Disney Movie Eras: Disney Movie Toons and Direct to Video Pt 3
This month continues a new series of blogs for fans of popular culture. Whereas in the past explorations of Walt Disney films we highlighted individual works, we will now be talking about the larger groupings of movies, and the various artistic and commercial visions sought for and achieved from said movies.
A quick run though of the eras:
The Golden Age: 1937-1941
Wartime: 1942-1949
The Silver Age: 1950-1967
The Bronze Age: 1968-1988
The Renaissance: 1989-1999
Post-Renaissance: 2000-2009
Revival: 2010-2019
Streaming: 2020-Present
As you can see, the various eras are inspired by historical art movements over the year, as well as comic books. You can draw the parallel, for instance, between the Italian Renaissance, or between the iterated variations of popular superheroes like Batman and Superman.
We will also be covering Disney live action films. The list of films owned by the Walt Disney Corporation is quite expansive because it includes multiple studios and production companies, such as Touchstone Pictures, Pixar, and more. And for good measure, we will also cover animated films that released without the official Walt Disney Pictures branding, as well as films that only released via television or Disney +.
So buckle up everyone as we retread the Disney films of years passed:
In our efforts to showcase, however briefly, every animated film Disney has produced, we have realized that number of films exceeded even our most generous initial estimates. Here we are in Part 3 of this particular series, and I am going to start off by announcing there will be a Part 4, kind of. That said, let's get down to business.
Backtrack to 2003. Walt Disney Animation was on the backstep of one of their more popular films of recent years, Lilo and Stitch. Realizing what it had, the company simultaneously began three new projects. The first was a new television series, called Lilo & Stitch: The Series. Disney's cartoon lineup was hugely popular and profitable, so making a series out of a new hit film was a no-brainer. As such, and as had been done with previous television series attempts, they also began work on a direct-to-video pilot, this film which is Stitch! The Movie. The third project was a sequel film, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch has a Glitch, which we previously covered in Part 2 of this series. This was a strange move, from a story perspective, as that movie did not release until 2005, two full years after the release of Stitch!, and serves as a midquel of sorts between the events of this and the original film. The two projects effectively had dueling budgets and teams, working separately from one another, and even had to resort to recasting actors... for 2, mind you, but not Stitch! or the series.
The result? Stitch! the Movie may just be the most successful of the many Disney television series pilots, successfully launching a television show that would actually finish with a proper ending, an honor shared by Aladdin, Big Hero 6, Tangled, and The Lion Guard. We'll talk more about that ending in a bit.
Kronk's New Groove is the follow-up to The Emperor's New Groove. Released in 2005, the film follows Kronk, recently unemployed following Yzma's failed coup attempt. The film serves a bit as a vehicle of Patrick Warburton himself, being one of his most prominent lead roles. The film has a genuine sense of his comedy, though if you weren't a fan of Kronk in the original film, this might be a little bit over an overload.
I find midquels to be a little bit of a struggle. On the one hand, having a story take place as an earlier adventure immediately kills any sense of danger to be found. If the audience knows that there's another work with the main character, than any other dangerous moments are immediately spoiled, especially if you've already seen said other work. On the other hand, it is really hard to argue when the film is as genuinely beautiful and well-made as Bambi 2. The film also benefits from the voice talents of Sir Patrick Stewart, who plays the Great Prince of the Forest. While Bambi 2 was a direct-to-video film in the US, it did see limited play in theaters in other countries.
Do movies need sequels? Critics ask this pretty often when it comes to Disney's direct-to-video sequels, and Brother Bear 2 is perhaps one of the more vocalized instances of this. It's not a bad film by any means, but it also introduces needless characters and romance into a story that worked perfectly fine without any of that. The story centers on Kenai's reunion with his fiance, destined to be with him. Since he's a bear now, that means she must become one too! Koda is unhappy about having someone else to compete with Kenai's attention.
The Fox and the Hound and The Fox and the Hound II
Another midquel! Set during the montage of the original film, The Fox and the Hound 2 follows Copper and Tod on an adventure to the county fair. That's really about all that needs to be said to summarize the film! There's a moment where Copper threatens to abandon his home and join a pack of stray dogs, but for those familiar with the original film, we know how that story ends.
Disney has a lackluster track record regarding most of their sequel films, but sometimes they release something truly inspired. Cinderella III: A Twist in Time serves as the sequel to the previously discussed Cinderella II: Dreams Come True. Here, Lady Tremaine remains bitter and jealous of Cinderella's pending marriage to the Prince. Quite by accident, not-so-evil stepsister Anastasia accidentally steals the Fairy Godmother's wand, leading to a wild time travel adventure with Cinderella's happily ever after in jeopardy!
Also in jeopardy was Walt Disney's direct-to-video empire. In late 2007, John Lasseter, now head of Walt Disney Animation, made the decision to effectively terminate direct-to-video films, and the entire line-up of upcoming projects. Sequels to Pinocchio, Dumbo, The Aristocats, Chicken Little, and Meet the Robinsons were all cancelled. There were a few more projects that were deep enough in production to continue forward, but everything else was cancelled.
This is perhaps one of the most ambitious and unfortunate stories in Disney home media. For years, the Disney media empire had churned out a respectable catalog of books and video games featuring the Disney princesses in all new stories. The success of this segment inspired the creation of the tragically short lived Disney Princess series. Tragically short lived, because of Lasseter's 2007 cancellation of all movies. Critics describe this two featurette film as being unimpressive, even by the standards set by Belle's Magical World and Cinderella II. One critic suggested this might have worked better as two episodes of a dedicated Disney Princess television show. Whatever the case, this may well have been the final nail in the coffin, and the very product that convinced Lasseter that enough was enough.
As for the film itself, you have two 25~ minute episodes of daily life for two select princesses, Aurora and Jasmine. Neither Aladdin or Prince Phillip show up. Disney did at least get a promotional advertisement for a sequel, featuring Belle as one of the episodes, but said film was terminated before anything came of it.
Talk about going out on a high note. The final direct-to-video Disney sequel produced was a prequel, The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning. The film serves as a retcon, telling the story of how Atlantica came to be like, as shown in the original film. By and large, this is essentially an animated version of Footloose, the popular Kevin Bacon movie about teenagers forbidden from dancing in their small town, except everyone's a mermaid. The animation and music are top notch, relative to the rest of the films we've discussed, and there's a real argument to whether this should have actually gotten a theatrical release.
Unfortunately, the writing was already on the wall.
Before we end our entry, we have one more segment to bring up: The Planes series.
More of a Pixar endeavor than Disney, Planes originates from the Car Toons shorts of 2010, with the introduction of aircraft to the Cars universe. The Car Toons were a series of episodic short films based on the Pixar film Cars, in which Mater enjoys various profession-based antics (and which also served as an informal test for Cars 2). Originally planned as a direct-to-video film, Planes got a bump up by Disney for a theatrical release, the first in 8 years since the Heffalump movie (and not counting Tinkerbell, which we will discuss later).
Having already closed their subsidiary films, and unable to take up resources at Pixar, the film was outsourced to Prana Studios. Prana Studios was a short-lived but prolific animation company with offices in the United States and India, responsible for work on several films since 2003. The finished film about a crop-duster who dreams of racing, released to over $240 million against a $50 budget, and some rather cool reviews.
Having found success, and with Disney and Pixar both on the cusp of new eras in their company, there was but one more film to release. In 2014, the company released Planes: Fire & Rescue. Dusty retired from air racing to find a new life as a wilderness fire fighter, with a whole crew of new characters. Reviews for the first film had not been terrific, and reviewers again found little to be pleased with in this sequel. With a similar budget, Planes: Fire & Rescue made a notably lower gross of $147 million. While still a success, Disney was unwilling to commit to further side films.
We are almost done covering the Direct to Video films. The only thing left is the Disney Fairies franchise!
Stay tuned next time, when we revisit Live Action films.
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