# The movie sequel isn't based on the book sequel **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 25, 2025, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762 "2025-05-25T04:04:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/21 "2025-05-27T13:33:33Z")
I haven’t seen the movie or read any of Travers’ books, but from comparing the plots as given by Wikipedia it appears that the movie **Mary Poppins Returns** isn’t based on the book **Mary Poppins Comes Back** , although some incidents from the book look like they might have been used in the original Mary Poppins film. > **[Mary Poppins Returns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Poppins_Returns)** > > Mary Poppins Returns is a 2018 American musical fantasy comedy film directed by Rob Marshall, with a screenplay written by David Magee and a story by Magee, Marshall, and John DeLuca. Loosely based on the book series Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers, the film is a sequel to the 1964 film Mary Poppins, and stars Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, with supporting roles from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Colin Firth, Meryl Streep, and David... > **[Mary Poppins (book series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Poppins_(book_series))** > > Mary Poppins is a series of eight children's books written by Australian-British writer P. L. Travers and published over the period 1934 to 1988. Mary Shepard was the illustrator throughout the series. The series began with Mary Poppins in 1934. > The books centre on the magical English nanny Mary Poppins, who is blown by the East wind to Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane, London, and into the Bankses' household to care for their children. Encounters with pavement-painters and shopkeepers, and various... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/22 "2025-05-27T13:38:33Z")
Keeping on with Disney, it appears that **102 Dalmations** , the live-action sequel to the live-action **101 Dalmations** , has nothing to do with **The Starlight Barking** , Dodie Smith’s sequel to her novel **101 Dalmations** ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/23 "2025-05-27T13:43:53Z")
And **Jungle Book 2** isn’t based on Kipling’s **The Second Jungle Book**. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/24 "2025-05-27T13:56:15Z")
The “reeling Mary in on a kite” element from **Comes Back** was used in **Returns**. ---
**Author:** ![Scoobysnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Scoobysnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoobysnax)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/25 "2025-05-27T14:13:48Z")
Although It has been a long time, I remember hating both the novel and movie versions of The Lost World. What I found odd was that the novel seemed to be written like a movie script, and it is a direct sequel to the first movie. However, they still ended up making some significant changes to the plot when they made the movie. I still have not seen JP3 or most of the Jurassic World movies. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/26 "2025-05-27T14:21:08Z")
Gregory McDonald’s novel **Fletch** (1974), which was intriguing (the paperback beguiled you into reading it by printing the first paragraph or so right on the cover) was loosely adapted into a Chevy Chase film in 1985. The movie sequel, **Fletch Lives** (1989) was pretty awful, and not based on any of McDonald’s Fletch series (which eventually stretched to eleven books) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/27 "2025-05-27T14:44:58Z")
John P. Marquand wrote a series of six novels about a Japanese secret agent named **Mr. Moto** between 1935 and 1957. A series of eight films using the character appeared between 1927 and 1939, then again in 1965. The early films starred Peter Lorre as the title character. Amazingly, the first two films actually follow the novels, with the screenplay for the second written by Marquand himself. But after that they have nothing to do with the books. > **[Mr. Moto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Moto)** > > Mr. Moto is a fictional Japanese secret agent created in a series of spy and adventure novels by the American author John P. Marquand. He appeared in six novels published between 1935 and 1957, which were set in 1930s China on the eve of the Second Sino-Japanese War. He became even more widely known from Hollywood films and a radio series. Marquand created the character for the Saturday Evening Post, which was seeking stories with an Asian hero after the death of Charlie Chan's creator Earl De... The relationship between the Charley Chan and Fu Manchu films is much more complicated, but the films actually were based more on the characters than on the actual novels. Again, in most of these cases non-Asian actors played the lead characters, except, oddly, in the first two Charley Chan films, which had Japanese actors in the title roles. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/28 "2025-05-27T15:33:02Z")
The 1982 Don Bluth film **The Secret of NIMH** (based on Robert C. O’Brien’s book _Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH_) had a 1998 direct to video sequel entitled **The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue** which had nothing to do with book sequels written by O’Brien’s daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/29 "2025-05-27T15:50:50Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > **Stargirl** , the best-known book by YA novelist Jerry Spinelli, had a sequel called **Love, Stargirl** where the heroine went to somewhere in Pennsylvania and continued her mission to bring acts of kindness to marginalized people. The movie, **Disney’s Stargirl** , had a very different sequel, **Hollywood Stargirl** , where she goes to Holllywood with her mom and gets involved with indy filmmakers. Yes, indeed. I read Stargirl every year at school with my students. It’s one of our favorites. The sequel book, which is not part of our class teaching, does continue with Stargirl. The second movie is shockingly wrong and misguided. Stargirl and Westing Game are two young adult books I genuinely appreciate just as novels, not just kids books. Both are just terrific. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/30 "2025-05-27T16:29:37Z")
The flashback scenes in **The Godfather Part II** come directly from the original novel. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/31 "2025-05-27T16:39:11Z")
Neither does the animated sequel **101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure**. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/32 "2025-05-27T16:41:26Z")
Are any Disney straight-to-video sequels consistent with their book sequels? ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/33 "2025-05-27T16:44:00Z")
Two more that aren’t: **Bambi II** isn’t based on **Bambi’s Children**. **The Rescuers Down Under** isn’t based on any of the sequels to Margery Sharp’s **The Rescuers**. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/34 "2025-05-27T18:48:23Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I remember when we all thought episodes 7-9 of the _Star Wars_ saga were going to be based on Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy. I remember when we all thought episode 5 was going to be based on [Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splinter_of_the_Mind's_Eye) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/35 "2025-05-27T23:11:30Z")
Mahaloth wrote: > Are any Disney straight-to-video sequels consistent with their book sequels? Although **Return to Oz** was briefly in the theaters, it went quickly to video. It retained a surprising number of elements from the first Oz sequel, **The Land of Oz** including Mombi, Ozma, Jack Pumpkinhead, Gump, and the Wheelers. It’s a Disney sequel to an MGM movie, so probably not what you’re looking for. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2025, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/36 "2025-05-28T01:31:09Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Although **Return to Oz** was briefly in the theaters, it went quickly to video. It retained a surprising number of elements from the first Oz sequel, **The Land of Oz** including Mombi, Ozma, Jack Pumpkinhead, Gump, and the Wheelers. It’s a Disney sequel to an MGM movie, so probably not what you’re looking for. I saw it in the theaters, and I really liked it – they managed to provide a movie consistent with Baum’s vision (the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and the cowardly Lion look like they do in the original illustrations) but also pay homage to the 1939 movie (some of the way things look, the “real world” Framing story), and including things from the later Oz books (the Gump, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Mechanical Man). And it had Will Vinton’s Claymation animation for the Nome King! But most people didn’t appreciate it. And a lot of this movie sequel WAS based on the book sequels, so it’s not a good candidate for this thread. But It’s nice to know someone thought about it. I think the Disney folks desperately, desperately wish they had made **The Wizard of Oz**. Every now and then this desire breaks out in another movie, like **Return to Oz** , or **Oz the Great and Powerful** (2013), or **The Muppet’s Wizard of Oz** (2005). I think the especially wanted to get _Oz the Great and Powerful_ out before _Wicked_ was filmed – it presents a completely different alternative genesis for the Oz characters. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2025, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/37 "2025-05-28T02:09:01Z")
I still have to read the book version of _Aladdin 4: Jafar May Need Glasses_. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2025, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/38 "2025-05-28T02:19:41Z")
Did his characterization change post '41? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2025, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/39 "2025-05-28T03:04:29Z")
Heck, he totally disappeared before 1941. No way would people watch a movie or read a book about a Japanese secret agent during WWII, especially one who had been a protagonist before. When he returned in a single low-budget outing he was apparently a sort of low-rent James Bond, who wasn’t even clearly Japanese. I haven’t seen it, but that’s the description . ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2025, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762/40 "2025-05-28T16:08:05Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > **The Rescuers Down Under** isn’t based on any of the sequels to Margery Sharp’s **The Rescuers**. Considering how little the original movie resembled the original novel, that’s not surprising. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-movie-sequel-isnt-based-on-the-book-sequel/1018762.md?page=1)