Top 3 Animated Classics

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Dr Frankenollie
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Dr Frankenollie »

As I'm sure it is with many people, my favourites generally remain the same, but their positions in a list denoting quality change a lot, especially following re-watches.

And so, my current top three:

1. Dumbo (1941)
2. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
3. Fantasia (1940)


As for the rest of my top ten at present:
4. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
5. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
6. Pinocchio (1940)
7. Lilo and Stitch (2002)
8. Aladdin (1992)
9. The Little Mermaid (1989)
10. The Sword in the Stone (1963)
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Musical Master
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Musical Master »

I have two separate eras for my top 3.

The Walt Era (1937-1966)

1.Fantasia
2.Snow White
3.Sleeping Beauty

The Modern Era (1967-present)

1.Beauty and the Beast
2.The Hunchback of Notre Dame
3.The Lion King/Tangled
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Atlantica
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Atlantica »

Just done a quick look over the charting and noted the following positioning:

1. Beauty & the Beast - 19 votes cast.
2. The Little Mermaid - 15 votes cast.
3. Aladdin - 10 votes cast.

Interesting they are all the 90's Renaissance movies .... films with a 5 tally of votes are as follows:
The Lion King, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Sleeping Beauty.
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by thedisneyspirit »

Hmm I rather like this idea of doing it through Eras:

Walt Era:
-Bambi
-Pinocchio
-Cinderella

Dark Era:
-Winnie the Pooh
-The Great Mouse Detective
-The Rescuers

Renassaince:
-Aladdin
-Beauty and the Beast
-Little Mermaid

(cliche I know)

Post 90s/New Era:
-Fantasia 2000
-Emperor's New Groove
-Lilo and Stitch

(Wreck It Ralph around there)
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Musical Master »

Yeah I don't like to do an all time top 3 without the seprate eras of Disney Animation.
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Victurtle
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Victurtle »

1. Sleeping Beauty
2. The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh
3. Beauty and the Beast

I hated SB at first, I just felt there was no character development, no engagement and was just very cold. But this forums high regard of its art made me think twice and I realised, hey, this is a visual masterpiece, and I was looking at the wrong characters for development, and suddenly I was watching it over and over and over again, talk about engagement!

Many Adventures is just the perfect adaptation of the books. They captured the whimsical essence not only so perfectly, but intelligently, unlike modern Pooh adaptations. The adaptation from book to movie was brilliant. And the movie itself, just fills me up with such warmth. There aren't moments where the story isn't trudging along like a steam train towards any sort of climax, it has a very relaxed and peaceful feel about it.

Beauty and the Beast - first Disney movie, child obsession. Enough said.
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Vlad »

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
2. Sleeping Beauty
3. The Little Mermaid / Beauty and the Beast
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by slyslayer3000 »

This is harder than I thought.

1. Aladdin - The film that started it all.
2. Dumbo - Sometimes, less is more.
3. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Frollo
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by robinhood21 »

My three are Home on the Range, The Jungle Book and The Fox and the Hound.
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Farerb »

1. Beauty and the Beast
2. Sleeping Beauty
3. Aladdin
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Sotiris »

robinhood21 wrote:My three are Home on the Range, The Jungle Book and The Fox and the Hound.
:o I've never met anyone who had Home on the Range among their top 3. You just might be the only one! :lol: Don't get my wrong, I like Home on the Range myself and I don't think the hatred for it in the fandom is warranted, but I wouldn't include it in my top 20, let alone top 3. :embarrassed:
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by UmbrellaFish »

1. The Little Mermaid
2. Beauty and the Beast
3. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The top two are easy, the third is harder. I find myself returning to Snow White fairly frequently these days. But in 5 years, #3 could be some other Disney film.
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Sotiris »

This is really difficult for me, but here it goes.

01. The Little Mermaid
02. Aladdin
03. Beauty and the Beast
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Disney's Divinity »

I think a top 3 thread is more accurate about which are a person's favorites, because my top 3 still hasn't changed after all these years (The Little Mermaid, Hercules, and The Sword in the Stone) even though the rest of my top 15 shift around or a new film is made that I enjoy and have to make room for. I'm assuming that's the same for most people? :P

@Sotiris: Like robinhood with HOTR, I think I'm the only person from what I've ever seen posted at UD who's ever had TSitS in their top 3. Although when I was going back through this thread, I did see two people actually rank TSitS in their top 10 (at least at that moment in time). :pink:
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Disney Duster »

Everyone really loves those Renaissance films minus Rescuers Down Under and The Lion King don't they? :p

1. Cinderella - a dreamy, magical, heart-filled movie about beauty and hope.
2. Sleeping Beauty - the most visually beautiful movie of them all, about overcoming death and evil.
3. The Little Mermaid - the funnest magical action and such a powerful character's journey.
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Farerb »

Disney Duster wrote:Everyone really loves those Renaissance films minus Rescuers Down Under and The Lion King don't they? :p
Nostalgia is a powerful thing. Not for nothing the Revival films are despised, especially the ones which are closer to being similar to Renaissance films (as if they are replacing them in people's hearts and minds).

I have never spoken about it because I just know I'm going to be raged at, but while The Little Mermaid was a huge favorite of mine when I was a kid and I still rank it higher than most, today I feel that it is sort of a prototype.

I actually find it refreshing to not see The Lion King at the top, there was a radio contest in my country that allowed listeners to vote for their top 30 Disney songs and they played them. They also made a contest for Best Hero, Best Heroine, Best Villain and Best Sidekicks. Can you guess which character won in each category and which film had the most songs?

I will admit though that while The Lion King is still in my top 10, it's not that high (Under The Little Mermaid). However I feel like this film has weight that non of the Renaissance films, except Beauty and the Beast, has.
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by JeanGreyForever »

In what regard do you think the other 90s films improved upon the formula for TLM making TLM feel like a prototype and thus not as satisfying?

While I agree that nostalgia has kept the 90s alive in many a Disney fan's heart, I don't think that alone is why these films are so revered. There was a magic to them which has been unmatched ever since. I know that certain films like Hercules and Mulan were beloved by me when I was younger but they don't hold much appeal now so nostalgia didn't save them. Meanwhile films like Pocahontas and Hunchback weren't my particular favorites back then but now they rank easily in my top 5 or 10. TLM, BATB, Aladdin, and TLK are the Big 4 for a reason and are still perennial favorites and typically in people's favorite Disney films they're accompanied by at least one other 90s film that came after TLK. I don't think nostalgia is the factor here otherwise the Walt era films would receive the same amount of attention and praise.

I do think TLK is highly overrated because for the general public, this was the quintessential Disney film so it always ranked as everyone's favorite. Frozen has taken that spot now and I imagine it'll be held in that regard for several more years to come until the next Lion King/Frozen. Do you really feel that TLK has weight to it that not even a film like THOND has?
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Farerb »

I don't think Nostalgia is a bad thing, and I like those films myself as well, but nostalgia does shape the way we see things or love things, not for nothing the remakes are successful even though they are trash. And I'm not saying that they are bad, they are excellent and I like them as well, I only gave a reason as to why one would like them more than most. People in the 90's didn't experience Walt's films the same as the Renaissance. Yes we had VHS tapes, we didn't have new theatrical releases with all that comes with it, were we excited about the release of Sleeping Beauty on VHS the same way we were excited about a new event film from Disney no one has seen before?

The Little Mermaid is a great film with a lot of emotion and heart, but in technical aspects, yes I think it is sort of a prototype. Like how it's not a full musical like the others, at leat the next three - remember how they wanted a big opening number, but then it didn't happen, only with Beauty and the Beast it did. The characters could have had more depth to them, especially Eric, which I don't think he's that different than Phillip, which people like to dismiss more because it came from an era that everything about Disney films is perceived "weak". And there's a reason why Disney had 5 talking animals in this film, because this film came after 3 decades where all of their films were talking animals, they didn't like the idea of not having any at all, especially after the failure of The Black Cauldron. Again that doesn't mean I don't like the film, it is still a great film.

I think The Hunchback of Notre Dame could have been great, even more than The Lion King, but Disney got scared.
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by JeanGreyForever »

What I mean about nostalgia and Walt's films it that in the 90s, I don't recall there ever being discourse about how the children who grew up with Walt's films and were now adults rejected the 90s films or thought they were good but not good enough. Maybe that did exist and I've just never seen that line of thinking but just like how almost all of Walt's films became part of the public consciousness, so did the Big 4 of the late 80s/90s. The only Disney film in 2010s that you could say the same about is Frozen which actually is the one most commonly said to feel like it came from the 90s. Films like Big Hero 6, Zootopia, or Wreck-It Ralph aren't as instantly recognizable to the general public, whether it's the characters, the songs, or movie quotes. Tangled and Moana a bit more but I wouldn't call them icons like Snow White, Bambi, Lion King, Frozen, etc.

Aladdin has a similar opening to TLM though. Both have songs that essentially act as narration to introduce the setting and recount the stories of the principal characters (the sailors bring up King Triton, the peddler/Genie in disguise brings up Aladdin). I wouldn't call Aladdin less of a musical just because the opening song isn't structured the way Belle is. I've never heard of how they wanted a big opening number for TLM unless you meant the longer version of Fathoms Below. Even then, from what I remember, the reason the song was cut down wasn't because they didn't want a big opening number but because they scrapped the Ursula/Triton sibling backstory. I've heard some people say that TLM isn't a full musical and I don't really agree with that. I think it just comes across that way because Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback embrace that Broadway style the most out of all the early 90s films but that's not necessarily a bad thing for TLM, Aladdin, TLK, Pocahontas, etc. When BATB came out, people said it was more Broadway than all Broadway shows that existed at the time, but I think TLM's underwater setting also means it wasn't ever going to feel like Les Mis, Phantom of the Opera, Cats, etc. If you look at those shows, BATB has a lot in common just setting and plotwise than TLM ever would.

I agree with you about Eric, as much as I used to like him, he's not really that developed or even that principal a character. Especially compared to the Beast, Aladdin, Simba, Quasi, etc. I'd argue that even John Smith, as boring as most people consider him to be, feels more significant in the film with his screentime and character arc. Where John Smith is clearly the secondary lead after Pocahontas, Sebastian is more likely to be considered the secondary lead after Ariel in TLM than Eric.

Umm, it's possible the talking animals thing stems from the Dark Ages but I think it's also a matter of the storyline. Ariel lives underwater so of course she's going to need to be able to talk to her friends considering they're fish and she's half-fish. Cinderella's mice could talk and all the Wonderland characters could talk, animal or flower, not to mention all the dogs in Lady and the Tramp to each other. And BATB didn't have talking animals but all the objects could talk so it's in the same style. Aladdin has a talking Genie and Iago and Abu basically talks for all intents and purposes. Carpet can't but he's as expressive just from his actions. Rajah is the one who can't speak, just like Phillippe and the footstool from BATB and Max in TLM. Notice that all the underwater characters (and Scuttle) can speak in TLM but not Max the one animal who lives on the surface and wouldn't have contact with Ariel in her mermaid form unlike Scuttle. Also you say The Black Cauldron didn't have talking animals but it had Gurgi and even Creeper fits into that mold a bit. Henwen doesn't speak but she didn't speak in the books either. So I wouldn't say that talking animals is a trope that only the Dark Ages films created which TLM picked up and the other 90s films dropped, because talking animals existed in plenty of 90s films and also plenty of Walt films. What the Dark Ages were more known for were films lead by animal protagonists since all of them, save for The Black Cauldron, had animal leads.

Imo the only fault of Hunchback is the gargoyles and even then, I mainly mean Hugo. Jason Alexander's comedy did not lend itself to the film while I'd say that Mary Wickes' Laverne fit quite well. Hugo making jokes about flatulence were so tonally at odds with the rest of the film. Had they sobered him down, I don't think the gargoyles would be as hated and actually a lot of kids who grew up with them didn't mind them. I'm glad Disney kept the happy ending because like TLM, the original ending is too much of a downer. And Victor Hugo himself kept Esmeralda alive when he adapted Hunchback into an opera.
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Re: Top 3 Animated Classics

Post by Farerb »

I have seen few that criticized the Renaissance's animation quality and that Micheal Eisner basically turned Disney to a soulless corporate. The film that gets the most vitriol is actually Beauty and the Beast, because it was the most critically acclaimed and it rubs them the wrong way that it was the first ever to be nominated, unlike Walt's films. I even saw someone (a woman) who complained about its feminist agenda. But they are few mainly because I don't think that online fandom is really their thing.

I remember reading that Ashman and Menken wanted Fathoms Below to be a big opening musical number but Eisner and Katzenberg feared it might alienate the audience.

There's a joke I heard that Eric is just a nickname and his real name is Generic.

Hunchback is easily in my top 10, but the comedy is just annoying. I agree about that Hugo is the most annoying, but I also dislike all the goofy comedy with the soldiers and that prisoner.

Regarding Frozen, I don't think its success is similar to the Renaissance success. The Renaissance films made an impact commercially and critically, and while critics did like Frozen, but it didn't have that much nominations at the award shows. Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King did, they both won Best Film at the Golden Globes, that's huge. Beauty and the Beast remains to this date the only film to be nominated when there were only five nominees, and the one with the most Oscar nominations tied with WALL-E (WALL-E was nominated in more categories though). Frozen's success to me feels more similar to the MCU's and its longevity is mostly due to Disney keeping it in the public's conscious with releasing something that is Frozen related every year: shorts, TV tie-ins, Broadway musical, sequel... I actually don't think the original Frozen is talked that much today as it did back then and the Broadway show and the sequel didn't really leave any impact imo.
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