The original idea for The Disney Channel started in 1977, but ended up getting shelved because The Walt Disney Company was still focused on opening and developing Epcot Center at Walt Disney World. In 1981, the idea resurfaced and by 1983, The Disney Channel became one of the premier cable channels in the country.

Unlike most other premium cable channels in the early 80s, The Disney Channel began making a profit within two years and eventually became a part of cable network's basic programming packages. If you had cable, chances are you had The Disney Channel; and if you had Disney Channel, you likely watched more than a few Disney Channel movies.

Much of the reason for The Disney Channel's early success was original programming like Disney Channel Premiere Films, or made-for-TV Disney films. Although early viewership figures are not available until 2001, it shows how much of a difference there is between what kids want to watch and what adults consider to be a good film. Many of the films have had up to 17.2 million viewers, but the ratings don't match.

So let's stick to what IMDB says these films should be rated and look at the 15 worst Disney Channel original films and the 10 best ones.

25 Worst: Can Of Worms (5.2)

The idea behind Can of Worms comes from a Kathy Mackel novel with the same name. That book was very well respected and was a nominee for the 2002 Young Reader's Choice award and 2001 Rhode Island Children's Book Award.

One of the things that sets The Disney Channels original films apart from all other networks is the talent. They have been able to uncover talented future stars while also being able to bring in some big names to carry the films. For this one, we get to see Erika Christensen long before anyone even heard of her. She is joined with Malcolm McDowell, who voices Barnabus. Unfortunately, the star studded cast doesn't seem to do much for this film.

24 Worst: Hounded (5.2)

At one point, The Disney Channel was trying to suffocate their audience with Mowrys and even turned Tahj Mowry into a star, despite the fact he was far from the best actor in the family. His two older sisters, Tia and Tamera, were already members of the Disney elite.

Shia LaBeouf plays a bully who steals Tahj Mowry's presentation in class to use for a contest that he ends up winning. So, in an effort to prove how he was cheated, Tahj goes to the school's headmaster, who just so happens to play Shia's father. Needless to say, an attempt is made to get it back at the bully's home, which turns into a dognapping involving an insane dog.

The overall plot is just as bad as you would think considering the storyline.

23 Worst: The Jennie Project (5.1)

For the most part, The Jennie Project is not a huge failure and most of the kids who were probably forced to watch it, loved it. It was taken from a very popular book about a chimpanzee that used sign language to communicate called Jennie.

However, the film failed to relate very closely to the novel and outside of a few main characters, changed a lot of the story and the names. Anyone that watches the film after reading the book is probably going to have some serious issues with the adaptation simply because it had a sense of Disney magic behind it. In other words, it was catered towards a specific demographic and therefore changed the heart of the book.

22 Worst: Life Is Ruff (5.1)

Outside of Benji and Homeward Bound, the use of dogs in film has never been a consistent thing. Some films turn out great while others are nothing special and end up failing miserably. Animals on screen, in general, are always a gamble and this was one of those times that Disney did not get it right.

Life is Ruff is a fitting title for a film that was rough to sit through. It starts off like just about every other dog film with a bunch of puppies being adopted except for the runt of the liter, who ends up escaping to the streets. That dog is later found by a couple of comic book collecting teens who then use the dog to enter a dog show. There is only one problem, the shelter they adopted the dog from is closing unless they get that prize money, which is $3,000. Predictable and boring.

21 Worst: The Cheetah Girls 2 (5.1)

Since the majority of us reading this are not 14-year old girls, we are going to have a problem relating to The Cheetah Girls movie franchise. The only reason it was even remotely popular was because of those young teenage girls who were obsessed with The Cheetah Girls like young teenage boys were obsessed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

It was the Disney Channel's highest rated original movie ever when it first came out, reaching over eight million viewers. But there is a difference between people watching and quality. Sure, there was always going to be a cheesiness factor to this film because of who they were making it for but since we are going by what IMDB says, this film was one of their all-time worst.

20 Best: Susie Q (7.5)

By the mid-90s, Amy Jo Johnson became one of the biggest names in Hollywood. She was the pink ranger from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and was the number one crush of just about any teenage boy in 1994. After leaving the Power Rangers, Amy turned to Disney and starred in the film Susie Q.

After teasing us for two seasons as the pink ranger, Susie Q finally exposed us to the real Amy Jo Johnson, the beautiful 25-year old that turned into an overnight sensation after her role as the ghost of Susie Q. The film has a ridiculous premise, of course, but it was still a great film that was able to really prove that Disney could create a fantastic original film.

19 Worst: Dadnapped (5.1)

Once again, The Disney Channel came out with a film that was strictly for its audience, children and young teens. Dadnapped was not created for any other reason than to appease that core demographic, and it showed.

Emily Osment is the younger sister of Academy Award nominated Haley Joel Osment. She is much more talented and has even had a singing career to go with a successful film and television one. But this is one of the films that she hopes to forget about because it was poorly written and even more poorly acted. The entire movie felt like a high school production of a play no one cared to watch.

18 Best: The Ernest Green Story (7.5)

The Disney Channel has never been afraid of tackling the big issues that have tarnished this country including racism in the 1950s. The Ernest Green Story tells us a true story about nine African-American high school students preparing to integrate Little Rock Central High School, in 1957.

The main character, Ernest Green, is played by Morris Chestnut, who was fresh off his role in 1991 film Boyz N the Hood. The film shows Ernest Green dealing with the difficulties of being the first African-American to graduate from an all white school. He dealt with a lot of violence and hatred from his classmates but eventually, his triumph over that level of adversity is something people need to see.

17 Worst: Frenemies (5.1)

The title of the film says it all.

Frenemies was a film starring some of the superstars of The Disney Channel at the time including Zendaya, Bella Thorne, Nick Robinson, and Stefanie Scott, as well as a few other big names back in the day, as friends that become enemies and then back to friends again. The roller-coaster ride is about as fun to watch as you can imagine. Most of the issues these kids face are mostly high school nonsense.

The real world problems that people are dealing with on a day-to-day basis are important, this film is not. The acting was not that bad, but the story was as bad as Disney Channel gets.

16 Best: Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven Of Bliss (7.5)

When Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss premiered on the Disney Channel in 1993, we had already been treated to three of the classic National Lampoon Vacation films. So we had plenty of knowledge about the hilarity behind traveling cross-country in the family car to go on vacation.

But this film did something else, it added a dramatic side to that story that turned it into an actually good film. The main character was Ralph and he, as an adult, is also the narrator. It was very much like The Sandlot, in which a group of friends were looking for something to do one summer to break the boredom they had officially endured.

15 Worst: High School Musical 2 (5.0)

As far as popularity among children and teenagers was concerned, High School Musical 2 was by far the greatest thing that has ever happened to the Disney Channel. The premier of the film brought in a Disney Channel record of 17.2 million viewers, shattering the record. The film would go on to air again on Saturday night and Sunday evening to grab a total of over 33 million viewers in the course of one weekend.

So even though many critics did not like the film, that did not stop it from becoming the most popular Disney original film ever, and remains safely in first place for now. Once again, quality means very little over popularity for children and teenagers. They would much rather be entertained than be blown away from a brilliant story.

14 Best: Mr. Boogedy (7.5)

A few years before anyone was talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kristy Swanson was starring in the dramatic horror film, Mr. Boogedy, on the Disney Channel. Although everything about this film seems like it is going to be frightening, as an adult, you might be very much underwhelmed.But that should never take away from the production quality that this film was for the network.

Even with the many different reasons to not like this movie, it remains one of the Disney Channel's highest rated original films, and it could have something to do with their ability to risk losing fans just so they did not have to sell out to make a cheesy horror flick.

13 Worst: The Cheetah Girls (4.9)

When Raven-Symone signed on to work for Disney, she instantly became the network's biggest internal superstar. She was in everything and anything she wanted to be in, including becoming one of the original members of the annoyingly awful musical group, The Cheetah Girls.

Even with a solid premiere of 6.5 million viewers, and after selling 800,000 DVDs for it, The Cheetah Girls remains one of the Disney Channel's most obnoxious films ever. It adheres to one specific audience, young children, most female, and no one else. There is nothing wrong with that, but there does come a time when isolating a fan base can cause a lack of quality in the storyline.

12 Best: Perfect Harmony (7.6)

As you are going to see, made-for-tv films revolving around class and race issues, especially those on the Disney Channel, always seem to have a positive impact on society and tend to bring in a very good rating. That is because the Civil Rights Movement is always going to be something we want to hear about, if anything just to learn from our mistakes as a society.

Perfect Harmony follows a teacher named Derek Sanders, as he starts his new job as the Blanton Academy choirmaster, back in an all-white private school in 1959 South Carolina. He tries to fix everyone and change the way people see African-Americans in their town. It works and some of his students begin to impress him with their ability to change who they are to fix the world.

11 Worst: The Cheetah Girls: One World (4.9)

Oh no, it is another Cheetah Girls film. That can only mean one thing, more bad singing and horrible writing. The biggest difference with The Cheetah Girls: One World when compared to all the other films in the series was that this was the first time we would be without Raven Symone.

Although it still brought in nearly seven million viewers, it was the worst of the three films in the series, including having the lowest rating and lowest number of viewers. But what else can you expect from a film series that stars girls named Galleria and Aquanette?

10 Best: Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme (7.6)

The Disney Channel has aired some incredible original films over the past 35 years but there has always been one that has truly gotten the respect it deserves. Mother Goose Rock 'N' Rhyme is highly underrated as an original film because not many people remember 1990 films that still has not been released on DVD.

This is one of those films that was loaded with talent, from the top down. It stars Dan Gilroy as Gordon Goose, the son of Mother Goose (Yes, she has a child in this world) as he travels around with Little Bo Peed (played by Shelley Duvall) in Rhymeland, looking for his Mother. The music was awesome and this film also starred Cyndi Lauper, Art Garfunkel, Bobby Brown, Teri Garr, Woody Harrelson, Howie Mandel, Katey Sagal, Little Richard, Cheech Marin, Harry Anderson, Garry Shandling, Paul Simon, and ZZ Top.

9 Worst: You Lucky Dog (4.8)

Kirk Cameron has spent most of his acting career doing no wrong in his eyes. He has remained loyal to himself and has never sold out for a quick buck. There is something to respect about a man who sticks to his morals and does not risk jeopardizing them. That said, You Lucky Dog was not one of his finest films.

As a dog psychiatrist, Jack Morgan (Cameron) can read dogs' minds and is known all around the world for it. That alone is a tough sell, but the movie features a wealthy family dog inheriting his master's fortune which requires the use of an expert to read the dog's minds. However, his gift is lost and he spends the entire movie faking it until he makes it.

8 Best: Tru Confess. (7.7)

Shia LaBeouf did not become an overnight superstar out of pure luck. He worked his way into the spotlight after practically stealing over an entire Disney show for which he was not even the main character. Even Stevens helped make him, but it was his talent at a young age that turned him into a star.

About six years into his Disney career, Shia starred in Tru Confess., an original Disney film about Tru, an aspiring filmmaker, and her twin brother, Eddie, who is the star subject of her documentary film about people with developmental disabilities. She does it to win a contest, but it completely changes her life in the process.

7 Worst: Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure (4.8)

As if the first three High School Musical films were not enough, Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure sends us off with Sharpay Evans, after graduating from East High School, and her new life of adulthood, which takes her to Broadway, of course.

But it becomes very apparent who the stars of the High School Musical films were and that without them, any spin-off film was going to land pretty hard into the ground and receive horrible ratings. That is exactly what happened here as we were forced to watch a cheesy spin-off for a character that not many people truly cared enough about to enjoy.

6 Best: On Promised Land (7.7)

It is always going to be nearly impossible for anyone to create a made-for-tv film that pulls at your emotions more than one that features racism at its forefront. On Promised Land is a story that would sound a bit ridiculous at first but after watching the film, it all makes sense.

It tells the story of Floyd and Martha Ree Ween, and their son Jim Jam (Norman Golden II, the funny little kid from A Cop and A Half), as they attempt to live on land that was once promised to Floyd's father for previous work done for the Appletree family. However, things get ugly because the Appletree family did not care for it and even tried to stop the transfer of land from happening. The film was set in Georgia in the 1950s so the thought of a black family taking on a rich white family was nearly unheard of.