I recently rewatched the vast majority of the Disney Animated Canon, the animated movies developed by Walt Disney Animation Studios, with a few other people and had a fantastic time discussing the history of Disney, the place of each film within it and my thoughts on each movie. Having finally finished with Frozen II, I don’t have Raya and the Last Dragon or Encanto on Blu-Ray, I thought it might be interesting to do a personal ranking of each movie within the Disney Animated Canon. Understandably, discussing 58 films is quite a daunting task so I decided, to shorten the overall length of this article, I’m going to purely discuss my own thoughts on each movie, i.e., I’m not going to discuss their premises. With that being said, let’s start with my ranking from worst to best.
58. Chicken Little
As far as I’m concerned, Chicken Little is the worst film that Walt Disney Animation Studios has ever produced. The animation and character designs are very unappealing and the story itself is surprisingly mean-spirited and unpleasant. I’ve only ever seen this film once and, as you can imagine, I have no desire to see it again.
57. Dinosaur
To be completely honest, I completely forgot that Dinosaur was made by Walt Disney Animation Studios during my rewatch. It’s a dull, cliché film whose animation has aged very poorly. Dinosaur was Walt Disney Animation Studios first film where the characters were rendered in CGI and it truly shows. Its place in Disney history is interesting but that’s it.
56. Meet the Robinsons
I know that a lot of people like Meet the Robinsons but I genuinely cannot understand why. The animation, while better than Chicken Little and Dinosaur, has this oddly rubbery appearance to it that I find very unappealing. Additionally, the story is a complete mess with one of the sequences, the scene where they introduce all the family members, actually giving me a headache!
55. Saludos Amigos
Saludos Amigos is barely a movie. The runtime is around 40 minutes and is split up into four segments. While the animation has the classic Disney charm, the stories themselves feel basic and I found myself losing interest after a while.
54. Home on the Range
I want to make it clear that I don’t hate Home on the Range as much as other people do. However, that’s not to say that I like the film. The problem I find with Home on the Range is that it completely lacks any appeal to me as an adult. The film has this incredibly juvenile feel to it as if I was watching a movie made for little children.
53. Brother Bear
There are moments of Brother Bear that I really like. The pursuit of the main character in bear form by his brother who mistakenly thinks that the bear killed his brother is really appealing to me. The problem arises with numerous annoying comedy characters, some dodgy CGI sequences and a cliché story which drag the film down so much that I struggle to wring any joy out of the movie.
52. The Black Cauldron
The Black Cauldron is a film that I should love. I love fantasy animation and it looked like The Black Cauldron would tick all of the boxes that I look for in these films. Instead, you have a group of bland, uninteresting characters who stumble from place to place with little grace. There are some lovely animated sequences in the film and the Horned King is a suitably intimidating villain but there are too many other great fantasy animated films to spend your time watching this one.
51. Pocahontas
It might be shocking to see a Disney Renaissance movie so low in this list but I’m not a fan of Pocahontas. The story has a lot of potential but ends up being a cliché version of Romeo & Juliet. The saving grace of this film is that there are some genuinely nice songs and the animation, while not particularly inspired when it comes to character design, does have a pleasant colour palette and fluid movements.
50. Melody Time
Melody Time is an anthology film made up of seven musical segments. While I wouldn’t say that any of the segments are bad, I also wouldn’t say that any of them made much of an impression on me. The animation isn’t bad even if it’s a drop in quality compared to movies outside of the package film era. All in all, I’d say Melody Time fits comfortably in the category of forgettable.
49. Make Mine Music
Make Mine Music is a similar film to Melody Time in that it’s an anthology film made up of ten segments. Again, the animation isn’t anything to write home about and most of the segments are forgettable. What puts this film above Melody Time is the final segment “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met” which is surprisingly good.
48. One Hundred And One Dalmatians
The One Hundred and One Dalmatians franchise has a lot of fans but I’m not one of them. In order to cut costs during the Dark Age of Animation, Disney introduced a new xerography technique which allowed for animated movies to be made more cheaply at the cost of scratchier animation that stands out more from the background. It would be something if I liked the story and while I admit that I do quite enjoy the opening segment of the film, I find the middle section of the movie to drag much more than I’d care for to the point where I start losing interest.
47. Frozen II
I’ve never been a huge fan of the first Frozen film but there was still a lot about it that I liked. Frozen II, on the other hand, feels like an uninspired sequel in order to cash in on the popularity of the first movie. There is some lovely animation and songs but many of the character interactions feel decidedly worse with a lot of the new ideas such as the elements and the origins of Elsa’s powers feeling underdeveloped.
46. The Sword in the Stone
The Sword in the Stone has some charming characters and surprisingly sharp comedy. Where it falls short is how unimportant many of the events in the movie feel as well as an ending that feels sudden and anticlimactic.
45. The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book is another popular Disney movie that I’ve never quite understood the appeal of. There are some genuinely brilliant songs in the film but I’ve never been a fan of the animation style. Additionally, I find the characters in general to be quite bland and the ending of the film to be at odds with what’s been set up throughout the film.
44. Fun And Fancy Free
Fun And Fancy Free is a decent two story film. The story of Bongo is sweet enough even if it’s not particularly inspired while I’ll admit that I quite like the story of Jack and the Beanstalk with the characters of Mickey, Donald and Goofy. However, as much as I love Pinocchio which you’ll see much, much higher on this list, I can’t help but feel that the inclusion of Jiminy Cricket is a cynical attempt to increase the appeal of the film.
43. The Three Caballeros
The Three Caballeros is a very messy film and should be a movie that I don’t care for. However, the last third of the film is truly spectacular with some incredible and psychedelic animation, something that appeals to me a lot.
42. Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a film that I used to watch a lot when I was a child so in some ways it hurts me to have to place it this low. The animation is really pleasant while Captain Hook is a surprisingly charismatic and enjoyable villain. However, the real problem that I have with Peter Pan now is that I find its main character, Peter Pan, to be an obnoxious, unlikeable brat. In some ways this is intentional, he’s meant to be a boy who refuses to grow up, but we get little to no character development on his part. While still a movie that I’ll hold close to my heart from my childhood years, I can’t say that I love it now as an adult.
41. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
The best of the package era films, I quite enjoy the The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. While I’m more of a fan of the Sleepy Hollow story, the animation of the Headless Horseman is incredible, I still think that the telling of The Wind in the Willows is enjoyable.
40. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
The concept of Atlantis: The Lost Empire is very appealing to me. However, while I do like the characters in general, I find a lot of the character interactions to be sudden and jarring. Additionally, the film’s pacing has this surprisingly rushed feeling to it and there are several scenes where I wish the film slowed down and took the effort to develop the situation. While enjoyable in its own way, Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a very flawed film.
39. Robin Hood
Robin Hood is enjoyable in a fairly simplistic manner. The story and characters have no depth but but they aren’t bad either. The decision to tell the story of Robin Hood using anthropomorphic animals is quite clever although the story itself is quite typical. I would never consider this film to be great but I still think it’s decent.
Be sure to check out “My Ranking Of The Disney Animated Canon Part 2“!
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!