All 52 Walt Disney Animated Classics: Ranked From Worst To Best
Odds are you have a favorite Disney movie. After nearly eight decades and 52 movies in the “animated classics canon,” with films spanning every genre and style, there are plenty to choose from, after all. Are a fan of musicals, comedies or dramas? Do you prefer one of the timeless classics or do you find yourself watching a favorite from the Disney Renaissance? Are you committed to traditional hand-drawn animation or have you accepted the move to computer-generated graphics? Whatever your tastes, the Disney animated classic library has it covered.
I am a giant Disney fan. So with the release of Frozen, the 53rd animated “classic” arriving later this November, I’ve decided to rank all 52 films, so far, from worst to best. When compiling the list, I took into account three factors that make a task like this reasonable.
Firstly, of course, is entertainment value. To what extent did audiences actually enjoy the film? Secondly, it’s timelessness. Such a thing might be difficult to judge for newer films, but I tried to decipher which movies will hold up over the coming years (or have managed to do so already). And finally, and most importantly, I judge the overall quality of the film. This might seem somewhat opinion based, but when it comes to films that are well-known or respected, the work and effort the filmmakers have put in usually speaks for itself.
So sit back, relax and join me as I count down every movie in the canon, from the hardly watchable (yep, there are some) to those movies which hit all three targets: entertainment value, appeal over time, and quality of craft. I’ve tried to do all this whilst also taking into account popular opinion and critical analysis, because I wanted to make this list as accurate as possible. Without further ado, let’s dive in…
52. Home on the Range (2004)
The toughest part about compiling this list is that most of Disney’s films are enjoyable in some way, shape or form, even if they’re not ultimately great. So at some point on this list it will become difficult to place some of the most beloved Disney animated features in amongst the others. However, there are some films that are just plainly bad, and Home on the Range takes one of those spots – it’s easily the worst film of the entire animation canon.
With some of the most awful storytelling in Disney’s history, the poorest excuse for jokes, this cheap and lazy movie does not even seem like a Disney film. After the Disney Renaissance (the revitalisation of Disney animated flicks during the late 80s and throughout the 90s), it is impossible to understand how this film was ever made. The less said about it the better. Let’s move onwards and upwards.
51. Fun & Fancy Free (1947)
Don’t be surprised when you see most of the package films (feature length collection of shorter segments) from the 1940s near the bottom of this list. While they may have segments that pass as somewhat entertaining, the overall quality shows the problems of the time with the studio. During this decade, Disney lost most of its filmmakers to the American military draft, overseas markets were cut due to World War II thus hurting revenue, and the government had Disney making propaganda films to support the war effort. And let’s not forget the strike which was occurring at the studio at the same time.
So Fun & Fancy Free was one of the six package films made inexpensively as a result of the conditions described above. While it has its moments, it isn’t particularly memorable. I swear I was calling it “Fun & Fancy Tree” months after watching it because it is so darn forgettable. After the initial hits inherent to Walt Disney’s success, these package films proved ultimately disappointing and remain hard to sit through today.
50. Chicken Little (2005)
Most of Disney’s films go with an adaptation of a classic tale, so why not with the folk tale about the little chicken that rambles about the sky falling? With the success of Pixar and Dreamworks creeping up from behind, Disney was transferring to computer-animation from classic hand-drawn techniques, and Chicken Little was their first fully computer-generated release.
The film was pretty funny in its own right, but it still feels like a practice run for what would eventually become hits like Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph a few years later. Overall, it felt haphazard and out of place for the usual Disney animated release. It was Disney relaxing from the whole epic-fantasy direction, but Disney’s rut during the early 2000s was not helped much by this simple and – once again – forgettable film.
49. Bolt (2008)
Bolt runs along the same lines as Chicken Little, where the film was nothing more than just ‘eh’. The story and characters were not deep in the slightest and it ultimately felt like a simple paycheck for the animators. Audiences were still wondering what happened to the quality we saw in The Lion King and Aladdin at this point.
John Travolta plays a television superhero dog who doesn’t know his powers are just stunts and special effects. He is lost and must find his way back home with the help of a disgruntled stray cat and his biggest fan, a hamster. Simply, the film was weak and only worked to pass the time until Disney got back into gear with movies such as Princess and the Frog.
48. The Black Cauldron (1985)
I originally had The Black Cauldron lower on this list, but I moved it up a few spots when I realized it had a very small cult following. Unfortunately, a cult following does not ignore how difficult this film was to get into. The narrative feels scattered, the plot makes little sense, and the usual Disney fantasy is swapped out for a darker tone that just doesn’t work.
When this film was released, it was such a financial disappointment that the suits got close to considering the shutdown of the animation department at Disney (so the story goes), nearly calling it quits until the next few films convinced them otherwise. Most do not remember this movie and usually confuse it with The Sword in the Stone. Critically and financially, The Black Cauldron failed, too, and isn’t particularly fun to sit through on the whole.
47. Melody Time (1948)
I told you it would not be long before you saw another package film on this list. This film contained segments that actually served as something more than flashing colors and loud noises to appease the senses. There are some fun characters and bouncy music that may stick in memory for some time afterwards, at least.
The Peco’s Bill segment actually has found a place in the Disney theme parks as a restaurant in Florida. Other than that, unless you find this sort of film your cup of tea, it is ultimately boring and uneventful, emphasising only the quick manner in which it was thrown together.
46. Dinosaur (2000)
At this point, the prestige of Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid were a thing of the past and Pixar was beginning to grow and punch its distributor’s products right in the face. It was a very rough time. Dinosaur was another release that was neither here nor there. The movie is almost like a Tarzan meets Ice Age with Dinosaurs after a meteor shower hits the Earth and threatens the existence of its characters.
It is easy to say that no one gets excited for Dinosaur. Given the choice, most would probably skip it entirely. It is the first in the canon to be predominately computer-animated, with graphics that looked somewhat good but have dated badly. The backgrounds were actually live-action shots, with the characters being created through software. But to be fair, its technical achievements are the only notable thing about this movie.
45. The Three Caballeros (1944)
A more or less sequel to Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros is another package film, this time as a trip through Latin American (much like its predecessor). Unlike the other package films, though, this one has a unifying theme that goes a long way to keeping you interested. The titular titled tune starring Donald Duck, Panchito Pistoles, and José Carioca is the most memorable part of this film that has somewhat seeped its way through history.
This movie was part of a good will message to South America, which gives it a rather interesting origin story. And despite the reasoning behind Disney making most of its underwhelming package films, the quality does not seem as economical-inclined as it did with the others.
44. Make Mine Music (1946)
Another package film, what do you know? How did this one nudge ahead of the others, then, since they all are the last to be mentioned even by the hardest of Disney fans? Much like Fun and Fancy Free, this movie is so lost to time that after watching it I still called it by the wrong name. Make Mine Music just does not sound grammatically correct to me.
Regardless of the title, a lot of the segments in this film have actually have made their way through Disney history, such as Peter and the Wolf and The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at The Met. That seems fair, since they are fairly entertaining and distinctive. But that does not mean that this film is one of Disney’s best: far from it, actually.
43. Fantasia 2000 (1999)
I wrote in a recent WhatCulture article that Fantasia 2000 did not seem to have a purpose for its creation, but after further review I find actually myself thinking on the contrary. The sequel to Disney’s classic Fantasia does, in fact, hold its own – with amazingly performed music, a rich story animated with both computers in the traditional sense, it deserves a nod and a thumbs up after the hard fought battle Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, made to create this film.
Falling right out of touch with the famous Disney Renaissance, Fantasia 2000, while mildly successful, begun a trend of mild-to-near flops for Disney animation until The Princess and the Frog in 2009, however.
42. The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
One of only three official sequels in the animated canon (if you do not count The Three Caballeros), The Rescuers Down Under makes a decent case for its membership within the canon of 52 movies. Felt to be slightly underappreciated due to its humor and surprisingly intriguing story, that is still not enough for Bernard and Bianca to match the power that was The Little Mermaid before it.
But many do at least consider it an improvement over the original. When I was doing research for this article, I discovered why one of my personal favorites is not better known – it opened against the highest-grossing film of 1990, Home Alone. Down Under was an unfortunate victim of an improper release date, but at least it does show that the sequel curse does not affect all follow-ups.
41. The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
A mouse version of Sherlock Holmes, this film is where the list starts to mention some films that you may recognize a bit easily, but not so much. The Great Mouse Detective actually has a pretty stable fan base, a small one, but at the very least it exists. This film sits right on the edge of the Disney Renaissance that began with The Little Mermaid two films later.
But this movie did enough after the failure of The Black Cauldron to reignite faith in the animation department by executives to keep going, thus bringing us some of the most beloved movies of all time in the coming decade. With good animation, unexpected suspense, and lively characters, it was a breath of fresh air for Disney since the last decent hit, The Fox and The Hound.
40. Meet the Robinsons (2007)
Meet the Robinsons was moved around a lot during the creation of this list but has finally sealed a comfortable spot here at number 40. Not exactly popular or considered much of a timeless classic, the movie was still entertaining enough on its own accord and contained a story that was sort of touching. Yet, the movie couldn’t get away from the vibe that made it feel undeveloped and silly.
Meet the Robinsons never actually goes out to insult the audiences’ intelligence, and I personally enjoy the film, but given Disney standards at the time (going through the creative slump of the early 2000s), it’s not surprising it didn’t realise its full potential. I’ll say this, Meet the Robinsons: you are worth watching and I would not mind owning a copy of you on DVD or Blu-Ray, but you are not going to be put on a pedestal anytime soon.
***CHECK BACK NEXT WHIMSICAL WEDNESDAY FOR #39 – #11***
Published on 2016-07-27 04:00:05
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