Writer of Pop Culture

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Budget: $3 million
Box Office Gross: $2.4 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%

Despite the fact that many movies have been made from Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the story has always been difficult to pull off. Walt Disney found this to be true himself when he set out to make his own version of the story mixing in storylines from Carroll’s sequel, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.

The story features a young Alice spending the first half of the movie chasing a white rabbit and the second half trying to get back home. It is one of the shorter movies but features more songs than any other Disney film. Sadly, none of them were hits.

It has been said that American audiences didn’t “get” the story and English audiences thought the film was a disaster. Critics complained that the film lacked heart and Walt actually agreed with them!

Fantasia (1940)

Budget: $2.2 million
Box Office Gross: $1.4 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

While some people called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs “Disney’s Folly” his third film, Fantasia, seemed to embrace the nickname better. The ambitious project was a musical anthology film that featured eight animated sequences set to classical music performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the leadership of Leopold Stokowski.

While praised by movie critics, Fantasia wasn’t released as a typical movie. Instead, it was released as a roadshow where theaters were equipped with “Fantasound” which was an expensive venture. World World II had also begun cutting off Disney’s plan to release the film in Europe. The movie was reissued a year later in with a shorter run time and mono soundtrack.

Fantasia 2000 (1999)

Budget: $80-85 million
Box Office Gross: $90.9 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

For Fantasia 2000, the tone and style of the animation looks decidedly different. It features more comedic elements. The budget was a LOT bigger too.

“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” number with Mickey Mouse from the original film was shown once again and Donald Duck appeared in his own new segment. However, much of what held back the original Fantasia from making a profit was that it was really an art film that generally appealed to a narrow audience.

Despite some amazing graphics and animation sequences shown, Fantasia 2000 wasn’t a money-maker for the mouse either.

Home on the Range (2004)

Budget: $110 million
Box Office Gross: $76.5 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 52%

This forgetful cartoon was set in the Old West and starred three dairy cows. The trio were set on capturing a local rustler in hopes of winning his bounty so that they could save their farm from closing.

As one of the last hand-drawn movies to be produced by the Mouse House, the film didn’t resonate with audiences. Nobody seemed to really like the film. This includes Disney who barely promoted it. The animation was lazy, the story uninspired and it got just so-so reviews.

When it was released, Home of the Range’s biggest competition was Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, which didn’t help matters.

Lightyear (2022)

Budget: $200 million
Box Office Gross: $226
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%

Considered a spin-off tale, Lightyear was intended to be the film that inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy seen in the Toy Story films. With a different look and voice (Chris Evans instead of Tim Allen), this “human” story was not the Buzz Lightyear audiences were expecting.

In the movie, the space ranger makes multiple attempts to find a way for this crew to find a way back home from a hostile planet. The movie got fairly high marks from critics but not Toy Story fans. It lost the studio over $100 million when factoring all of the film’s expenses to promote it.

Mars Needs Moms (2011)

Budget: $150 million
Box Office Gross: $39.2 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 37%

This oddball of a movie was based on a book of the same title by Berkeley Breathed (the cartoonist behind Bloom County and Outland comic strips) telling the story of a nine-year-old boy who must save his mother after she has been taken by aliens from Mars.

While the premise sounds like fun, nobody went to see this film. It was animated using the “performance capture” technique used in other films like The Polar Express which was popular for a hot minute, but never really took off with fans. There is something strange about those hyper realistic cartoon characters.

Some have speculated that when adjusted for inflation, Mars Needs Moms is in the top five for largest box office failures in history.

Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Budget: $150 million
Box Office Gross: $170.5 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%

John Lasseter became chief creative officer for both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2006 and one of his first decisions was to rework about 60% of Meet the Robinsons.

The movie was (loosely) based on William Joyce’s popular children’s book, A Day with Wilbur Robinson. It tells the story of Lewis, a 12-year-old orphan who longs to be adopted. One day he meets time-traveling Wilbur who takes Lewis on a journey to the year 2037 to meet his very large, eccentric family.

Lasseter didn’t think that the villain, Bowler Hat Guy, was scary enough. He also added a chase scene featuring a dinosaur and the ending was changed too. The end result was a film that most critics didn’t hate, but didn’t love either. As for audiences, well, let’s just say that the sci-fi comedy film is often forgotten when walking down memory lane.

Onward (2020)

Budget: $175 million
Box Office Gross: $142 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

You can blame the Coronavirus pandemic for this one. The story of Onward takes place in a modern version of a fantasy land where two elf brothers go on a quest to find an artifact that can bring their deceased dad back to life for 24 hours.

The film generated fairly good reviews, but it was released in theaters on March 6, 2020 and movie houses across the country began closing their doors two weeks later.

While still being shown in drive-in movie theaters, Onward became available digitally on March 20, 2020, and was also offered free on Disney+ on April 3, 2020, as an act of goodwill.

Pinocchio (1940)

Budget: $2.6 million
Box Office Gross: $1.4 million and 1.9 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 100%

Walt Disney’s second full-length animated film is a much-loved tale. Some even praised it as even better than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Pinocchio was beautifully drawn and ultimately won two Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score.

However, this film had a huge budget that was twice as much as Snow White’s but the film sold less tickets. A large part of the problem was the fact that the movie was cut off from the rest of world due to World War II. However, thanks to many re-issues of the film, Pinocchio made up for its losses with a lifetime gross of $84.3 million.

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Budget: $6 million
Box Office Gross: $5.3 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 89%

Arguably, one of the most beautiful and artistic animated films ever made by Walt Disney and crew, Sleeping Beauty was also the studio’s most expensive film to produce up until that time.

The movie was based on Charles Perrault’s 1697 fairy tale of the same name where a young princess and her kingdom is doomed when she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel causing her to fall into a deep sleep only to be woken up by a true love’s kiss.

Unfortunately, the studio also went into a sort of hibernation mode. Disney did not release another movie about a princess until 30 years later with The Little Mermaid.

Strange World (2022)

Budget: $135-$180 million
Box Office Gross: $73.4 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 72%

Drawing inspiration from adventure movies that came before it like Journey to the Center of the Earth and Fantastic Voyage as well as pulp magazines, Strange World was the most-streamed film on Disney+ when it debuted. Unfortunately, ticket sells when the movie was in theaters were not so kind.

Disney was expecting to make between $30 and $40 million during its five-day opening weekend but only pocketed about $11.9 million. Although not butchered by critics, this movie may have flopped initially from a poor marketing plan. Even so, those who did see the movie did not pass on good word-of-mouth.

Teacher’s Pet (2004)

Budget: $10 million
Box Office Gross: $6.5 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

Apparently 2004 wasn’t a good year for Disney. This cheaply made musical comedy wasn’t even created by Disney’s usual animation teams but rather by Walt Disney Television Animation and Toon City.

Based on the hit Saturday morning cartoon series of the same name, Teacher’s Pet centered on a dog named Spot who wanted to be a boy so bad, he impersonated his 4th grade master and attended the boy’s school.

While not entirely enthusiastic, critics didn’t hate this film. Audiences however failed to embrace a movie that was nothing more than an extended episode from a cartoon that they could watch on TV for free.

The Black Cauldron (1985)

Budget: $44 million
Box Office Gross: $21 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 55%

Based on Lloyd Alexander’s book, The Chronicles of Prydain, The Black Cauldron told the tale of the evil Horned King who set to find an ancient and magic cauldron. His goal? To conquer the world of course.

With production beginning in 1980, the movie did not make it to theaters until 1985 due to many rewrites and disagreements with the animators and studio executives. It was heavily edited making the story confusing to understand.

The film performed so poorly that Disney did not release the movie for home media until 1998. The movie has since found a cult following.

Treasure Planet (2002)

Budget: $140 million
Box Office Gross: $110 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 69%

Disney went out on a limb with Treasure Planet which took over four years to produce. Trying something entirely new, the studio decided to re-tell the story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island by setting it in space. But updating the 1883 novel did little to capture ticket sales.

It was actually Disney’s third version of the story following Treasure Island (1950) and Muppet Treasure Island (1996). The movie featured a mix of 2D and 3D animation making it the most expensive Disney animated project up until that time.

Despite a big marketing push, Treasure Planet failed to win over fans and today is mostly forgotten.

Turning Red (2022)

Budget: $175 million
Box Office Gross: $20 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

After Pixar’s Soul (2020) and Luca (2021) were pulled from a theatrical release schedule and then planned as direct-to-streaming ventures on Disney+, Disney stated that the next film, Turning Red would be released in theaters. And it was – for a little while.

The story about a young teen who turns into a giant red panda when stressed was a hit with critics and would have been with audiences in better times. However, with the exception of a few one-week engagements in a handful of theaters in the U.S. and in countries where Disney+ was not available, this movie also got the direct-to-streaming treatment.

Wish (2023)

Budget: $175-200 million
Box Office Gross: $254.2 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 48%

2023 was to be a celebration of 100 years of magic for Disney. This was to be the year that we celebrated 100 years of magic, but almost every Disney movie released that year failed to resonate with audiences. Wish was the studio’s hope to turn to at least end the year on a high note. It did not.

Disney had expected that the film would gross between $45 and $50 million during its five-day Thanksgiving opening. Instead, it made just $31.7 million. Wish was supposed to be tribute to all that have come before it with many Easter eggs thrown in. Some critics felt that the film relied too heavily on nostalgia instead of storytelling.