When you compare this to say The Return of Jafar or Cinderella 2, it is much better with a warm story and no useless new characters that have important roles. However, when you compare this to The Lion King 2 or Aladdin and the king of thieves, this film doesn't even match. Still this the first sequel i was actually rating from awful to great. The original was much better but this is one of those good Disney sequels up there with: Lion king 2, Aladdin 3, Little Mermaid 2, Kronks new groove, and of course lion king 1 1/2. The villain has much more screen time so you get to understand what she feels rather than when she didn't show rage and was cool and collected in the original.