Disney Animated Film Count Down 53-41
Over the course of the pandemic, I have been trying to find fun activities that we (Aryn and I) could do for fun in the comfort of a our own home. The prime example of this is when we did a "31 days of Halloween" during the month of October. We enjoyed that too much we began to brainstorm other movie challenges we could do over the course of a months during the pandemic. Our first genius divergence from the "31 days of Halloween" was to do a DisneyCember, where we would watch the Disney animated films in order from release...we finished 3 months later.
Oh buddy, this was quite the journey. I can't say that I hated the experience, but it did feel like a chore to get through all the films. This is mostly because all the movies tend to follow the same themes and when you go through 53 films, you feel trapped and its hard to turn to watch something else without the looming thought of "ugh, we have more Disney films to watch." I have decided to list the films in order from worst to best based off of my own personal opinion. I should preface that we did skip over most of the anthology films like "Fun and Fancy Free", the films that are mixed animated and live action like "Pete's Dragon, and our viewing of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was out of order because we watched that in October for our 31 days of Halloween.
I preface again, this is my own opinion of the 53 films with some mini-reviews. I can feel your personal rage building through the computer screen over the ranking of these films. The bottom films in this list range from really bad, to just blah (which makes it hard to write a short review over).
53. Home on the Range
I feel the irony of the film is the plot revolves around the selling of a farm because whooooo doggy, this is the one film on this list I would list the closest towards hate. The characters are annoying, the voice acting is barely tolerable, and the story lacks. The film may be ok for very...VERY young children but I don't know if it would hold their attention long. The worst part of this is the original idea for the film sounds wonderful. The plan was to make a western animated film around American folk heroes such as Pecos Bill and somehow we diverged into a yodeling cow hustler and a couple of cows trying to stop his nefarious goal. The one plus is the addition of a Alan Menken soundtrack, but its easily the weakest group of songs he has arranged for Disney.
While I do not hate Dinosaur, this one was a chore to make it through. This film we watched in the last month and I still remember very little of it. I also don't want to knock the film for its animation quality because it is an early CGI animated movie and of course the animation is going to look dated. That being said, you have to compare the dinosaurs to the quality of something such as Jurassic Park from 94 and Dinosaur looks more dated than that film. The voice acting is fine and the scenes featuring the Carnosaurs work well, but one just wishes the film stayed silent the entire film and they did a "documentary" over the dinosaurs ala Walking with Dinosaurs, which I believe was the case until corporate stepped in and demanded it had a narrative that followed the talking animals. I feel more attached to the dinosaur segment in Fantasia more than these characters (more on that later) of which this must be based off of. I also think there may be an underlying issue with the character of Url who acts like a dog but is a...pet to other dinosaurs? I'm not sure but I feel uneasy with his inclusion and I have many questions.
51. Aristocats
I took a lot of crap when I expressed my dismay that we had made it to Aristocats. I stand by that feeling. I will start this out by saying I do not think its a bad film, it just does not appeal to me and I find the film boring. It shares some commonality with Dinosaur in that I also do not remember much from the film. The film may no appeal to me as I am a guy and this is usually known as a "girl disney film" (I see a lot of girls merchandise floating around with Marie on it) and maybe thats why I don't connect to it. The film just drags and most of the characters feel very 1 note other than the cat band who sticks out with some more colorful characters and some more...problematic characters. Bonus points for "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" though.
50. The Black Cauldron
I was very disappointed by Black Cauldron. It feels like it should cater to me, its a dark crazy 80's fantasy romp and man does it drop the ball. The film suffers from this odd balance of feeling like too much is going on while not enough is being explained and I know that stems from them trying to cram 3 books into 1 film. The film does have some great character designs but the cast feels very onenote and suffers from a character description of old man, the boy, creature, girl. The Horned King is designed well but feels like the least intimidating villain out of all the disney films we watched. Things happen so fast that when, spoiler alert, Gurgi sacrifices himself for his friends you are left asking, why? Even when the characters are heart broken and wish for his revival you feel more angry at them because it doesn't come off as genuine because the audience never feels like our heroes cared that much to begin with. The film is too dark for a general audience, but way too light for the fantasy audience.
49. The Jungle Book
What to say about The Jungle Book. I think the characters are fine, the animation is fine, the story is just meh. I think it is serviceable for a young audience that is introduced the Rudyard Kipling novel, but as an adult I wish it kept up with the dark tones of the novel, that's just my personal opinion on it. I feel like The Jungle Book wants to be a grand adventure but it feels like we are just walking along with the story rather than on a journey. The iconic songs stand out fine, but the film just has a feeling of just existing with a feeling of "yup, I just watched that."
48. Dumbo
Leaving out the culturally issues of Dumbo...its fine! Dumbo is fine. There are even some parts I would say are great! The song "Baby Mine" is a beautiful song and the Pink Elephant sequence is quite the trip. Dumbo falters in its story telling in that its idea feels like its not explored enough as the realization that Dumbo can fly happens in the third act and the film ends quickly after that. It feels as if we are missing an actual third act for the film, but what we are left with works ok.
47. The Fox and The Hound
The Fox and The Hound is another film that lands in "its fine" territory. I don't really have any issues with it, just nothing catches my attention about it. The friendship between our two leads is cute and the supporting cast are quirky and interesting. The animation has some great designs (Don Bluth work before he left Disney) its just another film I feel that goes through the motions and we don't really go through much of a journey with it. The Woodpecker and Sparrow character storyline with the caterpillar though, awesome, would have worked well with just a series of shorts about them.
46. Chicken Little
Im going to start with the obvious and its the animation quality is not great for chicken little, mostly because it's Disney's first full length computer animated film. The story and humor is good though and the twist that introduces aliens is an interesting approach. Chicken Little tries really hard to be endearing but just falls a little flat. We have reached the hard films to talk about because they are just blah and not that interesting. Not terrible to rant and rave about, but not that interesting to talk about.
45. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
I think the understanding is apparent on how important this film is, but it feels dated. There is a lot of things to like about Snow White, especially when putting it into film history. The music is great, the animation is groundbreaking for its time and you have to respect the film on those merits. I will be honest this film was hard to place on this list and might be higher just to its significance but when the most fun we had with the film had to do with laughing at how dated it is I could not move it higher.
44. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
This is another placement where I feel a great number of people are going to be upset its so low. I think this film was Disney's way to jump on "The Mummy" train that Universal Studios was riding. Again, and this is a theme for more than one film, it feels like we are given too much and not enough. If they were to remake this as a series I think it would play better, but the film throws too many ideas at you and too many characters for one to follow. A creative design and creative idea doesn't always equal a great film. The supporting cast is quirky but we don't spend enough time with them and the twists the film takes come out of nowhere and instead of being shocked you are just confused.
43. Pinocchio
Pinocchio has a lot of charm and some great character designs. I do enjoy how dark the film gets with Monstro and the pleasure island portion is the thing nightmares are made of. The songs are great and there is a reason why "When you Wish Upon a Star" is now Disney's theme. Pinocchio just feels like a silly little jaunt, it just feels like a short and sweet tale that just leaves little impact on you.
42. Fantasia 2000
Fantasia 2000 is hard to talk about without comparing it to Fantasia (spoiler its lower on the list). The animation is beautiful especially the forest spirit sequence but there is something about Fantasia 2000 that feels a little manufactured and not as timeless as its predecessor. It's hard to put my finger on as to why it does not stick with you as the best piece of the film is just the "remaster" of the Sorcerers Apprentice set piece with Mickey Mouse. It could just be that this film didn't have Walt behind it so it just lacks a little bit of his enthusiasm and heart for the project and it being a sequel doesn't feel revolutionary.
41. Robin Hood
I'll be honest, Robin Hood is my biggest disappointment. If you would have asked me what my list would have looked like before re-watching all these films, I would have said Robin Hood would be in the top twenty for sure, but in reality the film drags. The characters are interesting but the stakes don't feel all that high in Robin Hood and each scene just feels like a set piece that doesn't connect to the others. The film is a lot of fun, but I just felt a little empty after watching it.
40-31 coming soon!
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