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)

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)

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 film at the box office of 2021, behind only Illumination's Sing 2.

61. Strange World (2022)

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)

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', there is also a book beginning.

The film's underlying message seems to be that absolute power will always corrupt absolutely and so no-one person should have the power to decide who gets to grant wishes - except of course for the female protagonist, in which case that's fine. The absolute power that always corrupts absolutely probably won't affect her as she's wished on a star. Wish flopped at the box office. 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.

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)

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 The Jungle Book and Dumbo. 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 (2023)

Into the Future