Board 8 > darkx (re)ranks the 56 Walt Disney Animation Studios films

(+) Yeah! (+)

Known informally as the "Disney canon." It's been ranked collectively and individually by many individuals over the history of Board 8. I myself was a part of the collective ranking, however, new films have been released, and some of my opinions on films have changed. For those confused as to which films are part of this particular collection and which are not (no Pixar, no Disney Toon Studios, no direct-to-video, etc), here are the 56 films being considered for this list (in release order): (oh and just in case, spoiler warning for all of these movies)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Pinocchio
Fantasia
Dumbo
Bambi
Saludos Amigos
The Three Caballeros
Make Mine Music
Fun and Fancy Free
Melody Time
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Cinderella
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
Lady and the Tramp
Sleeping Beauty
One Hundred and One Dalmatians
The Sword in the Stone
The Jungle Book
The Aristocats
Robin Hood
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
The Rescuers
The Fox and the Hound
The Black Cauldron
The Great Mouse Detective
Oliver and Company
The Little Mermaid
The Rescuers Down Under
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
The Lion King
Pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
Tarzan
Fantasia 2000
Dinosaur
The Emperor's New Groove
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Lilo & Stitch
Treasure Planet
Brother Bear
Home on the Range
Chicken Little
Meet the Robinsons
Bolt
The Princess and the Frog
Tangled
Winnie the Pooh (2011)
Wreck-It Ralph
Frozen
Big Hero 6
Zootopia
Moana

Up coming in my next post is some stats on how difficult it was to rank this list, as well as a hint for which film is going to be showing up first.
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Taggity tag!
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First, some facts and stats about the list.

-I actually made this list from the bottom up. Sometimes I find this easier than ranking from the top, especially with a finite number of items to be ranked.

-Immediately there were 20 films that stood out to me as "yeah, that can be ranked low and I'm not going to feel too bad about it." Those comprise #37-56 on this list. Note that this doesn't mean that YOU aren't going to disagree with those being ranked low. Just that I personally didn't feel dirty about putting any of them low because, well, they don't do much for me. In fact, I'd wager to say that as early as #50 is going to be the first "WTF" low pick.

-#32-36 were the "man, I feel dirty having it this low... but there's really nothing else of the 'good stuff' that I can put any lower" picks. I actively like well over half of the movies on this list. But out of those, 5 of them are a clear step below the rest.

-#25-31 is the next tier. I consider all of these to be very good movies, but something had to give and again, these were relatively easy to pick out from the rest of the bunch.

-This is where it got difficult. Everything from #24 on up I felt had a strong case for being in the top 10. I'm serious, that many films are that good. From there on out it was simply picking and choosing between what were the best of the best. In particular it was absolutely heartbreaking to keep #21 out of my top 20.

-Oh, and just since it has to be said, my favorite characters do not necessarily equal my favorite movies, nor to my least favorite characters necessarily equal my least favorite movies, so don't go basing your guesses off of SMDC.

And since I know you all want it...

56. Starting off the list very non-controversially, I think plenty of people are going to agree with this being dead last, and of those that don't I'm sure none are going to be heartbroken about it being gone first. No sarcasm, this isn't me being sly and putting something popular here. This one's a trainwreck.
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Tag.
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This should be fun, I don't really remember your tastes too well from when we ranked them collectively.

I'm going to guess Home on the Range to start, although there are a few others I can think of that would also be non-controversial bottom choices (such as the package films).

Tag

TANGLED #1

pls
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What do you say, just go ahead and post it before I go to bed?
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Yes please.
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Ok.
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56. Chicken Little
After the box office and critical disaster that was Home on the Range, Disney abandoned 2D animation for their theatrical features and instead began to focus on being "Pixar but not Pixar" and making big dazzling CGI films with loads of special effects, pop-culture references and psuedo-adult humor. We all know how this turned out, and the Holy Fail of this rebellious phase is this disasterpiece in which a classic tale is turned into an ugly duckling-type story in which children learn that if you're being bullied by your peers, teachers, the goddamn mayor, and even your own father, all you have to do is prove that aliens exist and suddenly everything is hunky dory. Seriously I can't think of one positive thing to say about this movie except that the Fish is kinda funny and Don Knotts as the mayor gets a laugh or two (pity he had to end his career on THIS piece of crap). Other than that it's Disney trying to be cool and hip but instead just being loud and annoying and with mediocre animation to boot.

55. Donald Duck appears in this film.
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#55 - The Great Dictator
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Tag

Chicken Little for last please (although my guess is Home on the Range)

Edit: Hooray Chicken Little the worst

Fantasia 2000?

Shame, I liked it
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Guessing this will be Saludos Amigos.

Dayside bump
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lmao looks like I'm still the board's only Chicken Little fan. I understand the hate it gets but it's nowhere near Rosanne Cow bad.

Next up Melody Time.
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Melody Time was always my least favorite package film, so yeah let's go with that.

Mid-00s Disney didn't really do anything for me, tbf.
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The Three Caballeros
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I plan on doing 2 each day. 55 will go up probably sometime in the 7:00 hour (Eastern)
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taggin' this
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55. Fun and Fancy Free
Well, this film certainly has the right title. It is completely free of being fancy or fun. Two stories that would have been much better off being served as two theatrical shorts as opposed to packaged together as one film. Supposedly both were initially supposed to be their own feature length film but Disney's staff and resources in the 40s were pretty limited, as we'll see in other parts of this list. Anyway the first is Bongo, a boring tale about a love triangle between three bears. The second is Mickey and the Beanstalk, which actually had a lot of potential but was ruined by some interludes about two annoying and creepy-as-hell puppets. Actually Mickey and the Beanstalk was eventually re-released as its own short with these segments removed and Sterling Holloway stepping in as the narrator, and it was much, much better. But this movie as it is is boring and disturbing, with the ACTUAL Mickey and the Beanstalk parts being the only thing keeping it above Chicken Little. But if you take away one thing from this write-up, make it this - the puppets are so bad that they cost this film four whole spots. If they had used the Sterling Holloway version of MatB, I would have put this at 51 and bumped the next four films down one spot each. As it is, the most notable thing about this film is that it marks the last time that Walt Disney himself voiced Mickey Mouse.

54. Another 2000s stinker out of the way early.
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I am so thankful that the version of Mickey and the Giant Beanstalk I saw did not have the puppets

It confused the hell out of me when people kept talking about it in another Ranking... and then I saw them in the version you talked about
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Also Home On The Range
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Gotta be Princess and the Frog...

Until it's Home on the Range.
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Steven_Cynthia posted...

I am so thankful that the version of Mickey and the Giant Beanstalk I saw did not have the puppets

It confused the hell out of me when people kept talking about it in another Ranking... and then I saw them in the version you talked about

So what did you only watch MatB and then watch FaFF after reading some rankings?
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Prediction: The Emperor's New Groove and Brother Bear will be criminally underrated
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By the way just yesterday I learned that at one point in the early 2000s there was supposed to be a film called "The Search for Mickey Mouse," in which Minnie, Donald and Goofy go looking for Mickey and along the way enlist the help of various Disney characters. Supposedly it was canned for being too confusing and convoluted and we got Mickey, Donald and Goofy in The Three Musketeers instead. Frankly I would've liked to see The Search for Mickey Mouse instead. Couldn't have been any more confusing and convoluted than Kingdom Hearts.
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I mean that sort of sounds like KH as is

Going to guess Dinosaur for the next one.
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Home on the Range has gotta be next.

Make Mine Music is an easy last place for me.
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AdmiralZephyr posted...

Steven_Cynthia posted...

I am so thankful that the version of Mickey and the Giant Beanstalk I saw did not have the puppets

It confused the hell out of me when people kept talking about it in another Ranking... and then I saw them in the version you talked about

So what did you only watch MatB and then watch FaFF after reading some rankings?

Exactly

First time I saw Bongo too
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Gotta be Home on the Range

54. Home on the Range
Aka the film that pretty much served as the final nail in the coffin of hand-drawn animation. I've always said that one of the greatest strengths about Disney films is that they are first and foremost family films as opposed to kid's films. Yeah, they are made with kids in mind, but are timeless enough that they can be enjoyed by viewers of all ages. There are two (arguably three but I give the third one a pass) films on this list that I can honestly say are really just for kids, and one of those is Home on the Range. Full of loud, obnoxious characters, Nicktoon-quality animation, a plot that just barely makes sense and is convoluted by introducing too many characters too late in the movie, and plenty of jokes about the rear end and everything that comes out of it, this one is an easy pass for anyone over the age of 4. The one thing I will say on its behalf is that a couple of the songs are kinda catchy, and I give Alan Menken credit for actually putting some thought and effort into this piece of manuer.

53. Was released before 1950.
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The fact that Dinosaur isn't out yet is a crime
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AdmiralZephyr posted...

a couple of the songs are kinda catchy

Not a popular opinion, but I actually really like Slim and his villain song. I'm not saying he's a brilliant villain or anything, but I think he's the one good part of this otherwise really bad experience.
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I do love a good yodeling
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I'm going to torture myself through 2000s Disney at some point.

Not had a Disney ranking topic for a while
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Leafeon13N posted...

I'm going to torture myself through 2000s Disney at some point.

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JonThePenguin posted...

Leafeon13N posted...

I'm going to torture myself through 2000s Disney at some point.

Aside from Chicken Little/Home on the Range, 2000s Disney is actually a really great era.
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Inviso posted...

JonThePenguin posted...

Leafeon13N posted...

I'm going to torture myself through 2000s Disney at some point.

Aside from Chicken Little/Home on the Range, 2000s Disney is actually a really great era.

Unfortunately this summer my kids have developed an annoying tendency to wake me up by watching Chicken Little over the Netflix. So I've got that bias rolling into everything I think about that era right now. =P
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Early Zeroes Disney was decent, also late.

It's the middle part that made turn up my nose!
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2000s Disney was Lilo and Stitch and Treasure Planet right?
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^ Yeah. Never saw TP, though.
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NineNobles posted...

2000s Disney was Lilo and Stitch and Treasure Planet right?

And Emperor's New Groove
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Guessing Melody Time
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I hate Melody Time more, but guessing Saludos Amigos for this one.

Expect your next lame-ass package film around 6pm Eastern.
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Woo! Death to package films!
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