The Ultimate Disney Classic Animated Film Guide: 2020 - 2024
Created | Updated Jan 3, 2025
1937-1949 |
1950-1969 |
1970-1979
1980-1989 |
1990-1999 |
2000-2009
2010-2014 |
2015-2019 |
2020-2024
The Walt Disney Animation Studio is by far the most successful animation studio in the world. Although their story involves both dips and peaks, the beginning of the 2020s involved coping with the impact of the 2020 coronavirus outbreak and its impact on cinemas. With people increasingly moving away from seeing films in cinemas but using online platforms such as Disney+ instead, and knowing that any films that Disney release in the cinema will be available to view within a couple of months, would film-going change forever?
Other challenges faced by Disney during this time were the increasing calls for representation, both in terms of race and the LGBTQ+ community, while China became increasingly more important to Disney than the United States, being the largest cinema-market in the world.
The Classics
In the last 75 years, the Walt Disney Studio has released over 60 animated films it has labelled 'Classics'. Also mentioned is whether these films pass the Bechdel Test. This can be summarised as whether the film involves two or more named female characters who have a conversation together that is not focussed on any male characters.
59. Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
| Directors | Don Hall & Carlos López Estrada |
|---|---|
| Plot | 500 years ago the dragon-shaped land of Kumandra was ravaged by evil Druun, creatures that turned any living thing they encountered into stone. The Druun were defeated by a magical gem used by the last dragon, Sisu, which restored the petrified people but the dragons remained stone statues. 500 years later only the gem survives while the land of Kumandra has been split into five different countries, Fang, Heart, Spine, Talon and Tail. After Chief Benja, ruler of Heart, tried to reunite the countries, their representatives - particularly Princess Namaari of Fang, try to steal Sisu's gem which Heart had guarded and, in the chaos, shatter the gem into five and inadvertently unleash the Druun once more. Chief Benja is turned to stone shortly after he saves his daughter Princess Raya's life, realising that the Druun avoid water. Raya, having heard that Sisu's remains are at the end of a river, spends six years trying to find the last dragon and resurrect her. Sisu is resurrected but Raya learns that she was actually a weak dragon who had little magical ability, but had been the weakest of the last dragon survivors. Together they try to restore the gem by finding the surviving gem pieces. One piece each having been claimed by each of the different tribes. Each time they find a piece, Sisu gains a magical ability that one of her siblings had, and in each land they travel to they are aided in their quest by someone from that land. Together will they be able to reunite the land and defeat the Druun? Or will Princess Namaari betray them once more? |
| Length | 107 minutes |
| Setting | Fictional Southeast Asian land of Kumandra 500 years after the land was originally ravaged by monsters known as the Druun. |
| Fairytale Castles | Fang |
| Perky Princess |
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| Airy Fairy |
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| Animated Animals |
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| Other Characters |
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| Bechdel | Pass |
An entirely original story that was inspired by Southeast Asian culture, particularly Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, although it attracted some criticism for having a predominantly cast of East Asian origin rather than southeast Asia. As the two main characters are princesses who never wear skirts or have intimate relationships with men there were rumours that Disney were going to feature the first two lesbian princesses, which actress Kelly Marie Tran supported. While there are calls in the west, particularly but not exclusively among the LGBTQ+ community, for Disney to portray a main character as gay, homosexuality is illegal in many key markets, particularly China. Transwoman Patti Harrison1 has a minor role as the chief of the Tail Land.
Raya is the first Disney princess not to sing2, with this film not a musical or feature songs. Which might explain why it only made back less than a third of the most successful animated film of the year, Sing 2. In fact even PAW Patrol: The Movie was more successful at the box office, with Raya and the Last Dragon the sixth most successful animated film of the year.
60. Encanto (2021)
| Directors | Jared Bush and Byron Howard with Charise Castro Smith |
|---|---|
| Plot | The Madrigal family have spent 50 years living in a magical home in a remote part of Columbia after a civil war killed Pedro Madrigal, leaving his wife Alma a widow and baby triplets. She gains a magical miraculous candle that creates the magic. These triplets have grown up and had children of their own, and each child born to the family have their own magical powers which they share with their community, except for 15-year-old Mirabel who has no powers of her own. Mirabel sees that the magic behind their lifestyle is in danger but no-one believes her. Determined to save the day and prove to her disapproving grandmother that she has value, Mirabel tries to learn why her uncle Bruno vanished many years earlier after having had a vision of the future. Will her quest save the day or are her good intentions misinterpreted by her family? |
| Length | 109 minutes |
| Setting | Columbia 50 years during the 1950s |
| Fairytale Castle | Casita, the Madrigals' magical sentient home |
| Family Madrigal |
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| Bechdel | Pass |
| Songs: | Written by Lin-Manuel Miranda:
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While most 21st Century Disney films have at least one parental character killed off, only the minor character of Pedro dies in a flashback 50 years before the film is set. Also unusually the main character's voyage of discovery takes place within her own home. There are numerous references to earlier Disney films, including Frozen and the song 'Let It Go' as well as a reference to Hercules.
Widely acclaimed, Encanto won the 2022 Best Animated Feature Oscar. It also was nominated for Best Original Score and Song - but instead of putting forward the popular hit 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' Disney put forward one of the lesser, forgettable songs from the film which attracted comments that this decision may have cost them a Best Song Oscar. Encanto was the second most successful animated film at the box office of 2021, behind only Illumination's Sing 2. Despite this, it failed to recuperate both its production and marketing costs and so is considered a flop.
61. Strange World (2022)
| Directors | Don Hall |
|---|---|
| Plot | Avalonia is a land completely surrounded by impenetrable mountains no-one has ever passed. Explorer Jaeger Clade is obsessed with finding a way through, dragging his teenage son Searcher on an endless quest until Searcher discovers a strange plant that is filled with electricity, which he names Pando and believes can be a source of clean energy for Avalonia, and returns with his discovery, while Jaeger continues. Two decades later, Searcher is a farmer and his crop Pando is used to power all of Avalonia - yet it is dying off. As all Pando plants share a single root, it is believed that the root must be dying, somewhere deep underground. With his wife and teenage son - who has a crush on a boy called Diazo who plays no part in the story - they go on an expedition on the airship Venture with Avalonia's sash-wearing President. As they journey to the centre of Avalonia they encounter a weird world with strange creatures, many of which are dangerous and attack on site while others are colourful or simply flying blobs. There Searcher is reunited with his long-lost father as they continue their quest to stop the dying out of Pando. Will the dysfunctional family be able to put aside their differences to complete the mission and save Avalonia? |
| Length | 100 minutes |
| Setting | Fictional isolated country of Avalonia, which is surrounded by impenetrable mountains, and the fantastic world underneath. |
| Characters |
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| Animated Animals |
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| Source | Pulp adventure stories |
| Bechdel | Pass |
Finally a Disney film without a dead Dad or passed-away parent, but merely a long-lost one. It is also the first Disney film to feature what they describe as 'the first openly gay main character'. While it is true that Ethan's sexuality is more established than 'blink-and-you'll-miss-it', the love interest, Diazo (Jonathan Melo) barely appears, it is never established whether Ethan's crush is reciprocated and the romance plays no part in the plot. Nevertheless this automatically led the film to be banned in 20 countries worldwide.
As a science-fiction animated film, Strange World bombed, losing approximately $150 million. Which is a shame as the family dynamics played as big part in the plot as pulp storylines such as found in the works of Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Henry Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle and film King Kong (1933). Yet in the west, science-fiction animated films consistently fail at the box office3, with it believed that the popularity of streaming service Disney+ has encouraged families who are already paying a subscription charge to wait for films to be available online rather than pay additionally to see them in the cinema a month or so earlier. Unusually for a Disney film, Strange World did not break into the top ten most successful animated films of the year.
62. Wish (2023)
| Directors | Chris Buck & Fawn Veerasunthorn |
|---|---|
| Plot | Rosas is an island ruled by sorcerer King Magnifico, who takes the wishes of every adult who lives on the island to protect following their 18th birthday, and grants 12 wishes a year. After learning that some people's wishes will never be granted, including her grandfather's, 17-year-old Asha wishes on a star for a better life for the people of Rosas, which leads to a star - a small, glowing ball of energy - to fly down to help Asha free the people of Rosas' wishes from Magnifico. Magnifico becomes angry. Will he turn to dark magic to hold onto power? |
| Length | 95 minutes |
| Setting | Rosas, fictional mediæval island 'deep in the Mediterranean'4 |
| Fairytale Castle | Kingdom of Rosas |
| Animated Animals |
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| Characters |
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| Seven Dwarfs Teens |
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| Bechdel | Pass |
| Songs: | By Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice unless stated:
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Wish was a film made to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Walt Disney Company, and so was filled with nods to previous animated Disney films. The look of Dahlia borrows heavily from Snow White and the main character's seven friends were deliberately chosen to reflect the seven dwarfs. As the kingdom is full of wishes, one boy resembling Peter Pan dreams of flying, Asha wishes to be a sorcerer's apprentice, there is a bear called John like Little John in Robin Hood, a deer called Bambi, there are costumes like Cinderellla's Fairy Godmother and a woman who wishes to be a dressmaker seems to make Sleeping Beauty's dress. Dialogue refers to Mary Poppins, 'poor, unfortunate souls' - a phrase used in The Little Mermaid and there is also a book beginning.
The film's underlying message seems to be that absolute power will always corrupt absolutely and so it is fundamentally imperative that no one person should have the power to grant wishes - except of course for the female protagonist, in which case everything's fine. The absolute power that always corrupts absolutely probably won't affect her as she's wished on a star.
Wish bombed at the box office, losing Disney between $125-$150 million. Wish also has the third lowest Rotten Tomatoes score for any animated Disney Classic film, ahead of only Chicken Little and Brother Bear. It had the fifth highest box office of any 2023 animated film, after Illumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Columbia/Sony's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Pixar's Elemental and China's Chang'an.
63. Moana 2 (2024)
| Directors | David Derrick Jr, Jason Hand & Dana Ledoux Miller[1] |
|---|---|
| Plot | Three years after the events of the first film, Moana spends her time searching for other humans not from her home island of Motunui. After her ancestor Tautai Vasa prophecies in a vision that unless she rediscovers the lost island of Motufetu, which will reconnect her people with other islands, her people are doomed to extinction. Gathering a small crew, Moana follows a comet to find the island. On her journey they are captured by the goddess Matangi, who had previously captured Maui. Matangi is forced to work for the god Nalo, who had sunk and guards the island of Motufetu in order to weaken humanity. Will Moana be able to rescue Maui, overcome her fears and set foot on the underwater island of Motufetu and thus break Nalo's curse? |
| Length | 100 minutes |
| Setting | Polynesia including the islands of Motunui and the site of the lost island of Motufetu |
| Perky Princess | Moana Waialiki, wayfinder and chief's daughter (Auli'i Cravalho) |
| Airy Fairy | Maui, shape-shifting demigod whose power comes from a fishhook (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) |
| Characters |
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| Animated Animals |
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| Book Beginning | The legend of Moana is told with illustrations |
| Source | Inspired by Polynesian Mythology |
| Bechdel | Pass |
| Songs: |
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| Cameo |
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| Related: |
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In late 2020 it was announced that Disney would make a short animated Moana Disney + series, to keep the characters fresh in mind ahead of the inevitable live-action remake of the popular 2016 animated film. As development on the series proceeded it was felt that the story was strong enough to stand as a full animated film and so in February 2024 it was announced that the project was being made as a film, with the character of Moana now 19. As Moana composer Lin-Manuel Miranda was already juggling Encanto (2021) and Mufasa: The Lion King (2024), he was unable to return to Moana.
While not quite on the same level as the first film, this marks a return to form for Disney, finishing in the top three most successful animated films of 2024.
Co-Productions and Other Animated Films
- Ron's Gone Wrong (2021)
- The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022)
- Disenchanted (2022) - Live Action/Animation Hybrid
Ron's Gone Wrong was a co-production made by new British animation studios Locksmith Animation and DNEG (Double Negative), financed by TSG Entertainment and distributed by Disney company 20th Century Fox..
Pixar
- Onward (2020)
- Soul (2020)
- Luca (2021)
- Turning Red (2022)
- Lightyear (2022)
- Elemental (2023)
- Inside Out 2 (2024)
Live Action Remakes
During this period Walt Disney Pictures continued remaking previously animated films in live action, with mixed results. Many of these contained various degrees of computer animation including computer-animated main characters seen in Pinocchio and Mufasa: The Lion King. However an 'Animated' film is a very specific term and relates to how a film is made, not how it appears.
The Lion King remake featured only computer-generated characters. Despite this, it is still technically classed as a 'live action' film and not 'animation'. Since the controversy over whether the motion-capture film Happy Feet (2006) should be classed as an animation, and to exclude films such as Avatar (2010) from qualifying, Animation is defined by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as 'a motion picture in which movement and characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique, a significant number of the major characters are animated, and animation figures in no less than 75 percent of the running time'. These will be discussed in greater detail elsewhere.
- Mulan (1998/2020)
- 101 Dalmatians (1961) / Cruella (2021)
- Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)
- Pinocchio (1940/2022)
- Peter Pan / Peter Pan & Wendy (1940/2023)
- The Little Mermaid (1989/2023)
- Mufasa: The Lion King5 (2024)
Into the Future
The five years 2020-2024 had proven difficult for Disney. The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-1 affected cinema audiences worldwide and combined with the success of streaming service Disney + kept cinema audiences at home. Raya and the Last Dragon and Strange World both bombed at the box office while Encanto and Wish flopped, failing to break even its marketing costs. Only Moana 2 - a project that had begun as a Disney+ series, could be considered a box office success.
This series of box office failures has led to the popular use of the phrase, 'Go woke, go broke', with many critics arguing that Disney has lost its appeal by promoting progressive policies such as the inclusion of different ethnic minorities and sexualities within its films. While including homosexual characters does impact box office receipts as it means films are banned in key markets, 'wokeness' itself cannot be considered the primary motive. Barbie (2023) has been described as the 'most-woke' film made during this period, containing feminist themes that criticise gender roles and the patriarchy, yet was 2023's highest grossing film. The truth is that the films made during this period have either been impacted by the Covid pandemic or simply disappointing, irrespective of whether or not they had characters of different sexualities and ethnicities.
Another issue is that the audience most likely to go and see Disney films are also the likeliest to already have a paid Disney+ subscription. Disney fans are therefore disincentivised from paying to see films that they will be able to watch soon as part of their streaming service membership. At the start of this period, the average delay between a film being released in cinemas and coming to Disney+ was 45 days, meaning that audiences knew that if there was a film they were indifferent about, they would be able to watch it at home by waiting six weeks. By 2025 the delay has been lengthened to over 100 days. Will Disney be able to return to making popular, profitable films or abandon animated filmmaking altogether?
