Poll Time! Best Walt Disney Animation Film

Can somebody explain the Cinderella love? Somehow I just don’t get it - for me, it’s not even top 5 classics. I look at it, and see elements that were done better in other movies. Talking animals? Done better elsewhere. Princess transformations? Check, done better elsewhere.

Magic that helps one specific person go to a party, where she meets someone and falls in love at first sight, and causes such an obsession that a dude goes through a whole kingdom stalking all girls of the same age and demanding to see their feet? Music that almost recycles Snow White?

How is this the best? What am I missing here?

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She’s beautiful and resilient with a joyful heart despite the great injustice. She radiated such qualities the prince had to see her again.
Actually, I feel very much the same about Snow White.
I just find Cinderella more repeatable.

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The Sheriff does have meets, at Oogie Boogie Bash at Disneyland. No child shall be deprived, as long as their parents cough up the extra money for the party! :rofl:

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:rofl: :rofl:
I should have suspected…

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I think there’s some WDW castle bias at play. Plenty genuinely love the movie for various legit reasons, but some regular WDW goers may feel an obligation to hold Cindy in higher regard as the princess who lives in the icon of the flagship park and extend that favoritism to the movie as well.

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This is correct and there’s no need for further clarification, qualification, or discussion. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Seriously, though - Beauty and the Beast is a masterpiece:

  • Howard Ashman’s lyrics and Alan Menken’s songs are peak Broadway. You have the intro song, the “I want” song, the villain’s song, the show stopper, the relationship development song, the love song, and even a song for the climactic battle.
  • The score by Alan Menken is perfection - honestly that alone raises it up above its peers, from the brooding prologue to the transformation of the Beast at the end.
  • The characters are rounded and have interesting arcs - especially Belle and Beast, but even some of the secondary characters.
  • There’s plenty of humor mixed in, including my favorite: “flowers, chocolates … promises you don’t intend to keep.”
  • The animation is beautiful. I love the color and production design as you progress through the different phases of the plot.
  • Although it has become popular to call the story “problematic” due to Belle falling in love with her captor (which would obviously be unwise in real life, to say the least), as a fantasy fable, the concept of looking beyond the outer shell and finding humanity even in the most unlikely places is a lesson for the ages.

It was Oscar nominated for a reason! And it is very rewatchable / re-listenable, as my VHS and score cassette can attest.

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Totally on the same wavelength with all these points on BatB and this is my clear favorite of all eras.

While technically fair to look at it that way on the surface (one could argue she began falling in love around “Something There” which was before she saw Maurice in the mirror and was officially set free), I think Belle is amazingly perceptive and intelligent and isn’t really falling into Stockholm syndrome. But rather studying the Beast’s behavior and character on its own merits, independent of her prisoner status.

At the point she was likely starting to develop feelings (based on what she was truly observing in him and not out of dependency as a prisoner), he was no longer acting as a captor but as a host, and had his own genuine feelings for her not related to control of her as a possession or prisoner.

My take anyway. Interesting topic to think about.

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This was a fun series of polls! My reactions surprised me for several of the categories.

I realized that I don’t know and/or like most of the Classics. I picked Cinderella because I have seen it the most and think it’s kind of cute.

The Renaissance was tough because I agree with @ryan1 that Beauty and the Beast is objectively the best but I also love Little Mermaid so much that I had to pick it.

I had to choose Emperor’s New Groove for the Lull because I have not seen any other movies in the category!

The most recent ones were the hardest to choose between. I went with Frozen because I think it is fabulous and I love the music. But Tangled just gets better every time I rewatch it. And Big Hero 6 and Zootopia are both brilliant. Any of these would beat everything but Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast overall for me.

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I don’t know. For me, it is about the fact that Cinderella is kind of a unique princess. Incorruptible of heart, in many ways. So many of the stories have a flawed main character (which is all fine and well, and that is very compelling as well!), but Cinderella is this person, beaten down over and over again who triumphs, while ever offering grace to even those most undeserving of it. In the end, she is rewarded for it.

The story has been told and retold in countless ways. But in the classic Disney movies, for me, anyhow, it stands alone in that uniqueness.

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I don’t disagree with your points - that’s a classic line - but it just doesn’t appeal to me as much as Little Mermaid which I picked, or Aladdin or Lion King. It’s my sister’s favourite though.

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As good as Beauty and Beast by Disney was, this will always be the TRUE Beauty and the Beast for me…

image

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Oh my. :rofl:

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Okay…now wait a minute. I wasn’t implying anything kinky or anything. Just that I loved that show!!! :slight_smile:

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That made me chuckle. Also not implying kinkiness–that photo is just funny to me! The prosthetic work, or whatever that is, specifically.

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:rofl: Forgot about that show.

Maybe the Beast is John Connor’s father which will solve the paradoxical time loop issue of it being Kyle Reese from the future.

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I knew I was picking underdogs, but in some cases I was surprised (after voting and then seeing the results so far) just how underdoggy some of my choices were.

So I’ve seen nearly all of these. I think the original Wreck-It Ralph and Zootopia may be the only ones I still need to get to. I work for a trivia company, and I’ve written and edited a number of Disney quizzes that used this exact list (the one on Wikipedia) for the scope, so I’ve gotten to a few more each time we need to produce new content. It’s kind of fun to watch these in order, too, to see the development in structure, narrative, and character development, as well as the obvious technical improvements.

And so for the first batch, I picked Alice in Wonderland. I didn’t realize how much I loved Alice until, at the end of our weeklong trip in March, I discovered that all the film-specific souvenirs I’d gotten were Alice in Wonderland. All of them. Pins, ears, Loungefly bag. It hadn’t even been intentional. I just looked at what I was packing in my suitcase, and that’s what I had. So I guess I have a favorite.

In the very diverse 1970-1999 group, I am currently the sole vote for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I knew there wouldn’t be many votes for that, but I didn’t know I’d be the only one. The top four in that category were what I’d have predicted. And they’re great movies, but they’re all so…omnipresent…that they don’t feel fresh to me. And I need a bit of freshness in my favorites. The other ones I considered were Mulan, Tarzan, and Hercules. Along with Hunchback, kind of the B-Team of the '90s. And I’m okay with that.

When that group got split up, I picked The Fox and the Hound for my Dark Ages selection. A movie that makes me cry that much wins points.

Lulls: I mean, I love the longshots, and even I couldn’t go with anything other than Emperor’s New Groove or Lilo and Stitch and knew they’d be top two by a wide margin. (I picked ENG.) Much appreciation for anyone who voted for something else in that category. The other movies need love… I just couldn’t give it to them.

Latest Hits: I’m back with a dark horse. Frozen II all the way (or most of it). It was just so darn well-thought-out. It’s a puzzle movie, and the main antagonist is in the past, but there’s still drama and conflict, delightful characters, great songs, and such a beautifully complex storyline that appears confusing at first but unravels at exactly the right pace. I like the original Frozen just fine, but I loved this. My second choice would have been Moana, and not just because of the soundtrack. The current top vote-getters are all good movies; it’s a category with absolutely no wrong answers.

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As for the Classics, having rewatched all of them recently as part of a family challenge to watch all 60 Disney animated films, I think it’s clear that Cinderella was an inflection point. It incorporated all the best of the previous films: story-driven songs, beautiful animation, plenty of gags / humor, and a sympathetic main character. It’s definitely rewatchable for kids, thanks in large part to the mice and their gags. I agree that Cinderella’s kindness and grace makes her one of the best heroines in Disney lore.

However, Sleeping Beauty is Walt’s masterpiece. It was the height of the craft of animation. Everything before was used as a learning experience. After Sleeping Beauty, the studio turned to xerox processing which seriously deteriorated the quality of the animation (101 Dalmatians being the first example).

The animation, which is sort of a medieval tapestry style, is simple but unique and beautiful. Aurora and Phillip (the first prince with a personality) are Disney’s first and best power couple. The fairies are hilarious, I seriously get such a kick out of them every time I watch it. Maleficent is the Disney villain - none before are after have come close. And as I mentioned up thread, George Bruns’ score based on Tchaikovsky’s music for the ballet of the same name is absolutely brilliant.

All this adds up to making Sleeping Beauty my favorite Disney film of the Classics era, and second only to Beauty and the Beast of all time.

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Have you seen the making of on Disney+? It was crazy how much that movie changed as they were writing it.

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This has its moments (the Mad Tea Party is my favorite), but I am not a huge fan of the vibe. It drives me a little crazy. :joy:

In any other universe this would be the winner. But the 90s bench was very deep. All amazing. The songs for Hunchback are some of my favorites of all time (Stephen Schwartz + Alan Menken!!! :scream:). Mulan, Tarzan, and Hercules are mostly just a lot of fun. We were so lucky in the 90s.

I watched this last night and it was fine, but not stellar. “Best of Friends” is a great song though.

I absolutely adore the music in this movie. It would be my second choice after Moana for this era.

That was a very interesting insight into the creation process. It’s actually not far off from the way all the Disney animated films were made - an iterative process. Computer animation has let them make changes closer to the release, so Frozen II is an extreme example. But even going back to Snow White they were adding in / deleting scenes as they went.

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Not sure I disagree, but what are your criteria here? Or just overall in a class of her own, no criteria necessary?

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