{"id":3162,"date":"2016-09-11T13:04:41","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T17:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fiveforks.com\/ted\/?p=3162"},"modified":"2024-07-10T23:00:06","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T03:00:06","slug":"disney-movie-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/2016\/09\/disney-movie-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Movie Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was researching Disney animated movies<\/a> and thought it would be good to see how the movies ranked. Disney has released a lot of animated movies, but the lists I was looking at were limited to the canon of Disney Animation Studios, not Pixar, not Disney Toons (mostly straight to video), etc. These are fully animated (unlike Mary Poppins) and released in theaters, though some are compilations of shorts, particularly during the 1940’s when labor was short. The compilations were kind of a low point, as was a period in the 60’s to 80’s, and then another in the 2000’s.<\/p>\n

At least in a few of these rankings, the writer actually sat down and watched all 55 movies before making the list, which is an impressive commitment. There are so many of these that I just don’t feel like I need to watch, though I guess if I had a lot of time I wouldn’t mind coming up with a list of my own. But instead I figured I would take an average of a number of lists on the internet to smooth out some of the personal opinions. There are some movies that tend to be polarizing. One is Fantasia<\/em>, which some consider an early animation masterpiece and some will admit was kind of boring. In fact, all of the early movies tend to be polarizing with movies like Sleeping Beauty<\/em>, Peter Pan<\/em>, and Dumbo<\/em> appearing at opposite ends of different reviewers’ scales. The exception is Pinocchio<\/em> which was in every single Top 10 (Snow White<\/em> had one outlier at #25, otherwise all Top 10). Another is The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/em>, which some throw in the bottom half and some include around number 5, feeling it is part of the 1990’s renaissance. Beauty and the Beast<\/em> was also pretty consistent, though while a couple of reviewers insist it is the best Disney movie ever, nobody has it outside their Top 10.
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Sometimes it is easier to focus disdain and the compilation movies of the late 40’s as well as a number of movies in the 2000’s were near the bottom of just about every list. Because Disney movies are generally very good, one reviewer said that anything in the top 30 was a pretty good movie. Probably if you’re going to watch every single movie, you like Disney movies already, so maybe that isn’t a surprise.<\/p>\n

I was surprised to see Pinocchio<\/em> top the list over Snow White<\/em> and Beauty and the Beast<\/em>. Also Little Mermaid<\/em> did quite well at #3. Other surprisingly high scoring movies were Lady and the Tramp<\/em>, One Hundred and One Dalmatians<\/em>, and The Princess and the Frog<\/em> from 2009 which didn’t get much attention. Hunchback<\/em> definitely had its supporters as did 1999’s Tarzan<\/em>. Cinderella<\/em> also commands quite a bit of respect. I’m disappointed that Meet the Robinsons<\/em> did not do that well, but glad that Bolt<\/em> has some respect as the beginning of a Disney resurgence (has a lot of Pixar touches), though some seem to have personal issues with its voice actors John Travolta and Mylie Cyrus. I also liked 2010’s Rapunzel story Tangled<\/em>, but it got a few low scores, while Frozen<\/em> did much better.<\/p>\n

There were some movies I had never really heard of, where Disney took a big chance on different types of movies, and was punished. A space-based Treasure Island movie called Treasure Planet<\/em> was not well liked. Neither was 2001’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire<\/em>. In 1999, Disney released Fantasia 2000<\/em> which bored people just as much as the original, but doesn’t have that one’s importance. 1985’s The Black Cauldron<\/em> was a dark Tolkien kind of movie that most people didn’t like. And a movie I liked from my childhood, Robin Hood<\/em>, was widely disdained for borrowing characters and scenes from other movies to save money, along with generally low production values. I just liked the talking animals and the Robin Hood story, I guess, but what did I know? I was 7. The Sword in the Stone<\/em> is another I thought was good as a kid (re-released in 1972 which is probably when I saw it), but people don’t generally like now.<\/p>\n

Here is the list, averaged from six lists I found using Google, with letter grades from me if I reviewed it (I own titles in bold: blue<\/span><\/strong> indicates I purchased in my first DMC enrollment, green<\/span><\/strong> my second, red<\/span><\/strong> my third, brown<\/span><\/strong> my fourth, purple<\/span><\/strong> my fifth, pink<\/span><\/strong> my sixth, turquoise<\/span><\/strong> for digital purchases, black<\/strong> by other means, mostly purchases after writing this; blue letter grades<\/span> link to reviews at my website):<\/p>\n

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  1. Pinocchio (1940)<\/span> A-<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Beauty and the Beast (1991)<\/span> A<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. The Little Mermaid (1989)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Aladdin (1992)<\/span> A<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Lady and the Tramp (1955)<\/span> A-<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  7. Cinderella (1950)<\/span> A<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  8. The Lion King (1994)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  9. Bambi (1942)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  10. One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)<\/span> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  11. Frozen (2013)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  12. Moana (2016)<\/span> A-<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  13. Dumbo (1941)<\/span> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  14. Zootopia (2016)<\/span> A<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  15. The Princess and the Frog (2009)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  16. Sleeping Beauty (1959)<\/span> A-<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  17. Big Hero 6 (2014)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  18. The Jungle Book (1967)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  19. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)<\/span> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  20. Fantasia (1940)<\/span> B<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
  21. Alice in Wonderland (1951)<\/span> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  22. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)<\/span> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  23. Tarzan (1999)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  24. Wreck-It Ralph (2012)<\/span> C+<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
  25. Winnie the Pooh (2011) B<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
  26. Mulan (1998)<\/span> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  27. Tangled (2010)<\/span><\/strong> B<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
  28. Peter Pan (1953)<\/span> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  29. Lilo & Stitch (2002)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  30. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)<\/span> C+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  31. Bolt (2008)<\/span> A-<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  32. Hercules (1997)<\/span> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  33. The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  34. The Fox and the Hound (1981)<\/span> C<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  35. The Great Mouse Detective (1986)<\/span> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  36. The Sword in the Stone (1963)<\/span> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  37. Robin Hood (1973)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  38. The Rescuers (1977)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  39. The Rescuers Down Under (1990)<\/span> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  40. The Aristocats (1970)<\/span> B+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  41. Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)<\/strong> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  42. Treasure Planet (2002)<\/span> A-<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
  43. Meet the Robinsons (2007)<\/span> A-<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  44. Fantasia 2000 (1999)<\/span> B+<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
  45. The Three Caballeros (1944) C-<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
  46. Pocahontas (1995)<\/span><\/strong> B<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  47. Oliver & Company (1988)<\/span> B-<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  48. The Black Cauldron (1986)<\/span> C+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  49. Fun and Fancy Free (1947) C+<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
  50. Melody Time (1948) C+<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
  51. Saludos Amigos (1942) B-<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
  52. Dinosaur (2000)<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n
  53. Brother Bear (2003)<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n
  54. Make Mine Music (1946)<\/li>\n
  55. Home on the Range (2004)<\/li>\n
  56. Chicken Little (2005)<\/span><\/strong> B-<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I came up with the rankings above by entering each reviewers rankings, then averaging those rankings for each movie, then re-sorting the list for those average rankings. There were a couple of ties, in which case I just put the earlier movie first. Also, some of the newer movies were not ranked by everyone, so I just took the average of the ranks that were available.<\/p>\n

    Here are the lists I used, which offer great commentary and often some good comments at the bottom:<\/p>\n