Growing up I watched the Disney Channel. The first time I watched it was when they did these little ads/bumpers on it:


This bumper was seen, not sure of the exact year, but way back before 1993, that I do know. My age is showing lol

Anyway, they use to have amazing movies for kids and on top of that really good moral ending with some cool music for my generation to enjoy. A few good examples are movies like "Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century", "Smart House", "The Paper Brigade", "Brink", "Wish Upon a Star", "Halloweentown", and many others that were good!

So over time as the Disney Channel has changed (more like the last decade!), they have started running out of ideas for movies for the kids of this new generation (i.e. - ages 9 to 14, the tweens to young teens).

A good example of this when they took the book, A Wrinkle in Time, and well basically they kind of butchered up the amazing well nominated and award book for over 30 years! The trailer looks great, but so many fans were disappointed. I never got a chance to watch mostly because I stopped watching the network around that time, but also because I never got around to re-read the book and watch the movie. Also if you haven't read the book yet, this is one to add to the list or if you have some kids of your own, this is a GREAT book to have them do for a book report, which is how I ended up reading the book in the first place. Something I don't regret almost 13 years later!

Also they have no taken another well known book and turn it into a DCOM*, Geek Charming. I saw the trailer and it kind of is too "fluffy" of a trailer and from the looks of things the script writers seem to be missing their mark more as time goes on for kids who watch this network. My first piece of evidence to that was, Hanna Montana, something I was once forced to watch, not a bad show but really wasn't that great either in teaching kids things that were practical nor educational either; something that can be found on OLD shows I use to watch on Disney (i.e. - So Weird, The Jersey, In A Heartbeat, Flash Foward, Bug Juice, etc...).

So now the question begs, will they ever start playing reruns of the old movies/shows or will they have to come up with new material in hopes that it'll impress the kids and their parents?

And lastly, I leave everyone with a video of Disney Channel Original Movies from 1996-1999, a golden era of smart, funny, and good acting based movies for kids! I mean you've got Amy Jo Johnson, Katherine Heigl, Kyle Howard, Erik von Detten, Katey Sagal, Joey & Andy Lawrence, and a few other well known actors. Enjoy!



*i.e. - Disney Channel Original Movie