Live Action Films to 2009
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-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:
Welcome to the new Millennium!
Walt Disney Pictures continued their onslaught of live action films. In total, 56 released before 2010. We're going to cover twelve of them.
Hard to think there was a time when Meg Cabot wasn't the queen of teen literature. Though she had written a few books under a pen name, Patricia Cabot, as early as 1998, her biggest hit of all would be 2000's The Princess Diaries, the first book she released under her own name. The book was so promising, Cabot's agent started shopping it to film companies, and very quickly penned a deal with Disney. Production on the film began even before the first book in her series would be published!
The film stars Anne Hathaway, it what would become her debut, alongside Julie Andrews, partnering again with Disney for the first time since Mary Poppins. It's perhaps one of the biggest mentor pairs in film, teaming up everyone's favorite Dame with the oh so typical high school nerd to glam makeover. In that niche genre, it remains the #1 pick. More impressive, despite starring a teenaged girl, the film found huge success among general audiences from grade school into adulthood. The Princess Diaries bucked trends and established a new star, and would continue to be prolific for years to come. The film released to success and acceptance in 2001 and was pretty much immediately followed by a sequel in 2004, with The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
In 2002, Disney adapted Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting, another film aimed at the teenaged girl audience. The Walt Disney Company has always valued that particular audience niche when producing films. Unlike with our previous entry, Tuck Everlasting did not quite find such wide appeal.
Alexis Bledel stars as Winnie Foster, a young teenager in early 20th century who accidentally stumbles upon an immortal family, the secret to their long life being a mysterious wellspring. The predictable plot arises where a greedy businessman wants to profit from the water and the secret of immortality is at risk of discovery. The film released in late 2002, earning $19 million against a $10 million budget.
90s kids need no introduction here. If you haven't seen the film, you've almost certainly read the book, which has been a middle school summer reading staple since its publication. Holes might just be one of the best produced and most faithful film adaptations in cinema history. The cast is filled with big names such as Sigourney Weaver and Jon Voight, as well as new star Shia LeBeouf very early in his career.
Against a $20 million budget, Holes made over $74 million, making it a sure fire hit.
What a poignant film. In 2003, Hilary Duff was the face of The Disney Channel and the star of her hit television show, Lizzie McGuire. After two seasons, the show was coming to an end and Disney decided to end things with a bang, releasing a theatrical film finale. Graduating junior high, Lizzie was going places, including to Italy for this impressive teen glow up film. The film, ultimately about a shy student who finds she really does have the talent to make her dreams come true, speaks a lot about Hilary Duff as a person. Mirroring her character's arc, Duff herself would graduate from being a teen television idol and become a notable pop star and author. These ARE what dreams are made of.
Against a $13 million budget, The Lizzie McGuire Movie pulled in over $55 million. Another hit!
This just might be Disney's most popular live film. Released in 2003, this would be the second time the film was remade, with another remake years later as a Disney Channel Original Movie. This version is probably the most renown, starring Lidsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis as the titular switching daughter and mother. Believe it or not, neither Lohan or Curtis were first picks for the film, despite the former's success with The Parent Trap. Six years later, Lohan was well on her way to stardom and on the verge of becoming the biggest teen star of the decade. Ultimately, it was Lohan's performance in another Original Movie, Get A Clue, that convinced Disney execs of her stardom. The film also stars Michael Gould (The Golden Girls) and Mark Harmon just before he hit it big with NCIS.
Against a $26 million budget, Freak Friday raked in over $160 million, a huge amount even with the great reviews and expectations.
By about 2003, the Disney animation department was starting to really get into their downward slide, as previously mentioned in our December blog. The Live Action hits would continue, with their first film based on a ride, The Haunted Mansion.
I briefly considered making a whole blog entry just about that little genre, but I wasn't entirely convinced there was quite enough material for that one. Technically speaking, this wasn't even really the first film they made in that category; that honor belongs to Tower of Terror, opens a new window, a direct to television film released on ABC in 1997. Also, I've already previously covered this film two years ago here, opens a new window.
While reviews were mixed, the film itself was another huge hit, exchanging a $90 million budget for $182 million in returns.
In the 2000s, another star was also on a meteoric rise, that of Nicholas Cage. Cage had been a leading man in Hollywood since 1996, but had yet to be in a major Disney film. In 2004 Disney released National Treasure, starring Cage as he hunted for a fantastic historical fortune hidden in the United States. The film was a huge hit, earning $347 million against a $100 million budget.
The film would be followed by a sequel, 2008's National Treasure: Book of Secrets, as well as a revival show on Disney+, Edge of History, along with a rumored third installment.
The success of The Haunted Mansion showed that audiences would be more than happy to see movies based on theme park rides. In surprisingly short order, Disney greenlit production on another ride-based movie, this one involving pirates. The pirate genre had once been rather popular in film (see Treasure Island), but was looking rather questionable in the early 2000s. The biggest disappointment was 2002's Treasure Planet, which Disney had recently released with a huge budget and paltry earnings. Putting out this film, then, was a huge gamble for the studio, who was desperate to carve out a niche in the fantasy action adventure genre that was dominated by The Lord of the Rings.
The biggest gamble of all perhaps was the film's star, Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. The actor is now memorialized for his iconic role, so popular he became the face of a five film franchise, got a new animatronic of him put in the official ride, and would star in several more Disney films over the next fifteen years, playing essentially the same character. In 2005, studio execs needed a lot of convincing to trust Depp. The end result? Despite the large $140 million budget, it earned over $650 million, smashing records and revitalizing a genre that had been on the verge of sinking to Davy Jones' locker. And did we mention the other four films the franchise would put out? It was Disney's biggest success, until the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In 2003, Lidsay Lohan shared marquee billing with Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday. By 2005, Lohan was pushing with her own star power entirely. The teenage drama queen was starring in another Disney film, based on another book, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. What a perfect casting, right? Lohan wouldn't spend the rest of her life as a teen idol, or even a Disney star, but she certainly earned it here.
Though still a success of $33 million, against a $15 million budget, it was a lot less compared to her previous outing.
Ice Princess began life as a script penned by Meg Cabot, still relatively fresh from the success of The Princess Diaries. The author worked hard on the script (and even blogged about it!) but it had always been intended for a Disney release, so no book was ever published. Starring Michelle Trachtenberg, who sadly passed away earlier this year, the film would become a formative hit for fans of ice skating, in much the same way as Rocky and Remember the Titans. Trachtenberg stars as nerdy girl Casey, an aspiring physics student who's favorite hobby was spending time on ice skates. Working on a college scholarship, Casey tries out at the local rink where she rediscovers her passion.
The film was not a particular success, barely making back its $25 million budget, but it remains a cult classic of Trachtenberg's fans, as well as a favorite of several notable figure skating stars.
Since 1999, Disney struggled to properly compete with New Line Cinema's massive hit, The Lord of the Rings. Though Disney made a gallant effort with Pirates of the Caribbean, it was not quite the same, and a bit too historically tied, in spite of Aztec zombie curses. Really, there was only ever one other work that truly competed with Tolkien, so Disney made sure to grab the rights to the Chronicles of Narnia.
To say the film was a hit would be an understatement. Against an impressive $180 million budget, the film went on to make $745 million and became the biggest DVD of 2006.
Disney only produced three films out of the seven published books. 2008 saw Prince Caspian, followed by 2010's Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Speaking of formative films, 2007's big hit resonated strongly with young Millennials and older members of Gen Z. For those of us older, this was their version of My Girl. Josh Hutcherson and Anna Sophia Robb star in the classic tale by Katherine Paterson, in a film that even involved the author. Few films from the time would be quite as classic and heart-wrenching at the same time.
Against a budget of $17 million, Bridge to Terabithia earned over $137 million.
Stay tuned next month when we return to covering the Direct-to-Video films.
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