The 10 Biggest Disney Flops That Deserved Better (2025)

While Disney's 2024 box office is currently coasting to new heights thanks to Moana 2, the House of Mouse is not immune to the occasional box office flop. Some releases are known risks, others suffer from bad marketing, and some have the misfortune of being released during a pandemic. Whatever the reason is that certain films don't soar on their opening weekend and instead crash and burn, it doesn't mean they aren't still worth watching.

From animated pandas to real-life Antonio Banderas vehicles, plenty of under-loved gems from within Disney's vast vault are far better than their box office and initial reception would suggest. These are ten of Disney's biggest flops that deserve better with critics, audiences, or both. These movies are far from perfect, but they should provide some much-needed fun, even for those who aren't die-hard Disney fans.

10 'The Lone Ranger' (2013)

Directed by Gore Verbinski

The Lone Ranger was released with a target on its back. Rumors of an out-of-control budget, reshoots, and even a plot involving werewolves preceded the film, and so it was D.O.A. with critics and audiences before it even hit theaters. The critical drubbing it received wasn't entirely unwarranted: the plot is overstuffed, and the film is unfocused and tonally inconsistent. The same could be said of the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, though, and they made a shipload of money.

Defending The Lone Ranger today is a questionable exercise, given the controversy surrounding its two leads. Setting that entire can of worms aside, what was true in 2013 is true now: Gore Verbinski can shoot the hell out of an action sequence. It may take too long to get there, but when The Lone Ranger hits its third act, and the climactic train sequence begins, it's all aboard. It's one of the best action sequences of the 21st century, and all the more reason why it's good news that Verbinski is back in the director's chair.

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The Lone Ranger

PG-13

Action

Adventure

Western

Where to Watch

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Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date

July 3, 2013

Cast

Johnny Depp , Armie Hammer , William Fichtner , Tom Wilkinson , Ruth Wilson , Helena Bonham Carter

Runtime

149

Writers

Justin Haythe , Ted Elliott , Terry Rossio

9 'John Carter' (2012)

Directed by Andrew Stanton

Disney has a long history of fumbling their science fiction films, and 2012's John Carter was a very public casualty of this mishandling. The film itself can be a fun B-movie adventure, but most of that was buried beneath an avalanche of bad press before its release. The title change, from the original Edgar Rice Burroughs novel A Princess of Mars to John Carter of Mars to the removing any mention of the red planet entirely, did not do the film any favors and made it sound incredibly generic.

John Carter lives in the shadow of Star Wars and so many of the other space-faring swashbucklers that came in its wake, which is sadly ironic given that they all owe a tremendous debt to the film's source material. The real casualty here was the live-action career of Andrew Stanton, who came to the project hot off the Pixar hits Finding Nemo and WALL-E. It's a shame audiences won't get to see what the director had planned for John Carter's sequels.

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John Carter

PG-13

Action

Adventure

Fantasy

Sci-Fi

Where to Watch

• stream
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*Availability in US

Release Date

March 7, 2012

Cast

Taylor Kitsch , Lynn Collins , Samantha Morton , Willem Dafoe , Thomas Haden Church , Mark Strong

Runtime

139

Writers

Andrew Stanton , Mark Andrews , Michael Chabon , Edgar Rice Burroughs

8 'Strange World' (2022)

Directed by Don Hall

Strange World is the kind of light, pulpy sci-fi adventure that Lightyear should have been. There is no reason that it should've done as poorly as it did, except for the fact that its marketing was basically non-existent. Disney's marketing department didn't have a princess or any songs to hang their promos on and were basically at a loss.

The plot, involving a family of adventurers on an expedition to solve an energy crisis, is something straight out of pulp adventure comics, and the visuals are suitably bold and colorful. Strange World seems like the kind of film that a whole generation of adults will have very fond memories of years from now, similar to other animated Disney adventure films that fizzled out during their initial release. Good luck to them and finding any licensed merch for the film, though.

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Strange World

PG

Where to Watch

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*Availability in US

Release Date

November 23, 2022

Cast

Jake Gyllenhaal , Dennis Quaid , Jaboukie Young-White , Gabrielle Union , Lucy Liu

Runtime

102 minutes

7 'Onward' (2020)

Directed by Dan Scanlon

Onward is one of the most underrated Pixar films. It's a fun family fantasy that follows two elf brothers on an epic quest to meet the father they never knew, and it's loaded with fun in-jokes aimed at fans of the genre. The film also had a cosmically bad release date, hitting theaters in the U.S. just as COVID was starting to shut things down.

The pandemic affected the film's bottom line, and critical reception was muted as well. The argument that some recent Pixar films don't reach the heights of their original classics is both unfair and often biased. While the studio is experiencing a major win with Inside Out 2 making over a billion dollars, it's teaching a lesson that familiarity breeds success, which is never good news for original ideas. Onward has a fantastically realized world, fun characters, and just as much heart as any of the studio's more successful franchises.

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Onward

PG

Animation

Adventure

Family

Where to Watch

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*Availability in US

Release Date

March 6, 2020

Cast

Tom Holland , ​Chris Pratt2 , Octavia Spencer , Julia Louis-Dreyfus , Ali Wong , John Ratzenberger

Runtime

102 Minutes

Writers

Dan Scanlon , Jason Headley , Keith Bunin

6 'The Black Cauldron' (1985)

Directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich

It may have a cult following now, but The Black Cauldron was the Disney bomb so big that it nearly killed their animation department. Honestly, it's not hard to see why when the film is considerably darker than any of the studio's previous animated fantasy films. When the villain is a red-eyed, devil-horned demon with a gravelly voice provided by John Hurt, who wants to raise an army of the dead, parents are not likely to run to theaters with their children.

That darkness is precisely what made The Black Cauldron so popular with its current fans, but it deserves to have more. This film features a pig that has psychic premonitions, and yet Disney store shelves are not filled with Hen Wen plushies. Dark fantasy is not a genre that Disney dips into very often, so it's worth recognizing when it does, and The Black Cauldron has a lot to offer modern audiences.

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5 'The 13th Warrior' (1999)

Directed by John McTiernan

There were a lot of reasons why The 13th Warrior didn't work. It's a product of the Crichton craze of the '90s, where, in the wake of Jurassic Park's success, almost every novel by author Michael Crichton was optioned in Hollywood. Most of the adaptations were misfires, but many still managed to turn a profit. That was not the case for The 13th Warrior, which was adapted by Die Hard filmmaker John McTiernan from Crichton's novel Eaters of the Dead (a much better title) and lost Disney's Buena Vista division a legendary amount of money.

The novel combines the classic poem Beowulf with actual historical events to create a gritty and grounded approach to fantasy. The 13th Warrior was mired in reshoots (some of which were shot by Crichton himself), re-edits, and even had its entire musical score replaced. The result was a film that feels compromised but still has more than enough to recommend it. Before spending time in prison, McTiernan was an absolute master at crafting and executing action sequences, and there are several standouts in the film. It may not be his best, but The 13th Warrior is better than it has any right to be, given the circumstances.

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The 13th Warrior

R

Adventure

Action

History

Where to Watch

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Not available

Not available

Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date

August 27, 1999

Cast

Antonio Banderas , Diane Venora , Dennis Storhøi , Vladimir Kulich , Omar Sharif , Anders T. Andersen , Richard Bremmer , Tony Curran , Mischa Hausserman , Neil Maffin , Asbjørn Bear Riis , Clive Russell , Daniel Southern , Oliver Sveinall , Sven Wollter , Albie Woodington , John DeSantis , Erick Avari , Maria Bonnevie , Richard Ooms

Runtime

102 Minutes

Writers

Michael Crichton , William Wisher , Warren Lewis

4 'Turning Red' (2022)

Directed by Domee Shi

For a long time, Pixar producing hit films was as close to a guaranteed thing as possible in Hollywood. That is certainly not the case anymore, but often, that isn't the fault of the films themselves. Turning Red, a wildly creative take on puberty and mother-daughter relationships, was another victim of the COVID-affected box office and was released directly on Disney+, at least domestically. Unfortunately, it became one of the biggest box office flops of the 2020s, so far.

That's an undeserved reputation for Pixar's first film directed solely by a woman. The film's story is clearly personal for director Domee Shi and has some very specific cultural touchpoints that make it stand out in a medium that can often feel very homogeneous, with studios trying to make their films as broadly appealing as possible. Sadly, audiences seem to be taking Pixar's movies for granted now, which is unfortunate because the studio is still putting out work that is just as clever and emotional as their classic films.

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Turning Red

PG

Animation

Adventure

Comedy

Where to Watch

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Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date

March 11, 2022

Cast

Rosalie Chiang , Sandra Oh , James Hong

Runtime

100 minutes

Writers

Domee Shi

3 'Atlantis: The Lost Empire' (2001)

Directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale

Atlantis: The Lost Empire was not as big of a bomb as some of Disney's other adventure-focused efforts, but it still sank at the box office, which is ridiculous because it's one of their greatest animated films ever. The film follows aspiring adventurer Milo Thatch (Michael J. Fox) as he and a motley crew of explorers attempt to find the titular lost city. It's a plot right out of the works of Jules Verne and features plentiful action and stunning visuals.

It wasn't a hit with critics or audiences at the time, who may have been thrown off by how different it was from everything Disney animation had done. Since then, Atlantis has become a cult classic with a legion of fans who appreciate its differences. The initial failure still stings, though, and it robbed fans of a planned sequel that was scrapped.

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Atlantis: The Lost Empire

pg

Animation

Adventure

Family

Sci-Fi

Where to Watch

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*Availability in US

Release Date

June 2, 2001

Cast

Michael J. Fox , Corey Burton , Claudia Christian , James Garner , John Mahoney , Phil Morris

Runtime

95minutes

Writers

Tab Murphy , Plato , David Reynolds , Gary Trousdale , Joss Whedon , Kirk Wise

2 'Treasure Planet' (2002)

Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements

This adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate novel Treasure Island was a spectacular sci-fi flop. To a certain generation of Disney fans, though, this film was their childhood. Much like Atlantis or Strange Planet, the film trades in pulp adventure and has a cool piratepunk aesthetic to match. Once again, audiences and critics turned away, and the film walked the box office plank.

When a film has as niche a premise as Treasure Planet does, it relies on the Disney brand itself to bring in audiences. The studio wasn't as strong at the turn of the millennium, as their traditional animated films continued to have diminishing returns and CG-animated films began to dominate. It also didn't help that Treasure Planet was released a few weeks after Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and was completely overshadowed by the bigger release. Now, it would make for a rousing double feature alongside Atlantis.

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Treasure Planet

PG

Science Fiction

Fantasy

Adventure

Where to Watch

• stream
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*Availability in US

Release Date

November 6, 2002

Cast

Joseph Gordon-Levitt , Emma Thompson , David Hyde Pierce , Martin Short , Laurie Metcalf , Roscoe Lee Browne , Patrick McGoohan

Runtime

95

1 'The Rescuers Down Under' (1990)

Directed by Hendel Butoy and Mike Gabriel

The Rescuers Down Under is a mousterpiece. It has gorgeous animation, with technology pioneered here that would change Disney, a fantastic setting in the Australian outback, and memorable performances from its cast, including John Candy as a comedic relief albatross and George C. Scott as one of the scariest animated villains of all time. The film got lost at the box office, and because it was sandwiched between two of the most iconic Renaissance films, 1989's The Little Mermaid and 1991's Beauty and the Beast, it remains a forgotten Disney gem.

Maybe family audiences were just more taken with Home Alone, which premiered the same weekend, or too much time had passed between it and its predecessor, which has also been mostly forgotten. The tale of two mice who work for the Rodent Rescue Aid Society and specialize in saving children is utterly charming and actually warrants revisiting in this age of Disney mining their existing properties for all their worth. Give audiences a new adventure of Bernard and Bianca, you cowards.

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The Rescuers Down Under

G

Animation

Adventure

Family

Fantasy

Where to Watch

• stream
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Not available

Not available

Not available

*Availability in US

Release Date

November 16, 1990

Cast

Bob Newhart , Eva Gabor , John Candy , Tristan Rogers , Adam Ryen , George C. Scott , Wayne Robson , Douglas Seale , Frank Welker , Bernard Fox , Peter Firth , Ed Gilbert , Carla Meyer , Russi Taylor , Peter Greenwood , Billy Barty , Mickie McGowan

Runtime

77 minutes

Writers

Byron Simpson , Jim Cox , Joe Ranft

NEXT: Every Disney Movie, Ranked

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