Determinate.

Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOMs) have been a staple in many people lives for a long time and have shaped many personalities. But now the era has come to an end because DCOMs have stopped as of March 2023 and are now just Disney Original Movies that are put on Disney+. This blog will be about the good times, when you used to get home, watch the premiere of the movie, and then watch the reruns several times until the songs and characters are etched into your brain. I still have my ‘High School Musical’ merch and I know it’s not just me! Even if you were older or younger than the premieres, you probably indulged in DCOMs too.

I Believe You!

DCOMs were so great because they were all about the children/teenagers, they weren’t side characters but had real lives with problems to tackle and most of the time, a high school to conquer. Anything could happen, and I mean anything. And the thing is, when you’re were in it, there were rarely any premises that you thought went too far. A group of teenage boys build a time machine disrupting the space time continuum and create a black hole while wearing snowsuits? Plausible. A teenager creating a ‘humanoid hologram’ to be the next pop star sensation? Absolutely true, and I’ll watch it again. Being transported into a 1960s musical where there is a possibility that you will be trapped in the movie because you ‘Can’t Stop Singing’? I believe you! I can’t speak about every DCOM individually because there’s too many to mention, but this blog is more about the magic that they held; how there was no wholesome dream too crazy or socially invalid that it could not come to life. Now that DCOMs are over, I have to admit that the Disney+ movies do not really have that same magic. So what was it that DCOMs had at the time?

What’s a Zoog?

Before DCOMs, they were called Disney Channel Premiere Films in the 80s/90s and they were not really for children. You had to pay to have Disney Channel so Disney created films that they believed parents would pay for, but to make a good impression, the films were so serious. There is one called ‘A Friendship In Vienna’ (1988) about 2 best friends in Austria during the Anschluss and one friend’s dad is a Nazi sympathiser who beats her??? Yeah, not the same DCOMs we know now. Disney then moved to a basic cable service that was kid-driven in the 90s. There was an era called Zoog Disney (Zoogs were animated figures who hosted this part of the channel) that bled into DCOMs. It appealed more to the younger crowd, hit harder topics and is said to be responsible for some of the best Disney TV shows, online games, and the movie era from 1998-2003. DCOMs came in 1997 starting with ‘Under Wraps’. Gary Marsh, the former lead of DCOMs said that DCOM phenomena “can’t be explained – they can only be experienced” and I agree. Marsh also said a successful one has “relatable characters, honest, age-appropriate emotional portrayals, and great comedy,” I don’t think there is a definitive formula but I think that a lot of the success was because of the context of the time, the actors and the stories that were told. DCOMs had great music and actors, but they also taught good lessons about friendship and perseverance. We could understand big stories of love, fun and loss because they were catered to us.

The Phenomenon

DCOMs covered many topics like sport, cooking, monsters, magic, cloning, double-dutch, Christmas and Homecoming Warriors, but they started off with quite a low budget. Their focus was on something “kid-centred” and “authentic” and the team did this very quickly, making 3 films in 1998, 8 in 1999 and 12 films in 2000 – one for every month. They were churning them out and hit a goldmine with ‘High School Musical’ (HSM) in 2006, which had $4 billion in retail sales and is even still sellable almost 20 years later. You may have noticed a change in writing from Read it and Weep compared Let it Shine, for example – there was a shift that wanted bigger movies, something more ‘franchise-able’ and that is partly because of HSM. The success of it allowed higher budget films and even cinematic release. Disney Channel focused on creating ‘tentpole’ films, which would have a key actor to launch the rest of the franchise and secure their audience. After HSM, the channel also focused on making sequels (HSM2 is still the highest viewed DCOM at 17.2 million) and films based on the TV shows they were making, so much so that almost half of them after 2006 were based on other works. DCOMs was a launching pad for so many stars that are still active today, and even if they just did that one DCOM, the actors are stuck with that character forever.

What about now?

There are around 110 DCOMs, but I would say from 2006-2013, DCOMs were unstoppable. From 2016 onwards, the movies plateaued in views to a large extent, especially because Disney Channel stopped their cable channel a few years ago. I remember when a premiere of a DCOM would be so hyped that I was talking about it with my friends at school, however, now it’s not something children really bond over anymore. Maybe the DCOM decrease is largely because of streaming services. There is a lack of sensation for television events. There is as much excitement to hurry and watch the premiere of a movie when it is rarely hyped, put on a streaming service – especially when they are competing with so many other options. I should say that I do love streaming – but I think its taken away some of the excitement.

DCOMs were a magical product of their time. May I be hyping them up because of nostalgia? Most definitely, but it is valid. What a time to grow up and watch uplifting movies about being myself. Sure, they are not perfect, but to me, they stand as an entertainment landmark for children’s entertainment. I know everyone says that their time was the best, but mine really was. This is our cross to bear as 90s/00s children. We may have DCOM songs settled in our brains and delusional tendencies, but We Are All In This Together.