Walt Disney Animated Films (1937-present)

Walt Disney's first full length animated film, and the first of all time. As a result, it began the biggest production company we all know and love today.

The second can sometimes be just as good as the first try, and after Snow White's success, Pinocchio wasn't as successful financially at the time, but it got massive critical and audience acclaim. For it's dark, and yet gentle tone.

Fantasia is considered an experimental film, with animated sequences without any dialog, but with outstanding music, and animated "tricks" that were never seen before Fantasia. It is now considered one of the best movies ever made, and one of Disney's all-time greatest.

One of the shortest films in Disney’s lineup. But this little film packs an emotional punch. It teaches to accept other people’s differences no matter what it is. This film will make you believe elephants can fly.

The first animated film featuring only animals to tell the tale. This style of story-telling would later become one of Disney's traditions after having both financial and commercial successes. Today, Bambi is a cult-classic and everybody knows who Bambi is. Because when you see a deer today, you think of Bambi.

Certainly a letdown from what Disney has done previously, but nonetheless it is unique in its storyline and execution. Basically a movie about making a movie, and it has its good moments like any Disney film, and it is worth checking out for any die hard Disney fan.

The beginning of Disney's war-time propaganda films putting future projects on hold. Most of the animators went off to war, and the ones unable to go, stayed to make these mildly successful propaganda films. This put the animation studio in serious jeopardy.

The yearly routine for Disney for the next 5 years was producing these propaganda films. These in which no one really remembers, but they still offer the same great fun, and Disney magic that they always had. The Three Caballeros is no exception.

The 3rd out of 5 of the propaganda films. Make Mine Music is a musical that was as successful as it's predecessor. This was not a good time for Disney. As he was forced into making these propaganda films for the war time.

Another film mixed with live action, and has some good bit of animation enough to consider it an animated film.

The last, but not least, of the propaganda films. Returning to more of the roots of what Disney is known for, with the stories of the classic tales of Ichabod (Sleepy Hollow) and Mr. Toad. Perhaps the most successful of the propaganda films. As the war ended, Disney resumed their planned project. But they needed their next one to be a major success or Disney was going to shut down the animated studio for good, due to financial issues, and commercial failures from movies.

Disney was biting his nails when this was released. If this film wasn't successful, the animation department would be no more. He returned to princesses, which was used before with Snow White. It was a success, so why not do it again, but with a different princess named Cinderella. And to Disney's relieve, Cinderella paid off, and became a major box office success, and has great opinions from critics. As a result Disney was allowed to continue making animations. Cinderella saved Disney animation from death, literally.

Alice in Wonderland was a project that Disney wanted to do before Snow White. 14 years later Disney finally came around to make Alice in Wonderland. The film didn't meet much critical acclaim, but did garnish some money out of it. The film features one of Disney's famous characters The Cheshire Cat, voiced by Sterling Holloway.

Disney's next animation brought some real spark back into Disney, with songs, characters, and a story that fit so well together. When they say magic, they mean magic. This film has more magic then all the other films combined. First, the magic of flying, and Tinker Bell is the definition of magic. You can look up the word "magic" and the definition will be "tinker bell." And of course you can't have a great film without a great villain, and Captain Hook is a great villain.

Disney is once again returning to the traditional princesses and princes, but with....dogs? Hmm? Seems crazy, but it might just work, and boy did it ever. Everybody remembers this film for it's famous spaghetti scene. That scene will always be one of the best. I haven't tried with my girlfriend yet, but I just might. She'll probably look at me like, "Ok? Weird."

After a 4 year absence of animations from Disney while working on Sleeping Beauty, they release....Sleeping Beauty. Unfortunately, Sleeping Beauty didn't succeed the way Disney wanted it to. It was one of Disney's worst performing film since the propaganda films of the 40's. Great film, bad performance. As a result, the animation department lost a lot of money. But, it didn't stop Disney from continuing to make animations.

A unique film by Disney. A crime, rescue, and suspenseful film which is a first for Disney, and they did like pros. Their second film to use dogs as the base of the story. A crazed woman named Cruella De Vil hires two goons to steal some puppies. Then a rescue is at hand, suspense is in the air, and action-packed scenes make this an all-time classic. The first film to use xeno-graph.

Continuing Disney strong run, with the exception of Sleeping Beauty, is The Sword in the Stone. Based off of the fairy tale. Disney shows it capabilities of making fairy tales not related to princesses. This was Walt's last animation he was able to live to see, before his passing.

The Jungle Book was released after Walt's passing, and one of his last that he actually took part in. With Walt passing on, before he handed the studio into the hands of Roy Miller. Who continued making animations related to how Walt did it. And the Jungle Book was ironically a commercially, critically, and financially successful film.

Truly Disney's last film with Walt's involvement. It's kind of a mixture of Lady and the Tramp, and 101 Dalmatians only with cats, instead of dogs. It's a kidnap, romance, and crime film. Cats run the screen, and is the first Disney animation to feature cats, with the exception of Figaro from Pinocchio, The Cheshire Cat, Bagheera and Shere Khan from The Jungle Book, and Sargent Tibbs from 101 Dalmatians. But, this is the first they use cats as the main focus of the story, and it won't be the last.

The second film from Disney featuring all animals, they haven't done it since Bambi. This time they use the story of Robin Hood. This film was mediocre in the box office and with critics. This was sort of the beginning of a downgrade for the animation department. Not as severe as in the 40's but a time when Disney lost it's vibe. Disney was again searching for something good.

Next up is The Rescuers featuring mice, on an adventure to save a little girl from, what seems like Cruella's sister. You can say this is a parallel to An American Tail which also features mice to tell a story on a quest to save someone. This is a time when one of Disney's animators Don Bluth left to make his own animation company, which made An American Tail to compete with Disney's Rescuers.

Disney's first compilation film, involving many sequences each about 20 minutes long or so. And an array of more famous character emerged from this. Including: Tigger, Piglet, and of course Winnie the Pooh.

A story about friendship, and an inevitable fact horrifically destroys their friendship, which is they are supposed to be enemies. A fox and a hound wouldn't seem like a pair, but this films shows that friends come from the most unexpected place, and the most unexpected people. This was the last film that involved any of the "Nine Old Men" which were animators that worked with Walt throughout the years. Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas were the only ones left, and they taught to younger animators, and passed on their work to them. Johnston and Thomas retired after The Fox and the Hound. The new animators finished the project, and would later be involved in future successes of Disney.

Considered the "rock bottom" of Disney animation. The Black Cauldron is by some people called the worst Disney animation to date. It certainly is a lot darker, and more scary then past films. The Black Cauldron was a failure financially, critically, and publically. This was truly the lowest Disney has ever gone, and they plan to never return to this low again.