With a recent premiere Strange world (2022), the Walt Disney Corporation has produced 61 animated films since 1937. Most of these films have gone down in history as some of the most beloved and enduring animated films ever made. Much of this success is due to the talent of their iconic characters, including strong scripting, stellar animation, and top-notch voice actors.
However, not every character can be winning. Some Disney characters are more likely to be forgotten by fans, usually due to the script and/or voice acting going from cute to annoying for both kids and adults.
Tito - “Oliver and Company” (1988)
Before Cheech Marin voiced Banzai in Lion King, he first appeared in Disney as the voice of the Chihuahua Tito in their modern retelling Oliver Twist. As a member of Fagin’s dog gang, he tries to help his master avoid debts to loan shark Bill Sykes by stealing valuables for him as collateral. Despite his size, Tito’s bluntness ensures he is always heard.
Tito’s problem is that he combines several annoying personality traits in one small package. His short-tempered attitude is reminiscent of a little guy who thinks he’s invincible, and his constant flirting with female dogs is too suave. Luckily, other dog characters are present to balance him out, as well as having him back and forth with a poodle, voiced by Bette Midler leads to a funny solution.
Phil - “Hercules” (1997)
In their attempt to make Hercules commercial hit to make treasure planet, directors John Musker as well as Ron Clements combined classic tropes from sports and superhero movies. This is best seen in the character of Philoctetes or Philus to his friends. voices Danny DeVito, this out-of-satyr form is an expert at training heroes in the hope that one day one of his students will be recognized as gods.
Unfortunately, even this decent motivation or artistic talent of the supervising animator Eric Goldberg can save Phil as a character. When he is not training and encouraging Hercules, he lusts after women to an unpleasant degree. DeVito’s performance usually turns into a loud, obnoxious rage, and his song “One Last Hope” is the worst because he can’t sing.
Turk - ‘Tarzan’ (1999)
Like the last movie of the Disney renaissance, Tarzan invites viewers to look at the techniques of the decade, mixed with new ideas of the post-Renaissance. One of these was a look at the type of supporting characters one would expect in Terk’s form. This young gorilla was created to give Tarzan a friend in his gorilla community, but for a variety of reasons, viewers wanted Clayton to shoot her.
Turk tries to be a tomboy best friend, a tough big sister, and a jolly sidekick. As a result, every time she appears on screen, she seems to be in competition with the other characters to be the most memorable, which leads to her feeling obnoxious. It’s annoying Rosie O’Donnell a performance that sounds more aggressive than her peers and takes away that little charm she had.
BEN - Treasure Planet (2002)
treasure planet remains the most expensive traditional animated film ever made and one of Disney’s biggest box office bombs. This is due to the large number of experimental technologies that were used in its creation. This included BEN (short for Bio-Electronic Navigator), a robot replacing Ben Gunn from the original. Treasure Island, fully animated in computer graphics.
Although BEN does not appear until the last act of the film, his impact on its quality is far-reaching. He creates more problems than he solves, primarily by speaking every other line as loudly and obnoxiously as possible. Most of the scenes with BEN were used in the trailer towards the release of the film, which likely contributed to the film’s poor release.
Sisu - “Raya and the Last Dragon” (2021)
In the land of Kumandra, the dragon Sisu saved the world from the parasite Druun using a gem containing the world’s dragon magic. Five hundred years later, the gem is shattered and the Druun return to plunge the world into chaos. A young woman named Raya eventually finds Sisu and asks for her help in saving the world, but learns that the dragon is not as impressive as the legends say.
Instead of a noble dragon, Sisu is presented as a quirky, socially awkward character who does more harm than good to the story. Her dialogue is terrible and mostly consists of anachronisms and painful puns. From the perspective of the story, she should be the gullible counterpart to Rai’s cynicism, but Sisu, who blindly trusts others, constantly causes trouble for everyone.
Koda - ‘Brother Bear’ (2003)
Writing for a child character is often a gamble, as it’s very easy for them to turn cute into annoying. Disney’s character that best illustrates this is Koda, the bear cub from Brother bear. While his relationship with Kenai is the emotional core of the movie, it falls apart if you don’t take care of him, which is easy to do.
Koda’s biggest problem is that he’s written like that annoying kid you want to shut up. He is hyperactive, always on the move, makes anachronistic jokes that don’t fit the setting, and tries to act tough. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if he breathed in occasionally, but he’s only silent during action or emotional sequences.
Zini - ‘Dinosaur’ (2000)
After success Robin Williams acting as a genie Aladdin, all animated movies have tried to bring back that magic with their own witty sidekick. Disney was no exception to this trend, which quickly infected the ambitious dinosaur documentary. This manifested itself in the lemur voiced by Jack and Daxter actor voice, Max Casella.
Everything that comes out of Zeeny’s mouth is an anachronism, usually in the form of a terrible replica of a pickup truck. This results in a tonal whip. At one point in the film, the characters struggle to survive in hostile landscapes, and the next, Zeeny refers to himself as a “love monkey”. Finally, he seems redundant compared to his family members, who all contribute to the story in at least one way.
Hugo - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame One of the darkest Disney films. To achieve the desired scale and dark themes, the crew had to make some concessions to Disney, which included a trio of comedic gargoyles named Victor, Hugo, and Laverne. All three have their moments, but Hugo, voiced by Jason Alexander, easy is the worst.
Hugo’s role in the trio is a short, obnoxious man, to whom the prim and proper Victor and the elderly Laverne react. That’s it: Hugo spends the entire movie cracking nasty anachronistic jokes ranging from pigeon gambling to fart jokes. However, he also flirts with Esmeralda’s goat, Jali, making him one of the first gay Disney characters.
Maggie - “Polygon House” (2004)
House on the landfill often cited as the film that killed 2D animation. While hand-drawn animation did not deserve the name, as hand-drawn animation has been on life support since Pixar’s inception, it has been a huge disappointment for Disney fans due to the lackluster quality of writing and characters. Nowhere was this more evident than in the main character, Maggie, the show cow.
Maggie feels rejected by a minor character who was accidentally replaced by a real main character. Her character is very superficial and her humor is based on her being rude, obnoxious and using as many puns as possible. It didn’t help that she was voiced Roseanne Barr, and many of her jokes don’t seem too out of place with her usual stand-up look.
Gurgi - “Black Cauldron” (1985)
Bye Michael Eisner as well as Jeffrey Katzenberg herald a Disney renaissance, their first foray into animation nearly ruined it. black cauldron it was so bad that Movie Care Bears surpassed it at the box office. It’s gained a cult following over the years, but one aspect of the film that no one can defend is Gurgi’s comedic sidekick.
This mixture of digs and goblins is Disney’s worst creation. Along with a voice that could best be described as Gollum if he stuffed his mouth with cotton balls, Gurgi is a dead weight for the heroes. While his sacrifice at the end is supposed to be tragic, it’s more than likely that the audience will cheer with joy to see him gone.
Source: Collider
