Or At Least 7 lower ranking Disney movies that I want to point out.
I’ve been too nice of late. Too much niceness with works, giving too much leeway to greedy CEOs who too often undercut the creatives and make a movie worse all in the name of making money for the executives.
Some of these movies were victims of development hell. Some had good ideas but for a myriad of reasons were a bad final product. Sometimes I think Disney just doesn’t know what the Hell they are doing and luck into a good movie. Or they are lucky with the creative team and the CEOs just leave the project alone.
If you LOVE or marginally like any of these more power to you.
These are in the order than I watch them.
Pinocchio (1940)
Honestly I just hate Pinocchio in any form. I dislike the story. I don’t care that this movie is ingrained in the Disney mythos with that song and other iconography, I hate it and I hate watching it. BUT Figaro is great, Cleo is fine and Monstro is also a positive otherwise I never want to watch this movie again.
Dinosaur (2000)
Dinosaur is weird case of whiplash. Sometimes the animation is gorgeous and other time it’s nightmare fuel. If the movie had carried the quality of the first ten minutes it wouldn’t be on this list but it didn’t and it’s was really boring. How one makes a Dinosaur movie boring is a feet. It also is really just Tarzan meets The Land before Time. AT least the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom was fun and terrifying while it existed.
Wish (2023)
I think there is a good movie in here somewhere but the weight of it being for the 100 year anniversary bogged it down and rendered a rushed half-baked product. Maybe I will go deeper into my thoughts in a later post but I will say that Wish doesn’t really understand why Disney movies do certain things leading to really weird choices. I do think that if Wish did one thing well, one tenet of Disney’s animated movie legacy well and the rest were the same as what we got it MIGHT have at least been more palatable. It just felt more like a cheap 2000s knock-off of Disney movie than a celebration of the studio’s creation and I hate that for them.
The Black Cauldron (1985)
This is the property that Disney should give the Live-Action Remake! Either Movie franchise or Show. Please! Again The Black Cauldron was victim a meddling CEO who had no idea how animated movies were made (It was Eisner.) Honestly this is not like “bad” so much as mediocre and boring. There was potential and some flashes of greatness but it’s very meh. I do understand why it’s a cult classic though but I would pass from ever rewatching it. Positive thing, the Horned King was a big part of Tokyo Disneyland’s now defunct Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour attraction which was a Haunted House.
Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
Wreck-it Ralph was ALMOST on my favorite list but the sequel was a pain to watch. First the plot is trite which isn’t the a problem. The problem is that Ralph is now a co-dependent moron, the rules of the first movie are woefully ignored, the meta jokes are bad and it was dated before it was even released. The charm of first movie is gone and what’s left is stupid, soulless and smug. I know people like the song but I was to far gone to care if it was good or not. Knowsmore was fine though movie should have been about him.
Strange World (2022)
I want to give this movie a slight pass because the Turtle reminded me of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series but no just no passing it. Strange World is boring, preachy with forgettable characters. I will give a pass on ever rewatching though.
Home on the Range (2004)
You know in a show or movie when the characters go see a movie that is fake and made-up for the show that is what Home on the Range feels like. It feels like a fake movie that sit-com characters would go see.