10 Worst Disney Movies of All Time
Walt Disney Studios is one of the most successful and long-lived film studios of all time. As it nears its 100th anniversary, the franchise has remained popular for its contributions to film, particularly animation. Across all its divisions, it has produced and released hundreds of films, many of which have gone down in history as beloved classics. However, amongst those hundreds of films, are some the studio would rather us forget existed to avoid tarnishing its legacy. Some of these films are terrible in quality or contain offensive and disturbing content that hasn’t aged well, such as racism, sexism, and ableism. Most of them hail from Disney’s earlier history, which we hope means the studio learned from its mistakes. Here are the 10 worst Disney films of all time, ranked to the worst.
10. Cinderella II: Dreams Come True
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True premiered on February 26, 2002, and is made up of three vignettes that demonstrate what happened to Cinderella (Jennifer Hale) after Happily Ever After. The film is ultimately a pretty bland collection of three random stories. The only moderately interesting short story explores Cinderella’s stepsister finding love and breaking away from the family as Cinderella did. Other than that, though, the whole film just feels pointless and doesn’t give viewers a meaningful look into Cinderella’s and Prince Charming’s (Christopher Charles Barnes) life after they married. The three-story format didn’t work for the film, and most of the stories lacked the depth, magic, and humor that the original film boasted.
9. The Jungle Book 2
The Jungle Book 2 premiered in 2003 and saw Mowgli (Haley Joel Osment) attempting to adjust to his life at the “Man Village,” but struggling to leave behind the jungle where he was raised. This sequel may be the most unnecessary film on this list. After all, it’s basically just the first Jungle Book movie, but with a different name. It follows all the same plot points in the same order—a little boy named Mowgli ends up living in the jungle, gets targeted by Shere Khan (Tony Jay), and ultimately decides to go live in the Man-Village. The Jungle Book 2 had no originality, no real plot, replayed the same music and featured less impressive animation and voice acting.
8. Jungle 2 Jungle
Jungle 2 Jungle premiered in 1997 and saw Michael Cromwell (Tim Allen), a man from Manhattan who learns he has a 13-year-old son, Mimi-Siku (Sam Huntington), being raised by his ex-wife within a native Amazon tribe. The film was an American remake of the French film Little Indian, Big City, which was a racist and poorly received film. Hence, it really wasn’t any surprise that Jungle 2 Jungle was also very racist and terrible. Basically, the entire film makes a joke out of the Indigenous people of Venezuela. The name Mimi-Siko translates to “cat piss,” and he runs around New York barefoot and in war paint and horrifies the dignified New Yorkers. In addition to being deeply offensive, Jungle 2 Jungle is an extremely poorly made film that merely dredges up everything wrong with Little Indian, Big City.
7. Mr. Magoo
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution)Mr. Magoo premiered on December 25, 1997, and follows a near-sighted man, Mr. Quincy Magoo (Leslie Nielsen), and his trusty dog Angus who unwittingly get mixed up in a jewel smuggling plot. Mr. Magoo is another film that layers offensiveness with poor-quality filmmaking. The film even includes a disclaimer stating that Mr. Magoo isn’t supposed to be an accurate depiction of vision-impaired people. However, it does little to alleviate all the offensiveness. Mr. Magoo is a stereotype of a near-sighted person and is depicted as an incompetent, bumbling man who stumbles into dangerous situations unaware of his surroundings. In addition to an offensive premise, Mr. Magoo is basically an hour-and-a-half of back-to-back unbearable slapstick gags.
6. Planes
Planes premiered on August 9, 2013, and takes place in a world with anthropomorphic planes, where one crop duster plane Dusty Crophopper (Dane Cook) dreams of being an air racing plane. In other words, it’s basically just Disney Pixar’s Cars, but with planes. There’s honestly not a whole lot more to say about it. It’s kind of like it tries to plagiarize Cars, but makes it way less fun and throws in a dull plot and bad animation to try to cover up the plagiarism. There are a couple of flight scenes that might perk up a toddler or baby, but other than that, Planes really doesn’t have a saving grace.
5. Mulan II
Mulan II sees a newly engaged Mulan (Ming Na-Wen) and Shang (BD Wong) escort three women to a neighboring nation to be forced into arranged marriages, while Mushu (Mark Moseley) tries to sabotage their relationship. The film has a sad 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and it’s not difficult to see why—the plot is completely unbelievable. After everything she went through in the first film to break traditional gender roles, Mulan is suddenly just like, “Arranged marriages, yay!” Then there’s Mushu, being voiced by a white actor … attempting to imitate Eddie Murphy’s voice. Plus, both Mushu and Shang basically become the epitome of toxic masculinity and treat Mulan horribly while she just stands there and takes it. To summarize, Mulan II destroys everything that Mulan established and makes all its characters insufferable in a nonsensical and unnecessary plot.
4. Blank Check
Blank Check premiered on February 11, 1994, and follows 12-year-old Preston Waters (Brian Bonsall), who becomes a millionaire after a crook accidentally writes him a check. The film has terrible performances and a nonsensical plot filled with plotholes. Also, while it appears to be a fun, albeit dull, family film on the surface, it’s actually one of Disney’s most disturbing films. Preston develops a crush on a 31-year-old bank teller, Shay Stanley (Karen Duffy), who is also an undercover agent. To get close to him, the pair go on a date where he buys her jewelry and they frolic together in a fountain. Then, she kisses him on the lips. She also promises that she’ll go on another date with him in six years … when he’s 18 and legal. So …
3. Pocahontas
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution)Pocahontas premiered in 1995 and follows the tale of an Indigenous woman, Pocahontas (Irene Bedard), who falls in love with English settler, John Smith (Mel Gibson). The main problem with Pocahontas is that it romanticizes a tragic period in history in which European settlers instigated the genocide of Indigenous people. Plus, the “real-life story” it’s allegedly based on may not have actually happened. Lastly, even though the real Pocahontas did marry an English man and convert to Christianity—it wasn’t a happy Disney princess love story. Peacemaking was sometimes the only strategic option to avoid being killed and having one’s people killed. While the animation and score aren’t bad in Pocahontas, they can’t make up for the wrongness of romanticizing, glorifying, and completely misinterpreting such a tragic period of history.
2. Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World
Because one historically inaccurate and Disney-fied depiction of the settlers in Native American somehow wasn’t enough, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World premiered in 1998 and followed Pocahontas’ (Bedard) journey to New England with John Rolfe (Billy Zane). As hard as it is to believe, Pocahontas II does manage to be worse than the original film. After all, the plot is that Pocahontas has to attend a ball in England as a test to see if she can act “civilized” and, if she does, then the King won’t wage war on her people. So, it’s both historically inaccurate and extremely offensive, plus the animation and score, which are some of the sole pros in the original film, are considerably worse in the sequel.
1. Song of the South
RKO Radio Pictures)Song of the South premiered in 1946 and follows a young boy who is visiting his grandmother’s plantation and is enthralled by Uncle Remus’s (James Baskett) tales and allegories featuring a rabbit, fox, and bear. In recent times, Song of the South has gone down in infamy as one of Disney’s most racist films, despite the studio’s attempts to hide the film by not releasing it on home video in the United States and keeping it away from streamers. In terms of quality, the performances of Remus and Bobby Discroll are actually quite good and the songs are catchy, though the plot is mediocre. However, it’s simply impossible to like Song of the South when it depicts African-Americans as bursting with joy at being forced into servitude of white people and complacently accepting their status in society.
(featured image: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution / Disney)
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