Michael Jackson "posed" with Pinocchio for the June 1993 cover, and in the associated article even said Pinocchio, best known for wanting to be a real boy, was his favorite Disney character. The issue was released just one month before Jackson was accused of child molestation.
The "Teenage Tunage" article in the May 1997 issue, which profiled teenage pop singers and groups, included a blurb about Aaliyah, then 17 years old, and mentioned her debut single "Age Ain't Nothing But a Number." The single, which was written by R. Kelly, would later earn a horrible reputation after Aaliyah's grooming, statutory rape, and underage marriage to Kelly came to light.
A twofer from the February 1998 Letters page: "In the future, Tom Cruise will leave Nicole Kidman for Rosie O'Donnell."note Cruise and Kidman announced their split exactly three years later in 2001; O'Donnell came out as a lesbian a year later in 2002. As far as we know the two events weren't related, though.
The April 1994 and September 1994 issues had the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers on the cover, and one of them included an article about the show getting a second season. Disney would later own the rights to the series for nine years.
Similarly, August 1995 had a cover article about the MMPR movie. After their purchase of 20th Century Fox in 2019, Disney now owns the rights to that movie.
The March 1998 issue featured "the coolest cartoon kids," which included Bart Simpson and Bobby Hill. Disney would later own both characters after their purchase of 20th Century Fox.
The June 1994 issue has John Goodman (as Fred Flintstone, promoting the live action Flintstones movie) with Baloo from The Jungle Book (1967). Goodman would voice Baloo 9 years later in the movie's sequel.
Just Here for Godzilla: Most kids would buy DA for the comics and completely skip the articles. According to Marv Wolfman, Disney's early focus groups for DA found that "...90% of the kids interviewed said the comics section was their favorite part of the magazine."
Magazine Decay: DA was once a nearly-educational magazine aimed at children, covering varied and sundry topics (one issue, for example, covered the Vikings and Norse Myth). As the years passed, however, it narrowed its scope to the point that it became yet another facet of Disney's marketing department. Near the end of its lifespan, it shifted away from Disney... only to have issues about other licensed properties such as SpongeBob SquarePants.
Literally, as well. The magazine switched from a glue binding to staples and a thinner, glossier paper in January 1998, and the staple-bound issues aren't as durable as the glue-bound.
Narm: DA Buzz's monthly rundown of popular slang was usually pretty laughably off-base, and usually veered into the weirder corners of Totally Radical territory. For the longest time, in fact, the Burbank staff claimed that "spackler" was a cool substitute for "geek".
Only the Creator Does It Right: Founding editor-in-chief Tommi Lewis' run, comprising the entirety of the magazine's Burbank production over the first half of The '90s, seems to be the best regarded era of DA. During this time the magazine regularly included over 100 pages of varied content and highly stylized layouts. It also included several of the magazine's more memorable comic storylines, as detailed in the Comics Zone section below.
Following the magazine's move to New York, Phyllis Ehrlich's tenure as editor-in-chief — lasting from January 1995 to February 1997 — was generally well-received, subverting this. Her run kept up several other of the same features introduced under Tommi (with the notable exception of "Joe Rocket," which was phased out), consolidated the comics into a single section, and brought more of the staff front-and-center as personalities in the magazine (with comics editor Heidi MacDonald and senior editor Sean Plottner being the most visible). That said, it also saw a gradual overhaul to the layout of the magazine, going for more a more simplified design scheme with subdued colors and a motif of shapes and dotted lines, saw a slight page count reduction, saw a dramatic reduction in the Roger Rabbit Effect covers, and the end of her time saw the only attempt to revamp the logo — which was changed back in the June 30, 1997 issue after receiving negative reader feedback — until September 2006.
Suzanne Harper's tenure as editor-in-chief following Phyllis' departure, on the other hand, is regarded as So Okay, It's Average at best. Though it started off strong with the return of Bone to the magazine, it also included a steady shift towards a more entertainment-based focus and with less of an educational edge in general, as well as a change to a poppier and more colorful layout. It also saw the removal of fan-favorite features like the Roger Rabbit Effect covers and Heidi MacDonald's column, a drastic page count reduction, and a change to a less-durable staple-bound spine beginning in 1998.note It is worth noting that Suzanne had been the managing editor of the magazine under Tommi since the very beginning, and was made executive editor under Phyllis; however, the fact that her tenure as chief directly coincided with DA's Magazine Decay — which had somewhat begun at the end of Phyllis' time — didn't help.
Seasonal Rot: Debates rage on about when it began — it either began right after the move from Burbank to New York in 1995, or right after Suzanne Harper took over in 1997, or right after the magazine switched to staple binding and removed Heidi's column in 1998. By 1996 most of the Disney Afternoon comics had ended, by 1997 DA was phasing out educational content in favor of entertainment content, April 1998 saw the last "celebrity posed with a Disney character" covernote With Matt Le Blanc (promoting Lost in Space) and Buzz Lightyear, by 1999 most multi-part comics had been removed in favor of shorter comics, by 2003 the front covers pretty much looked like Tiger Beat and were virtually indistinguishable from each other, and in 2006 the logo completely changed.
So Okay, It's Average: The winner of the 1994 superhero contest, Metamorphon. His powers aren't anything new (he's pretty much a cross between Metamorpho, Plastic Man, and Iron Man), his two-and-a-half page Marv Wolfman-penned comic isn't very exciting, his civilian persona is very milquetoast, and his villain is a Lex Luthor knockoff. Contrast that with runners-up like Anya, Gravityman, or Games — all of whom look cooler and much more in line with what was popular back then, and seem to have more interesting powers — and you're left wondering why DA chose Metamorphon over them in the first place.
Fans of DA in the 90s can't stand to talk about the editorial direction the magazine took after 1999.
For then-longtime readers, the moment the magazine switched to staple binding and reduced its page count starting in January 1998 was the beginning of the end. That said, the Fleeting Demographic Rule meant that many of those older readers were already outgrowing it by then anyway, and the magazine carried on for another nine years.
Values Dissonance: The December 1994 issue printed a letter from a reader asking for an issue about the Deep South, and the magazine included a photo of the Confederate battle flag next to the letter. In the 1990s, the flag was still seen primarily as a symbol of the South, with its Civil War context downplayed tremendously. However, to a reader in the 2020's, it can be absolutely jarring to see the flag, as it's now widely regarded as a symbol of racism and treason in the wake of the George Floyd protests and the January 6th Capitol insurrection.
In one issue about UFOs and extraterrestrials, DA did a profile of the Queen Alien as a bad creature to tangle with. They even labeled her as Queen of the Universe, complete with a composite picture of the beast with a Miss Universe sash and a crown. And they even went into some detail what the Xenomorphs did to people, even joking, "This one will give you a new meaning to the term 'Bellyache', literally!"
One early issue recommended National Lampoon's Vacation as a family film... despite the fact that it's an R-rated film with profanity, adult humor, and a nude scene.
In the run-up to the first High School Musical, an interview with Vanessa Hudgens has her explaining that her favorite film is RENT, a musical about a group of starving artists trying to survive in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic of the 80's.
The September 2004 issue has an interview with Daryl Sabara (of Spy Kids), who landed a role in the decidedly kid-unfriendly Father of the Pride, which was pointed out in almost every pre-release interview as having mature humor.
At various points in the early 90s, actors Jason Priestly, Jennie Garth, and Luke Perry separately appeared on the cover. They were the stars of the then hit show Beverly Hills, 90210, a teen soap opera decidedly NOT for kids.
The January 1998 issue a cover article about James Bond, with Pierce Brosnan appearing on the cover; later on, the Winter 2000 issue featured a "rumble" between James Bond and Austin Powers, with Powers as the victor. Neither franchise is particularly kid-friendly; the Bond movies feature a lot of violence and sex, and the Powers movies have a ton of raunchy humor.
The February 1997 issue covered the MTV Video Music Awards, and named Howard Stern — who had presented an award to Metallica as his "Fartman" character — the "Stinkiest Presenter," calling him "a rude radio disc jockey." Things don't get much less kid-friendly than Howard Stern, folks.
All the times that the magazine ran any Simpsons comics, now that Disney owns the franchise through their purchase of 20th Century Fox.
Patrick McEown's Luna Park comic in the April 1999 issue features a character named "Mr. Nightshade." For several panels, Mr. Nightshade, a skinny, ghoulish character in a suit, is faintly seen in the background as he follows Luna and Hugo out of a cemetery and through the woods. The whole comic could be easily mistaken for something from The Slender Man Mythos, which it predates by a decade.
That same comic's fourth panel prominently features a creepy angel statue that looks very similar to a Weeping Angel.
Only the Creator Does It Right: Founding comics editor Marv Wolfman's time included several of the magazine's more memorable comic storylines, like Throgg Ray Wars, Return to Blaggard Castle, the Fluffy trilogy, and The Legend of the Chaos God; Wolfman also brought in a few indie comics during this period (e.g. Dr. Watchstop, Nervous Rex, and Bone).
Wolfman's successor Heidi MacDonald's stint as comics editor brought in a lot of indie talent, which, when combined with her literally being the face of the comics section for a couple of years, turned her into a major aversion to the trope. This was helped by the fact that she'd previously worked on the comics editorial staff with Wolfman in Burbank starting in 1991.
After Heidi left for DC Comics in 1999, her successor Steve Behling had more misses than hits (Super Music Action Ready Team, which began right at the end of Heidi's time, is seen as a particular nadir), but he did manage to get a stand-alone Comic Zone spin-off magazine printed during his time that ran for 16 issues.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Aladdin two-parter "On the Road" had the Sultan and Jasmine get meticulously kidnapped and imprisoned by an immortal and embittered enemy of the Sultan's from back in the day. When word reaches Agrabah, Genie — who initially has trouble sensing the Sultan and Jasmine's whereabouts due to an enchantment on the enemy's hidden city — poofs Aladdin and co. to the dungeon where the Sultan and Jasmine are being held, but can't poof everyone back out until twilight because of the enchantment. So they all sit around and wait in the dungeon until twilight, and then poof out.The End.
from the February 1998 Letters page: "In the future, Tom Cruise will leave Nicole Kidman for Rosie O'Donnell."note 