The anime style itself was more developed, the music and vocal arrangement (in both languages) superior, and the story showed a bit more depth.
I liked the movie and thought it was made with more care than most of the episodes I caught over the last year or two. The usual other themes of loyalty, friendship, cooperation, teamwork and such all took center stage on a regular basis too with the silliness of your typical anime series aimed at children through in for good measure.
Okay, I haven't seen every episode of the original series but the basic premise is that you have to take responsibility for your actions. Sakura notices that as her cards are captured, so too are more people and with only a handful of cards left to play, can she defeat this nearly undefeatable foe? The sealed card took over the body of a young girl and seemed intent on gaining back all the original 52 cards from Sakura's deck. She and her friends find that not only the cards are missing, but more and more of her classmates and town people are no longer in town, having disappeared in the night. At the same time, some of her magic cards are missing and this led into the bigger plot, the discovery of a card so powerful that it might be stronger than the whole deck combined. The story centered on Sakura finally readying herself to tell her true love, Shaoran, that she loves him. In this second feature length movie, the folks at Pioneer/Geneon, tie up all the story lines the series left open, making it a must have DVD for fans of the series. As the series progressed, she faced tougher challenges than a ten year old was ever meant to face but generally prevailed in her encounters, learning some valuable lessons along the way. Sakura must retrieve all the spirits, doing battle using her mystical cards. The Cardcaptor Sakura series centered on a young girl, Sakura, and her friends who, after making a mistake, unleash a horde of monsters upon an unsuspecting world. In the case of the latest such release, Cardcaptor Sakura The Movie 2: The Sealed Card, I think fans will appreciate the result.
Whether or not either portrayal is accurate (or fair), the bottom line is that such movies represent an opportunity for companies to provide something extra to fans.
The cynic in me tells me that the reason is to cash in on a popular franchise without the long term commitment required by a full season series while the idealist in me tells me it's to wrap up loose threads a series may leave to do justice for the fans. Movie: Anime series are known to spawn feature-length movies on a regular basis.