They Wanted Pixar-Level Magic but Got a Flop: Disney’s Worst Animated Film in 20 Years
And the saddest part? The idea was actually pretty great.
According to reviewers at Collider, the most disastrous Disney animated movie in the studio’s history is Chicken Little (2005). In their full ranking of every Disney animated film, it landed in 61st place out of 61 — an undisputed bottom-of-the-barrel failure.
So what went wrong?
The early 2000s were a weird era for Disney: the studio was rushing to move on from traditional hand-drawn animation and prove it could master 3D just like Pixar. But instead of magic, they delivered a strange hybrid of family drama and a random alien invasion comedy. The characters were forgettable, the merch didn’t sell, and you won’t find Chicken Little represented in any Disney park — not even with a magnifying glass.
Critics and audiences agreed: the film didn’t just fall flat — it basically vanished from the collective memory of Disney fans. And while director Mark Dindal had previously gifted the world The Road to El Dorado, here his signature humor and style were smothered by clunky, unpolished CG.
So Chicken Little goes down as Disney’s worst animated feature — a first-place finish, just in the wrong direction.
