As a new decade approaches, Disney is releasing new Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOMS), such as “Zombies,” “Descendants 2&3,” and endless amounts of remakes. Some might say that those movies do not compare to the DCOMS of the late 90s-Mid 2000s. Maybe it’s the nostalgia that many of us feel when watching those older films that lower our expectations of the newer movies because it was a large part of many people’s childhoods, or maybe it’s simply the fact that the Disney Channel Original Movies past the mid-2000s are not that great. According to collider.com that ranked all 105 DCOMS, the top 5 movies are all from the late 90s to the early 2000s, while towards the bottom of this list are movies that have been released after 2010.

On the subject of Disney’s endless amount of Television Shows, the outcome is pretty much the same. TV Guide (2019) had ranked 30 Disney shows and at the bottom were the shows as “Girl Meets World” and “Bizaardvark.” Both of these programs first premiered a couple of years after 2010. Towards the top of TV Guide’s list were the shows “Lizzie McGuire” and “Even Stevens,” where both shows premiered in the early 2000s.

Let’s not even get started on Disney’s live-action or remakes of classic movies. Many of these shows have not received great reviews. For example, remakes of movies such as “Dumbo” and “Mulan” received much lower ratings compared to their originals. Again, this could be traced back to nostalgia and the fact that in many people’s minds, nothing can ever compare to its original. Or, it may simply be that these movies just are not any good. The remake of “Mulan,” according to many reviews is especially egregious in this respect, as they “reimagined” many aspects of the original story (IMDb; Common Sense Media, The Verge). For example, Disney replaced the beloved dragon known as Mushu with a Phoenix. They also replaced Milan’s love interest, Li Shang, with another character. Finally, many people believe that this adaptation of Mulan is a type of “Mary Sue” – i.e., a female character that is perfect with little or no flaws. Ever since this version of Mulan has a type of power similar to the force in the Star Wars franchise. On some websites such as Shadows and Movies, the review and explain how Mulan(2020) is a “Mary Sue” character.

While some may enjoy the newer material being released by Disney, it seems that more would prefer Disney’s older stuff, which could be due to the nostalgia people, depending on the age group, feel tied with the direction Disney is currently going with their remakes, live-actions, and their overall material.