Made Simultaneously?

I get the feeling this movie was made at the exact same time of the first one. They just pulled off a few scenes here and there within the production of the initial film. Too bad they skimped out on stop motion creatures or any real working script for the sequel. It's a very obviously shoe horned film. Had they not wasted these resources on sneaking in a second one, I think the first film could have been much stronger, because there's almost a good movie there.