If you thought that Wish (2023) was unpopular with audiences, just know that one Disney animation was once so unpopular with audiences that they requested a refund.
It’s been well over 80 years since The Walt Disney Company released its first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), and in the years since it’s released its fair share of Oscar winners – plus a handful of flops along the way.
While the likes of The Lion King (1994), Frozen (2013), and Beauty and the Beast (1991) have gone down in history as classics, several Disney films have been widely panned. We saw that ourselves recently with the release of Wish, which was supposed to be Disney’s triumphant celebration of 100 years but instead ended up being panned for unoriginal storytelling and reliance on nostalgia over creativity.
However, the worst of the bunch puts Wish to shame. As per Rotten Tomatoes, Disney’s worst-rated film of all time is The Jungle Book (2003), which scored an approval rating of just 18% upon its release.
Sequels are always hit and miss, especially in Disney’s direct-to-video era back in the 1990s and 2000s. However, this film was particularly hated by critics and audiences alike.
Following Disney’s beloved 1967 animated classic – which has also had a surprisingly good live-action remake directed by Jon Favreau – was always going to be a challenge.
However, the film – which reprises the adventures of Mowgli, the young boy raised by wolves in the jungle who returns to the “Man Village” at the end of the first installment – didn’t try too hard in the creative field, instead choosing to largely rehash the same story as the original and featuring a lackluster soundtrack (let’s be real, they were never going to top the genius of “The Bare Necessities.”)
The animation also has that odd, cheap aesthetic that impacts a lot of Disney’s animated sequels around this time, which is pretty evident from the trailer.
While it was produced by the now-defunct DisneyToon Studios as a direct-to-video film, it (bafflingly) managed to receive a theatrical release where it somehow scored $135.7 million on a $20 million budget.
But reviews were vicious. Starring John Goodman (who replaced Phil Harris as Baloo, and famously also voices Sully in the Monsters, Inc. franchise and Pacha in The Emperor’s New Groove films) and Haley Joel Osment, the film was dismissed as “a recycled, third-rate kiddie diversion that Disney haphazardly conjured up” by Movie Eye and dubbed “a flea market of cheap ploys and meaningless ideas designed to rob parents of hard-earned money” by Cinemaphile.
Disney was accused of pointlessly milking the franchise for profit, with Arizona Republic remarking, “That scratching sound you hear isn’t Baloo the bear rubbing against a tree, it’s Disney scraping the bottom of the sequel barrel with a follow-up that has none of the charm or creativity of the original.”
Some also dismissed it as the absolute worst of Disney’s sequels, which is a pretty impressive feat considering how much negativity surrounded its direct-to-video era. In fact, some even demanded refunds. “I took my grandchildren to see it and even they thought it was bad,” said one furious reviewer (via The Mirror). “I asked the manager of the theatre for my money back. They refused.”
So, next time you lament one of Disney’s more disappointing entries, remember that it could always be worse: it could be The Jungle Book 2.
Have you ever seen The Jungle Book 2? Do you agree that it’s the worst Disney movie?