2003-2014 was a weirdly experimental and interesting time for live action Disney movies
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/dy62yb/20032014_was_a_weirdly_experimental_and/
lt was definitely an intriguing period for them at a time when they were slowly phasing out Touchstone Pictures and they didn't buy Marvel or Lucasfilm yet or both those studios didn't impact on what movies Disney makes now.share
I wanna say that kind of experimental era started when the first Pirates of the Caribbean was released and how that was the first PG-13 Movie released under the Walt Disney Pictures label and starting with that movie they tried all these different movies that range from Big budget blockbusters (National Treasure and Narnia)
Some big budgeted bombs like John Carter, Prince of Persia, The Long Ranger, Sports dramas like Miracle, Glory Road, Million Dollar Arm, Mcfarland U.S.A, Reboots or remakes of old Disney movies like Herbie: Fully Loaded, Race to Witch Mountain, Tron Legacy
Movies that had whatever popular Disney Channel star at the time like Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, College Road Trip, Prom
Yes there were still generic kids movies that were terrible but they had big stars as the selling point like like The Pacifier with Vin Diesel and Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler,
To high concept original movies like Enchanted or Sky High
Looking back now since i grew up around that time period and some movies my parents would take me or my Elementary or Middle school would show. It was definitely a strange yet interesting period in Disney's history. Even if those movies i listed weren't good at least they were trying to make different films then what there doing now. It was like a step up from their 90's output when it was mostly generic kids movies.
Sadly live action Disney now is "DURR LETS REMAKE EVERY ANIMATED MOVIE WE MADE BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE KNOW US FOR AND WE NEED TO MAKE A PROFIT FOR THE LIVE ACTION DIVISION" or generic big budget CGI effects movie and anything original or mid budget is dumped to Disney+ with little to no marketing. Maybe one day we'll see that experimentation come back.