Competition: Where is the love for the Disney classics?
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
*** Competition Closed ***
*** Congratulations to Yvonne, Jamie and Michael. Thank you to everyone else for taking part and for letting us know your favourite Disney movies. I enjoyed the conversation. ***
I would imagine most kids these days know Disney for their big 3D animation extravaganza or maybe for their Camp Rock/High School Musical/Jonas Brothers/Hannah Montana live action films, but is there any love for the old 2D era left?
When we were writing this week’s Top Five Musicals , we decided to leave cartoon musicals off the list (the poll decided ), but it got me thinking about all the Disney classics from my childhood. I decided I would write a quick post about the early Disney films I loved and talk a bit about their newer offerings. I thought it would be a short post where I would mention Snow White, Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King and put up a couple of YouTube videos of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Hakuna Matata.
But then I started looking back over the cartoons and films that Disney produced. I didn’t realise the vast amount there was and I certainly hadn’t realised the profound influence these films have had on me. So, here’s my Disney and Me post:
(feel free to jump to the end for the Competition part of the post) 
Disney and Me
From a very early age, we were immersed in the world of Disney cartoons. With the occasional exception (An American Tale and The Land Before Time spring to mind), Disney cartoons were all I knew. The colours, the music, the characters, the magic of it all – we’re not talking about two or three films here. The list is huge.
I don’t remember the first Disney film I saw, but I do remember watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) a lot. How this movie is 72 years old is unbelievable. Snow White, the Queen and of course the seven dwarves – it has completely stood the test of time and is still a beautiful, funny film today. Songs such as Heigh-Ho and Whistle While You Work are still heard today and the film’s influence is as profound as ever. As recent as yesterday, Twitter was awash with #rejected7dwarfs . There’s some very funny suggestions there, but some genuinely rejected Dwarf names include Biggy, Blabby, Dirty, Gabby, Gaspy, Gloomy, Hoppy, Hotsy, Jaunty, Jumpy and Nifty.
I know I read Pinocchio when I was a child, but I’m not sure if that was before or after seeing Disney’s second animated feature film, Pinocchio (1940). Again, the lying wooden boy is as much part of our culture today as it was 69 years ago, while the song When You Wish Upon A Star has been covered time and again.
Dumbo (1941) is such a luvly film. It’s sad and fun and heartwarming and it has a weird trippy scene – what’s not to love. The very catchy When I See an Elephant Fly helped Dumbo win an Oscar for best Music. Dumbo was also the first of Disney’s classic animated films to be released on video in 1981. That’s probably why it has a special place in the hearts of kids born around that time (me included).
“Curiouser and curiouser.”
Alice in Wonderland (1951) remains one of my favourite cartoons of all time. Drawn from the wonderful source material of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the looking Glass, it brought to life the amazing characters of The Mad Hatter, The White Rabbit, The Walrus and the Carpenter, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the Queen of Hearts and my favourite, The Cheshire Cat. It doesn’t have the same epic tracks of other Disney cartoons, but it does have the beautiful All in a Golden Afternoon and the delightfully quirky Un-birthday Song. It’s a crazy and wonderful film and is the closest any film has ever come to steeping inside the imagination of a child.
One of the most important films Disney ever made was another book adaptation. There’s no doubt that JM Barrie’s novel would have continued to be read by generations of children, but it was Disney’s Peter Pan (1953) that created the institution. In fact, this version of the Pan tale uses little of Barrie’s original dialogue. I’ve always loved Pan and when the live action Peter Pan came out in 2003 (released by Universal, not Disney), I was so happy to be reintroduced to Barrie’s world again.
There’s a number of Disney movies that I watched time and time again when I was younger that maybe didn’t affect me as much as those above, but still have a special place in my heart (I know it sounds twee, but it’s true). Lady and the Tramp (1955), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats (1970) and The Rescuers (1977) fall under this banner.
“I sentence you to sudden, instant, and even immediate death!”
Robin Hood (1973) however is with me all the time. I whistle the Whistling Tune from it on a near daily basis and I’ve definitely caught myself singing Oo-de-lally on more than one occasion. I even quote the film regularly. We watched it only three weeks ago on a lazy Sunday afternoon and it’s as good as ever. Flawless.
Curiously, there’s a few classics that passed me by, that didn’t have the same effect on me as it did many others. Walt Disney’s labour of love Fantasia (1940) being one, Bambi (1942), Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959) too. They just never gripped me.
Live Action Classics
But Disney have done more than just cartoons. Some of the finest live action children’s films came from The Mouse House. Some are out and out classics, such as Song of the South (1946), which features the song Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah, Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959), The Parent Trap (1961) and The Absent Minded Professor (1961).
Then there’s those films that are not what you’d describe as ‘great’, but they are a part of my chldhood and I’m very fond of them. These include The Love Bug (1968 – Herbie’s first adventure) , Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), Freaky Friday (1976), The Shaggy D.A. (1976) and Polyanna (1960).
“Beware all wenches.”
Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968) ghost should probably belong on that list too. It’s no great film, but I watched it so often as a child – it was so much fun. Even now, whenever I think of Peter Ustinov, I don’t think of his Oscar wins, I don’t even think of his stint as Hercule Poirot, all I can picture is Captain Blackbeard on his quest for redemption.
Greyfriars Bobby (1961) is the beautiful tale of a dog who’s master passes away, but he still remains faithfully by the graveside. The townspeople adopt Bobby as their own and rally together to save him. This is one film that pulls at my heartstrings every single time I see it.
I don’t really need to say much about Mary Poppins (1964). It’s an all time classic. The wonderful, simple story of a disjointed family brought together by the quirky nanny features some of Disney’s best songs – from Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to Chim-Chim-Cheree, from I Love to Laugh to Feed the Birds.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), like Mary Poppins, combines live action with cartoon. This fantastical tale of an orphaned sister and two brothers who are forced to stay with an apprentice witch during war times, begins rooted in reality before escalating to more and more ridiculous and wonderful situations, including a visit to the Island of Naboomboo. It’s one of Angela Lansbury’s finest roles. Portobello Road and Substitutiary Locomotion are my favourite songs from this film.
Also, I’d be remiss if I left out That Darn Cat! (1965). It’s not high on my list, but I know it was one of Lottie’s favourite films as a kid.
Things Changed in the Eighties
I don’t know if it was looming recession or a genuine solid business strategy, but in the 80’s Disney started to diversify a bit. They produced a number of ‘different’ films, mostly in conjunction with other production companies, such as Paramount for Popeye (1980), Amblin for Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) and Buena Vista for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989). This continued into the 90’s and beyond and it seemed that Disney was shifting focus far away from animation, concentrating on bigger budget, live action films.
This is not necessarily a bad thing. In the 80’s Disney brought us The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992 – with Jim Henson Productions), Tron (1982), Return to Oz (1985) and Flight of the Navigator (1986). Both Tron and Flight of the Navigator will see revivals in 2010.
And does anyone remember The Rocketeer (1991), The Mighty Ducks (1992), Homeward Bound (1993), Hocus Pocus (1993) and The Santa Clause (1994)?
But the animated film did not go completely neglected. In 1988 Oliver & Company was made. I don’t really remember it and I only mention it because it was beaten by The Land Before Time in the box office, a shifting point in the history of animated feature films – Disney was no longer King.
The Little Mermaid (1989) and Beauty and the Beast (1991) stand out as two great Disney animated films from this era, but neither The Rescuers Down Under (1990) nor Aladdin (1992) set my world alight and I quickly forgot about them. In truth, The Lion King in 1994 was probably Disney’s last great 2D animated film. It also happens to be my favourite animated movie of all time. The epic story, accompanied by the various characters and wonderful music from Elton John and Tim Rice, made it a timeless classic on the day of its release, worthy to stand tall beside Snow White, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Pinocchio.
However, Pocahontas (1995) was empty of any real emotion, instead willing to play up stereotypes in the hope that it seems groundbreaking. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) was a cartoon that should never have seen the big screen. After these, I think I was starting to get too old for Disney.
Too Old For Disney?
Or maybe Disney just became too juvenile for me? All intelligence, all sense of originality and innovation seemed to disappear from The Mouse House. Uncle Walt would not have been happy with Hercules (1997), Mulan (1998), Tarzan (1999), Dinosaur (2000), Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) and Home on the Range (2004). The Tigger Movie (2000) was more about merchandising than filmmaking, while I found Lilo & Stitch (2002) irritating and sickly sweet. I know Disney is for kids, but should it be solely for kids? There was nothing in this that I could see appealing to adults, even one as childish as me.
The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) was a brief brilliant sidestep for Disney. With a more mature comedy about it, New Groove was very funny and had llamas in it, which I just love.
The New Disney
The Three Musketeers (1993) saw a dramatic departure from form for Disney live action films. It was a big budget, well scripted, tightly directed blockbuster. In the same year, they also produced the wonderfully quirky Cool Runnings (1993). George of the Jungle came along in 1997, but all of these were just paving the way for the smash hit Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and its sequels.
Granted, there’s still the barrage of mulch in the form of The Princess Diaries (2001), Freaky Friday (2003), The Lizzie Maguire Movie (2003), Eddie Murphy’s awful The Haunted Mansion (2003), Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), Around the World in 80 Days (2004), The Pacifier (2005), Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), and of course the aforementioned Camp Rock , Jonas Brothers and High School Musical .
PIXAR and Disney
If you can’t beat ‘em, buy them seems to be Disney’s way of dealing with Pixar. From 1995’s Toy Story , Pixar set the standard in animated feature films. The gave us A Bug’s Life (1998) , Toy Story 2 (1999), The Incredibles (2004), Monsters Inc. (2001), Finding Nem o (2003), and Cars (2006), before being bought out by Disney in 2006. Fair enough, all Pixar films have been distributed by Disney, but they were always Pixar movies - extremely original, breaking the mold on more than one occasion and always appealing to both children and adults alike. Ratatouille came along in 2007, before the wonderful Wall·E (2008), one of the most groundbreaking films of our time. I only saw this year’s Up this weekend and once again, Pixar excelled, creating a movie bleeding with emotion, while also extremely funny and clever.
Competition
You thought I’d forgotten about you lot, wrapped up as I was in my own personal history of Disney films. Well, seeing as you’ve managed to read this far down, I’m rewarding you with a chance to win a copy of Disney’s new double CD collection, The Magic of Disney, featuring 47 of Disney’s biggest hits. There’s more information on Amazon or iTunes and here’s the full tracklisting:
Disc 1
- Circle Of Life – The Lion King
- Beauty And The Beast – Beauty And The Beast
- A Whole New World – Aladdin
- You’ve Got A Friend In Me – Toy Story
- I Won’t Say I’m In Love – Hercules
- Colors Of The Wind – Pocahontas
- Someday - The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
- Once Upon A Dream – Sleeping Beauty
- He’s A Tramp – Lady And The Tramp
- The Bare Necessities – The Jungle Book
- Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah – Song Of The South
- Hakuna Matata - The Lion King
- Happy Working Song – Enchanted
- Heigh Ho - Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
- The Wonderful Things About Tiggers – The Tigger Movie
- When I See An Elephant Fly – Dumbo
- A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes – Cinderella
- Chim Chim Cher-Ee - Mary Poppins
- The Aristocats – The Aristocats
- I’ll Try – Return To Neverland
- Go The Distance - Hercules
- Reflection - Mulan
- Part Of Your World - The Little Mermaid
Disc 2
- He’s A Pirate – Pirates Of The Caribbean
- Life Is A Highway – Cars
- Under The Sea - The Little Mermaid
- That’s How You Know - Enchanted
- Cruella De Vil – 101 Dalmatians
- Candle On The Water – Pete’s Dragon
- Little April Shower - Bambi
- You Can Fly - Peter Pan
- Just Around The Riverbend – Pocahontas
- Be Our Guest – Beauty And The Beast
- If I Didn’t Have You – Monsters Inc.
- Bibbidi Bobbidi-Boo – Cinderella
- Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – Mary Poppins
- The Unbirthday Song – Alice In Wonderland
- Ev’rybody Wants To Be A Cat – The Aristocats
- Zero To Hero – Hercules
- One Jump Ahead – Aladdin
- I Wan’na Be Like You – The Jungle Book
- Can You Feel The Love Tonight – The Lion King
- Kiss The Girl – The Little Mermaid
- Someday My Prince Will Come – Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs
- Best Of Friends – The Fox And The Hound
- When She Loved Me – Toy Story 2
- When You Wish Upon A Star – Pinocchio
To win, just leave a comment below telling me what your favourite Disney movie is and why. Winners will be selected next Thursday 3rd December.
tagged under: Cartoons.Disney.Movies.Pixar
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I think it musically it would have to be the Little Mermaid as I recently discovered that the man who wrote the songs for the movie was dying of AIDS at the time and so I watched the film again and the power and beauty in the ‘Part of Your World’ song really hit me this time.
However it is so hard to choose a favourite as it changes with my mood…I have probably watched the Lion King, Jungle Book and Monster Ink morethan any other movies…drives my boyfriend mad!!
I think you need to give ‘Mulan’ a 2nd chance…it’s a grower!!
I can only pick one,hmm this is going to be tough,Id probably have to go with Mary Poppins,not only is it a great film with some very catchy songs I have some very happy memories of it,my granny was a big fan too and we always watched it in her house on video
Although I do hold the likes of Lady & The Tramp and Robin Hood very dear (and have bought them on DVD for my young wan to spread the luv!), I think the three golden Disney animations were, in a row, Beaty and The Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King.
My gang still watch B&TB and Aladdin every so often … for the songs, the smiles and the memories. Beauty and The Beast is definitely my favourite of the three. The character of Gaston and his marvellously obnoxious baritone is perhaps the most brilliantly creepy/funny combination I’ve ever seen. And the Beast is at once strong and vulnerable … and so easily flummoxed, you can’t help but laugh. Plus, all of those amazing enchanted items! It was glorious when they were restored to their original forms and we realised how alike they were as human and utensil! Only bad thing about theat movie was the disgustingly twee Chip, whose mother, Mrs. Potts (that enduring icon Angela Lansbury, for God’s sake!) was about sixty years too old to have a toddler.
If we’re going for bloody terrifying, though, Return To Oz has to win. The most disturbing film I’d ever seen; Dorothy in a madhouse? A headless princess driven crazy by vanity? THE FECKIN’ WHEELERS? I have it on dvd and I still quiver at its subtexts.
In terms of animated, i would have to say ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. Still beautiful animation, tons of atmosphere, catchy tunes and (indeed the first) time animation was shown to convey real depth and emotion. Oh, and plus the old hag/transformed queen is still terrifying. Honorable mentions include ‘Fantasia’, ‘Beauty And The Beast’ , ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘The Adventures of Ichabob Crane and Mister Toad’ (this version of the Sleepy Hollow tale is as good as the Tim Burton version).
In terms of live-action…I’d have to say ‘Mary Poppins’ (if you can get over Dick Van Dyke’s pre-Guy Ritchie mockney-ess), and ‘20,000 Leagues Under The Sea’ a close second – and a great movie full stop.
Oh, and i loved ‘Enchanted’
@ Sweary – yeah, ‘Return To Oz’ is so messed up…that headless princess was pretty nightmarish stuff. Though the original ‘Wizard’ has its scary moments too…those bloody scary flying monkeys! :O
Surprised to see no mention of ‘The Princess and the Frog’, due out around Christmas– Disney’s first 2D, hand-animated film in a few years.
@calum Oh believe me, we are aware of The Princess and the Frog. Link, Link, Link, Link.
God it has to be The Lion King! I was 9 years old and visiting my cousin in California, I’d never left leinster before never mind Ireland or Europe. My cousin was only 7 and this was her new favourite movie! My little brother and I were brought to it and thought it was just amazing! We started collecting the toys in Burger King and swapping lion king cards! We came back to Ireland and then a few months later it was released here! I won tickets to the cinema to see it again on a sunday world colouring competition! I brought my best friend, brother and mam again. I still cry when Mufasa dies! I still love the sound track too! For years I used jump on my mam and dads bed along to it!
Snow white is my fav ,
I just love that film , those seven dwarfs still make me laugh to this day ,
in fact i was in usa few years back and I bought snow white and the seven dwarfs and have them proudly on my shelf , people tell me im a child at heart but so what , those are the memories we have of our childhood ,good ones i might add ,
Wow, monster post (no pun intended), brilliant stuff.
I think Disney did a great job with The Straight Story by telling a true story in a compelling way and by making it touching, without making it schmaltzy.
“Light the lamp, not the rat. LIGHT THE LAMP, NOT THE RAT”. It has to be The Muppets Christmas Carol. Great adaptation of A Christmas Carol and as quotable as The Life of Brian.
I have pretty much every single Disney movie or either Blu-ray or DVD. I even have the ballroom scene from Beauty and the Beast depicted on my bookshelves. Goofy sits on my bed in my parents house, alongside Mickey. While Pluto guards my bed in my apartment.
Disney defined my childhood and most of my adult life. I’ve been to 3 of the theme parks. I’ve blown hundreds if not thousands of Euro on t-shirts and other merchandise. I’ve even been to the Disney music hall.
It’s very difficult to choose just one Disney movie. I love Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Mary Poppins, Pinocchio, Jungle Book, etc. Not to mention their collaborations with Pixar and the stop-motion epic that is The Nightmare Before Christmas. However my absolute favourite of all time is Aladdin. The songs, the animation, Robin Williams as the genie…it’s just brilliant.
@Ruth That’s quite interesting about The Little Mermaid. As for your Disney watching – keep at it, your boyfriend will come around.
@Jen That’s the thing – a lot of these movies are more about the time we watched them and the memories attached.
@Sweary Return to Oz was incredible. So flippin’ creepy and a worthy follow up to The Wizard of Oz, even if it was 46 years later.
@Emlyn @Hilary It really is amazing that more than 70 years later, Snow White is still one of the best Disney releases to date.
@Calum I actually had it in my notes, but accidentally left it out of the post. Believe it or not, it was one of the things that spurred me into writing the post. I’m really excited about seeing it.
@Efa The Lion King FTW.
@Travors Cheers. The post kind of ran away with itself. But I really enjoyed writing it. I haven’t see The Straight Story. It’s a Lynch movie. I’ll look into it.
@Yvonne I actually had that quote in my head when I was writing the post. So so funny.
@Niall Me and you are going to be great great friends.
It has to be either Bedknobs and Broomsticks or Lady and the tramp. Oh the innocence!
Ahh ahhh ahh!!!! I love Disney so much. I think it was probably deemed as inappropriate last night that I was at Video Games Live in the National Concert Hall among loads of hardcore gamers – (screaming and shouting with excitement when they see the introduction for World of Warcraft) – and I screamed like a little girl when they played music to some clips from Disney songs. I’m not sure the guy beside my liked “omg there’s simba, omg there’s ariel..OMG it’s a dalmation!!!!”
I couldn’t actually pick one, I am a huge Disney fan… probably because I love animals so much. Favourites would include 101 Dalmations (i like dalmations a lot!!), The Lion King, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Robin Hood, The Sword in the Stone, Alice in Wonderland…Enchanted.
Disney music is just brilliant, I use it a lot for the little kids that I coach for their gymnastics routines…I need to calm down.
For me it has to be Bambi I still get a lump in my throat at the scene with the hunter.
Has to be Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.It’s enduring and endearing. Who doesn’t know “Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho it’s off to work we go ..“
Classic
Having second thoughts on Snow White. I’d forgotten about Aristocats. Brillant story and great music.
@Kazzy I watched Bedknobs again last Christmas – it’s as good as ever. Wonderful movie.
@Jamie It sounds like a lads night in for me, you, Niall and a bunch of Disney movies would be pretty damn awesome (and slightly weird).
@Deirdre I don’t know why, but Bambi just doesn’t mean as much to me as everyone else. It all seemed very silly to me.
@Michael It’s incredible how so many of them really stand the test of time. Snow White – 72 years old. Baffling.
@Michael Really? Aristocats ahead of Snow White?
We had a house party earlier this year and a good few people stayed over. The following morning (afternoon actually) we were all in the living room nursing hangovers, when Aristocats came on the TV. Most of us thought we were still drunk. It’s such a trippy, strange film. Great fun though.
@Darren It’s called male bonding and it’s all good.
The Aristocats…first film i ever saw in a cinema
@darren lads night in?? Ahh my name causes confusion… I’m a lil’ lady. Also…. why didn’t I get an invite to that house party!! if i find out where you live i will drunkenly fall out of the Theatre one night and knock down your door demanding we wach Disney movies!
Damn.. if this weekend wasn’t another busy one I could spend a whole day watching Disney movies
@Jamie Oh my God, I’m so sorry. For a while now I’ve been assuming you were a guy I new from the forums a couple of years ago. Oops!
So, you’re female? The Disney night is definitely on.
Yup… I am female.. last time I checked anyways! (@jimserm)!!
Oh my God how did I miss this post! I am a huge Disney Princess Fan! Its embarrassing! I have at the moment a Tinkerbell duvet on my Dublin bed and on my Kerry bed I have the princess headboard, bought for me when I was 20! I know its tragic.. but I love the stuff! The Princess movies are my favourites, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and The Beast being my all time favourites as Aurora and Belle are just so elegant! Also I loved Enchanted with Amy Adams! I love the songs from the princess movies and even have the instrumental version which is fab! I do also love all the other princess’s but they are my fav! Must have a Disney Princess day soon me thinks!
Great post Darren!
@Amy What’s a Disney Princess Day?
D’oh!! Its a day you wear your tiara and disney princess jammies and watch all the DVD’s back to back! I have another fanatic too! Tis a wonder we are single!
@Amy I’m in. I look so pretty in a tiara.
*** Competition Closed ***
*** Winners announced shortly ***
The winers have been chosen. Congratulations to Yvonne, Jamie and Michael. You will each be emailed shortly.
Thank you to everyone else for taking part and for letting us know your favourite Disney movies. I enjoyed the conversation.