Return to Neverland

(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing the picture of a huge shelf full of videocassetes and covers of some direct-to-video/DVD Disney sequels)

Doug (vo): Okay, so, a little history. If you are younger and you're watching this, you may notice that when you go to the video store or, hell, if you still go to any video stores, you'll see a lot of Disney sequels, like "Cinderella 2", or "The Little Mermaid 2", or "The Lion King 2". The reason for this is that there was a time when hand-drawn animation was dying. I mean, okay, you could argue it's not really around much any more, especially cinematically, but Disney was losing it big time.

(Posters for "Home on the Range" and "Treasure Planet" are shown)

Doug (vo): Most of their films were not making money, so they did a lot of direct-to-DVD sequels. And most of them were...pretty bad.

(Poster for "The Jungle Book 2" is shown, before showing trailer clips and stills from "Return to Neverland")

Doug (vo): This is worth mentioning because one or two actually made it to the big screen. And in this case, it's "Return to Neverland", the sequel to one of Britain's most beloved children's stories. When it came out, it was panned, and critics hated it. Everybody said, "It's just another direct-to-DVD movie just thrown on the big screen, given a little bit more budget. It's a waste of time." So, that's the movie I was waiting to see, and...honestly, I don't think that's what I got. Okay, it's not great, but it was actually a little better than what I was...expecting. Kinda...sorta...

Story
Doug (vo): Okay, well, it's years later. Wendy is growing up and has a family of her own. But, unfortunately, it's during wartime. Oh, yeah, we're going there. Not only is Wendy's husband going off to war, but it also looks like that her children, one being the main character, Jane, are about to get sent away because of the bombings. Jane has forced herself to grow up faster than most children because of the obvious situation. While Wendy still tries to tell stories of Peter Pan and imagination, she just can't seem to get into it anymore, and understandably so. But that all changes when one night, Captain Hook returns, kidnaps Jane, and takes her to Neverland, mistaking her for Wendy. But Peter then finds her and saves her, and thus, she tries to figure out how to get back home using her logic and not really knowing how to her imagination. So the Lost Boys have to learn how to be more reasonable, even allowing a first Lost Girl, and she has to learn how to be playful and creative, all while avoiding the evil grasp of the pirates.