10 Best Disney Movies And Shows Of 2023

Disney had a big year in 2023 with its Disney 100 celebration, and many specials and tributes were made in its honor. Even the animated movie Wish was sprinkling in tons of Easter eggs for its 100th year. There were also big IP releases across movies and television, with new Pixar, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Marvel projects hitting TVs and cinema in 2023.

While many of the films this year didn’t meet the box office demands as Disney would’ve hoped, they are still very much worth a watch. Also ranked on this list are a few shows affiliated with Disney, but which can only be viewed with Hulu.

10 Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny

Indiana Jones’ fifth and presumably final outing wasn’t the spectacular sendoff everyone hoped it would be. It’s an entertaining and enjoyable watch, but there was just not enough character development and many throwaway characters. The chemistry between actors also didn’t feel like it lived up to the original films.

The action and set pieces were thrilling however, and could parallel Uncharted, and Mads Mikkelsen gave an outstanding performance as usual as the new villain Voller. This alone makes it worth a watch.

9 The Little Mermaid

Everyone was thinking – another year, another Disney live-action remake. But thankfully, The Little Mermaid delivered on all fronts and is one of the better ones. The underwater visuals were surreal, and the CG character designs, the voice acting of Flounder, Sebastian, and Scuttle, and, of course, the vocals of Halle Bailey’s Ariel were each amazing.

Seeing the live-action reimagining of Under the Sea, Poor Unfortunate Souls, and Part of Your World was the biggest highlight of the film, as well as Melissa McCarthy’s portrayal of iconic Disney villain Ursula. The story closely follows the original animated movie, and the movie is directed by Rob Marshall, whose previous works include Chicago, Into the Woods, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Mary Poppins Returns.

8 The Other Black Girl

Hulu and Disney have pretty much become synonymous, especially with the Bundle now allowing access right from Disney Plus. Hulu’s The Other Black Girl is also the second TV series created under Disney’s Onyx Collective.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Zakiya Dalila Harris, it unfolds the sinister mystery of Nella trying to climb the ladder of the predominantly white fictional publishing house Wagner Books when a new Black girl named Hazel-May McCall, played by Riverdale’s Ashleigh Murray, upends her career and life. If you’re a fan of Peele’s Get Out, you’re guaranteed to be instantly hooked on this show.

7 Elemental

In a year where Disney saw multiple Marvel releases, Indiana Jones, The Little Mermaid, and even the new animated IP Wish, Pixar’s Elemental is still the gem to rise above them all. It feels similar to Soul in the sense that the art and animation are simply gorgeous, but the themes in the film’s meaningful story resonate more for adults.

Elemental takes you to Element City, where various personified elements of Earth, water, fire, and air all co-exist in an advanced civilization. The plot follows an anxious and short-tempered fire element named Ember, a daughter of immigrants who desperately tries to save her family’s shop from ruin while growing closer to a water element, Wade, who caused all their troubles. Elemental’s clever writing, humor, and messages are needed now more than ever.

6 Ahsoka

The Ahsoka Star Wars series came out better and stronger than the third season of The Mandalorian and many of the Marvel shows in 2023, just like the fierce Jedi Ahsoka is. It cleverly continues where Rebels left off in live-action, and the story, cinematography, and direction are more to the tune of Andor than the ‘new quest every episode’ structure for Mando and the Child.

Ahsoka reunites the titular Jedi, portrayed by Rosario Dawson, with Sabine Wren, Hera Syndulla, David Tennant’s Huyang, and Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker. Their journey sets them in a race against new Sith enemies led by Baylan Skoll to find the location of the exiled Grand Admiral Thrawn and possibly Ezra Bridger in the process.

5 Percy Jackson And The Olympians

In 2023, you also return to Camp Half-Blood, as Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series returned with a new adaptation on Disney Plus​​​. This show is many longtime fans’ childhood dreams come true.

With only a few episodes available, the TV series is already off to a better and much more faithful start than the movies. The new actors embody the characters from the page, and Olivia Rodrigo’s song Logical appearing in Percy Jackson’s first episode is the crossover canon you didn’t know this series needed.

4 Fargo Season 5

Though still a pretty odd feeling, FX’s Fargo is another series that’s now a part of Disney. Creator Noah Hawley takes the fifth season back to the present day and the cast is stacked with heavy hitters like Jon Hamm, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Juno Temple, and Joe Keery. The plot also presents the wildest mystery yet, if you can believe it.

Law enforcement has new trouble on their hands with a corrupt sheriff sending out hit squads and an unsuspecting housewife, Dot, married to an influential family hides a double life that intertwines with all the crime. Jon Hamm is a ruthless villain, Joe Keery is not the Steve Harrington you knew, and there’s a theme of Home Alone and Disney’s The Nightmare Before Christmas.

3 Doctor Who Specials 1 – 3

2023 saw the continuation of Doctor Who’s story on Disney Plus. Picking up directly from the regeneration back into the Tenth Doctor (now technically the 14th), David Tennant reunites with his fellow friend Donna Noble and her family, and they’re off on the Tardis to take on three new sci-fi adventures together.

Special One saw the introduction of a cute, furry yet evil species called the Meep, Special Two was a mind-bending episode of Donna and the Doctor encountering their demonic doubles aboard a spacecraft, and Special Three saw the defeat of Neil Patrick Harris’ Toymaker at UNIT and a shocking generation that passed the torch to Ncuti Gatwa’s 15th Doctor.

2 A Murder At The End Of The World

FX’s A Murder at the End of the World was the biggest TV mystery thriller surprise of 2023. Starring Emma Corrin and Clive Owen, this show spun a complex and shockingly twisty web of tech billionaires and AI, a snowed-in retreat in Iceland with murders taking place, and true crime obsession. It’s also created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, the duo behind Netflix’s The OA.

The series moves between Darby Hart and Bill Farrah’s relationship in the past, where they were amateur internet sleuths hunting the trail of a serial killer, and in the present, where they cross paths again at tech industry titan Andy Ronson’s retreat. The writing is some of the most gripping on television, a little of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo crossed with Ex Machina.

1 Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3

Marvel took a few stumbles in 2023, but James Gunn’s final outing with the Guardians of the Galaxy in Vol. 3 is a highlight. The stakes were never higher for the dysfunctional band of heroes, and the new characters introduced in the storyline, like Cosmo, Rocket’s friends, Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock, and Chukwudi Iwuji’s The High Evolutionary, were all brilliantly executed.

From exploring Rocket’s tragic and traumatic backstory to the fun sci-fi action sequences and Star-Lord’s MCU F-bomb, this could easily be the best of the trilogy. It was an incredibly emotional film through and through as well, with the final scenes featuring Florence & The Machine’s song Dog Days Are Over giving you goosebumps.