With the slew of sequels that have been pouring out of Hollywood and game studios recently I wanted to touch on the idea behind sequels. For years sequels have been the continuation of something from the original idea. Kind of like "the continuing adventures of" whatever the original idea was. Recently released "How to Train Your Dragon 2" was a sequel to the Dreamworks hit and has been one of the few to have broken the barrier between what I think of as "continuation" and "progression". I think that the key to a great sequel is that the characters and story from the original movie or game needs to progress and show a new aspect of the people in it. Something that brings you in deeper and wants you to know more about them. I think that the sequel needs to almost be able to stand alone as a story unto itself. The characters are introduced in the original and they have a story but the sequel needs to be a new story and deepens the relationship between the core characters. I think that Dreamworks has figured this formula out because both the Dragon series and the Kung Fu Panda series both follow this formula, almost to the point that the sequel is better than the original. I think that other movie franchises could stand to take a look at this and learn better how to present and write sequels so that we are not looking at the same stories that have already been told but new adventures that involve the same characters but with a deeper look into them and what makes them so intriguing.
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