The Walt Disney Studios, once a pinnacle of cinema, has recently been leaving its audience unsatisfied and disappointed. Once upon a time, Disney movies were held in the highest regard, with mainstream titles like “Toy Story”, “Aladdin” and many more being beloved by audiences around the world. But now, with the abundance of remakes and sequels, critics and the general Disney audiences have been left missing the magic that the films used to have.
Ethan Braun (12) misses the old animation styles that Disney used to use.
“I feel like the sequel movies and remakes are making the original movies less and less good. They need to go back to the old regular animation because it helped tell the story better and was more appealing,” Braun said.
So what sets these movies apart from the golden era of Disney movies in the early 2000s? Most critics are blaming the writing and presentation of the movies coming out today. In an article in The Comenian, a newspaper by Moravian University, author Joel Hendricks thinks that it’s the lack of effort and time put into the new films and the absent care for the storytelling of the film.
“Modern Disney movies are written horrendously. Gone are the days of deep, emotional messages and themes tucked away inside movies that anyone can find enjoyment in. Now, we’re stuck with films that feel like your basic kid’s movies with no thought or care put into them,” Hendricks said. “I believe that Disney writers are trying for an action first, development later sort of approach. They wait until the rising action and climax to develop their characters, which just doesn’t work the way that they hope.”
With an increasing reliance on computer-generated images (CGI) remakes, formulaic scripts, and a growing disconnect from the heart of storytelling, Disney finds itself at a major crossroads after the release of its newest movie, the live-action remake of “Snow White.” Multiple well-known movie rating sites have criticized this new movie with Rotten Tomato giving it a 40/100% score on the Tomatometer and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) giving the film a repulsive 1.6/10 stars. After the initial flop at the box office, it was estimated that Disney would lose 115 million dollars on the film according to outkick.com. This movie flopped for a lot of reasons, some of the more popular ones include the general dislike of the actors cast and how far Disney Studios strayed from the original message and storyline.
Many of the audience reviews on IMDb.com used the phrases, “lackluster and subpar”, “boring” and “a pointless and unnecessary remake”.
Compare this to a recently released film the “Minecraft Movie,” while albeit not by Disney, it was a film that performed incredibly while operating on a budget that was almost $100 million less than that of “Snow White.” The “Minecraft Movie” as of April 20, 2025, had made over $720 million in revenue, almost quintuple what it cost to make. This just goes further to show the degree to which Disney Studios in the current market is flopping.
And “Snow White” isn’t the only one. Other titles like “Wish”, “Strange World” and “Lightyear” also performed terribly in theaters after that.
Industry analysts have noted that while the box office numbers remain steady, critical reception has grown worse and worse as these new movies are coming out. Which for Disney could mean a steady decline in movie revenue. After the box-office flop of “Snow White” the Walt Disney Studios has already put a hold on the live-action remake of another popular Disney princess film, “Tangled”, according to Deadline.com.
Anna Grace Babbis (12) is a lover of all Disney films but has found the last line of Disney movies to be disappointing.
“I used to love when new Disney movies came out because they were always new and exciting but now it just feels like a redoing of the old story. I wish that Disney would go back to creating new movies instead of spin-offs, sequels, or live actions of previous movies,” Babbis said.
