Seven Things I Think About Disney’s 2025

Every year, Disney analysts hem and haw over the company’s annual performance…and I’m no different.

Here are seven things I think about Disney’s 2025.

Disney’s Doing the Right Thing…

I’m lost in admiration for Josh D’Amaro’s tenure as Chairman of Disney Experiences.

Under Bob Chapek, Disney fans grudgingly accepted the fact that budget cuts were inevitable.

I could point to a dozen spots at various theme parks and say, “Chapek did that.”

Well, I could, but I can’t now because D’Amaro is cleaning up all of Chapek’s messes.

I find that ironic since Chapek hired D’Amaro as his successor. So, he at least gets credit for that.

Under D’Amaro’s watch, Disney has rededicated itself to improving the theme park experience.

We’re witnessing that right now in any number of ways at all of Disney’s American theme parks.

Even EPCOT, which had allegedly completed its many-year makeover, is adding new stuff.

In 2025, we got Test Track 3.0, and now we’ve learned about Soarin’ Across America in 2026.

Test Track’s an excellent example of D’Amaro’s willingness to mess with the status quo to achieve a superior result.

Disney is closing Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith to re-theme it with The Muppets.

That move is necessary because Muppet*Vision 3D has closed to make room for Monstropolis.

Folks, Josh D’Amaro is minmaxing Disney theme parks right before our very eyes.

I admire the ambition and bravery of this move, and I’m excited to learn what comes next.

But Progress Sucks

Before then, we must live in the now, and that’s kinda strange.

With every Disney theme park currently undergoing some form of change, it can be a bit chaotic.

At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, DinoLand USA has been a shell of its former self all year.

Given that DinoLand wasn’t exactly the greatest before that, well, it’s a bit hard to watch.

Similarly, Avengers Campus is currently doubling the number of attractions, which is wonderful.

However, Disney closed most of its interactive presentations as a byproduct of this expansion.

So, the 2025 park experience suffered a bit as a sacrifice toward a brighter future.

We all understand why it’s being done. It’s just weird to know that the Rivers of America is gone.

Like, there’s no water there now. At what point in your life did you ever think that could happen?

Get Used to ‘Bluey’

At some point in January 2026, Nielsen will verify the obvious.

For the second straight year, Bluey was the most-watched show on streaming.

The year before then, Bluey finished…second. Let’s just say that Bluey is popular.

Notably, Disney doesn’t own Bluey, but it was smart enough to jump on the bandwagon quite early.

For that reason, the people who DO own Bluey have shown their appreciation.

Disney has gotten dibs at various licensing opportunities, including 2027’s Bluey feature film.

More recently, Disney gained authorization to host Bluey experiences at its theme parks and on its cruise ships.

Technically, we’ve already seen that adorable Australian heeler pup on Disney Cruise Line.

However, fans will notice a slight difference in scale in 2026. That’s when Disney goes all-in on Bluey.

Disneyland Park and Disney’s Animal Kingdom will host full-fledged Bluey interactive experiences.

On Disney Cruise Line, Bluey will be as vital as any character that Disney DOES own.

This is a remarkable turn of events, and we’re only getting started.

The hype machine won’t truly ramp up until the Bluey movie debuts in 2027.

Disney Has a Serious Brand Problem

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know here because it’s hard not to notice.

In 2019, Disney owned and operated two revered brands in Pixar and Marvel.

A third, Star Wars, remains a highly valuable asset even as fans criticize every element of it.

For whatever reason, nobody hates Star Wars more than Star Wars fans.

Of course, if a non-Star Wars fan dares to say anything, they get death threats. But I digress.

The point is that all three of these brands lost quite a bit of their shine over the past decade.

Elio’s failure underscores the fact that Pixar has struggled to introduce new stories lately.

Toy Story 5 will garner the studio a bit more love and respect, but that only goes so far.

We saw this in 2024 and 2025 with Marvel, as Deadpool & Wolverine seemingly saved the MCU.

Then, Captain America: Brave New World came out, and it was like Thanos had returned to wreck everything.

Even Disney itself isn’t above reproach now with its motion pictures. Two words: Snow White.

Right now, Disney has a serious brand problem, and 2026 will be crucial for course correction.

With the release of the live-action Moana, Toy Story, and Avengers movies, and The Mandalorian & Grogu, Disney is poised for a huge comeback.

I realize that’s a weird thing to say about the studio with the top three films of 2024 and again in 2025.

I mean it, though. Disney’s brand problem is a five-alarm fire kind of crisis.

Part of Disney’s Future Is at Sea

Speaking of Disney Cruise Line, it’s become an anchor part of Disney Experiences.

I often describe Josh D’Amaro’s business as the theme parks division, but that’s no longer accurate.

With the introduction of the Disney Destiny and the impending arrival of the Disney Adventure, Disney Cruise Line is different now.

Until 2022, Disney cruises could host a maximum of 13,400 passengers across the four ships.

That’s a bit of sloppy math since cruise itineraries can last as little as three days or as long as two weeks.

You get the point, though, and that’s why it’s staggering to know that Disney has increased capacity by 18,000 in 3 ½ years.

I’m including the Disney Adventure in that total, but the total is still nearly double without it.

Disney Cruise Line isn’t stopping there, either, as it’ll scale up to 13 vessels by 2031.

As a reminder, Disney owned four ships on New Year’s Day, 2022.

That fact alone drives home just how much of Disney’s future lies at sea.

These massive boats pay for themselves quickly. Then, everything after that is pure profit…and it’s a LOT of profit.

Disney HAD to Pull the Trigger on AI

I know that Hollywood is livid with Disney right now, and it’s an understandable frustration.

A century-old industry is facing unprecedented change, the kind that threatens every facet of the business.

A friend of mine is a screenwriter, and if he even hears the term AI, he starts frothing at the mouth.

Hollywood executives very much want AI to take the jobs of actors, producers, directors, and screenwriters.

So, Disney’s sudden positional flip-flop on AI seems like a betrayal most foul.

I mean it when I say that Disney really had no choice, though.

Whether any of us like it or not, AI is gonna be a thing. As with most tech, it won’t play out as most people expect.

A machine won’t be spitting out Casablanca at any point in the next 25 years.

I mean, Alexa still cannot differentiate my wife and my voices after more than ten years.

AI programming is only as good as the people running it, and they’re all waaaaay in over their heads.

Still, hundreds of millions of people use AI every day, and the current technology is damaging.

Image and video generation, while lackluster, is possible right now, and people are using it.

Suing everybody wasn’t going to put the genie back in the bottle.

By picking a side in the AI Wars, Disney gains at least some measure of control over the process.

It ain’t much, but it’s definitely better than nothing.

Plus, with a stake in OpenAI and the opportunity to buy more, Disney has bought some potentially lucrative lottery tickets.

The Theme Park Wars Were Dramatically Overblown

This isn’t the place for I Told You So’s, and I’m not one to do that anyway.

What happened in 2025 was predictable enough that everyone should have known anyway.

For all the hype and bluster about Universal Epic Universe threatening Disney dominance, it didn’t happen.

At this point, Disney’s market share dominance in the theme park industry is too significant.

We’re watching something similar unfold right now with NVIDIA in the tech industry.

Well, Disney has been doing that since 1955, the year that Disneyland Resort opened.

Some would argue that the park wasn’t the first of its kind, and it certainly wasn’t the last.

Once everyone saw what Walt Disney had accomplished, they tried to do the same.

In that way, 2025 demonstrated yet again that history repeats itself.

Everyone WANTS to compete with Disney, but nobody can on a large enough scale to matter.

Universal Studios is perfectly comfortable being the Pepsi to Disney’s Coke, just as it should be.

However, the Theme Park Wars were over before they even started.

Epic Universe was never ever never going to impact Disney’s bottom line to a noteworthy degree.

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Feature Photo: Disney