The 6 Best And 6 Worst Animated Disney Movies According To Rotten Tomatoes

Disney movies have defined many a childhood. After debuting their first full-length animated feature all the way back in 1937 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Mouse House went on to conquer the animated movie market, producing classics like Bambi, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and many, many more. 

With such a wide selection to choose from, it can be tough to know where to start with Disney's animated classics, whether you're revisiting your own childhood on Disney+ or introducing your own kids to the celebrated studio's most famous projects. However, Disney's animated movies aren't all winners. For every spectacular success, there is an utterly dismal failure Disney would prefer we all forgot about as quickly as possible. We're here to examine those highs and lows, in an effort to understand what makes the best Disney movies work, and what brings them crashing to the ground. These are the very best Disney animated classics and the absolute worst, according to their rankings on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Goofy might be one of Disney's most enduring and beloved creations, but unfortunately, his major solo outing, A Goofy Movie,  wasn't embraced upon release. The 1995 film, which features a few famous voices including Wallace Shawn and Pauly Shore, focuses on the relationship between Goofy and his son, Max, who have grown apart as Max has gotten older. To remedy this, Goofy decides to take his son on a fishing trip. To say the results are unsuccessful would be putting it mildly.

Upon its release, A Goofy Movie fared poorly with critics, who maintained that children might enjoy Goofy's antics, but "most parents will agree that this beloved character deserves better." However, this might be one instance in which Rotten Tomatoes' ranking might not be entirely fair. Decades after its debut, A Goofy Movie has become a cult film for millennials who loved it as kids. A Goofy Movie might not have gotten the appreciation it deserved back in the day, but clearly, its time has come.

Based on the famous children's fable about a chicken with some serious anxiety issues, 2005's Chicken Little definitely isn't one of Disney's strongest efforts. When young Chicken Little thinks the sky is falling after getting knocked on the head by a mysterious flying missile, he warns everybody to get to safety ... only to discover that the sky is completely intact, and the missile was actually just an acorn. However, a year later, when the sky actually starts to fall — as Chicken Little discovers, aliens are trying to take over the town of Oakey Oaks — Chicken Little must prove his worth to the skeptical townspeople. Alongside his best friend Abby Mallard, Chicken Little must work to regain the trust of the town and save it from alien invasion.

If Chicken Little is unpopular in Oakey Oaks, it's nothing compared to how unpopular he was with critics. They decreed that "Disney expends more effort in the technical presentation than in crafting an original storyline," making Chicken Little one of the studio's weakest animated films.

Some of Disney's weaker outings aren't absolutely terrible, but as Brother Bear demonstrates, sometimes an underwhelming effort is enough to earn a low critical rating. The film tells the story of Kenai, a young Inuit boy living in post-Ice Age Alaska, who wants revenge against a bear that killed his older brother Sitka. However, mysterious spirits turn Kenai into a bear himself so that he can experience life from their perspective. After befriending a bear cub named Koda, journeying to a distant salmon run, and learning about life on the other side of the hunter's spear, Kenai accepts the interconnected nature of life and returns to humanity with newfound insight and compassion.

Critics weren't crazy about Brother Bear, calling it "gentle and pleasant if unremarkable Disney fare, with so-so animation and generic plotting." Despite this lackluster reception, the film managed to score a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards in 2004, only to lose to one of Pixar's strongest films, Finding Nemo.

Doug might be a beloved children's cartoon character, but apparently, his first feature film isn't particularly "funnie." Based on the Disney version of the classic Nickelodeon cartoon, 1999's Doug's 1st Movie features all of Doug's beloved characters, but none of its charm. In this particular adventure, Doug and his friends discover a monster living in nearby Lucky Duck Lake. Though they eventually befriend the monster, who they dub Herman Melville after he tries to eat a copy of Moby Dick, his mere presence is a bad sign. Ultimately, Doug and his friends realize that Herman Melville was created by pollution, and understand they have to clean up the lake before it's ruined.

Doug's 1st Movie earned dismal reviews, with critics excoriating the film for "essentially [amounting] to a forgettable feature-length episode of [the] show." Considering Doug's 1st Movie was such a flop, it makes sense that a second one never materialized.

When a Pixar spin-off doesn't even get to bear the studio's name, you know it's going to be a flop. Enter Planes. This film was released in 2013, and features voice performances from Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Dane Cook, and Priyanka Chopra in her official Hollywood debut. Seems promising, right? Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to Cars, for which it serves as a spin-off. Even with longtime Pixar director John Lasseter at the helm, Planes, which tells the story of anthropomorphic planes involved in a race across the world, falls extraordinarily short.

Critics panned the film, saying, "Planes has enough bright colors, goofy voices, and slick animation to distract some young viewers for 92 minutes — and probably sell plenty of toys in the bargain — but on nearly every other level, it's a Disney disappointment." The standard for both Disney and Pixar films is pretty high, making failed efforts like Planes all the more disappointing.

Sequels aren't always a good idea, and The Jungle Book 2 is a great example of why. Released in 2003, decades after its 1967 predecessor, the second Jungle Book film attempts to complete the story told in the first. What results is middling at best and dreadful at worst. Only the third Disney sequel to get a theatrical release, following Return to Never Land and The Rescuers Down Under, The Jungle Book 2 features some serious star power, with Haley Joel Osment and John Goodman as Mowgli and Baloo, embarking on a new adventure. 

Unfortunately, critics were less than impressed with The Jungle Book 2. According to their reviews, "this inferior rehash of The Jungle Book should have gone straight to video." Sometimes, you can't improve on the original, and clearly, The Jungle Book 2 didn't do its predecessor any favors. At least the 2016 live-action remake is good.