Disney has announced and released a number of “disappointing” films over the past three years. College courtesy of freshman Cadence Flickinger.

  San Luis Obispo High School is filled with Disney fans. But Disney may be on its way to losing most of them.

   Any fan of the company is aware of the convention known as D23 that was held August 9-11 2024 in Anaheim California. This is a yearly conference where Disney announces new additions to the parks, new films, and Disney-plus series. But the most recent one was a bitter disappointment according to the public. Disney may have fallen down a hole too deep to get out of. 

  “During Covid, [Disney] definitely had a drop… right now I think it’s really good and people will really like that,” said sophomore Talia Garrett.

  But do all fans really think it’s getting better?

  In 1994 Disney released its first live action remake. Barely anyone is aware of the original live action “Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.” It was then followed two years later with the slightly more known “101 Dalmatians remake.” However the movie most widely recognized as the beginning of the live action apocalypse is “Cinderella” (2015). 

  At the 2024 D23 Expo, Disney announced a live action remake of the 2002 film “Lilo and Stitch,” they released a new trailer for the highly anticipated “Snow White” film coming in 2025, as well as a trailer for a live action (CGI) movie “Mufasa.” While it wasn’t addressed at the convention, Disney has also confirmed they are in the process of making a live action adaptation of 2016, “Moana.”

  “Some of [the remakes] are not needed, but some of the ones like ‘Aladdin’…really bring it to life,” said Garrett.

  Another common theme at the Expo was sequels. The list includes: “Toy Story 5” (2026), “Incredibles 3” (Date TBD), “Avatar 3: Fire and Ash” (2025), “Freakier Friday” (2025), “Zootopia 2” (2025), “Frozen 3” (2027), and the possibility of a “Frozen 4.”

  Fans weren’t so happy with the large number of sequels. 

  “I don’t understand why there are so many ‘Toy Story’ movies, [fans] don’t need that,” said freshman Sophia Kuang.

  Surprisingly enough, their most recent big box office hit was a sequel. “Inside out 2” (2024) became the highest grossing animated film of all time. It made $1.46 billion in theaters internationally. 

  “‘Inside Out 2’ was really good, I saw it in theaters…but most of [the sequels] are bad,” said Kuang. 

  Fans beg for more original ideas but the ones Disney is producing are simply not good anymore. Their last original that became a big success was “Encanto” (2021). Since then they’ve produced movies such as “Strange World” (2022), “Wish” (2023), and “Elemental” (2023) which all bombed. Fans and critics alike said they were all cheesy and not well written. 

  It doesn’t look like Disney has heard the cry for good original ideas as the new movies they announced at D23 included “Hoppers” (2026) and “Monster Jam” (TBD). That’s all. Barely anything.

  The one area that wasn’t lacking in D23 announcements were the parks. They announced a highly rumored villains land coming to Walt Disney World as well as a Monster’s Inc. land coming to the Florida park. But they did take a dip when they announced the closure of a beloved attraction. 

  In 2022 Disney said they would be retheming the attraction Splash Mountain at both the California and Florida parks. The Tokyo attraction would remain untouched. Many fans were upset by this and said online that now the parks were dying too.  

  Even though it may appear Disney redeemed themselves with films like “Inside Out 2”, they still have to prove to fans that they can keep up this good work. They can do this by making films such as “Moana 2” and “Mufasa” box office hits.

  Until then, the House of Mouse may still be in wreckage.         

Sources: disney.fandom.com deseret.com variety.com