Featured Blu-ray Review: Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure

August 18, 2012

Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure - Blu-ray - Buy from Amazon

From 1994 with the release of The Return of Jafar to 2008 with the release of The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, Disney made about 30 Direct-to-DVD animated films. Most were terrible. Some were so bad that they made you retroactively like the original film a little less. Is Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure one of the rare exceptions? Or is it among the many cheap cash grabs?

The Movie

The events of this film begin shortly after the events of the first film. Lady and the Tramp are raising their four pups in their owners' home. One of the pups, Scamp is having trouble being a house pet. After getting in trouble a number of times, Scamp is sent outside and chained up as punishment. Tramp talks to him about the house rules, but Scamp wants to be a wild dog. Tramp tries to explain he has a good life, but Scamp doesn't know Tramp used to be a wild dog, so he refuses to listen to his advice and the two get into a fight.

Later, Scamp sees a pack of wild dogs tormenting the dogcatcher. This pack is led by Buster, and includes a young girl pup, Angel. After seeing how much fun they have, he decides to break free from his chain and become a wild dog. The pack he learns is called the Junkyard Dogs, but before he can join, he must prove he is worthy. To do this, he must steel a tin can from Reggie, a dangerous loner. He doesn't quite get the can, but when Reggie goes on a rampage, he not only saves Angel's life, he also gets Reggie caught by the dogcatcher. This earns Scamp the respect of the Junkyard Dogs, but to earn his membership, he will have to do something more.

Meanwhile, his owners realize he's missing and begin their search. Eventually they run into each other on the Fourth of July celebration, but will Scamp choose his new life as a wild dog? Or will he go back to the family that loves him?

Not too long ago I reviewed The Fox and the Hound 2 and basically everything I said about that film applies here as well. Let's go down the list of complaints I had about that film. First of all, it is incredibly short at just 69 minutes, including end credits, but still manages to feel padded. The songs stick out, but not in a good way. It was made by the television arm of Disney studios, and you can tell. It has the animation quality of a TV episode, the sound design of a TV episode, it even has the problem with the digital animation not blending in well with the 2D animation. It does have some bigger names than you would normally see in an animated series, but big names do not translate into good performances, as the skills needed to act during live action are vastly different than those needed to act with just your voice. It even makes the same mistake of only using the main characters in the first film as side characters here. It is just so unnecessary.

The Extras

The extras are impressive for a direct-to-DVD release, starting with an audio commentary track and a making of featurette. There are three Pluto shorts, Pluto, Junior, Bone Trouble, and Pluto's Kid Brother. You can also listen to the songs in Sing-Along mode. The only extra new to the Blu-ray is a Puppy Trivia Track, which includes a lot of trivia about dogs and some facts about the previous movie.

While the movie isn't very good, the transfer looks really good. The colors are fantastic and the details are great. At least the details in the background are great. The animation itself doesn't have a lot of details, but you can't blame the transfer for that. The computer animated portions do tend to suffer the most in this regard. The audio is clear with plenty of separation and the subwoofer often comes into play.

As for the price, it costs $24 on Amazon.com, which is simply too much for this type of release. $24 is a lot compared to most first run releases.

The Verdict

Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure is one of the weaker Disney Direct-to-DVD animated films, and that's saying a lot. The Blu-ray looks good and sounds good, but it should have been included with The Lady and the Tramp Blu-ray. It certainly isn't worth picking up on its own.


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