Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure

Gunnar Rehlin started his review out by saying, “The first Disney-produced, direct-to-video sequel based on a pre-“Little Mermaid” cartoon feature, “Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure,” released in 2001, isn’t entirely successful at seamlessly blending classic and contemporary styles of animated storytelling. Even so, vidpic should please target aud of moppets eager to spend more time with familiar characters, and may also click with nostalgic parents and grandparents who sit through repeated viewings with their little ones. Sales and rentals should be pretty doggone impressive.”

The story starts off months after the end of the 1955 original; with the mischievous dog Tramp (Jeff Bennett) completely disciplined and settled down with his beloved Lady (Jodi Benson) in an early 1900s New England household. Trouble starts only when Scamp, voiced by Scott Wolf, the most rowdy of the couple’s four young puppies, gets a longing to bark at the moon. Rebelling against the restrictions of life as a spoiled house pet, Scamp gets free from his collar to enjoy misadventures as an owner-loose and fancy-free stray.

Scamp longs to run with the crew led by Buster, voiced by Chazz Palminteri, a junkyard dog who used to be Tramp’s best friend. However, he quickly recognizes the mistake of his compulsive shopper ways, with a little encouragement from Angel, voiced by Samantha from “Who’s the Boss?” and Phoebe from “Charmed,” Alyssa Milano, who Rehlin describes as “a femme stray who teaches the young pup a few new tricks to survive on the mean streets.”

The makers of “Lady and Tramp II” mysteriously acknowledge their source material with constant visual and narrative references. For example, one part shows Angel and Scamp eat spaghetti and meatballs in the back alley of an Italian restaurant, just like Lady and Tramp did in the ’55 movie. Vidpic also reminds the same early 20^th century atmosphere of small-town life, and reintroduces supporting characters such as neighbor dogs Jock and Trusty (both voiced by Jeff Bennett) and, briefly, the legendary mischievous Siamese cats (Mary Kay Bergman and Tress MacNeille, who also voiced Dot in "Animaniacs," and also did voice work in "Disenchantment," "The Simpsons" and "Futurama").

(Rehlin mentioned, “A sign of the times: The frisky felines don’t get to sing again in their heavily accented, pidgin-English style — indeed, they aren’t even given any dialogue — perhaps to preempt any possible charges of ethnic stereotyping.”)

Voice actors are well cast, with great care taken to match the voices of characters introduced in the previous movie. Among the newcomers, Wolf is a rightly rebellious Scamp, while Milano is by turns sweet and spunky as Angel. (Roger Bars and Susan Egan are the singing voices for the characters.)

Rehlin said, “Jeff Bennett tries a little too hard to sound like Don Knotts as a klutzy dogcatcher, but Palminteri hits the right note of belligerence as Buster.” Mickey Rooney, Cathy Moriarty, and Bronson Pinchot are the voices of Buster’s dog friends.

Rehlin said, “Despite the obvious deference paid to its predecessor, however, “Lady and Tramp II” too often has the brightly bland look of most other Disney-produced vidpic animated sequels. And while very small children with extremely short attention spans will likely be amused, older viewers may sense the wall-to-wall frenetic pacing is an unwelcome change from the dreamily romantic tone that prevailed in the original.”

I don’t really recommend this movie since Scamp is a character that I just got annoyed with. He is such a rebellious dog that he doesn’t even listen to the sense that Lady and Tramp are trying to smack into him. It’s like everything goes in one ear and out the other. I just wanted to reach through the screen and hurt that little mutt. Just don’t see it, but if your kids want to, then let them watch and don’t watch it with them.

Well, that’s a relief. Stay tuned tomorrow for another horrendous sequel in “Disney Sequel Month.”