Disney’s losing streak: hardly watched hidden gems that Disney tries to hide

Disney is often revered as being pioneers for both early and modern animation, with technical innovations and hand-drawn emotional storytelling brining animated features into the public eye. From Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), to Zootopia 2 (2025) Disney has produced over 60 animated films, the most notable of which came out during Disney’s golden era, after they changed their moniker from ‘Walt Disney Productions’ to ‘Walt Disney Feature Animation’. During this time, Disney released many of the films we know and love today, such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), TheLion King (1994), and Lilo & Stitch (2002). Interestingly, however, following the release of Lilo & Stitch, Disney fell into a slump, just as they did during the 1940s after the release of Bambi (1942), where in which their next films began to underwhelm and under-perform.

From 2003 to 2008, Disney attempted to shift into 3D animation, just as Pixar had done with rousing success, however Disney’s transition was not so smooth. It wasn’t until Disney decided to pull tales from the Brother’s Grimm, that their films once again became house-hold classics, a tactic that Disney had previously used when in a downward spiral. Both The Princess and the Frog (2009), and Tangled (2010), were inspired by their Brothers Grimm tales, while of course containing Disney’s own twists to keep the material feel new and inspired.

If we take the sequels and live action remakes out of the equation, Disney’s last big hit film was Moana (2016), and in the 10 years since Moana’s release, Disney has released 4 original major motion pictures, with each performing worse than the last. Their first non-sequel since Moana was Raya and the Last Dragon which released in March 2021, a year into the Covid pandemic, which dissuaded many people from going to see the film in theatres, causing it to take a massive box office hit. Similarly, Strange World (2022) suffered the same fate as Raya, but with an even worse outcome. Strange World was a shot in the dark for Disney as they trialled sci-fi and action rather than princesses and romance and, for the first time in Disney’s history, one of the films protagonists was openly gay. However, while this should have been a monumental step forward for Disney’s inclusion, the film failed to perform as needed. With many people still cautious from the pandemic, and very poor marketing by Disney, Strange World lost over $60 million at the box office, making Disney’s first gay protagonist fade out of the public eye. Despite their poor performance, these films are not to be discounted. Raya and the Last Dragon, Strange World, and Encanto all have their strengths and weaknesses and, although Disney tries to hide them among the backlog of their more famous counterparts, these films show a new, explorative side of Disney that many viewers are not aware of.

So what’s next for Disney? If we judge by their recent and past patterns, it can be easily derived what their next move might be; we know that there are already live action remakes of both Moana and Tangled in the works, but in terms of animation the likelihood is that Disney will attempt to once again pull a tale from the Bothers Grimm, just as they did with Snow White (1937) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). A classic fairy-tale would be a perfect addition to the studios catalogue, and a tale such as The Princess and the Pea would allow Disney to revisit princesses, and perhaps even attempt another hand-drawn classic, something that fans of the studio have been desperately asking for.