Disney’s Animated Flops: 5 Films Audiences Rated the Lowest on Letterboxd

Since its inception in 1937, Disney has enchanted global audiences with a treasure trove of animated films, starting with the iconic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and ranging to titles like “Strange Magic” and the forthcoming “Ice Age: Boiling Point.” However, not every animated work falls under the illustrious banner of Walt Disney Animation Studios. This esteemed division has created 64 films, all beginning with “Snow White,” distinct from creations by Lucasfilm, Pixar, DisneyToon Studios, 20th Century Studios Animation, and other affiliated studios. It’s crucial to note that the mere association with Disney doesn’t guarantee universal acclaim; films beyond this core animation lineage, like “Valiant,” prove that point by not always winning the hearts of viewers.

This discrepancy in popularity is obvious when examining the five lowest-rated films in the Walt Disney Animation Studios canon, as determined by Letterboxd ratings, ranked here from the highest to the lowest score. These particular movies lack the irresistible charm of the studio’s more beloved offerings, the kind that children beg to see repeatedly and that adults view through nostalgically tinted lenses. Instead, these films often left audiences less than impressed, burdened by issues such as overwhelming narration, underwhelming musical pieces, or unsettling political undertones. While Disney’s magic can create wonders, it can also occasionally fall flat.

The Walt Disney Animation Studios catalogue is filled with legendary films that have eternally embedded themselves in cultural lore. Yet, not every project can aspire to join the ranks of timeless classics like “The Jungle Book” or “Frozen.” Positioned on the opposite end of audience admiration are five films that failed to warm Letterboxd users’ hearts.

In the throes of World War II, when the financial strain made it nearly impossible to produce and distribute feature-length animated films akin to “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” or “Pinocchio,” Disney innovated with “package features.” These productions bundled several short segments into one film, foregoing an extended single narrative. While some, like “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad,” have aged gracefully, many of these package films have not stood the test of time, often dominating lists of lesser-received Disney titles.

One such package feature, “Fun and Fancy Free,” carries a modest 2.7 rating on Letterboxd. Within its dual tales, audiences find the story of Bongo, a circus bear, paired with a whimsical retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk” featuring beloved characters Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. Despite ranking above certain ventures in Mickey’s movie career, it’s clear that “Fun and Fancy Free” was not a shining moment for the titular mouse. The film suffered from a lack of memorable humor and was criticized heavily for its excessive narration. Letterboxd users took particular issue with the persistent interruptions by Edgar Bergen and his ventriloquist dummy during the “Beanstalk” segment, which overshadowed the storyline itself.

With the limp antics of “Fun and Fancy Free” characters like Bongo, Disney Animation was clearly in a grizzly, er, grisly artistic period. A return to more ambitious movies like “Sleeping Beauty” couldn’t come soon enough.

Multiple entries in Disney’s package feature era seem to exist solely to embody the phrase “we have ‘Fantasia’ at home.” These are the package features comprised of music-driven segments that lack the bombastic artistry and grandiose audacity of “Fantasia.” One of these was 1946’s “Make Mine Music,” which Letterboxd users bestowed with a 2.7 average rating. Needless to say, “Make Mine Music” is far from one of the best movies of the 1940s, and a severe step down from the Walt Disney Animation Studios entries it evoked.

Most of the Letterboxd reviews for “Make Mine Music” largely focus on its bizarre lack of home video and streaming releases (it’s the only Disney Animation Studios feature not on Disney+, chiefly). While it is fascinating to consider that Disney inexplicably kept “Make Mine Music” off of the Blu-Ray format until 2021, lingering on such facts speaks to how little “Make Mine Music” offers as a movie. Save for the “Peter and the Wolf” segment and another involving a singing whale, Letterboxd reviewers greeted the various “Make Mine Music” stories with a shrug.

There wasn’t enough here, especially in the animation or music, to lend the proceedings a distinctive identity. Mostly, Letterboxd loggers just registered boredom. No wonder “Make Mine Music” couldn’t escape the shadow of “Fantasia.”

Part of the untold truth of Donald Duck is that this feathered cartoon star actually has more experience anchoring feature length theatrical movies than Mickey Mouse. The “Steamboat Willie” star may be on the Walt Disney Animation Studios logo, but Donald headlined multiple 1940s package features put out by the label. Among these was “Saludos Amigos,” one of two films centered on South American culture that came about after Walt Disney, at the urging of the U.S. government, visited countries like Brazil and Argentina on a Goodwill tour. There’s a fascinating history behind “Saludos Amigos,” but it isn’t enough to make the project compelling as a standalone entity.

With a 2.7 average Letterboxd rating, the general Letterboxd reviews for “Saludos Amigos” aren’t bad. Many even praise some of its most creative animation touches and laud its truncated runtime. However, users like Sally Jane Black also observe that the film is “Literally imperialist propaganda,” casting a dark shadow over the proceedings. Plus, while the brief runtime means “Saludos Amigos” isn’t torturously long, it also ensures the film never finds time to justify its existence. 

This thinly sketched exercise doesn’t even offer oodles of misguided material for viewers to wade through after watching, like other Disney Animation Studios misfires like “Chicken Little.” These flaws and “meh” Letterboxd responses reflect how “Saludos Amigos” is one of the more disposable corners of Donald Duck’s cinematic exploits.

Not only is it time for another package feature, but it’s also time for another that’s clearly aping “Fantasia.” This anthology film gave audiences seven short stories driven by distinctive harmonies, with yarns including new renditions of the Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill legends, as well as a segment where Donald Duck has a tenuous encounter with the Aracuan Bird. This 1948 production only scored a 2.6 average rating from Letterboxd users, putting it far behind the reputation of the best Disney movies of all time. Heck, even several of the best Disney Channel original movies likely have better reputations than “Melody Time.”

Like “Make Mine Music,” “Melody Time” was deemed by Letterboxd users as a snore. Refrains referring to the project’s immense tedium are common amongst Letterboxd reviews. The dearth of compelling material at least led to some amusing opinions, like user JaFritt declaring, “I can’t really articulate what I mean but this is the most incel coded Disney film.” Across these takedowns, though, are pervasive sentiments that “Melody Time’ left an immense amount of potential on the table, especially with its disposable characters.

“Melody Time” was the penultimate entry in Disney’s package feature era, one of the bleakest stretches in the studio’s history. At least middling titles like this make it easier to appreciate the artistry behind “Fantasia.”

It’s no secret that Disney’s “Wish” bombed at the box office when it hit theaters in late 2023. It’s also no secret that this “celebration” of Disney’s 100th anniversary was a creative misfire, as seen by its 2.3 average rating on Letterboxd. The artists at Walt Disney Animation Studios had proven quite adept at delivering fun-filled classical musicals that had their own distinct identities with 2010s projects like “Tangled” and “Moana.” On “Wish,” though, those talents went out the window. This production was a formulaic speed-run through Disney Animation tropes delivered with no flair or idiosyncrasies. The result was something that felt infinitely creakier and dustier than “Tangled” from 13 years earlier.

A key problem here were the abysmal musical numbers. Modern Disney musicals utilized the incredible lyrical sensibilities of artists like Randy Newman, Alan Menken & Glenn Slater, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. “Wish,” meanwhile, had Julia Michaels and JP Saxe conjure up forgettable tunes like “I’m a Star.” Additionally, the “Wish” animation scheme evoking hand-drawn animation sensibilities just didn’t work and looked cheap more than anything else. An excessively crowded cast further hampered the already glaring storytelling problems. 

Ariana DeBose giving the lead role of Asha everything she’s got in her voice-over performance wasn’t enough to salvage something as miscalculated as “Wish.” How fitting that the lowest-rated Walt Disney Animation Studios release on Letterboxd is something so beholden to Disney’s history.