Special Report

25 Worst Live-Action Disney Movies of All Time

The Walt Disney Company is known for releasing countless classic movies, both live-action and animated. However, they can’t all be hits. Some are real stinkers.

To identify the worst live-action Disney movies of all time, 24/7 Tempo created an index composed of each film’s rating on IMDb, an online movie database owned by Amazon, as well as its Audience Score and Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, an online movie and TV review aggregator. (Data on worldwide ticket sales came from The Numbers, an online movie database owned by consulting firm Nash Information Services, and is adjusted for inflation.)

The IMDb scores for the films on this list range from 3 out of 10 to a high of 5.5, while the composite Rotten Tomatoes numbers sink as low as 18% out of 100 and never rise above 39%. (It isn’t just Disney that turns out bad cinema, of course. These are the 25 worst movies of all time.)

Some movies on this list had potential but didn’t work out and some were just bad ideas from the start. All the films are bad but some are so bad that they’re entertaining and have attained a sort of cult status. Others are just plain stupid and filled with plot holes, dumb jokes, and boring characters. Many come off as poorly thought-out and executed would-be cash grabs.  

Click here to see the 25 worst live-action Disney movies of all time

A number of these movies here are comedies (of sorts) from the ‘90s and early 2000s. This was the heyday of Adam Sandler, and while Sandler’s films often found massive success commercially, Disney’s attempts to emulate his style of humor often yielded far different results. Just reading brief summaries of some of the movies on our list will make you wonder what whoever greenlighted them was thinking. (Of course, Disney often hits it out of the ballpark, too. Contrast our “worst” list with the best Disney movies of all time.) 

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

25. Celtic Pride (1996)
> IMDb rating: 5.3
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 31%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $19.1 million
> Starring: Damon Wayans, Daniel Stern, Dan Aykroyd, Gail O’Grady

Mike and Jimmy are two diehard Boston Celtics fans who put their team first over everything else. The Celtics are headed to game seven of the NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz when the pair stumbles upon one of Utah’s star players in a Boston nightclub. Initially, they pose as Jazz fans and try to get the star athlete so drunk he’ll be hung over. However, the next morning they wake up to realize they’ve actually kidnapped him.

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Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

24. My Favorite Martian (1999)
> IMDb rating: 5.1
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 30%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $66.7 million
> Starring: Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Daniels, Elizabeth Hurley, Daryl Hannah

“My Favorite Martian” is a live-action science-fiction movie based on a 1960s TV show of the same name. The show found wide success, which the movie was not able to reproduce. Jeff Daniels plays a disgraced news reporter who witnesses an extraterrestrial crash. His investigation leads to an odd friendship with the UFO’s alien pilot.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

23. Father Hood (1993)
> IMDb rating: 4.9
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 34%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $7.2 million
> Starring: Patrick Swayze, Halle Berry, Sabrina Lloyd, Brian Bonsall

Patrick Swayze stars as a father who’s a small-time crook in this comedy-drama box-office bomb. His kids are put into a state-run home after he’s sent to prison and their mother dies of cancer. The children quickly try to escape from the home and their dad realizes he is obligated to help.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

22. Fire Birds (1990)
> IMDb rating: 4.8
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 35%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $32 million
> Starring: Nicolas Cage, Tommy Lee Jones, Sean Young, Bryan Kestner

Nicolas Cage stars as an Apache attack helicopter pilot attempting to take down a South American drug cartel. Previous attempts to assault the cartel’s mountain fortress have been thwarted by an expert mercenary helicopter pilot on the payroll of the cartel. Luckily, one man (with his helicopter) has what it takes to take on a massive criminal operation. “Fire Birds” received criticism for basically trying to be “Top Gun” with helicopters.

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Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

21. Play It to the Bone (1999)
> IMDb rating: 5.5
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 25%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $15.3 million
> Starring: Woody Harrelson, Antonio Banderas, Lolita Davidovich, Marie Park

The movie follows two boxers who are also friends as they travel to Las Vegas to face off for a chance to compete for the middleweight title. They are scheduled to be the undercard for a Mike Tyson fight and at first no one is interested. However, as their fight progresses fans are drawn in by the intensity and heart of the two fighters.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

20. Corky Romano (2001)
> IMDb rating: 4.7
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 39%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $40.7 million
> Starring: Chris Kattan, Peter Falk, Vinessa Shaw, Peter Berg

Corky Romano is an adult veterinary technician that has no idea his entire family is in the mafia and that his father is a big-time crime boss facing racketeering charges who has decided the only way to beat the case is destroy the evidence. However, the majority of the Romano family is known to the authorities, so instead they must send Corky, disguised as an FBI agent, to carry out the deed. In turn, Corky thrives in his undercover role because his frequent mistakes accidentally solve cases.

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Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

19. Super Mario Bros. (1993)
> IMDb rating: 4.1
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 29%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $46.1 million
> Starring: Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, Samantha Mathis

It’s not entirely clear if the creators of this movie ever played any Mario games or if someone just gave them a very vague description and they ran with it from there. Brothers Mario and Luigi find themselves in a futuristic dystopian world run by a humanoid race evolved from dinosaurs. Is this movie good? It’s hard to say. But it certainly is unique and has gained a cult following of sorts over the years.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

18. The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag (1992)
> IMDb rating: 5.1
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 26%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $7.9 million
> Starring: Penelope Ann Miller, Eric Thal, Alfre Woodard, Julianne Moore

Betty Lou is a meek librarian who happens upon the weapon used to murder a local criminal kingpin. However, she’s so soft-spoken she can’t even get the police to listen to her. So, she produces the weapon and claims that she did the crime (makes sense, right?). In turn she is sent to prison and surrounded by other criminals, which makes her tougher and more outgoing. But when she is released, acquaintances of the victim believe she was involved in the murder and come looking for her.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

17. Boys (1996)
> IMDb rating: 5
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 26%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $1.1 million
> Starring: Winona Ryder, Lukas Haas, John C. Reilly, James Le Gros

John Baker Jr. is a disillusioned boarding school student quickly approaching graduation. However, his life is changed when he finds an unconscious young woman lying in a field. Instead of finding help, he takes her back to his dorm room to recuperate. A day later she has completely recovered and the two begin a romantic relationship of sorts. But instead of leaving the dorm, she continues living with John in secret until other students begin to discover her existence.

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Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

16. Krippendorf’s Tribe (1998)
> IMDb rating: 5
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 24%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $14.8 million
> Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Jenna Elfman, Natasha Lyonne, Gregory Smith

James Krippendorf is a respected anthropologist who travels to New Guinea with his wife to study an isolated tribe. However, he is unable to find them and his wife dies shortly thereafter. He uses the grant money he got for his research to raise his children as a single parent. When the time comes to present the findings from New Guinea, Krippendorf invents a tribe and makes a fake documentary, fearing that he will have to pay the money back if he doesn’t have anything to show for his research. Of course, things escalate from there.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

15. The Tie That Binds (1995)
> IMDb rating: 5
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 32%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $12.1 million
> Starring: Daryl Hannah, Keith Carradine, Moira Kelly, Vincent Spano

“The Tie That Binds” is a thriller about a couple who adopt a young girl named Janie only to learn that her biological parents are murderers trying to get her back. Janie quickly shows some troubling behavior but her new parents believe that with time and love she will grow accustomed to them. Unfortunately, her biological parents will stop at nothing, including torturing and killing those who can lead them to their daughter. Janie’s adoptive parents are forced to flee and deal with the situation alone instead of getting any assistance from the police.

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Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

14. Gone Fishin’ (1997)
> IMDb rating: 4.9
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 37%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $39.4 million
> Starring: Joe Pesci, Danny Glover, Rosanna Arquette, Lynn Whitfield

Joe Pesci and Danny Glover have both been in some great movies but this is not one of them. The pair are friends from childhood who win a fishing trip to the Florida Everglades. However, trouble quickly befalls them after an Englishman steals their car. But these guys love fishing so they decide they’ll push the boat the rest of the way. Luckily for them some nice ladies offer to tow it. The men agree and everything is looking up until they hit a bump, causing their boat (filled with supplies) to disconnect from the car and get hooked to a passing train. It’s a mystery why this wasn’t a hit.

Photo by Stonewood Communications B.V. and Hollywood Pictures Company

13. An American Werewolf in Paris (1997)
> IMDb rating: 5.1
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 30%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $53 million
> Starring: Tom Everett Scott, Julie Delpy, Vince Vieluf, Phil Buckman

“An American Werewolf in London” is a good movie. However, this approximate sequel, set in Paris, is a different story. The movie begins with the protagonist executing a mid-air bungee jump rescue of a woman who has jumped off the Eiffel Tower. However, the woman mysteriously vanishes into the night shortly afterwards. Andy and his friends decide to go to a nightclub — which turns out to be run by werewolves, resulting in werewolf bites, mystery, and mayhem.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

12. Cold Creek Manor (2003)
> IMDb rating: 5
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 23%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $32.5 million
> Starring: Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff, Juliette Lewis

“Cold Creek Manor” is the story of a family who buys a countryside mansion in foreclosure. The patriarch agrees to allow the previous owner, just released from jail, to work at the house as the maintenance man — but then starts to suspect that something isn’t quite right and that maybe the man’s wife and children didn’t disappear, as he claims, but were murdered.

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Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

11. Holy Man (1998)
> IMDb rating: 4.9
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 24%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $23.6 million
> Starring: Eddie Murphy, Jeff Goldblum, Kelly Preston, Robert Loggia

Ricky and Kate work for a home shopping channel where sales have been declining. Things aren’t looking good until they happen to meet G, who wears white robes and is always smiling. Sensing problems, G follows the couple back to where they work and stumbles into an infomercial. Miraculously, sales shoot up dramatically when viewers see G. A conflict between greed and happiness arises when G must create his own infomercial series.

Courtesy of Ascot Video

10. Meet the Deedles (1998)
> IMDb rating: 4.1
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 38%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $8.5 million
> Starring: Paul Walker, Steve Van Wormer, A.J. Langer, John Ashton

Twins Phil and Stu are expelled from their high school in Hawaii after skipping school to go surfing on their 18th birthdays. As punishment, their father enrolls them in a boot camp in Yellowstone National Park. However, when they arrive, the school’s embattled instructor accidentally drives them off a cliff and everyone assumes they are dead. Coincidentally, they are in a luge accident in the forest and end up getting mistaken for two twin scientists who have been expected at the park.

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Courtesy of Buena Vista Home Entertainment

9. That Darn Cat (1997)
> IMDb rating: 4.7
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 23%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $36.5 million
> Starring: Christina Ricci, Doug E. Doug, Dean Jones, George Dzundza

A remake of a movie of the same name from the 1960s, “That Darn Cat” starts when criminals attempt to kidnap the wife of the president of the United States but mistakenly grab the maid instead. Meanwhile, a high school girl is bored with her life in a small town outside of Boston. Her cat always goes off causing mischief at night, but one morning returns with a watch carrying a distress message from the kidnapped maid.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

8. Inspector Gadget (1999)
> IMDb rating: 4.2
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 18%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $176.3 million
> Starring: Matthew Broderick, Rupert Everett, Joely Fisher, Michelle Trachtenberg

After a crippling accident, a security guard at a robotics laboratory undergoes transformative surgery that turns him into part man, part machine. Inspector Gadget, as he becomes known, is filled with all sorts of wacky modifications, some of which make him into a super cop and others that inspire strange antics. The inspector must embark on a quest to stop the villain responsible for the accident that left him mangled.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

7. A Kid in King Arthur’s Court (1995)
> IMDb rating: 4.7
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 27%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $28.9 million
> Starring: Thomas Ian Nicholas, Joss Ackland, Art Malik, Paloma Baeza

While some may have nostalgic memories of this movie, apparently most of the world does not. The movie is based on Mark Twain’s 1889 novel “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” and follows Calvin, a young boy who loves baseball but isn’t great at it. Calvin is waiting at bat in a baseball game when an earthquake hits. The boy is unable to escape and falls into a chasm only to appear in the medieval and magical land of King Arthur

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Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

6. Holy Matrimony (1994)
> IMDb rating: 5.1
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 25%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $1.6 million
> Starring: Patricia Arquette, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Tate Donovan

Two thieves named Havana and Peter rob a county fair and flee to a hideout in the Hutterite community where Peter grew up. They hide their plunder and get married, but shortly afterwards Peter is killed in a car crash. According to the community’s tradition, Havana must marry Peter’s brother, Zeke. Zeke quickly realizes that something is amiss and that Peter was hiding things from both him and Havana.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Home Entertainment

5. Frank McKlusky, C.I. (2002)
> IMDb rating: 4.2
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 31%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: Not available
> Starring: Dave Sheridan, Cameron Richardson, Randy Quaid, Dolly Parton

Frank McKlusky is a safety-obsessed insurance claims investigator. He wears a helmet, knee pads, and a pocket-protector everywhere he goes. This is the result of his overprotective mother raising him after his daredevil father fell into a coma after an accident. Frank must investigate the murder of his partner while wearing a series of disguises.

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Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

4. Mr. Wrong (1996)
> IMDb rating: 3.9
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 26%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $26.5 million
> Starring: Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Pullman, Joan Cusack, Dean Stockwell

“Mr. Wrong” was Ellen DeGeneres’s first and only starring role in a live-action feature film. As the movie begins, her character, Martha, is seen explaining why she committed murder on her wedding day. Flashbacks quickly show that she felt pressured to marry by her parents as she aged and shortly after met a man she thought was “Mr. Right.” However, things do not go as planned.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

3. Mr. Magoo (1997)
> IMDb rating: 4
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 24%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $57.7 million
> Starring: Leslie Nielsen, Kelly Lynch, Matt Keeslar, Nick Chinlund

Mr. Magoo is a wealthy but near-sighted businessman. He is fishing when jewel thieves accidentally drop a stolen ruby in his boat. Law enforcement agents quickly suspect Magoo of the theft and begin to investigate. However, Magoo remains oblivious as cops and robbers embark on a race to recover the jewel.

Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

2. Shadow Conspiracy (1997)
> IMDb rating: 5
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 18%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $4.3 million
> Starring: Charlie Sheen, Donald Sutherland, Linda Hamilton, Stephen Lang

In this political thriller, a presidential aide named Bobby uncovers a plot by the White House Chief of Staff to assassinate the president and grab power. Bobby asks a journalist friend to help him stop the scheme, and the two wade ever deeper into the murky conspiracy.

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Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures

1. Kazaam (1996)
> IMDb rating: 3
> Rotten Tomatoes audience score: 20%
> Worldwide ticket sales, adjusted for inflation: $39.1 million
> Starring: Shaquille O’Neal, Francis Capra, Ally Walker, James Acheson

Shaquille O’Neal (yes, that Shaquille O’Neal) plays an ancient genie named Kazaam. A young boy named Max stumbles upon a boombox with Kazaam inside and releases him. In turn, Kazaam offers Max three wishes but he is hesitant to use them. Max embarks on a quest to find his real father, who turns out to be a somewhat shady music industry persona. Max’s father offers the 12-year-old boy VIP tickets to his nightclub in order to help mend their relationship. Kazaam raps at the nightclub and becomes a hit. It goes on from there.

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