Scene from “Gus”, a “classic” from the dark Disney years
Since its beginnings as a Hollywood studio, Disney has been associated with quality animated films. Company founder Walt Disney began his career as an advertising artist and oversaw the creation of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Fantasia,” “Bambi,” “Cinderella” and other animated classics.
But after Walt died in 1966 and his brother Roy followed five years later, Disney decided that animation was a relic of the past. Occasionally films like “Bernhard and BIanca” or “Cap and Capper” were still made, but the focus was on live-action garbage like “Herbie Goes Zo Monte Carlo,” “King Arthur and the Astronaut” and “Gus.”
With “Arielle” came the return to animated films
If you’re not familiar with the latter film, it’s a Don Knotts film about a mule who plays football. Disney had lost the plot. It wasn’t until 1989’s The Little Mermaid that Disney finally began to put resources back into animated films. This was the beginning of the Disney renaissance, which over the next five years gave us Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King.
More epic fails in film history
They could have made films like this in the seventies and eighties. It turns out that kids would rather see fantastic cartoons with proud lions than a live-action film about a mule playing soccer. Who could have predicted that?
This translated text comes from the list “The 50 Worst Decisions in Movie History” our colleagues from the USA