Vindicated By History / Animated Films

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Animation Studios

Disney

• Disney Animated Canon:
  • Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi are now regarded as three of the greatest animated films of all time, but were all huge flops at the box office (and Bambi in particular was coldly received by critics) on their original releases. World War II cost Disney the European market (that had helped make Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs so successful), although other factors contributed to the films' failures. The combined flops nearly destroyed Walt Disney Studios. Even after they recovered from the debacle, Disney never again experimented with such risky films, opting for safer, more commercial and profitable ventures instead. Fortunately however, Walt did live to see the films gain the reputations they truly deserved.
    • Pinocchio (1940) was considered too episodic by some critics, and audiences proved to NOT be in the mood for such fanciful fare during WWII. It was successful domestically in the United States though, since they had yet to enter the war at that time.
    • Fantasia (1940), in a nutshell, was too far ahead of its time. Most theaters refused to install the special "Fantasound" speakers needed to create the surround sound which Walt had planned the film to use, and many critics derided the film as pretentious. Yes, the Animation Age Ghetto existed before the trope did. The failure of Fantasia crushed Walt, who abolished plans to make any sequels (and this was the only film he wanted to make a sequel to). The popularity of Fantasia really started to grow in the 1960s, as young audiences in tune with psychedelic imagery found the initial all-abstract Toccata and Fugue scene as well as the false-color pastels of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F major (Pastoral) compelling.
    • Bambi (1942), like Fantasia, was a victim of being too far ahead of its time, so much that even the European box office was easily shunned. Critics derided it as pretentious and overly introspective compared to everything that had come before. There's also the Bambification phenomenon, which worked in the film's favor.
  • The following decade had its ups and downs. Cinderella, Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp were big hits. But:
    • Alice in Wonderland (1951) was a financial failure. But like Fantasia, it would be rediscovered in The '60s and become popular among the counterculture and a new generation of fans, that didn't care that they weren't the Disney Princess fare. Walt Disney himself even said he didn't really like it, although that didn't stop him from allowing the popular tea cup ride in Disneyland and coming up with a lot of very good ideas (even the ones, that didn't make it), and the attraction in Disneyland continues to prove itself as quite popular.
    • Sleeping Beauty (1959) in particular devastated Walt Disney and almost convinced him to abandon animated feature production altogether. He viewed the film as his second shot at getting into more sophisticated, "adult" animation after Fantasia, by using the tried-and-true "princess" style, that made Snow White and Cinderella such big hits. But even though it was the second most popular movie of the year, it had been so expensive to make that Disney couldn't make a profit out of it. The Xerox process pioneered by 101 Dalmatians and used in subsequent films lowered production costs substantially, which played a pivotal role in Disney's decision to continue animated film production. Still, Disney would not adapt another fairy tale in Walt's lifetime, until 1989 with The Little Mermaid.
  • A number of Disney disappointments after Walt's death recuperated on a small scale, either when re-released to theaters or when debuting on home video.
    • The first completely independent of Walt, Robin Hood (1973), was wrecked by the company's financial problems of the 1970s, resulting in severe corner-cutting in its production. It made money, but was panned by contemporary critics, and was considered Disney's worst film to date internally. However, VHS made it one of Disney's most beloved classics in the 1980s and 1990s. (And then there's its popularity in the Furry Fandom...) The people who did Zootopia would later say the inspiration for their movie was Robin Hood (1973).
    • The Black Cauldron suffered from a Troubled Production and was seen as a trainwreck in The '80s. Even today, some still see it as a trainwreck (not entirely unjustified), but others have grown to appreciate it for taking risks, having a darker tone, and actually being the one to start newer trends people associated with their "Renaissance" such as the Rebellious Princess, more complex three-dimensional leads, and the use of CGI in their animated films. (Some documentaries actually say it was The Great Mouse Detective that first used CGI. It wasn't - The Black Cauldron actually used it first, just much less extensively than Great Mouse Detective.)
    • While The Rescuers Down Under was critically acclaimed, it underperformed at the box office, prompting Disney to cease promotion for the movie less than two weeks after release, effectively guaranteeing that it would fail to gain an audience. Being a Contested Sequel and being sandwiched between two of the Renaissance's biggest juggernauts didn't do it any favors either. As time went by, and Disney began churning out a number of sequels that were even more divisive, if not widely seen as subpar, the movie gradually gained a cult following who appreciate the movie for pioneering technological advancements which would be perfected in later Renaissance films, having a distinct identity, setting, and tone from the original, and continuing the arcs of the returning characters in a natural way. While the film still isn't held to the same regard as the rest of the Renaissance films, and opinions are still split on which film is better, the general consensus among modern viewers is that it is a worthy follow-up, and a good movie in its own right.
    • While not panned—they're both graded Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes—The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules were widely criticized for bowdlerizing a classic work of literature and classical mythology, respectively. Attitudes towards both films have changed since then. Hunchback gets a lot of praise for being one of the most daring Disney films, with its Darker and Edgier tone and one of the most compelling (and complex) villains in the entire canon with Frollo, and one of Alan Menken's greatest soundtracks, while Hercules is often viewed as one of the funniest films in the canon, as well as providing the most genuinely likeable villain since Ratigan in Hades. Ultimately, both films are now seen as a pair of much-needed steps back in the right direction after the under-performance of Pocahontas.
    • Mulan wasn't unpopular or outright panned when it first released in 1998, and had generally positive reception, but it was never considered one of the "best" like The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast and was by and large considered So Okay, It's Average by critics—good, but not great. Its underperformance in China and liberal Artistic License with Chinese culture were also considered marks against it by Chinese reviewers. The controversies surrounding its live-action remake and the criticisms of its changes to the story, however, have made some critics reappraise the original more favorably for its strong Character Development of the heroine and themes about overcoming societal expectations. It helps that it — unlike the remake — had some Asian creatives on staff, most prominently Chinese-American head writer Rita Hsiao.
  • Many Disney films from the Turn of the Millennium are this:
    • The Emperor's New Groove is even more vindicated. Despite being an initial flop, it is one of the three hand-drawn animated Disney films from the 2000s (along with Lilo & Stitch and The Princess and the Frog), that still gained some sort of profit. While initially dismissed by audiences for being a zany comedy film lacking any of Disney's expected grandeur or gravitas, especially after the Troubled Production received a documentary that discussed the aborted dramatic first draft, the film's unique tone has also served as a source of appeal and its characters and jokes have become beloved over time.
    • Two of Disney's action flicks Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet were also initial flops both critically (at least with Atlantis as is has a mere 49% on Rotten Tomatoes, whereas Treasure Planet has a better 69% and was also nominated for Best Animated Film at the Oscars) and financially (especially with Treasure Planet as it is one of Disney's biggest box office bombs). This is because their tones were vastly different than that of their films during the decade prior (that and they also had to compete with other bigger films). However, around a decade after each of these movies have been released, they became cult classics to the point that they are considered as fan favorites to some (in fact, some characters like Kida from Atlantis is a favorite amongst artists and cosplayers). Mainly because they appear as if Disney was breaking the mold from their usual fantasy and musical films.
• A Goofy Movie was considered a B-movie in the eyes of Disney, except for Jeffrey Katzenberg, who championed it. The studio gave the film a smaller budget, compared to the studio's other animated works. Most of the animation was outsourced, which is why it isn't considered part of the Disney Animated Canon. When Katzenberg left Disney in 1994, the studio released it with a half-hearted marketing campaign. The film was a modest hit commercially and critics were mixed on it. While it made enough money on video to ensure a direct-to-DVD sequel, the movie faded into semi-obscurity for a number of years. However, the film had attained a cult following among those who grew up watching the film on VHS and appreciated its warmth, humor, characters, and its soundtrack. The film's cult status grew and by the time A Goofy Movie hit its 20th anniversary in 2015, Disney was willing to acknowledge the film's existence for the first time in many years.
• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, the first spin-off of Toy Story's Buzz was mainly seen as Direct to Video fluff when it debuted, with Entertainment Weekly even giving the film a D+. While others who saw the film and watched the following series as kids liked it, the animated film still never garned much mainstream appeal compared to the Toy Story films and Disney themselves eventually disowned it when Pixar decided to make "the real story" of Buzz with 2022's Lightyear. Yet due to the mixed reaction and the underperformance of the new film which goes for a Darker and Edgier Interstellar-esque tone, removing the Raygun Gothic and wacky sci-fi adventure aspects from Buzz (which is what a lot of fans liked about him in the first place) among several other controversial changes, the Star Command film has gotten far more praise. Its surprisingly tongue-in-cheek humor, embracement of interesting alien characters and worlds and especially its voice cast with Wayne Knight as Zurg and a returning Tim Allen as Buzz, has all placed Star Command in a better light to fans than Lightyear which lacks those said elements with its grounded human-focused story and to a portion of the fanbase's annoyance recast Tim Allen with Chris Evans.

Studio Ghibli

• Studio Ghibli:
  • The Castle of Cagliostro, Hayao Miyazaki's first film, flopped when it first ran in Japanese cinemas in 1979, due to being much Lighter and Softer than typical Lupin III fare. Fans stayed away from it, and no one else had any reason to check it out. It was only years later, once the film found an audience outside Japan and Miyazaki had made a name for himself with the company, that people rediscovered Cagliostro and gave it its current status as one of the true Classics of animated film.
  • My Neighbor Totoro, one of Hayao Miyazaki's greatest works, failed to turn a profit on its first release in 1988. Two years later, King Totoro dolls became a hot-selling item and the film gained a re-evaluation, raising Miyazaki's esteem on an international scale. Its failure in the initial run probably had something to do with the fact that it was bundled with Grave of the Fireflies, one of the most depressing anime in history.
  • Disney's dub of Castle in the Sky commissioned Joe Hisaishi to rerecord his score with a symphony orchestra exclusively for their release. Miyazaki himself approved of the end result. So did certain critics. Many, many American purists, however, were furious, instantly condemning the new score as "a crime against all humanity." The Ghibli Blog infamously even called both the dub and the rescore the equivalent of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind's first American dub, "Warriors of the Wind." Perhaps because of this, Disney reissued the dub without the rescore. Although today there are some fans who still bitterly resent the rescore, ironically, its removal from the dub has caused other reviewers to give it a second evaluation; many recent reviews of the film and the redub now declare the new work as one of the dub's biggest assets, as well as a genuine improvement over the original. Even the rescore has a following of fans, many of who were saddened when it was jettisoned. In fact, the rescore received a soundtrack release in Japan. Up until 2017, the only way to view the film with the rescore was to import the BD from Japan, the UK, or Australia. Gkids has since reissued the film on Blu-ray, providing viewers with the opportunity to see the dub with either score.

Pannonia Film Studio

• Pannonia Film Studio:
  • 1979's Foam Bath was the studio's worst-performing animated movie. Though some critics praised its realistic, adult-aimed themes and Deranged Animation, with its art style changing every other second, audiences were absolutely disgusted by it and ticket sales were one twentieth of the studio's expectation. It lingered on in film literature as an obscure but noteworthy experimental movie and art historians even gave it its own genre ("anima verité"), until the 2000s saw a moderate rise of interest among Hungarian art students and open-minded youth who either related to the film's characters or simply found its weirdness amusing. It's also considered an Unintentional Period Piece. The movie was restored and re-screened a couple of times and is used as a teaching tool in animation classes, it influenced an enthusiastic group of fans to create the 2018 adult animated series Candide in a similar style (which became similarly controversial and overlooked), and its highest claims to fame were getting a French Blu-ray box set in 2021 and an American set in 2024, accompanied by new analysis laying out the film's significance. If nothing else, people interested in animation tend to appreciate or at least acknowledge it as a bold experiment, though opinions on its actual quality as a film are still very harshly divided. Most agree that the soundtrack and original songs are good at least. Composer János Másik remembers the film flopping but becoming a local Cult Classic within a decade, and its cult fanbase is now international.
  • 1983's Heroic Times received acclaim on international festivals but was mostly neglected in its home, slowly sinking into obscurity and living on as TV reruns until the 2010s saw a DVD release with a variety of bonus features, followed by a restored American Blu-ray set in 2023. Its experimental style, being wholly animated with oil paintings and having one Character Narrator, broody and depressing tone and classical score were considered unappealing upon release, now these are considered its most gripping aspects.
  • Son of the White Horse, a 1981 mythological film by Marcell Jankovics, under-performed in its home, its viewership reaching less than half of the expected numbers, and the country capital cut its theatrical run short. It also divided critics and regular viewers with its thin plot, thick symbolism and unusual art style. In 1984, the Los Angeles Animation Olympiad gave it a boost and over the next few decades it became a highly obscure and elusive Cult Classic regularly praised in books dealing with international animation history. This lead to a high-def restoration and an American theatrical release in 2019, the first time one of Jankovics's films made it to US screens in an official capacity, with further international releases in 2020. While it's still moderately liked in its native country, the film became by far the most famous Hungarian animated film globally, and the director went from disliking it to labeling it his career's high point.

Dreamworks Animation

• DreamWorks Animation:
  • The Road to El Dorado was a box office bomb, failing to recoup its $95 million budget, critics including Roger Ebert dismissed it compared to its more mature predecessor The Prince of Egypt, and the Rotten Tomatoes census calls the story predictable and characters flat. Since then, however, the response to the El Dorado has been wildly different with numerous people adoring its beautiful 2D animation, its cast, particularly the main duo Miguel and Tulio, and especially its music and songs courtesy of Elton John, Tim Rice, Hans Zimmer and John Powell. Jason Schwartz lauds El Dorado as a hidden gem and is baffled at why it wasn't successful and Petrana Radulovic of Polygon praises the hilarious chemistry of Miguel and Tulio. The film is also beloved on the internet with Miguel and Tulio being the source of many GIFs and the female lead Chel being popular with Fan Art and cosplayers due to her Ms. Fanservice design.
  • Flushed Away got middling reviews when it was released, its box office was well below the average for DreamWorks films at the time, and the reception was so poor it resulted in a $109 million write-down for DreamWorks Animation and the termination of their partnership with Aardman Animations. Nowadays, it's considered a very underrated animated comedy adventure gem with great voice acting from Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet and Ian McKellen and humour that's on par with Wallace & Gromit at times.
  • Monsters vs. Aliens, while a success in the long run, was still looked down upon by critics due to WALL•E releasing around the same time. Over time, Monsters vs. Aliens has been regarded by people as an underrated DreamWorks gem thanks to the humour from both the monster and human characters, particularly General W.R. Monger and President Hathaway (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland and Stephen Colbert, respectively).
  • Megamind, while a moderate box office success, got mixed reviews, with a lot critics considering it "the bastard child of The Incredibles and Despicable Me" and its lack of critical success meant any sequel was quickly cancelled. But in the years since its debut, people have applauded Megamind for its humour, being ahead of its time for exploring "nice guy" culture and its unique and interesting take on the Superman - Lex Luthor formula that's actually quite clever at times.
  • Shrek Forever After upon release received generally an average to mediocre reception with it generally being agreed that it was better than Shrek the Third, which wasn't really saying much. But as time passed, the film has begun to be viewed more fondly, with many of its elements, including its darker tone, fun villain, and heart taking greater note. Also, unlike its predecessor, the film has been considered a worthy sequel to the first two movies (with some going as far as saying it's the true third movie) and a proper Grand Finale for the series.
  • Bee Movie is a very unusual example of this. Being constantly advertised caused Hype Aversion and its almost nonsensical plot was not terribly appealing to anyone, resulting in the movie doing badly in theatres. In The New '10s, however, it was rediscovered and became a meme icon where its hilariously stupid premise and awkward humor earned it numerous fans. Today, while it's generally agreed the movie is still mediocre, instead of being forgettable, it falls firmly into So Bad, It's Good and is one of the biggest examples of Watch It for the Meme.

Creators

Fleischer Brothers

• Max and Dave Fleischer: Their cartoons were immensely popular during the 1930s, even rivaling Disney. But Disney got more serious attention from critics, because the animation was more fluid, realistic and better in storytelling. During World War II, the Fleischers went bankrupt, effectively making them fall into obscurity for a few decades. During the 1960s and 1970s, their cartoons were rediscovered by Underground Comics artists, who adored the creative freedom, jazzy soundtracks and bouncy cartoony animation of Betty Boop and Popeye. By the 1980s, Betty Boop even became re-marketed in advertising, finding a whole new audience. Nowadays, the Fleischer animation is no longer seen as inferior to Disney, but appreciated as original, authentic and creative in its own right. Their technological achievements with mixing live-action and animation are even acknowledged by the Disney Studios, and some popular works have paid homage to Fleischer, like Over the Garden Wall in some scenes and the games Bendy and the Ink Machine and especially Cuphead doing so more prominently.
  • Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941) had the misfortune of opening two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, which severely hurt the film's box office returns, combined with Paramount having little faith in it, and was mostly stuck at the bottom half of double feature bills. These misfortunes eventually lead to Paramount's takeover of Fleischer Studios and the ousting of Max and Dave Fleischer. Today, it is a Cult Classic among animation fans and is considered one of the Fleischers' best works for its animation and story.
  • Fleischer's Superman Theatrical Cartoons in particular are so far ahead of the curve that some people think they were made in The '50s and The '60s. They were reportedly much more expensive to produce than most of the animated shorts of their era, and contributed to the studio's financial problems. However that big budget and all the innovations involved in their production still make them stand out from most products of their era. Their influence on the character, and all of superhero fiction, was ultimately confirmed when they were cited as a major influence on the major critical and commercial success that was Batman: The Animated Series and the subsequent DC Animated Universe.

Tex Avery

• Tex Avery: He remained unknown and unrecognized through most of his life. Yes, his work was immensely popular and his style was imitated and plagiarized endlessly. But as his cartoons didn't have any real stars, apart from Droopy, he never was that recognizable to the general audience, in part due to Avery's own tastes in story-telling; he reportedly actually liked stories with one-shot characters, and got bored with having to reuse the same cast. Avery was also a very shy man, who did not enjoy being in the spotlight. So his work was never universally awarded, recognized or lauded until after his death.
  • Also Tex's contemporary, Bob Clampett: Bob was originally much more esoteric compared to the other big name Looney Tunes directors, but thanks in part to the efforts of historians and animators like John Kricfalusi, and lists like The 50 Greatest Cartoons, as well as the DVD collections and the internet making his work much easier to access and Cartoon Network dedicating a whole anthology series to his work (The Bob Clampett Show), his cartoons have gained a substantially large fan following in recent times, many of whom put him on the same pedestal as the other esteemed directors of the franchise, like Chuck Jones and Tex.

Tim Burton

• Tim Burton:
  • His stop-motion short film Vincent, created during his employment at Disney. It barely saw the light of day thanks to then-chief Ron Miller's lack of faith in the results.
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas. If you hear people talk about it now, you'd be surprised it only had a "modest" success in 1993.
  • James and the Giant Peach. The money that Burton and his colleague Henry Selick DID make on Nightmare was lost when James under-performed (even though critics loved it), and their animation studio, Skellington Productions, went bankrupt.

Don Bluth

• Don Bluth:
  • The Secret of NIMH. While it was a hit with the critics, financial results were less than impressive against Disney Studio fare of the time, and (because it was 1982) against E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Eventually, NIMH garnered a cult following and is considered to be Don Bluth's most beloved work amongst his fans.
  • All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) earned about 27 million in the United States market, and professional reviews were mostly negative. The fact that it was released on the same day as The Little Mermaid didn't help either. But it became a smash hit when released on video, considered "one of the top-selling VHS releases of all time". It has gone on to be highly regarded by animation fans.

Productions

Animated Films and Franchises

• Looney Tunes: The franchise has always remained popular, but during their heydays the critical attention for these cartoons was pretty low, compared to the status they enjoy nowadays. Only five out of over 1000+ Looney Tunes shorts have won an Academy Award, which may seem high, but compared to the seven that Tom and Jerry won or the dozens that Walt Disney received it's really astonishing that such a historically important, influential and artistically innovative animated series won so few Oscars. The five award winners are "Tweetie Pie", "For Scent-imental Reasons", "Speedy Gonzales", "Birds Anonymous" and "Knighty Knight Bugs", which are all, except for "Birds Anonymous", not generally considered their best or most enduring works. Only one of those even features their main star, Bugs Bunny! In fact, several Looney Tunes shorts that are now considered to be historically important classics, that still entertain audiences to this day, have never won any kind of award of critical attention until several years later: "The Dover Boys", "A Corny Concerto", "Porky in Wackyland", "Rabbit Fire", "Rabbit of Seville", "Duck Amuck", "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century", "One Froggy Evening" and "What's Opera, Doc?". The Academy did make up for it by handing Chuck Jones an honorary Oscar for his entire work in 1996, honoring the work of his colleagues at the same time.
  • What's Opera, Doc? by Chuck Jones took several weeks longer to make than the standard Looney Tune, and Jones gave it a grand Hollywood premiere nearing the scale of a feature-length movie. His aim was the ultimate Bugs Bunny cartoon. His work was not rewarded at the time by animation critics or by the Academy. After 35 years, it became one of the first pieces of animation inducted into the National Film Registry, one of the highest rewards in American cinema. Before Steamboat Willie! It even was named the best of the 50 Greatest Cartoons, beating out another classic in "Duck Amuck".
  • Two particular characters from Warner's Golden Age, Marvin the Martian and the Tasmanian Devil, each appeared in only five shorts. They have become major Looney Tunes supporting stars since the Golden Age ended, aging much better than a number of characters who appeared in 10 or more Golden Age shorts.
• Yellow Submarine, released near the peak of Beatlemania, was nevertheless compared unfavorably to other cartoons of the period, especially Disney products. It took a few decades for the film to eventually gain its tremendous fanbase and to be acknowledged as a wonderfully creative and enjoyable musical.
• Twice Upon a Time had the misfortune of being produced at a time when its studio, The Ladd Company, was nearing bankruptcy. If that name sounds familiar, it may be because of another Ladd production, The Right Stuff, which was planned to come out the same year (1983). Since Twice Upon a Time was animated, Ladd decided to put it in limited release with The Right Stuff in worldwide release, and both films bombed at theaters, causing Ladd to shut down. This movie actually has a strange case of Vindicated by History: It gained a cult following in subsequent years for its humor and dialogue, and is notable for both using the relatively-rare form of cutout animation called "Lumage," and for being the first animated film produced by George Lucas, so it's a hit with audiences, eventually warranting a DVD release in 2015 despite being barely released/screened anywhere in the intervening years compared to other animated features!
• The animated The Transformers: The Movie from 1986. Universally panned by critics in its day, an absolute bomb at the box offices, the target audience cried at the deaths of beloved characters and rejected the newly introduced nobodies... 20 years later it was a constant hot seller on video and DVD, and continues to be to this very day, with "anniversary" and "reconstructed" and "ultimate" editions being released every few years. Fans widely believe it to be the quintessential piece of 1980s "Transformers: Generation 1" fiction. And when the Michael Bay films were released, the 1986 movie was viewed much more favorably as the only good Transformers film (apart from Transformers (2007) and then later Bumblebee). The Transformers Wiki offers a simple explanation:
  On a practical note, it was widely available on videotape, and remained so long after the The Transformers cartoon had gone off the air. Only a handful of series episodes were available on video, making The Transformers: The Movie the logical choice for someone looking to pick up a Transformers cartoon; this made it far more well-known among fans than any particular cartoon episode.
• The Brave Little Toaster (1987) received a limited theatrical release and had no real box office results. It only became a hit when released on VHS in 1991. It went to become popular with 1990s animations fans and currently has a reputation as an animated gem.
• Tom and Jerry: The Movie got slammed when it debuted in 1992, due to focusing the story on the cat and mouse duo helping a runaway girl instead of the usual brutal Slap Stick hijinks and committing the "cardinal sin" of having Tom and Jerry talk^note They did occasionally have voiced lines in the cartoon, but merely for the sole purpose of gags rather than it being a core aspect. Flash forward to the 2021 Tom and Jerry live action movie which features very little of the slapstick of the original cartoons and much greater focus on human characters running a hotel with Tom and Jerry being demoted to outright side characters, the opinion of the 1992 film has become nicer. While still not considered on par with the original shorts, the 1992 movie has been celebrated for its humour, warmth and decent music as well as keeping Tom and Jerry as main protagonists for the story, unlike the 2021 film, whose human based-conflict is considered far duller than the one in the animated film.
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm performed poorly at the box office (a $5.6 million gross versus a $6 million budget), because it was intended to be a straight-to-video release, but Warner Brothers decided to release it theatrically at the last possible moment, giving them practically no time to promote it. Luckily it slowly gained a stronger audience through VHS release. It is now known around the internet as "The greatest Batman film prior to The Dark Knight."
• The Iron Giant bombed badly at the box office ($31.3 million worldwide gross against a $48 million production budget) despite earning overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, a feat that wasn't helped by Warner Bros.' botched marketing for the film. Upon hitting VHS, it became the best-selling animated film of its year (even outperforming Tarzan), and was the film that convinced John Lasseter to produce Brad Bird's pet project The Incredibles (which naturally turned into another Pixar megablockbuster). It routinely receives marathon airings on Cartoon Network, and has been regarded as one of the best animated films of all time, with many dubbing it the best one not made by Disney/Pixar.
• The Angry Birds Movie gathered middling reviews during its original release, around the time when its home series had long since peaked in popularity and the period where Video Game Movies Suck was still strong in the consciousnesses. After a Surprisingly Improved Sequel and more well received video game adaptations in the 2020s, the film was revisited and became praised for how much of a strong comedy it was, now being considered one of the better video game movies prior to 2020 alongside its sequel.

• The Resident Evil CG films Degeneration, Damnation and Vendetta got no shortage of criticism. The Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within-level Unintentional Uncanny Valley animation, the greater focus on action than horror and female characters like Claire Redfield and to a greater extent Rebecca Chambers getting underutilized as well as Leon Kennedy getting overused with more screentime and plot focus than other characters - was all bemoaned. Additionally the more successful but In Name Only Anderson Resident Evil Film Series coming out at the same time, didn’t help the animated films’ reception either. However with the release and critical failure of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City which was meant to be Truer to the Text, fans have been much more charitable to the CG films (especially Degeneration and Damnation), citing them as the best film adaptations of the games and easily better than the live-action efforts. Paul Mercier and Allison Court reprising their voices for Leon and Claire in Degeneration was particularly celebrated. Capcom themselves treat the animated films as Canon to the timeline of the games.

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