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4. Anastasia

Image: 20th Century

Okay, okay... Now this one is definitely born straight from The Twilight Zone. In short, in 1979, a talented (but divisive) animator named Don Bluth quit his job at Disney, fed with up with studio's "stifling bureaucracy" and the rejection of one too many pitches. Bluth and a cadre of nearly a dozen animators defected to created Don Bluth Productions. The studio's first film was a concept Disney executives had rejected: 1982's The Secret of NIHM. Bluth's studio would gain major prominence when Steven Spielberg signed on, lending his name to An American Tail and The Land Before Time, each intentionally and spitefully released opposite Disney's The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver & Company.

But despite Bluth's best efforts, nothing could top the Disney Renaissance. Beginning with 1989's The Little Mermaid, Disney could do no wrong. The studios' unbroken series of hit animated fairy tale adaptations was an unstoppable force, shattering pop office records, reviving the art of animation, and bringing Disney the kind of pop culture clout it hadn't had in decades. Bluth might not have been able to stop the wave, but he sure could ride it. In 1994, Bluth joined 20th Century Fox to guide the launch of its own in-house animation studio, beginning with an adaptation of a classic film from its century of favorites.

Image: 20th Century

Loosely based on 1956's live action Anastasia, Bluth's 1997 fairytale retelling certainly took a lead from the Broadway-style structure and leading royal heroine archetype established by the Disney Renaissance. Released right between Hercules and Mulan, you can see why the casual moviegoer might believe that the musical film about an orphaned Russian princess battling an evil mystic as she rediscovers her lost lineage pretty well fits the formula... 

Of course, Disney famously re-released The Little Mermaid the week before Anastasia's debut – what Fox CEO Bill Mechanic called "a deliberate attempt to be a bully, to kick sand in our face," noting "the amount they're spending on advertising is ridiculous... It's a concentrated effort to keep our film from fulfilling its potential." Though Disney denied the claim, the result was the same: Anastasia earned just $140 million – the highest grossing of Bluth's films, but lower than any film in the Disney Renaissance.

Disney fans have spent decades carefully and kindly reminding friends and family that Anastasia isn't a Disney movie. That's part of what makes the alternate-reality of a post-20th-Century-acquisition seem so, so, so weird. Seriously:

Image: @DisneyPlus (Twitter)

Yep, Anastasia is pretty infamous for being confused for a Disney film. And now, in some ways, it is. Or at least, it's part of Disney's IP and content portfolio. So will Anastasia join the Disney Princess franchise? Meet-and-greet in Fantasyland's Fairytale Hall? Earn her own Disney+ Original Series? Well... no. But this is one film whose roundabout journey into the Disney catalogue is pretty noteworthy. 

5. Night at the Museum

Image: 20th Century

If there's one thing Disney is associated with, it's family. But technically, Disney hasn't had many home runs in the "family" movie category in the last few decades... In fact, Disney's catalogue is somewhat overburdened with a unique genre you might call "overly-produced, CGI-heavy family adventure films that underperform:" Wrinkle in Time, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Oz The Great and Powerful, Prince of Persia, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Tomorrowland, The Lone Ranger... Disney's obvious quest to find "the next Pirates" keeps getting shipwrecked. (Speaking of which, is Jungle Cruise next?) 

Meanwhile, Fox found a happy place with 2005's Night at the Museum. Directed by Shawn Levy and produced by Chris Columbus (director of the first few Harry Potters), the film follows a night watchman (Ben Stiller) at New York's American Museum of Natural History who discovers that after dark, the museum's collection comes to life. The film recieved mixed reviews (including plenty of praise for its Jumanji-esque excitement, action, and humor), earning $600 million at the box office and spawning two $400 million-earning sequels. Night at the Museum is far from a perfect family film, but it did land with audiences unlike Disney's contemporary outings...

Image: 20th Century

And of course, you know Disney loves a franchise... especially one that's already established for them. A reboot of Night at the Museum was among the first projects whose development was announced after the closure of the Disney-Fox deal. Now, we know that it'll be a Disney+ exclusive. But that's not all... Legendary songwriter Alan Menken (behind the music in nearly all of the Disney Renaissance films) announced that he'd been put to work on a potential stage adaptation of Night at the Museum. 

With or without it, the franchise feels so right for an animated Disney+ series or more. And with Disney's writing team on board, we have no doubt that a Mouse-led Night at the Museum could sincerely be a hit... as long as they don't make the same mistakes again.

6. X-Men, Daredevil, Elektra, Deadpool, and Fantastic 4

Image: 20th Century

Though it's nearly impossible to imagine today, Marvel wasn't always a $4 billion brand. In fact, in the 1990s, a number of takeovers, splits, divisions, and ownership changes ultimately led to the company's 1996 bankruptcy filing. So it's no surprise that – in the midst of financial turmoil – 1990s-Marvel was willing to make a lot of deals. Yes, the same era that would provide Universal with ironclad, perpetual use of the Marvel superheroes in Orlando also saw Marvel auction off its heroes to film studios: Iron Man and the Avengers to Paramount; Hulk to Universal; Spider-Man with Sony; Fantastic 4 to Fox...

But of course, it was 2000's X-Men (twenty years ago!) that finally landed, propelling 20th Century Fox into an endless stream of superhero flicks (that we're still in the midst of). Fox quickly produced 2003's Daredevil and its spin-off Jennifer Garner-vehicle, 2005's Elektra. But X-Men remained not only Fox's superhero standard, but the central franchise of the genre (that is, until the Avengers came along...). In any case, X-Men spawned a core trilogy, a prequel trilogy, a trilogy of Wolverine films, and two spin-off movies in the R-Rated Deadpool franchise.

Image: 20th Century

Of course, a dozen multiverse-spanning, timeline-jumping, cast-swapping, celebrity-ensemble entries over two decades will tire even the most fervent fans, and Fox's ret-conned second attempt at telling the celestial Dark Phoenix story crashed and burned in 2019, officially ending Fox's run with the heroes with a whimper. That said, there's zero doubt that Disney will revive the X-Men in a future phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the pie-chart wedge of characters returned to Disney by way of regaining the X-Men is gargantuan. 

Yet more evidence that Disney won't see the X-Men as a dead horse: they've already committed to reviving Marvel's Fantastic 4 (also salvaged from 20th Century Fox after two disastrous adaptations of the hero team's origin). It's likely that – as they did once gaining say over the oft-rebooted Spider-Man – Disney will skip the origin stories and simply work their regained heroes into the MCU in more organic ways. So even if Disney's acquisition killed off the Netflix-exclusive Daredevil series, don't be surprised to see Charlie Cox's version of the character pop up on Disney+... or in the upcoming, multi-verse-spanning Spider-Man 3... 

 
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Comments

I hate to be "that guy" and nit-pick an article, but I found a few typos:

On page 1, the "X-Men" movie was released in 2000, not 1999. And on page 3, point #6, you even say "X-Men" was released in 2000.

The photo from Star Wars of everyone in the Millennium Falcon is flipped. You can tell because Chewbacca's ammo strap always goes over his left shoulder (which would be seen on our right).

On page 2, you say "Anatasia" earned just $140. So, at $10 a ticket, than means only 14 people saw it?!? Wow, that's sucky income!
Or did you mean $140 million, which sounds about right for a Don Bluth movie going up against "The Little Mermaid".

Thanks for the heads up on these, they have been changed apart from the photo. Apologies and thanks for reading.

Discovery Inc doesn't own History Channel. They are fierce competitors. History is owned by A&E Networks, which is a joint-venture between Hearst and... Disney.

yes that is disny

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