel The Return Of Jafar. Despite the shoddy low-budget animation, The Return Of Jafar sold over 10 million copies on VHS and made Disney enough cash to relegate anyone making any “art vs. commerce” complaints to the same dusty cryogenic storage container where Disney executives keep Walt Disney’s frozen head. Um, allegedly keep Walt Disney’s frozen head. Disney even created a new animation division, DisneyToon, to handle future direct to video animated titles.

Over the next 13 years, DisneyToon churned out what can only be described as an avalanche of cheap to make yet oh-so-profitable direct-to-video (and later direct-to-DVD) animated titles, over 30 of which were sequels to Disney’s theatrical animated movies. Hey, kids, did you love The Lion King? Then you’ll probably pester your parents into buying The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride and The Lion King 1½! Why watch Cinderella again when you can buy Cinderella II: Dreams Come True or Cinderella III: A Twist In Time? Who hasn’t been yearning for Bambi II?

In a further cost-cutting movie, some of DisneyToon’s “sequels”, such as Hercules: Zero To Hero and Kronk’s New Groove were actually 2-3 episodes of the spin-off animated TV series edited together, slapped on to a DVD, and then sold for $29.95. Then there’s the flood of ”Disney Princesses” DVDs.

Hey, when you’re saving up money to release theatrical blockbusters like Treasure Planet, you need all the help you can get.

Of course, animation purists complained that this endless torrent of cheaply made animated sequels was “pretty embarrassing”, but who listens to animation nerds anyway?

Well, when the animation nerds in question are Steve Jobs and John Lasseter of Pixar the answer is “when Disney buys your company for over $7 billion and puts you in charge of their entire animation division”.

Those animation nerds recently took their revenge upon DisneyToon. Shortly after taking over, they handed down a mandate: once production wrapped on The Little Mermaid III, DisneyToon had to stop making sequels based on previous Disney animated movies in favor of focusing on original titles. Production on other planned animated sequels was halted, so you may want to cancel your preorders for The Aristocats 2, Chicken Little 2: The Ugly Duckling Story or Meet The Robinsons 2: First Date.

So artistic concerns finally triumph over crass commercialism in the Magic Kingdom?

Well, sort-of. There might be some additional, less altruistic motives behind the slapdown of the Disney sequel factory.

Additional motive #1 could be spite. Pixar and Disney have a very rocky past when it comes to sequels, dating back to the days when Michael Eisner was Disney’s CEO and treated Pixar with the level of respect traditionally reserved for crackwhores. Toy Story 2 was originally intended to be a cheap, non-Pixar direct-to-video sequel. Unable to talk Disney out of the idea since Disney owned the rights to the Toy Story characters, Pixar took over the production, turning it into a theatrical release. After Toy Story 2 earned over $240 million at the box office, Eisner then claimed that since it was originally conceived as a sequel, that it didn’t count as one of the five films Pixar was contractually obligated to produce as part of their distribution deal. Oddly enough, that didn’t endear Disney to Pixar, and relations between the two companies soon got to the level of fuckoffitude where Eisner was calling Pixar’s movies artistically “pretty pathetic”. Eisner went as far as to announce the creation of a new Disney animation studio, Circle 7, that would focus on making CGI animated sequels to previous Pixar titles, starting with Toy Story 3. To nobody’s surprise, the first decision made by John Lasseter after Pixar was bought by the post-Eisner Disney was to shut down production of Toy Story 3 and nuke Circle 7 from orbit.

Additional motive #2 seems to be good old-fashioned clashing egos. What may have sparked the decision to reign in DisneyToon’s sequelmania was when a rough cut of DisneyToon’s upcoming CGI-animated movie Tinkerbell was shown to the new Pixar overlords and John Lasseter declared it to be “unwatchable”. Since Tinkerbell was supposed to be the start of a planned four-movie series and a new “Disney Fairies” franchise, this wasn’t good news. Upon receiving copious notes and suggestions from Lasseter, it’s reported that Sharon Morrill, the president of DisneyToon, instructed DisneyToon animators to make two separate versions of Tinkerbell. One was pretty much a fake version based on Lasseter’s suggestions, intended to distract him while DisneyToon simultaneously cranked out four Tinkerbell movies based on the original script. This ruse was discovered during later screenings, sending Tinkerbell literally back to the drawing board. Guess who’s not running DisneyToon anymore?

Oh, for all of you who’re saying “Hey, wait, wouldn’t a Tinkerbell movie count as a sequel, being based on Peter Pan and all?”, the reason it’s not being cancelled is because it won’t feature Peter Pan or Captain Hook, thus making it technically not a sequel. The fact that Disney stands to make a shit-ton of money off of it compared to the declining sales figures for most direct-to-DVD product has nothing to do with anything.

Really.