It is no se🐷cret that Di👍sney had struggled to create successful and memorable films for years prior to the 1990s (after their initial run of classics), with many of their films being plagued with disappointment and big budget films barely passing as profitable.
It was around this time that it became quite obvious that Disney needs to change things up, with the first step starting with t🎀he addition of Jeffrey Katzenberg as he began overseeing Disney’s entire animation department. Under new leadership, Disney qu⭕ickly began to thrive again – all while ultimately increasing the studios' creativity.
It was this creativity that really got the studio excited – especially as concepts such as The Little Mermaid and Beauty & The Beast began seeing the l༒ight of day and eventually explo✅ding with popularity and gaining award nominations. This period – often defined as the Renaissance era – lasted for almost an entire decade, as the Walt Disney Animation Studios were able to continually produce some of Disney’s most popular films – such as Aladdin, The Lion King, and even Toy Story - during this rather lengthy time period.
With that in mind, rankiꦆng this list was quite the 🐓challenge as being a fan of Disney films, it almost felt as if I had to pick my favorite child as it quickly started to get harder as the list began to narrow down.
So, without further ado, get ready for some pretty intense nostalgi♛a as we go through and rank every 90s Disney animated film from worst to best.
23 Doug’s 1st Movie
Much like many of Disney’s hit television shows, Doug managed to make the leap to the big screen in Doug’s 1st Movie. The film, or should I say a merely an extended episode, was based very heavily on the t🧜elevision series with it featuring all of the same charact⛄ers we have grown to love.
However, it would be an understatement to say that the film was terrible. While it may have had a target audience, the overall census seemed to ꦍagree that not only was the film lacking entertainment, but it also felt very long and drawn out and should have only been a direct-to-video release. Many had also agreed that the movie could have easily been incorporated into a number of episodes, which may have actually resulted in the premise of the film being much more accepted among fans.
Thankfully though, Doug didn’t end up getting a second movie, which is probably a good thing as I’m not sure if anyone would have bothered to🤡 watch it after the criticism that the first film received.
22 Beauty An🔥d The Beast: The Enchanted Christmas ꧋
Released in 1997, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas reminds me of the cheap knock-off gear that you find in the dollar❀ store.
While the film's animation is sub-par and the songs nowhere near as catchy as before, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas truly is a ꦯstep down from the masterpiꦏece of the first film.
Cheap, nasty, and ultimately just terrible.
However, it doesn’t stop there as the seemly family-⭕friendly film has been heavily criticized for its rather dark and scary tone – es꧅pecially when it is advertised as a Christmas film.
Whether the Disney sequel curse is a real thing, or if Disney is simply tr🤪ying to cash in on these much-anticipated sequels, it does seem that as 𒁏the Renaissance era begins to close, the quality of their films is dropping quite significantly.
21 Po🐠cahontas 2: Journey To A New World
Just when you thought the original Pocahontas couldn’t get any worse, Disney decided to try their luck at creating a sequel to the heavily criticized original film, Pocahontas 2: Journey To A New World.
Not only was the historical accuracy of this film also signifi𝄹cantly ina🐼ccurate – once again – but it also lacked the same beauty of the first film. It is believed that this may actually be a result of the films poor budget as it was directly released to video.
With a rating of 22% rotten, Pocahontas 2: Journey To A New World has also been criticized for its rather contradicting story-line
People have pointed out that film often hints at the Englishmen being the true bad people, but ultimately, in the end, the princess ends up falling in love with none other than an E💦nglishman.
Straight-to-video strikes yet again!
20 A Goofy🅘 Movi𒊎e
Once again, another film falls victim to the ever-increasing list of direct-to-video failures, with this time seeing the lovable character of Goofy get mixed up in the mess they call A Goofy Movie.
The film was also criticized for lacking comedic value and often felt very drawn out.
Centring around Goofy’s teenage son Max - who recently got in trouble at school - is whisked away on vacation with his father, who is unaware that his son was actually prepari൲ng to ask his dream girlfriend, Roxanne, on a daꦺte. It is this uninspiring, yet unrealistic story-line that really started to the mess, to begin with.
Unfortunately, though, the theme of a father and son bonding film didn’t exactly go as planned as the film seemed to struggle from a rather poorly written script that of🐎ten left the pair jumping in between scenes with no real context at all.
19 𒀰 Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas
Released in 1999, some of Disney’s most beloved characters make an appearance in Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas, a story of three different tales told over the Christm🍸as holiday season.
In the first short tale, Donald Duck and Daisy Duck teach Huey, Dewey, 🦂and Louie about the true meaning of Christmas, as they soon learn that presents aren’t always everything. Whereas the third film featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse learn that it is the thought behind the gift that makes it so special.
However, it is the second story of Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas that seems to be stirring up some controversy as the seemly “family film” goes on to show Goofy getti🦋ng caught by his son impersonating Santa Claus.
It is this seemly innocent story tha🔥t left many parents surprised, with some even going as far as claiming that their children even began questioning the existent of Santa after watching the film – whoops!
18 The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride 𝄹 ﷽
Arguably one of the most disappointing Disney films of the 1990s was The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride, the successor to the ever so famous film, The Lion King. The film, which went straight-to-DVD was released in 1998 and left many of its✃ fans disappointed in the end result.
Despite its abysmal rating of 33% rotten, The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride isn’t that terrible of a film, but rather a very mediocre successor to one of Disney’s most iconic films.
One thing that quickly became apparent amongst fans was that not only was The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride made very cheaply but it also simply did not live up the legacy of the first film – with many claiming that the second film was not a worthy successor to The Lion King.
17 ♉ Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search For Christo🍌pher Robin
We should have all at least once seen an episode of Winnie the Pooh, however, it is the 1997 film Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin that really let the franchise down.
While most of Pooh Bear’s films have often been well received, Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin just didn’t s𒁃eem to have the traditional Pooh Bear charm as the film was often criticized for i💦ts dark themes and imagery. Others even claim that it was drawn out and differed from Milne’s original stories.
At this point, it truly does seem that many of Disney’s diꦛrect-to-video films during the 1990s suffered from poor quality production – whether it be in the animation departmꦗent or even story wise.
16 ꦐ A Bug’s Life
I’ll be honest, as a child, I quite frequently watched A Bug’s Life a❀s it was released around the time where I was old enough to finally start understanding films. However, after watching the movie as an adult, it’s quite clear that it does suffer from a number of issues, with the main problem being that it didn’t seem to have that iconic Pixar charm that many of their films have been praised for.
The overall success of Toy Story may have put a damper on the film, ultimately giving A Bug’s Life a rather unrealistic expectation to live up to.
The film wasn’t all bad though, as it did have quite a few comedic moments, however, that was kind of where things stopped. With a rather clunky story-line, forgettable characters, and overall no real memorable moments, A Bug’s Life righ𝔍tfully earns it place as one of the more unforgettable films of Disney’s golden era.
15 James And 📖The Giant Peach
Although James And The Giant Peach may not be in the form of traditional digiღtal animation like many of the other movies on this list, I think we can agree that the 1996 film was outstanding 🐬and features some rather incredible stop-motion animations.
Based heavily upon the book from the famous author Roald Dahl - the same man behind the likes of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – tells the story of a young boy as he escapes from his ꦇtwo horr🌳id aunts and embarks on a journey to New York while traveling on a giant peach.
As silly as the film may seem, it is the films story, characters, and rather unique animation and colors that make this movie so charming.
Despite the odd hiccup among its unique combination of stop motion a𝄹nimation and live action performance🦩s, the film also seems to fall flat when it comes to its soundtrack, as for a Disney film the music wasn’t really up to par with other films.
While James And The Giant Peach wasn’t perfect, many believe that the film was the perfect adaption o🌞f the D𒊎ahl’s well-known book.
14 Hercules
If you know anything about Greek Mythology then you’ll be all too familiar as to why the 1997 animated adaption of Hercules seems a little bit off. Complete with amateur looking animations, and a rather confusing and disjointed story-line, Hercules was a massive disappointment to not only fans but also for the studio as a🍬 rather extensive marketing campaign failed to draw in an audience.
Despite Hercules not exactly being a major hit at the box office or a spectacle in the animation department, it did manage to ༒have its moments of laughter, character development, and there is no denying that James Wood played a pretty darn good🅺 Hades.
Unfortunately though, Ron Clements and John Musker – famous for their work on some of Disney’s most famous films – and the rare enjoyable moments, simply were not enough to save Hercules from its rather disappointing demise.