Disney is a powerful and beloved corporation, arguably best known for its classic animated film canon. However, like all of history's greats, Disney has seen its fair share of highs and lows. Knowing Disney's history, there are times when events could hint that the company is struggling more than it appears.
Disney has tried and true methods that often help the company stay on top, or at least appear to. Sometimes, Disney trends can simultaneously go to opposite extremes, thanks to how different films and projects are treated. Of course, even though fortunes can change, they can just as quickly go back.
11 Even Promoted Films Are In Danger Of Getting Canceled
Film cancelations are always occurring behind the scenes. Even when it seems like a company is canceling projects left and right, it could just appear that way due to the publicity and exposure. These occurrences are the norm for any major company.
However, when it comes to Disney, more and more publicized projects are finding themselves in development hell. Rose Red, a possible spin-off of Snow White, reached news outlets before it was canceled. Gigantic, a canceled animated take on Jack and the Beanstalk, was long enough in production to get an Easter Egg in Zootopia.
10 Disney Plays It Safe With Princesses
Disney's first feature-length animated film was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The studio would later specifically adapt Cinderella in the hopes of replicating Snow White's success. Films like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast highlighted the Disney Renaissance.
A turn to fairy tales and princess heroines is usually a sign that Disney is trying to play it safe when it comes to branding. The Snow Queen was rewritten as a princess heroine with a princess sister in Frozen. Pixar released their first "princess" film Brave. Next, Disney added a plucky heroine, a chief's daughter, to the Maui legends in Moana.
9 Even Disney Channel Is Getting Too Nostalgic
In recent years, Disney Channel has been banking quite a bit on nostalgia. Raven's Home gave a sequel series to That's So Raven. Bunk'd was retooled into a spin-off of Jessie early on and kept producing more seasons after the Jessie kids left the show. The Phineas and Ferb cartoon was announced to be getting more episodes after the series originally ended.
Even Disney XD has gradually moved from original content to showcasing ended shows. The Disney Channel used to be known for being somewhat exclusive with its shows, only allowing for a few seasons and rarely airing reruns of older shows.
8 Everything's Getting Live-Action Remakes
Disney has been making live-action films based on their animated properties since at least the 1990s. However, the trend really picked up in the 2010s with the releases of Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, and Cinderella.
The trend continued until it seemed like Disney wanted a remake of each animated film. It's noteworthy that some live-action films have sequels and spin-offs in development. While some of the films have been popular in their own right, the proliferation of these films has caused some to criticize Disney for running out of ideas.
7 Disney Sequels Have Made A Comeback
Disney became infamous for animated sequels, usually given a direct home release, for their animated canon films during the 2000s. While generally considered an old trend, sequels have slowly been making their return to Disney's live-action and animated projects.
Hocus Pocus had a follow-up film, Hocus Pocus 2, that nearly came out around 30 years after the first. Enchanted gave way to Disenchanted. Frozen had the theatrically released Frozen 2 and a holiday special released before Coco. Not only did Maleficent get a sequel, but it also sparked interest in other live-action remakes getting sequels. Even Disney Channel films have recently become franchise trilogies in recent years when they used to be one-shots.
6 Disney Overuses The Popularity Of Villains
The villains have always been a big part of Disney's fandom, even since the early films. After all, a "good" villain makes a good story. Disney has embraced the popularity of these characters, but has gotten a bit excessive about it.
A few Disney villains, like Maleficent and Cruella, have gotten their own live-action films. Stories looking at the villains' point-of-view are the focus of the "A Tale Of..." series. The Descendants film series allowed Disney to expand on possible children of many of the classic and modern villains.
5 Disney Also Bled Twist Villains To Death
The twist villain has become a popular trend in Disney films in recent years, like Frozen's Prince Hans or Zootopia's Dawn Bellwether. For some fans, this trend became excessive. To some extent, it became so easy to guess when Disney wanted to surprise viewers with a curveball villain that it effectively defeated the purpose of having a twist.
As villains tend to be a prominent feature of the story, this also meant viewers didn't get to enjoy the bad guys' revelry as they did in earlier films. In other words, fans were starting to miss films that actually had iconic "villains" in them.
4 Even If Disney Does Research, They Don't Ask Follow-Up Questions
Disney projects have often tried to be culturally sensitive, but these attempts have often backfired, especially in recent years. For example, in the live-action remake of Mulan, the heroine's dragon sidekick was replaced with a phoenix, attempting to reference the Chinese concept of a "fenghuang." While "fenghuang" is often translated as "phoenix," the film portrayed the creature as far closer to the Western firebird than the legendary Chinese being.
Raya and the Last Dragon was also the subject of similar criticism over the dragons. On the one hand, some criticized the film for downplaying the deific role dragons can have in Southeast Asian cultures. On the other hand, others pointed out that not all Southeast Asian cultures even had traditional dragon myths and accused the film of exaggerating their popularity.
3 Soon, Everything Will Be Disney
The Disney corporation is growing, acquiring more and more properties as the years go by. This became especially pronounced with the start of the 2000s. Disney absorbed much of the Jim Henson Company, particularly the rights to the Muppets, in 2004. Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, and Lucasfilm have become part of the Disney brand.
Jokes about Disney one day soon owning everything don't seem too far off. While these new connections at least seem to be good for business, they can also be a sign that Disney might lose its own identity in the process. Juggling different properties might have drawbacks as well.
2 Disney Gives Preference To Acquired Properties
Over the years, Disney has adopted many properties into the company's name, from the Star Wars franchise to Marvel projects. While Disney has taken great pride in these endeavors, it can sometimes be excessive.
When Strange World, an animated Disney film based around an original concept, was released, it did not do so well in theaters. One reason blamed for this was poor advertising, with some critics noting that Disney was putting more effort into promoting projects for acquired properties, such as Avatar: The Way of Water. It can be very telling when Disney itself overlooks original projects.
1 Disney Keeps Moving The Goalposts
Disney likes to take a lot of pride when it comes to representation. News outlets will talk about characters in upcoming Disney films being the first of their kind, only for fans to say that Disney did it before.
Sometimes, it feels like Disney is not giving itself enough credit. Other times, modern Disney mocks classic Disney with the power of hindsight. This takes different forms. A promo for Disney's Descendants, for example, once boasted about Queen Grimhilde from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs being Disney's first female villain. This ignored the fact that the evil queen was the first Disney villain.