Comingsoon.net is going back to the beginning to find some great early work from some of Disney’s most prominent names today. Check out our selections in the gallery below!
As of late, Disney’s production model seems to revolve around snatching up small-time filmmakers and launching them to immense success by handing them blank checks to direct the studio’s latest tentpoles. From Marvel to Star Wars to their live-action remakes of their animated classics, Walt Disney Studios has filmmakers this strategy again and again across the board. Clearly it’s something that they feel is working quite well.
While these little indie directors might’ve moved onto bigger (not necessarily better) things, it’s worth looking back on the movies that got them the job in the first place. A lot of Disney’s current output is curated for the masses, while the early output from their new go-to filmmakers proves to be a lot more formally interesting. You might be surprised just how great their earlier work is.
indie disney
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A Ghost Story (2017)
Pete’s Dragon has proven to be one of the stranger Disney remakes—it received little fanfare upon release (despite positive reviews) and has more or less disappeared from the public eye. Filmmaker David Lowery took his paycheck from the film and funded an eerie little drama called A Ghost Story the year after, and it’s one of the most unique things to come out of the back half of the 2010s.
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Brick (2005)
Rian Johnson’s Star Wars film was divisive among fans but a huge hit with critics and at the box office, resulting in the filmmaker being granted an entire upcoming trilogy to himself. Before all that, though, he made a cool little crime-drama called Brick starring a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
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Listen Up Philip (2014)
Disney’s Christopher Robin brought a heavy dose of reality to A.A. Milne’s beloved characters from the Hundred Acre Wood. It’s a very touching film, and a lot of that emotion surely came from writer Alex Ross Perry. His early work, most notable Listen Up Philip, shows off just how talented he is as a writer.
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Support the Girls (2018)
One of the first movies slated to be released on Disney’s new streaming service, aptly named Disney+, is a live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp penned by Andrew Bujalski. The writer’s 2018 comedy Support the Girls is a truly great and genuinely compassionate look at the service industry and is well worth watching.
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Swingers (1996)
Jon Favreau seems to be Disney’s greatest asset right now. He acts in the MCU, he helped kick the franchise off by writing and directing the first two Iron Man movies, he impressed audiences with his live action Jungle Book and is sure to repeat his success with The Lion King, and he’s even behind the upcoming Mandalorian series for Disney+. Before all this, though, he made a very funny movie called Swingers starring Vince Vaughn.
