Best of Disney Animated Features (23-14)

23. Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
This was the type of movie you never expected Disney to make, but they did a great job.  Disney has always excelled at creating believable fantasy worlds and this movie features several different worlds with distinctive styles.  The arcade, Fix It Felix, the terminal, Hero's Duty and Sugar Rush are all unique, but fit together perfectly in the same movie.  The character animation is clever as the characters all move in their respective video game styles.  The story is pleasant and the characters are touching.  Definitely unlike the usual Disney fare, which is not a bad thing.

22. Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
I have written about this movie on this blog extensively.  It is a package feature with two completely solid shorts.  Wind in the Willows features some of Disney's best character animation and a lot of wit.  Legend of Sleepy Hollow perfects atmosphere and has one of the best scary scenes ever.  I wrote about it more here.

21. Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
This is probably the most divisive Disney movie ever made.  It is not perfect, but there is much more good than bad.  It handles its mature themes very well and has some really three dimensional characters.  The music and score is just really grand and supports the scale of the film's visuals.  There is a grandeur to this movie that is really beautiful, the design of Notre Dame is absolutely stunning.  The movie's problems come from its attempts to force comic relief to make it a kid's movie.  It is a shame that Disney did not trust the great story and material they had, but even with its flaws it is a sight to see.

20. Winnie the Pooh (2011)
In an age of reboots, sequels and remakes it is rare to see a movie actually maintain a franchise's quality and improve on some aspects.  This movie is consistent with the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh but uses the characters a bit differently.  This movie seems very simple, but there is a lot of creativity and heart to it.  Its humor is sharp and the new songs are great.  Disney has not supported this movie at all, but you do need to look it up.  One of the most underrated movies in recent years.

19. Emperor's New Groove (2000)
After 13 years this remains one of my favorite buddy comedies.  The jokes hold up and never get old, in fact many of them age well and get funnier after repeated viewings.  This is a buddy comedy with energetic jokes that also features the usual great Disney backgrounds and animation.  This is a rare example of where using a celebrity's personality enhances the movie.  The personas of David Spade, Eartha Kitt, John Goodman and Patrick Warburton add so much to this movie; they were all perfectly cast.  This failed at the box office, but it quickly grew a well deserved audience.

18. Tangled (2010)
This was the first time Disney put their own stamp on a computer animated film.  They utilize lessons that they perfected in traditional animation and it makes this movie stand out.  The characters are much more expressive and feature more personality than the usual CG film.  Disney also took advantage of computer animation by exploring depth and its animation of Rapunzel's hair.  This is a fun movie with fun songs and characters.  The first Disney movie in a long time that the general public noticed and it deserved the attention.

17. One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
One of Disney's most pleasant features.  Long before computer animated movies thrived on volumes of similar characters such as Minions, Disney found a way to create 101 traditionally animated dalmatians.  The main dogs are cute and have a lot of personality.  The scene stealer is the villain Cruella de Vil, who remains one of the best known bad guys of all time.  While not a laugh out loud comedy, it is extremely clever with touches such as the Midnight Bark.  While Disney is great when they are making artistic leaps they are just as good in these little features that are just fun.

16. Princess and the Frog (2009)
Disney's return to traditional animation highlights what works about the art form.  The movie is full of fantastic backgrounds, colors and characters with individual personalities.  Bruce W. Smith's animation of Dr. Facilier and Eric Goldberg's Louis are the stand outs, but all of the characters are great.  Tiana is an admirable role model that has more of a character arc than most Disney princesses.  The story is clever and touching.  This was a fun throwback with surprisingly good songs from Randy Newman, I always enjoy this movie.

15. Dumbo (1941)
Disney took a break from its epic artistic endeavors to tell a smaller story and they created a really sweet children's movie.  This one always gets the heartstrings, the scene of Jumbo's trunk cradling her child is one of the most tender scenes ever animated.  It is cute, sad, fun and even a bit surreal.  This is one of the most iconic Disney features and it definitely holds up.

14. Tarzan (1999)
This seems like an unlikely source material for a Disney movie, but it works beautifully in animation.  The jungle background is gorgeous and Glen Keane's movement of Tarzan is impressive.  Having the king of the jungle tree surf and move like an ape adds so much to him.  The story of an adopted child torn between two worlds is really fascinating.  Phil Collins' non-diagetic songs make this movie feel unique instead of a traditional Broadway musical.  This was a big hit and is still the best adaptation of Tarzan.

Unsung Disney Legends: Bruce W. Smith

We all know the characters, the movies and the songs but it is easy to forget that we are not watching actual characters.  Many people designed and worked on them.  Todays retrospective is on the multi-talented creator, character designer and supervising animator Annie Award nominee Bruce W. Smith.

Bebe's Kids

Bruce W. Smith had his hand in several features of the late eighties and early nineties features in varying capacities such as Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Rover Dangerfield and Rock-a-Doodle.  His first major project of note was as a character designer and director of the movie Bebe's Kids, which was produced through Hyperion and distributed through Paramount.  The movie was not very successful, most likely due to its PG-13 rating and urban setting.  Although the feature was nominated for an Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.

Character Designing and Directing

After his first directing project Smith continued to be involved in several projects, such as working as a supervising animator on The Pagemaster.  Smith was the character designer for A Goofy Movie, C Bear and Jamal, Cats Don't Dance and Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child.  He also directed episodes of the latter.  His big mid-nineties credit was as co-director of animation on the live-action animation hybrid Space Jam for which he was nominated for an Annie Award.

Kerchak

Smith's first major supervising animator credit and first major Disney production was on Tarzan for the character of Kerchak.  Smith does a great job animating this large intimidating figure that remains sympathetic despite his constant disapproval of the lead character.  Despite not being flashy or marketable, this is an important character to the feature and one of Disney's more complex ones.

Pacha

Smith followed up Kerchak with a character in Emperor's New Groove that was similar in size but the complete opposite in temperament.  Pacha is a standard nice guy who is the heart of the goofy buddy comedy and balances out the selfish Kuzco.  Smith gifts Pacha with real sincerity making him extremely likable.

Proud Family

Not many of Disney's feature animators crossed over in television, but Smith sold Disney a TV series that Nickelodeon had previous rejected.  Walt Disney Television Animation only distributed The Proud Family while Smith's studio Jambalaya animated it.  This was popular for years on Disney Channel and was later syndicated to ABC, Toon Disney and BET.  The series concluded with a movie that Smith directed.  Smith also created the short lived Kids' WB cartoon Da Boom Crew.

Doctor Facilier

Home on the Range was supposed to be be Disney's final 2D animated feature, on which Smith was supervising animator for the character of Pearl.  However five years later Disney made an attempt to return to traditional animation with Princess and the Frog, on which Smith had the best character.  Facilier is one of the best villains in Disney history, Smith calls him the love-child of his two favorite villains: Captain Hook and Cruella de Vil.  The slender bad guy is menacing and energetic and steals the show in a superbly animated song (Friends on the Other Side) and a terrifying death scene.  This character is Smith's greatest achievement.

Piglet, Kanga and Roo

For 2011's Winnie the Pooh Smith was supervising animator for the characters of Piglet, Kanga and Roo.  Surprisingly Piglet does not leave that much of an impact (perhaps because the character just does not work for me without the voice of John Fielder).  However Smith animates Kanga to her best appearance yet, gifting her with some smart subtle reactions and a funny apathy towards the ridiculousness of the other characters.  Roo also gets some good reactions, the timing on the humor of all of the characters in this little seen film is all perfect.

New Disneyland: Fantasyland

Snow White's Castle

Fantasyland needs a castle.  A good one to use would be the Prince's castle in Snow White.  Disney's first movie ends with Snow White looking at a castle in the sky.  Would be fun for audiences to finally get to see more of it.

Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Parasols

Dumbo the Flying Elephant is one of the most enduring and popular Disney attractions of all time, the format was even replicated in Adventureland's Magic Carpets of Aladdin.  For this new Disney theme park the flying carousel ride would be giant open umbrellas with seats attached at the bottoms.  This would have a feeling of suspension, differing it from the other rides.

Fantasia Fantasies

This would be a dark ride featuring characters and scenes from Fantasia and Fantasia 2000.  Even if the movies aren't the best known they are some of Disney's most visually pleasing.  They would be great images up close, plus classical music could be playing the whole ride.

Princess and the Frog Bayou Adventure

Another new dark ride based on a movie that isn't the best known.  Princess and the Frog is a beautiful movie with a lot of images for imagineers to draw from.  Since a majority of the movie takes place on the bayou this would be a water ride, ala it's a small world.  This would help to raise the movie's profile and place in Disney's catalog.

Mickey's Beanstalk

Based on Mickey and the Beanstalk from Fun and Fancy Free.  Audiences would in a roller coaster style cart that would work its way up a long beanstalk and through the sites of the giant's castle before descending back down.  A combination of a roller coaster and a dark ride.  Not sure how to make this safe or feasible, but let the imagineers sort it out.

Rapunzel's Tangled Slide-Do

There would be four long slides styled after Rapunzel's blonde hair that would be built around each other to appear like it is tangled hair.  Again, not sure how to make this safe or feasible but it is a fun idea.

Nightmare Mountain

The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of the few Disney brands that teenagers and young adults allow themselves.  Disney should make a thrill ride out of it.  The mountain from the movie is iconic and inside it could have a Space Mountain style thrill ride for older guests featuring characters from the movie.