Jamila Rizvi Thursday 19 July 2012 11:45am

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By JAMILA RIZVI

Yesterday brought a little too much excitement for me to deal with all at once. Hold onto your hair extensions ladies and find yourself something sturdy to lean on because (cue trumpets and dancing monkeys)…

There is going to be a Finding Nemo sequel.

I know. Right? How the creators are ever going to top the “do you speak whale?” scene, the shark’s equivalent of alcoholics anonymous, those adorable surfing baby turtles and Ellen Degeneres as a talking Regal Blue Tang fish, I don’t know. In fact I’d say it’s near impossible but gosh diggity dang I’m thrilled to see them try.

But the excitement doesn’t stop there because (wait for it, wait for it… it’s a good one, I promise!)

There is ALSO going to be a Monsters Inc 2.

Those whacky funsters over at Pixar are going sequel/prequel CRAZY. They are out of control. They can’t get enough of the stuff (and the millions of dollars it will make them).

We’re going to see our favourite furry electric blue friend Sully and the incomparable Mike Wazowski, back on our screens – this time studying hard at Monster’s University.

You can picture them now: Getting boozy with the other frat-boy monsters on campus, smuggling Boo into biology labs in a back pack and punching above their weight at Orientation Week speed-dating with that cute pink girl monster with the 10 eyes that come out of her tentacle hair (she rocks that look).

But wait. There’s more. Because if you are one of the first 100 callers into our telephone hotline in the next FIFTEEN MINUTES then you will also take home a free set of steak knives…. AND Toy Story 4.

Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act 2

For any of you that missed the first three installments of Woody and Buzz then get down to Blockbuster post haste and get your rental on. These are unmissable films. And unlike so many other sequels, they are just getting better with time. Toy Story 3 was unquestionably the most poignant and moving film of 2011. No debates. The game is already won.

All this talk of movies with a number 2 or 3 (or 4!) in their titles, got me feeling a bit reminiscent and misty eyed about the great sequels and prequels of years gone by.

Remember Sister Act 2? I defy you to name me another sequel that outdid the original with this kind of flair. Is there a better moment in musical cinematic history than the hippy girl in the back row turning the phrase “If you want to be somebody, if you want to go somewhere, you better wake up and pay attention,” into song?

Yes, I hear you cry. Of course there are greater moments.

Because only seconds later Whoopi Goldberg has a first class ‘aha’ realisation when it occurs to her that EVERY single student in her class is a musical genius and she announces “I know how I’m going to get you guys through this music class, I’m going to turn you into a choir”.

A teen movie that made going to school and singing in a choir cool. WTF have you got to match that with, Twilight?

Sex and the City 2

But then there are the sequels that weren’t welcomed with such a warm embrace by the viewing public.

Like the abomination that was Sex and the City 2. I recall one critic labeling it as “racist menopause in the desert” and that’s a pretty fair summation. I’ve done my best to block out the entirety of that monstrosity of a movie (and not a monstrosity in a good way, like those adorable and cheeky Pixar characters) because otherwise it would ruin my happy memories of the original series.

The Godfather, Grease2, Diehard 27 (right?), the X-Men trilogy, Legally Blonde: Red White and Blue, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, the Matrix Reloaded, the Next Karate Kid.

Some bombed and some outdid their awesome predecessors. But were you watching?

Which was your favourite sequels or prequel? Which prequels or sequels did you absolutely hate?

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

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