Why was Disney animation in such a ghetto from 2000-2008?

I'm pretty sure Shrek had a lot to do with it. Its explosive popularity created a trend of self-aware, pop culture referencing cynicism that we're still feeling today. The ironic thing is that at its core, Shrek is still a fairly earnest movie with a lot of genuine moments, but the imitators always seemed to miss that.

Atlantis, Lilo and Stitch, TENG, amd Treasure Planet were good. I dunno why they didnt do too well, maybe the bubble had just popped and people were tired of Disney movies. Shrek definitely changed the playing field.

>>93895394
Yeah that's often the thing when people try to knock off a film, show, book or video game etc, they only see and understand the superficial elements of it

They kept trying to experiment with new art and writing styles and for the new millennium. All Disney classics such as Lion King, Aladdin, Little Mermaid, etc had similar looking art styles and tended to follow somewhat of a similar writing pattern.

After realizing none of OP's pics were working they went back to the basics with Princess and the Frog. It netted them a modest profit but still didn't reach the heights of old Disney flicks. Finally someone came up with the great idea of converting the classic Disney formula people loved into computer animation ala Tangled which did gangbusters and now they're back in the game. Don't know why it took almost 10 years for them to do this. Maybe the tech wasn't there yet.

Trying to figure out how to work in the new market, then they just acquired Pixar and ate their talented people.

The flopping, like others have said, was likely due to growing interest in CGI, as well as industry firsts such as Shrek, which influenced every non-Disney production for YEARS.
That being said, most of these are hardly "horrible" movies at all. That generally have pretty nice animation, and there's nothing about them I'd find cringeworthy or offensive. Some are just forgettable.
It kills me how some will say these are shit. It's a lot like the Disney Dark Age of the 70s-80s. They aren't "as good" as Disney's other films, but they aren't the tasteless fart-joke "raunchy" films Shrek inspired. I've always assumed people just hold Disney to a ridiculously high standard.

It's funny, during that period every time I heard the words 'Disney animated movie' my line of thinking would be like 'oh another forgettable children's flick.

Back in the 90s and nowadays when I hear/heard Disney is making another animated movie I'm eager to see what it is.