Collin Willis

Before I head to Disney World this summer, I made it a goal to watch every Walt Disney Animation Studios film. I had seen most but many I hadn’t seen in a good 15 years. This was a fun way to spend a few months and it reignited a love for animation and classical storytelling. My final rankings surprised me a little and there were quite a few films that were much higher or much lower than I expected. As always, I’ll start with the honorable mentions.

Honorable Mentions

• Meet the Robinsons
• Hercules
• Brother Bear
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• The Rescuers Down Under

25. Fantasia 2000

Though the studio would utilize traditional 2D animation for a few more years, the studio gave its final triumphant stand with Fantasia 2000. This film pushes the depths of animation’s heyday while blending careful 3D imagery to create what is a strong contender for Disney’s most beautiful looking film. It’s a tribute to the original while also being a celebration of the medium and a beautiful exploration of music, movement, and color.

24. Winnie the Pooh (2011)

This was a surprise contender for me. I’ve always had a soft-spot for the willy nilly silly old bear. Disney’s final (?) attempt at 2D is brief but pays homage to the heart and humor while creating a more connective story between its short antics. If brevity truly is the measure of wit then there is none wittier than Winnie the Pooh.

23. Mulan

Mulan is not something I grew up with. It is however, a film that made a very strong impact when watching it for the first time this spring. It’s one of the studio’s most thematically ambitious films and it manages to provide commentary on sexism and predetermined roles while keeping the thrills and usual Disney magic.

22. Big Hero 6

A dark film that is filled with vibrant characters, Big Hero 6 tackles grief, tragedy, and a slew of related emotions with a killer team of obscure Marvel heroes. The ensemble cast never quite does it for me, but the heart embodied by Hiro and Baymax is more than enough to make this a great movie.

21. Cinderella

The middle film in Walt Disney’s Princess Trilogy, Cinderella feels much like a personal attempt by Walt to remake Snow White and to do it better. The result is a larger world with a more developed cast of characters and a trimming of a lot of the non-story fat that fills much of Snow White.

20. Robin Hood

My personal favorite of the Post-Walt era, helmed by an experienced Wolfgang Reitherman. This film feels truly new, as if the studio were given free reign to do something wildly different. The result is one of the best takes on Robin Hood (second only to Errol Flynn) and a shining star amidst the studio’s darkest era.

19. One Hundred and One Dalmatians

The first film to fully use xerography and the only one to use that process to its advantage. One Hundred and One Dalmatians is a visual feast like none other. Embedded deeply in its time, the pop-art designs and rough edges help this movie stand out in every regard. It’s tied together with Disney’s most vile villain and blatant dog murderer, Cruella de Vil.

18. Bambi

Reportedly one of Walt’s favorite movies, Bambi spends much of its runtime appreciating beauty. As Bambi and Thumper prance through the forest, the animators create lively and detailed backgrounds that immerse you in not just a great story but a fantastic experience.

17. Ralph Breaks the Internet

The first hour of this movie could vie for a spot in the Top Ten. While I don’t think that Ralph Breaks the Internet sticks its landing in the second act, it serves one of the most intricate self-examination stories in the Disney canon. It also creates an exciting world that reimagines the internet in all of its chaotic glory.

16. Moana

A first time watch for me on this viewing, Moana is a very strong buddy movie that explores much of Disney’s usual themes in new and exciting ways. Beautifully animated and incredibly funny, Moana is a fantastical adventure that never loses its heart.

15. Fantasia

An experiment in animation for the sake of its own existence. Walt Disney’s personal ode to music and color, Fantasia is nothing short of a visual marvel. It helped re-establish Mickey Mouse as a bonified star, and while it never recouped its enormous costs upon release, it remains a benchmark in animation still to this day.

14. The Little Mermaid

The first Princess movie in thirty years and the first produced without Walt, there was a lot riding on The Little Mermaid. Its warmth, tenderness, and visual pop reinvigorated a limping studio and launched 2D animation at Disney into its glorious last ride, the Renaissance. It keeps all of the classical Princess motifs but adds a great amount of nuance and depth to not just its titular lead but its villain as well.

13. The Hunchback of Notre Dame

One of the biggest surprises on this list, The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a first time watch for me this year. It’s Disney’s darkest and thematically boldest film. Disney takes on the adult themes of Victor Hugo’s story and paints one of its most visually grand films around it. This is a spectacle, a deep and ambitious jewel in the Disney crown.

12. Tangled

If Cinderella is a spiritual remake of Snow White, then Tangled is the spiritual remake of The Little Mermaid. The first Princess created with 3D imagery, Tangled adds dimension to the classic Prince/Princess tale and gives Disney its most fleshed out romance. It’s a thrilling adventure, a compelling love story, and a whole lot of fun.

11. Wreck it Ralph

The biggest sleeper on this list. I had seen Wreck it Ralph once before during a late night swim but hadn’t thought much of it sense. Watching it for what felt like the first time this year I was completely blown away. Wreck it Ralph provides a very sincere story about finding ourselves and dealing with how others see us. It does this in one of Disney’s coolest worlds, a bustling hub of retro videogames and instantly classic characters.

10. Zootopia

A bold film that pulls none of its punches. The “Critical Race Theory is evil” crowd gets a little tense when Disney comes out swinging with a bunny and a fox. Zootopia functions perfectly as a buddy cop movie and as a deep cutting commentary on prejudice and systemic racism. Zootopia didn’t need to be this deep but the fact that it balances that with a funny adventure earns Zootopia a firm spot in the Top Ten.

9. The Lion King

What is widely considered the best of what Disney has to offer, The Lion King deserves every praise. It blends color in a bright and vivid way as the animators paint the savannah and all its inhabitants in near-kaleidoscopic light. While I find some of Timon and Pumba’s humor to have staled, The Lion King is an adventure of epic proportions that pits one of Disney’s most tragic heroes against one of its most devious villains.

8. Aladdin

Aladdin is arguably Disney’s first adventure. It’s an exciting movie filled with incredible chases, exciting locations, and characters you can’t help but love. It’s topped with a career and genre defining performance by Robin Williams. Aladdin packs in heart, humor, and thrill with impeccable timing and balance.

7. Pinocchio

This movie doesn’t have any flaws. It’s not my favorite, but I can imagine no way in which this film could ever have been improved. Walt pushes the bounds of character and environmental animation into a tale that is dark, cautionary, and harrowing. Pinocchio’s journey from puppet to boy is one of Disney’s greatest accomplishments.

6. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

This movie should not be good. In an hour and twenty minutes, there is maybe a half hour of actual story development. However, Snow White manages to find its heart amidst the fluff of secondary characters and filler action, using a flat protagonist to bring out the change in the dwarfs around her. The first test of eliciting emotion from cartoon characters, Snow White thrills, scares, and charms in a way that few other movies can. A film that is beyond the sum of its parts.

5. Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast is the studio at its most confident. It knows what works with the Princess formula and it blends all of those elements into the perfect concoction. Colorfully animated, incredibly detailed, and showing quite a bit of restraint with its designs, Beauty and the Beast is a visual wonder and perhaps the studio’s best work in the computer era of animation. It packs a truly threatening villain, two dynamic leads, and a complete soundtrack of hits.

4. Sleeping Beauty

The only other movie on this list I consider to be absolutely flawless. Walt’s third take on the Princess formula is its most refined, its most efficient, and its most detailed. It’s no wonder why the studio didn’t touch another princess for three decades. Sleeping Beauty has no filler, but builds its large cast of protagonists against the studio’s most effortlessly iconic villain.

The final film before xerox and eventually computers took the hand-drawn out of the process, Sleeping Beauty is the apex of a lost art. Worked on for over six years, every frame of Sleeping Beauty is a painting. The time and effort, the ingenuity of the brush, all of it crescendos to make Sleeping Beauty one of the most visually stunning films not just in animation, but of all time.

3. Frozen

Frozen is proof that old dogs can learn new tricks. Frozen modernizes the traditional Disney formula in many ways. The greatest of which is the nuance it affords its leads, Anna and Elsa are the most independent of Disney’s large catalogue of Princess and their individual arcs create some of the most intimate conflict in the Disney canon.

Frozen is rounded out by a cast of talented Broadway actors, a top-tier villain, and a soundtrack that is one of Disney’s best. It is a movie that always feels magical and that instantly endears itself to you.

2. Lilo and Stitch

For a long time this was my favorite movie ever. I still have the McDonald’s toy, an Elvis Stitch, that my grandma took me to get after we saw this in theaters. Watching it for the first time in at least five years, I was worried that it wouldn’t live up to my memories of it. The fact is that it wasn’t as good as I remembered it being, it was better.

Lilo & Stitch plays to all of Disney’s strengths. It presents a very sincere and tragic family drama against the backdrop of colorful personalities, a calm water-colored backdrop, and character designs that are just plain fun. It’s a somber story about love, what it means to give it and to receive it.

P.S. it also has the greatest marketing campaign of any movie ever.

1. Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is a movie unlike any other in the Disney canon. Lewis Carroll’s Alice being one of Walt’s most frequently used subjects, the love for the novels and the characters is evident from the start. What is tantamount to a series of vignettes, this movie is an exploration of the imagination. There’s no real dynamic change and most characters only appear for ten minutes at best, but that’s all the time they needed to become some of the studio’s most iconic and most beloved creations.

Alice in Wonderland is a fantasy, a comedy, and a dare to dream. This has longtime been a favorite of mine and is the Disney movie that I’ve most frequently rewatched. There’s something special here, a kind of magic that is indicative of the studio and what it means to millions of people around the world.

Wrap-Up

Watching these films and combing through my impressions of them in hopes of forming a list has reminded me of the magic. That magic is the power of story-telling and these films are firm reminders of the power and impact that stories can have even on children. Themes that I didn’t grasp fully as a kid still made an impact and the characters that came from pencils, pens, and computer mice made a huge difference in my perception of the world regardless of how their lack of dimension.

Ultimately the Disney canon is about heart, the connections between the onscreen characters and me, the connections between my heart and yours, and yours and the people around you. Sometimes you just need to get lost in the simplistic fantasies of the Disney canon and be reminded of that simple, yet easy to forget lesson; the importance of connection with those around us.

For a full rundown, check out the gallery below: