Summary
- Disney’s best animated movies were made in the past, particularly in the ’90s, which is widely considered the company’s renaissance era.
- The successes of Frozen in 2013 and Frozen II in 2019 were notable achievements, but Disney still hasn’t been able to recreate the magic of its ’90s films.
- Disney’s focus on animated sequels, including plans for Frozen 3, may hinder its chances of making a comeback with new and creative ideas.
Looking back at a 15-year-old AFI poll, it seems less likely that Disney will make a 2020s comeback with its animated movies. The Walt Disney Company was founded in 1923, quickly becoming the king of animated cinema, and 100 years later, the studio is still producing tons of films. Unfortunately, it seems Disney’s best movies, especially in animation, are in the past.
Animated Disney movies like Pinocchio, Peter Pan, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs are universally beloved. However, the company really thrived in a later decade. Despite the success of films like Cars and Frozen, Disney’s most successful decade began more than 30 years ago, and the company may never see the same achievements again.
AFI’s 2008 Poll Proves Disney’s Greatest Animation Decade Was The 1990s
According to a 2008 American Film Institute poll, nine of the top 10 greatest animated movies of all time were put out by Disney. Three of them — Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Toy Story — are from the ’90s, which is widely considered Disney’s renaissance era. The Golden Age of Disney is regarded as the years 1937, when the studio put out Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, through 1942, when they released Bambi, and both of those films plus two more from the period, Pinocchio and Fantasia, made AFI’s list. However, Disney reached a new peak in the ’90s.
The closest the company has come since is the success of Frozen in 2013 and Frozen II in 2019, as these are two of the highest-grossing animated films of all time. However, despite the poll being conducted in 2008, the newest movies on the list are the 2003 Pixar feature Finding Nemo, which Disney distributed, and the 2001 DreamWorks Animation hit Shrek, the latter of which is the sole non-Disney release represented. Unfortunately, Disney didn’t see much success with its animated films in the years after Finding Nemo.
The ’90s were a post-Cold War decade and acted as a rebirth of culture in all areas of society. New music and other art forms were taking over the world, so it’s no surprise that Disney was thriving, too. The ’90s are also regarded as the decade when Third Wave Feminism began, and this is evident in the way women were portrayed in movies like 1991’s Thelma & Louise and 1992’s A League Of Their Own. If Disney wanted to stay afloat, it had to adjust to the times, and it did so effortlessly.
The company had received criticism for decades over its portrayal of women in princess films, and with 1991’s Beauty and the Beast, Belle was a much more determined and headstrong character than characters like Aurora, who spent all of Sleeping Beauty asleep. Disney leaned further into feminism with 1998’s Mulan and utilized its renewed creativity for films with male leads, too, like Hercules and Pixar’s Toy Story. Disney also thrived in the ’90s in its musical films with help from Howard Ashman’s songwriting skills alongside Alan Menken’s untouchable composing talents.
Why Disney Has Struggled To Recreate The Impact Of Its 1990s Animation Slate
Unfortunately, Disney has not been able to recreate the ’90s magic in later decades. The Little Mermaid, which premiered in 1989, was Disney’s first princess film since 1959’s Sleeping Beauty, proving Disney had a new wave of innovation flowing through the company. Unfortunately, this wave died out by the 2000s. The company, which once seemed very in touch with its fans, slowly fell off and can’t seem to keep up with today’s ever-changing society.
A prime example of that is the controversy over Disney’s live-action Snow White. Lead actress Rachel Zegler has set fans off with her comments about the new film leaving Snow White’s love story behind to make her a more powerful princess. What the company doesn’t understand is while it was necessary to make warrior characters like Mulan in the ’90s, society is now moving into a place where women feel they deserve to fall in love without being perceived as weak. While Disney was praised for Elsa’s lack of a love interest in Frozen, this isn’t what viewers want anymore, and Disney needs to understand this.
Luckily, Disney has seen some success lately, with 2021’s Encanto becoming a massive success. This is likely because Encanto was a new idea, and Lin Manuel Miranda, who has a similar appeal to Ashman and Menken, was on board creating the film’s music. It’s evident that if Disney wants to succeed again, it needs to be more in touch with its audience and continue producing more creative movies.
Disney’s Focus On Animated Sequels Makes A 2020s Comeback Less Likely
Unfortunately, it seems unlikely Disney will be coming up with any new ideas as it’s heavily focused on sequels, including plans for Frozen 3. The studio has produced some successful follow-ups in recent years, but the never-ending sequels are beginning to feel redundant. It seems Disney wore out all its creative ideas in the ’90s and is now struggling to come up with anything that hasn’t been done before.
Frozen II felt like a satisfying ending for Elsa and Anna, and a third movie will likely suck the storyline dry. Amid the ongoing writers’ strike and the company’s refusal to make a fair deal with its creative talents, they certainly aren’t pulling in any new ideas at the moment. However, when the strike ends, meaning companies have decided to meet writers’ needs, Disney should try scouting the new generation for ideas that could bring them back to its heyday in the ’90s.
