Top 10 Live-Action Disney Movies You Forgot About
Time to search the Disney Vault to refresh our memories. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the non-animated flicks that even the biggest Disney fans might have totally forgotten existed.
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00:00Mom, am I adopted?
00:03Of course not, honey.
00:07Welcome to Mere's Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the non-animated
00:12flicks that even the biggest Disney fans might have totally forgotten existed.
00:18Alright, here we go.
00:22Number 10, A Kid in King Arthur's Court
00:27Remember three things. Lean in, protect your steed,
00:31fix a point on your opponent's person, and have at him.
00:35That's four things.
00:36Magic, jousting, and baseball. These three things might not usually go together,
00:42but in Disney's A Kid in King Arthur's Court, they're ingredients for a fantastical adventure.
00:49The film follows a kid named Calvin, played by Thomas Ian Nicholas,
00:53who gets magically transported to the Middle Ages.
00:57Influenced by Mark Twain's 19th-century story A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,
01:03this Disney flick features a pre-Titanic Kate Winslet and future James Bond star Daniel Craig.
01:10I'm so sorry about the Princess Katie. I missed you desperately.
01:17I came not for comfort. I came to say goodbye.
01:19The film is essentially pure 90s nostalgia and even spun a lesser-known
01:24sequel called A Kid in Aladdin's Palace, also featuring Nicholas.
01:30Give me back my net.
01:33Are you nuts?
01:34Number 9, Candleshoe
01:36One of the most prominent child stars of the 70s, Jodie Foster starred in a handful of Disney
01:42movies. In 1977, she played the sassy and smart Casey Brown in Candleshoe.
01:48But I brought you...
01:50Can't say that Casey Brown doesn't pay her own way, right?
01:54Wait a minute, there's more.
01:56Casey is a foster child who travels across the Atlantic with a conman in an attempt to
02:01find some lost treasure. Posing as the missing descendant of an heiress, Casey attempts to
02:07trick the woman and steal the hidden fortune that lies somewhere in the estate.
02:11This is Miss Brown, Miss Casey Brown.
02:14Hi. How do you do?
02:16Won't you sit down?
02:18The fun and free-spirited movie has plenty of charms,
02:22but it isn't the most recognizable of Foster's turns with Disney.
02:27Maybe that's why it tends to be forgotten.
02:29No. Either we got a deal up front or we got no deal at all.
02:33Number 8, College Road Trip
02:35Trying to decide where to go to college can be a daunting task for any teen.
02:40Pair that adolescent milestone with a meddling parent and you have all the makings of a classic
02:45Disney movie.
02:47I never thought this day would come.
02:49I did, but I'm proud of you.
02:53Raven Simone is Melanie Porter, a Georgetown University hopeful in College Road Trip.
02:59Her overbearing but well-meaning father James, played by Martin Lawrence,
03:03plans a trip to Washington, D.C. Along the way, they find themselves navigating wacky situations,
03:10adventure, and of course, family dynamics.
03:16The film received middling reviews but performed well enough at the box office.
03:26However, it just didn't have the staying power of other Raven projects,
03:31namely her breakthrough show.
03:33I don't have my hand up.
03:34Exactly.
03:36Mr. Petrucelli, when my hand is up, I know the answer,
03:39and when my hand is down, I don't know the answer.
03:40Let me explain it again.
03:41Hand up, no hand down, don't.
03:43I'm just saying.
03:44Number seven, Jungle to Jungle.
03:46Following his voiceover duties as Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story,
03:50Tim Allen continued his Disney run with 1997's Jungle to Jungle.
03:55The story follows an egotistical businessman who discovers he fathered a child with his ex-wife,
04:02who now lives off the grid in South America.
04:05I must have started a thousand letters to tell you,
04:07but every one of them started with, I know you never wanted children.
04:10This is nuts.
04:11This is nuts.
04:12This is unbelievable.
04:13After making the long trek to meet his son, Mimisiku,
04:16he takes the boy back to his concrete jungle, New York City.
04:21The two learn respective lessons about growing up and fatherhood.
04:25Will you stay with me in Lipa Lipa?
04:29For a while.
04:31You teach me how to hunt.
04:33The film wasn't a hit with the critics, and was a remake of a panned French film anyway.
04:38Even though it features the comedic talents of Tim Allen and Martin Short,
04:43it's not hard to guess why this one might have fallen by the cultural wayside.
04:48How did you get the certificates out of the vault without my signature?
04:51What?
04:51You forged my signature?
04:53Number six, Tom and Huck.
04:56This 1995 adaptation is Disney's take on this American literary classic,
05:01The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
05:03Child star Jonathan Taylor Thomas stars as the young Tom Sawyer,
05:07who sets out to prove the innocence of a man wrongly accused of murder.
05:12I was there! I saw the murder!
05:15Doc Robinson wasn't stabbed four times, he was stabbed three times!
05:18Throughout the film, Tom and his buddy, Huck,
05:20get themselves into some fun but dangerous situations.
05:24It wasn't the first time Disney had adapted a Twain story.
05:28Two years earlier, The Adventures of Huck Finn had come out, starring Elijah Wood.
05:35I'm gonna fix their wagons for good.
05:38That film made a bit more at the box office and garnered positive reviews from critics.
05:44Tom and Huck would not have similar luck.
05:47What's that for?
05:49It's what friends do.
05:51We're friends?
05:53Number five, The Country Bears.
05:56Before Disney theme park attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean
05:59and The Haunted Mansion began getting the big screen treatment,
06:03there was The Country Bears.
06:05The 2002 film sees the beloved singing and banjo-playing
06:09Bruins reuniting after years apart.
06:12We can get the band back together!
06:15Get the band back together?
06:17Get the, get the, oh, that's the stupidest thing!
06:20Never in a million years!
06:22Starring Hayley Joel Osment and Christopher Walken,
06:25the movie also features cameos from music legends including Sir Elton John,
06:30Willie Nelson, and Queen Latifah.
06:33That guy looks a lot like Elton John.
06:35Nah, Elton John's taller.
06:37Although the puppeteering is a little jarring at first,
06:40if you find the Country Bear Jamboree stage show nostalgic,
06:44you'll probably dig this flick.
06:47But it didn't make up its budget, and plans for a sequel were seemingly scrapped.
06:52This is not over, Bears!
06:55Number four, The Absent-Minded Professor.
06:58This film was one of Disney's biggest hits of the 1960s,
07:02but the sci-fi comedy has since been largely forgotten.
07:06It was even nominated for three Academy Awards.
07:09Maybe it's time The Absent-Minded Professor came out of retirement.
07:14We've got to give it a name, Charlie.
07:16Let's see, Flying Rocker. Flying Rocker.
07:20Fred McMurray stars as a professor who creates a formula that resists gravity.
07:25McMurray's performance was influenced by real-life Princeton chemist Hubert Allier,
07:31who was nicknamed Dr. Boom for his explosive demonstrations.
07:35We put it under here so that we can bombard the flubber with gamma rays
07:40to trigger the molecular change.
07:42Which is certainly more scientific than kicking it or bouncing it around the room.
07:47In 1997, The Beaker was passed down to Robin Williams,
07:51who starred in a remake, this time simply called Flubber.
07:55Let's try and describe you.
07:57You're an elastomer.
08:02You're highly viscous, but yet you can phase shift.
08:06Let's see.
08:07Number three, Pollyanna.
08:09I've never had a whole room to myself before.
08:13I must be higher up in the house than anyone, aren't I?
08:18Well, I'm not used to children's noises around the house, and
08:22that's the reason I chose that one.
08:24Written in 1913, the novel Pollyanna kicked off a literary series about an
08:30orphan with an unbridled optimism who moves in with her grumpy aunt.
08:36We gotta have roast chicken, though. I'm glad of that.
08:38Are you gonna start that all over again? Glad this, glad that?
08:42In 1960, Disney adapted the beloved book for the silver screen with Jane Wyman,
08:48Carl Malden, and child star Hayley Mills as the title character.
08:53Mills would go on to become one of the studio's most prominent figures,
08:57starring in five more pictures, including The Parent Trap and That Darn Cat.
09:03Although Pollyanna was well-received, it didn't make as much money as Disney had hoped,
09:08but it remains a favorite in homes around America.
09:12I thought it might give you something to do instead of just lying around.
09:15Number two, The Jungle Book.
09:17That's me.
09:19You? Sure can.
09:21The holy men say I'm half a tiger.
09:23You probably remember Disney's 2016 adaptation of The Jungle Book,
09:29featuring hyper-realistic animal animation.
09:32But it wasn't the first time they had taken another crack at Rudyard Kipling's stories.
09:37The jungle speaks to me because I've learned how to listen.
09:41In 1994, the studio recruited Sam Neill, John Cleese, Lena Headey, and Jason Scott Lee
09:47to tell a version of the tale. What sets it apart is that in the film,
09:51none of the animals talk.
09:53That might have made the movie more grounded,
09:56but we're also inclined to think it may have made the movie a bit more forgettable.
10:01Not having an iconic tune like The Bare Necessities is a big risk.
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10:31Number one, Treasure Island.
10:34You might not know this, but this swashbuckling tale was the first of its kind.
10:39After years of producing animated content,
10:50Disney finally took the plunge by making Treasure Island, its first completely live-action film.
10:57Adapted from the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, the movie follows a boy named Jim Hawkins who
11:02is gifted a treasure map, which begins an adventure on the high seas.
11:10How did you come by it, lad?
11:11Well, he gave it to me, sir, when he sent me for help. He said I'd share.
11:16Initially, the plan was to make a cartoon version, but the studio decided to explore
11:21the possibility of making a live-action film and launched a new beginning for Disney.
11:27Goodbye, matey! Good luck, Dewey!
11:31What live-action Disney movie deserves more credit? Sound off in the comments.
11:37Darling, red isn't your color.
11:41Give me the hat.
11:44Give me the hat, or you'll become a hat!
11:49Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo,
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12:07you