Disney Movie Appreciation Thread

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Its about time I opened a thread about this.

Ah, the Disney Renaissance. It was truly one of the best era's of animation to grow up. During the 90s, Disney's animated films finally took full force and became the most popular part of the company since the days of Walt Disney. They were beautiful, sometimes dark and tragic, and boasted some of the most memorables stories and characters not only in animated film history, but in film history.

As a young boy I remember loving these films very much so I watched them all over again on Christmas eve; one after one I watched all 9 Disney Renaissance films and they still fail to disappointed as they stand the test of time (though some elements don't). Eventually I'll give analysis into certain aspects of each films that they had in common. By the way, here are the 9 Disney Renaissance films.


The Little Mermaid (1989)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Aladdin (1992)
The Lion King (1994)
Pocahontas (1995)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Hercules (1997)
Mulan (1998)
Tarzan (1999)
So which of the others are also fond of the DR?

 

[Kurosawa]

Loved that era. As much as I love Sleeping Beauty (it's my favorite Disney Princess film mostly due to the awesomeness of Malfecient VS Prince Phillip), I feel that era was Disney's best. It's hard to pick a favorite from that period, although it might be Aladdin.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

The Lion King. To this day it is one of my favourite films (third behind Inception and Toy Story 3 - that's right, before this summer, my all time favourite film was still The Lion King).

 

[Frankenmation]

It was a great era indeed, and not just because I was a kid when I first saw those films, but there was definitely a lot of love and craftmanship that went into them. My favourite would be a three-way tie between Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and the Lion King, I can't decide which one is the best, I love them all.

I also think The Hunchback of Notre Dame is criminally underrated, I thought it was superb. It wasn't perfect but it was a damn good story and had one of the more interesting Disney villains in my book.

 

[jmc]

I started watching all the Disney animated films recently for the first time in about 15-20 years, and man not only do they hold up extremely well but I appreciate them in a totally new way, in fact I probably appreciate them more now as an adult. Looking at them with adult eyes gives you a completely different perspective and experience, in terms of both story and animation. As an artist now I look at the animation in wonder, the subtleties in body movement the animators gave to the characters still amazes me, one scene that stick out to me is toward the end in Mermaid when Ariel begins to cry, the animators capture her short breaths and spasmodic abdominal movements perfectly. In terms of favourites The Lions King still remains my favrouite animated film ever, but they're all really good in they're own right. And I still maintain Pocahontas is way too hot for a Disney character. t:

 

[BestGirl]

Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite. I rewatched it a while back and was surprised how moving it was, even for an adult.

 

[Obsidian]

I'd add "Lilo & Stitch" to that list. It's different than what Disney normally does, but I liked that different. The animation was quite good and I loved the message of "family" integrated into the story. Plus it was a welcome reprieve from the usual "girl and boy fall in love" stories that we've seen so often in Disney films and many many other films.

 

[Spider-Who?]

The Lion King and Aladdin are my favorites out of the bunch. Hercules was a fun flick, too.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I'd add "Lilo & Stitch" to that list. It's different than what Disney normally does, but I liked that different. The animation was quite good and I loved the message of "family" integrated into the story. Plus it was a welcome reprieve from the usual "girl and boy fall in love" stories that we've seen so often in Disney films and many many other films.

Lilo & Stitch was good (Its my second favorite post-Renaissance film behind The Emperor's New Groove) but it wasn't part of the Disney Renaissance. The Disney Renaissance ended with Tarzan. And despite what people says, Rescuers Down Under doesn't count either.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I also think The Hunchback of Notre Dame is criminally underrated, I thought it was superb. It wasn't perfect but it was a damn good story and had one of the more interesting Disney villains in my book.

To be honest, though I may need more time to think, but I think The Hunchback of Notre Dame was the best film of the era. It's been changing a lot in my head between this, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King though.

The 90s was an amazing time for Disney, and even more impressive if you add Pixar's films (Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Toy Story 2) and Disney Toon films (DuckTales the movie, and A Goofy Movie).

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

the 90s was Disney best decade in animated films. my favs at that time was Aladdin, Lion King, Hunchback of ND, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahontas.

what exactly happened after that era that most of the Disney animated films just went non-existant? or why the hell were most of their animated films direct to dvd?

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

The films after Tarzan didn't have as huge a financial reception so after 90s ended and Fantasia or The Emperor's New Groove were nowhere close to the box office total of Tarzan (despite critical praise on par with the others for both) it was recognized that the Renaissance was over.

 

[jmc]

the 90s was Disney best decade in animated films. my favs at that time was Aladdin, Lion King, Hunchback of ND, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahontas.

what exactly happened after that era that most of the Disney animated films just went non-existant? or why the hell were most of their animated films direct to dvd?

Pixar happened.

 

[childeroland]

Disney just ran out of steam. Fantasia 2000, Atlantis, and Emperor's New Groove did so-so. Then came Treasure Planet and Home on the Range.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Pixar happened.

That also did play into it too. Disney did start to rely on Pixar films more as they starting to enjoy similar success that DR films had.

 

[jmc]

They more than relied upon it, Disney coat-tailed off them for years and as a result neglected their 2D animation department, much to Pixar employees dismay. I remember an interview with former Pixar head John Lassetar a few years back being absolutely appalled that Disney attributed the downfall of 2D animation to 3D animation, many of the 3D artists at Pixar started as 2D artists. He rightfully threw it back in Disney's face by saying the reason the recent batch of films sucked was because they were badly written and developed.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

To be honest, in a way, the DR led to Disney relying on Pixar. All of the DR movies had CGI usage in it, with each film slowly having more and more in it. In Tarzan, the thing that wasn't CGI in it were the characters.

EDIT: At times Tarzan, not the whole movie. There was a slow, but sure increase in CGI usage. In fact, it was Pixar themselves helping them with the technology. That's what led to Disney relying on the for the full CGI Toy Story.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Oh, there's no doubt that Pixar is ultimately what killed off 2D animation. On my copy of Wall-E there's this mini-doc about Pixar and they covered the end of 2D (might even be the same thing jmc is talking about), even had a cartoon someone drew around that time of Buzz Lightyear throwing 2D animators and artists out of Disney offices. I don't think it was intentional on their part, but it was definitely a blow that would see the end of it, at least in the States.

But, anyway, I like all the DR films. My favorite is Beauty and the Beast. If I were to pick a least favorite, it'd maybe be Tarzon, but I still enjoyed that one a lot. It was a good time, lots of great magic and stuff, going to the theater for one of these films was kind of like an event or something for me back then.

 

[Victarion]

I like the scene where that singing stockade holds Belle so Beast can tickle her.

 

[Warhammer]

Luckily, I grew up during the Disney Renaissance. What a golden age.

 

[OtherwiseKnownAs]

Saw this thread, thought I'd share some deleted songs from Aladdin and The Lion King.
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[YT]W9vXZncjGvk[/YT]
[YT]AU6AfCWuZKI&feature=related[/YT]
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[flickchick85]

If anyone wants to know what really happened that made them incapable of sustaining the greatness of the Renaissance (it wasn't necessarily Pixar), I highly recommend watching the recent documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty. It chronicles the whole thing from beginning to end. And as that tells it, the wonderful combination of head honchos that GAVE us the Disney Renaissance are the ones who brought it to an end, because they simply couldn't work with each other any more. Apparently, tensions were always high between them from the moment they were brought together in the '80s, but after the mediator of the group, the one who held them all together (Frank Wells) died in '94, the relationships just crumbled.

Here's the trailer for that documentary, btw:



And on a random note, I've never considered Tarzan part of the DR. I feel like it was over by the time that movie came around, and that Tarzan was the first glaring example of Disney animation's downward slide.

My favorite movie from the DR (and my favorite Disney movie of all-time) remains The Lion King. I still get a little choked up just thinking about it.

Also, for a little nostalgia, here's a video of the recording sessions for "A Whole New World" with Brad Kane and Lea Solonga:


Just magical. Alan Menken's amazing.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Very interesting; I'll add that to my Netflix queue.

 

[Sawyer]

Here's the trailer for that documentary, btw:

Look at how miserable Tim Burton was.

 

[Grillz]

If it was'nt for the DR I dont think I would be interested in animation like I am now. So glad I grew up when Disney animation was back on top.