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Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure is an enjoyable film

© M. Fernandez Locklin

There comes a time in the life of every son and daughter when Dad is no longer a hero and Mom becomes just someone to tune out. Scamp is the son of a well-respected street dog, whose notoriety grows with every day he is away from the junkyard, and an upper-crust damsel, but to him Tramp and Lady are just Dad and Mom, and Dad has never known a life that interests his son. That's where this movie begins.

"Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure", the latest of Disney's direct-to-video collection, is the story of the male puppy of Lady and the Tramp -- the one who played with Junior at the end of the original "Lady and the Tramp". To Scamp, Dad is a house dog, has always been a house dog, and will never understand why his son hates the house-dog-life. When he destroys Jim Dear's hat and is put outside for a while, he argues with Dad and is forced to stay out all night. Instead of staying out all night in his backyard, however, he tears free of the chain and escapes to another life where he meets Angel and a collection of other street dogs.

During his time away from home he grows to appreciate his family, and he falls in love with Angel, a female street dog, who becomes the reason for the obligatory spaghetti scene. In the end, of course, Scamp comes home and brings Angel into the family as well.

Now, I'm not a big fan of sequels. When I watch a trailer that introduces "the next adventure", or something along those lines, I squirm. In fact, the tape of this movie includes advertisements for the second installment of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and the sequel to "Cinderella". But sometimes, sequels are done right.

The second "Dalmatians" movie, "102 Dalmatians", was better than the original, I thought. The "Toy Story" sequel was as good as the first. But the "Little Mermaid" sequel, "Return to the Sea", I thought was contrived and a little difficult to accept -- the character changes were just too unlike the characters we met in the first movie.

"Scamp's Adventure" echoes the theme of teenage rebellion against a parent found in "Little Mermaid", but this rebellion is a little easier to accept. The characters haven't changed THAT much. "Scamp's Adventure" is a sweet, coming-of-age movie.

It does, however, go a little overboard on the musical numbers. The movie attempts lavish production numbers -- the opening number is reminiscent of Beauty and the Beast -- and one other scene near the beginning has the junkyard dogs circulating on a makeshift lighted stage. But I take children's movies with a grain of salt -- kids don't care about professionalism (or hokeyism), they just want fun characters and a good movie.

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