The 15 Best Disney Channel Original Movies, Ranked

For kids who grew up with the Disney Channel from the late 1990s all the way through to more recent years, Disney Channel Original Movies (or DCOMs) were a fundamental part of our childhood viewing habits, even though Disney’s original television series are much more famous. Depending on how old you are, there are some that stand out as highlights more than others, but each era of the channel can claim at least a few major hits. 

Is our enjoyment of these films merely the result of looking at the past through rose-colored glasses? That’s certainly a part of it. But amidst the cheesy, family-friendly TV movies being churned out at a dizzying pace, every once in a while there’s one that’s legitimately good and can stand on its own merits. Whether they had a better-than-usual script, fun music and creative production, or young actors who already had tremendous star quality, these DCOMs are worth a rewatch even in our stuffy, cynical adult years.

Hilary Duff was a mainstay on the Disney Channel in the early 2000s, starring in the popular middle school comedy “Lizzie Maguire,” a revival of which we were inches away from in 2020. But in 2002, she got her very own DCOM with “Cadet Kelly,” which feels sort of like a “Private Benjamin” for kids. Kelly (Duff) is an ordinary teenager with a bit of rebellious streak whose life changes in a major way when her mom gets remarried to a brigadier general and she’s forced to attend military school. 

Going from a regular public high school to essentially Army-lite is a tough enough transition for anyone, and Kelly has an especially rough time of it. But eventually, she finds a place for herself on the drill team, as well as an easier relationship with her strict and straight-laced but ultimately caring stepfather. “Cadet Kelly” lives and dies on the strength of Hilary Duff as an all-star teen performer, and she’s in her element here, making her a winning fixture of a very specific Disney Channel era.

As an allegory for discrimination and civil rights issues, “Zombies” doesn’t exactly fly under the radar. In the world of “Zombies,” there are the normals — as in, ordinary humans — and zombies, who do enjoy a brain now and then (although they have plenty of brain substitutes for the more discerning palate), but aren’t the ravenous zombies we’ve seen in the movies. They’re pretty much normal, except for having green hair, a pallid complexion, and being trapped in generational poverty as a result of long-standing prejudice. 

Zed (Milo Manheim) and his friends are the first cohort of zombies to be allowed to attend the local high school, and Zed is determined to join the football team. But they quickly realize there are barriers in place to prevent them from ever succeeding or fitting in with the “normals.” And to make things even more complicated, Zed falls head over heels for human cheerleader Addison (Meg Donnelly). Their relationship, a sort of “West Side Story” by way of Disney pop, helps to change both human and zombie perceptions of one another. Its quirky sense of humor and vibrant production design were popular enough to generate two sequels, which came out in 2020 and 2022, respectively.

In “The Thirteenth Year,” Cody (Chez Starbuck) seems like just another ordinary kid on the brink of becoming a teenager. But when he celebrates his 13th birthday, strange things begin to happen. Basically, Cody starts to turn into some kind of fish. Although he tries to hide this transformation for as long as he can, the truth eventually comes out — this boy is part-mermaid. His birth mother was a mermaid, and now that he’s 13, those dormant qualities are beginning to surface. 

On its most basic level, “The Thirteenth Year” is a metaphor for the changes that its audience was just beginning to go through, mermaidism a stand-in for all the shame and physical unpleasantness of puberty, the feeling that everyone’s watching you transform into this weird, scaly mess. But it also speaks to the simple idea of feeling different from your peers, something that every kid watching had experienced at least once at some point or another.

The Disney Channel doesn’t have a whole lot of non-binary representation even these days, but Andi (Alana Austin) in “Motocrossed”? It’s hard to imagine that her character didn’t have a massive impact on the LGBTQ+ community growing up in the early 2000s. In sort of a Disney-fied take on “Twelfth Night,” Andi takes on the persona of her brother Andrew (Trevor O’Brien) after his broken leg makes it impossible to take part in an upcoming motocross competition. 

But along with the struggles of trying to keep up the rouse in a very dude-heavy environment, sparks begin to fly between her and another rider, Dean Talon (Riley Smith). “Motocrossed” succeeds in cultivating a sense of female empowerment that goes beyond the cheap “girl power” slogans that were popular at the time. Andi is incredibly competent, cares about her family, and succeeds in a male-dominated sport, but throughout all that, she is still allowed to embrace her own brand of femininity.

If you ever needed a cinematic time capsule of preteen culture in the late 2000s, “Camp Rock” would pretty much be it. This movie has everything: Demi Lovato doing her whole shy awkward superstar bit, Joe Jonas complete with long, floppy hair, and supposedly ordinary teens who are inches away from having a record deal. 

Demi Lovato plays Mitchie, a talented singer who is too insecure to perform in front of other people. And as the daughter of a cook at a prestigious (read: expensive) camp for gifted performers, she’s able to get close enough to her dream to taste it — as long as people don’t find out that she’s not really a camper there, but part of the staff. Oh yeah, and there are Jonas Brothers. This was when the Disney Channel was moving away from telling the stories of everyday kids, instead focusing on wannabe stars (although Mitchie’s a Poor, so she’s still relatable), a model they would follow for several years. But for this type of story, “Camp Rock” is pretty much the gold standard.

Remember “Sky High,” the film about the child of superheroes anxiously awaiting his own powers, which could manifest at any time during his teen years or maybe not at all? “Up, Up and Away” has a very similar plot, only it came out five years earlier. Michael J. Pagan plays Scott Marshall, a teenager born into a family of superheroes. His mother has powers, his father has powers, his older brother has powers, even his little sister has powers. He’s anxiously awaiting his 14th birthday, at which point his powers should emerge if he’s going to develop any at all. 

But meanwhile, nefarious tech bro Malcolm (Kevin Connolly) develops a plot to brainwash ordinary folks into committing crimes for him using a corrupted CD-ROM (remember those?). And when he’s able to take control of the superpowered family, he can do pretty much anything. Unless, of course, Scott is able to save the day. “Up, Up and Away” is an interesting new take on the world of superheroes, singing the praises of a hero who’s able to stand up for what is right without having powers to rely on.

In the mid-’90s, extreme sports were experiencing a genuine moment. So it should come as no surprise that one of the Disney Channel’s very first official original movies, “Brink!”, took full advantage of the trend. Erik von Detten starred as Andrew “Brink” Brinker, a teenager whose entire life revolves around skating. He’s good enough to attract the attention of a local semi-pro team, who are able to financially support themselves with skating thanks to corporate sponsorship. But that’s not what Brink and his friends are about — they skate for the love of it, not to sell out like a bunch of posers. (Yes, this is an extremely ’90s movie.) 

When Brink realizes that his family is struggling with money, however, he makes the decision to join the team and cash in, even though it kills a little bit of his soul to do so. Worst of all, his friends resent him for his choice. Much like the characters themselves, “Brink!” is full of pure heart, which is why it’s remained popular for all these years.

“Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century” represents all of the creativity and imagination that went into Disney Channel Original Movies during their heyday. The costumes alone are enough to cement this one solidly amongst the higher echelon of the network’s films. It stars Kirsten Storms as Zenon, an impulsive teen who causes more or less constant chaos on her home space station, orbiting Earth in the not-so-distant future. But when she gets into one scrape too many, her parents make the decision to send her back down to Earth to live with her aunt, presuming that she can get in less trouble on solid ground. (Spoiler alert: They’re wrong.)

What sets “Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century” apart from other sci-fi-oriented DCOMs is its tremendous ambition when it comes to world-building. The creative team devoted a lot of time with coming up with a futuristic landscape that feels lived in, from the characters’ unique sense of style (and even the fact that the kids on the space station dress differently from the kids on Earth) to their instantly memorable slang. 

Remember that time that the Disney Channel tackled apartheid, and it actually wasn’t a cringey, out-of-touch mess? “The Color of Friendship” takes place in the late ’70s, and revolves around a comedy of errors played relatively straight. Mahree (Lindsey Haun), a white, extremely privileged South African, applies for an exchange program where she’ll get to live with a congressman’s family in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Piper (Shadia Simmons) is over the moon about the fact that an African girl is going to be staying at her house as part of an exchange program. 

But there’s a problem. Mahree’s not exactly expecting the congressman’s family to be Black, while Piper assumes that her new houseguest from Africa will be Black. So, you know, some misunderstandings on both sides. But while it takes a little bit of time for them to adjust to their new circumstances, Mahree and Piper eventually develop a strong friendship — one that will impact Mahree’s views of apartheid when she returns home to South Africa. A surprisingly thoughtful film, “The Color of Friendship” represents one of the Disney Channel’s most mature and impactful offerings.

Every time you ask your Alexa a question you were too lazy to look up yourself, spare a thought for “Smart House,” a Disney Channel Original Movie well and truly ahead of its time. When Ben (Ryan Merriman) wins a contest that allows his family to move into a state-of-the-art smart house, it seems like a dream come true. He, his sister, and his widowed father could use all the help they can get managing a household, and this house, complete with an AI assistant named PAT (Katey Segal), can basically run itself. 

But that’s kind of the issue: It can run itself. And after Ben feeds its algorithm hours and hours of 1950s entertainment showcasing the perfect mother, PAT decides to take matters into its own hands, becoming the matriarch of the household and running it with an iron fist. In addition to being thoroughly entertaining, “Smart House” is a prescient look at the dark side of artificial intelligence and the potential dangers of every automated electronic we bring into our houses without a second thought.

Once upon a time, all of the Disney villains that we know and love were rounded up and forced to live on an island off the coast of a fairy tale kingdom, where they all somehow ended up having kids at roughly the same time. That’s the basic premise of “Descendants,” which gives us a glimpse at the next generation of baddies, who are given the opportunity to attend boarding school on the mainland. This is because Good Guy Ben (Mitchell Hope), son of Belle and the Beast, thinks they shouldn’t be punished for the sins of their parents. 

We’ve got Jay (Booboo Stewart), the son of Jafar; Carlos (Cameron Boyce), the son of Cruella de Vil; Evie (Sofia Carson), daughter of the Evil Queen from “Snow White,” and Mal (Dove Cameron), the daughter of Maleficent. At first, they seem rotten to the core — but are they actually bad kids, or is that just how they’ve been taught to perceive themselves? “Descendants” made a huge splash on the Disney Channel, and was so popular that it ended up generating two sequels, a spinoff, and another unnamed film in the franchise slated to come out in 2026.

“Teen Beach Movie” is a lot of fun on its own, a quirky musical where Brady (Ross Lynch) and McKenzie (Maia Mitchell) are inadvertently sucked into the world of an early ’60s beach movie. But if you ask us, “Teen Beach 2” improves on the original, adding depth to the characters and allowing them all to evolve in ways that are emotionally satisfying. Brady and McKenzie have safely returned to the real world, but now that school is starting, they’re struggling to see how their summer fling can survive beyond September. 

Before their relationship drama can kick into full gear, however, they’re thrown for a loop when Tanner (Garrett Clayton) and Lela (Gracie Gillam), stars of “Teen Beach Movie,” turn up in the real world. At first, they’re their bubbly little selves, but the longer they spend outside the movie, the more they start to go … off-script. Gillam as Lila gets the meatiest role, as her innate curiosity immediately attracts her to this strange new world, making her wonder if there isn’t more she could be doing with her life, even if it is just within her quirky little beach flick. You’ve got to love a girl who defies expectations and carves out her own path.

Without a doubt, “Don’t Look Under the Bed” wins the award for the scariest movie the Disney Channel has ever made. The film goes way too hard, and we love it for it. Frances (Erin Chambers) is an extremely logical, mature teenager. However, even her scientific mind can’t explain away the strange things that are happening in her town. All of the dogs turn up on the roofs of their houses. The school swimming pool is filled with jello. Everyone in the entire town has their alarm clock mysteriously set forward by several hours. Things are getting weird, friends. 

And for some reason, everyone’s pointing the finger at Frances as the one behind it all. It certainly doesn’t help matters that she starts seeing a strange boy, Larry Houdini (Eric “Ty” Hodges II), who is invisible to everyone else. His theory is that a Boogeyman has been causing all this chaos. And if Frances wants it to stop, she’ll have the face the fearsome monster. “Don’t Look Under the Bed” courted some controversy upon its initial release, with calls from angry parents complaining that the film was just too scary for their children. But honestly? We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Disney Channel Original Movies had been chugging along just fine since the late ’90s and for a few years in the 2000s, they were churning them out on a release schedule that saw one hit the air every single month. But until “High School Musical,” it seems as though it never crossed their minds that these DCOMs could actually have a major cultural impact. When “High School Musical” came out, it was an instant phenomenon, and it changed the entire strategy for the network’s original programming. 

It starred the now-prolific Zac Efron as Troy, a teenager who has the gall to expect to be able to play on the basketball team and sing his little heart out, and Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella, a quiet new student who finds herself auditioning for the school musical. In a nod to “Grease,” the two meet earlier on a New Years’ vacation, where they share a magical karaoke moment together, only to wind up going to the same school. And that’s all it took to create Disney Channel magic. Well, that and the chemistry between its two stars, a handful of earworm musical numbers, and a chaotic team of supporting players.

Yes, “High School Musical” is the juggernaut, but “Halloweentown” is the real gem of the Disney Channel’s collection, especially for the not-insignificant demographic of weird and spooky kids who ate this kind of film up in the late ’90s, as evinced by the popularity of Harry Potter. It stars Kimberly J. Brown as Marnie, a Halloween-obsessed kid who’s constantly exasperated by her mother, who refuses to allow her or her siblings to so much as go trick-or-treating. It’s only Marnie’s grandmother Aggie (Debbie Reynolds — yes, the Debbie Reynolds) who understands her interest in the supernatural. 

And that’s for good reason, since Aggie is a certified witch — as is their entire family, although Marnie’s mother married a mortal human. But when Marnie and her siblings travel to the mystical world of Halloweentown, they’re brought face-to-face with their heritage, and have to use all their nascent powers to save the place when an ominous power threatens to take over. The whimsical world-building Halloweentown is a huge part of its charm, as well as its talented child actors in its cast. Within the next few years, we got three more “Halloweentown” films, although the first is the one that remains a ’90s Halloween classic.