I love Disney, and over the past month and a half or so I’ve watched all 51 theatrical animated films they have thus far produced. This does not include films produced by an outside party such as Studio Ghibli or Pixar, or the stop-motion films such as The Nightmare Before Christmas or James and the Giant Peach. The list in its entirety can be found here:
Before watching them for this ranking there were a total of 13 I had never seen before, and many more that I hadn’t seen in years. I tried to keep nostalgia independent from my rankings and view these films critically under a neutral light, but no promises! This list reflects which ones I like more as a whole, not necessarily those I feel are more important historically or highly regarded by the Disney community. While there were a few bad ones I had to sit through, for the most part they were all enjoyable in one aspect or another. I had a lot of fun going through these films and reliving part of my childhood, and I hope just reading my write-ups might bring back some fond Disney memories of your own.
So yeah, feel free to make predictions for my list. Some of you should have an idea what I like through the Disney contests, but I’d say there are definitely some unexpected placements in my rankings. If you don’t know me at all, I’d enjoy seeing a list of your own top 10 or whatever so I could compare it to mine. I haven’t decided on whether to award prizes for the best predictions or not, but I probably won’t since I don’t have awesome paint skills like Gen. Just make predictions for the fun of it! Or on the off chance that I do give something away!
I’ll probably reveal the only film with the distinction of being placed outside of the top 50 later today. In the meantime feel free to make predictions for the top 10, bottom 5, etc.
Oh yeah, and top 10 prediction (again, no particular order):
Peter Pan Beauty and the Beast The Little Mermaid Tangled The Princess and the Frog Sleeping Beauty The Jungle Book The Lion King Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Fantasia
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Best Character: Buck “Ace” Cluck Worst Character: Foxy
Congratulations Chicken Little, you have the proud distinction of being the only Disney movie to place outside of the top 50! There is no getting around the fact that this movie is bad. It was one of the 13 films I hadn’t seen before, and I had only heard unfavorable things about it.
This was Disney’s first foray into full-length computer animation and it shows. I think they tried so hard to get their footing with the animation, which isn't even very good, that they completely sacrificed the story. It’s awful and frankly incoherent at times. Ultimately this movie tries to fit way too much unrelated content into the film, and the end product is something jumbled and disjointed.
The pacing is so bad. Like, I literally thought the movie was over 20 minutes in after Chicken Little was the hero during his baseball game. Then things just get crazy and aliens get involved and oh but it’s just a big misunderstanding. There is no villain in this movie. At all. You’d like to think it’s the aliens, but nope. They’re just looking for their kid… who escaped when they were looking for cheese or something. I do enjoy a good villain, and this movie lacks one in every department, major and minor. Even Foxy, who I guess could be considered the school bully, is only relevant for the first 20 minutes or so. And even then she’s really more obnoxious than she is a villain. Not to mention that twist in the end regarding her made absolutely no sense, and wasn’t funny.
The relationships between the characters felt forced. I didn’t understand the weird tension between Chicken Little and Buck, his father. Uh, the dad seemed like a cool guy and a pretty understanding father. I’m sorry that he didn’t believe you when you told him the sky was literally falling – I wouldn’t have either. That’s not a good reason to harbor daddy issues for years. Aside from that one incident, his dad seemed like he was a caring guy that was always there for him. This isn’t even the worst relationship in the movie. That honor belongs to the one between Chicken Little and the ugly duckling (I forgot her name). They are friends. Okay, I get that – they’re social outcasts who bonded together through their mutual exclusion from other groups. But where the hell did their romance come from? They do not develop it AT ALL throughout the movie and then just toss it together towards the end and just expect us to go for it since naturally these two losers would fall for each other. And why is she OBSESSED with getting Chicken Little to have some talk with his dad? It’s sloppy. Disney got sloppy with this movie, when they really should have strived to produce something momentous for their first foray into computer animation. Instead what we’re left with is a bland movie with terrible pacing, characters, jokes, and perhaps the weakest climax in the entire canon.
The best part of the entire movie was the very beginning when it began to play the opening to The Lion King and I thought I might have put in the wrong DVD by accident.
Chicken Little isn't great, but I've never gotten quite the level of hate that it gets. No, it probably wouldn't rank outside my Bottom 10, but I wouldn't put it below Saludos Amigos or Fun and Fancy Free.
But to each his own. Maybe I'm just remembering the (very) small handful of things that I liked about Chicken Little - the baseball game scene I thought actually had some really clever moments. Okay, maybe just the comment about "rounding home" and the sound effect the cow made when he was being carried past the camera...yeah, I'm reaching. It's not good. But I've never thought it was the worst.
Glad to see Chicken Little in last place. It may not necessarily be mine, but it's certainly in my bottom 5 and is a well-deserved last place on any list.
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Saludos and Three Cabs at least had Donald Duck. That alone is enough to boost them over the Chicken Little/Home on the Range/Dinosaur Trio of Terrible.
So yeah, I haven't gotten to rewatching this yet and to be honest I'd love to skip it since it bears no importance at all on my list topic project. However, I decided to just watch everything that way I can better do more lists and such in the future. Truly terrible though, from just about every standpoint. What Chicken Little is based on doesn't even deserve a full fledged film made to honor it. Not to mention it is just butt ugly.
The best part of the movie is probably what you said, only it's also the worst... once you realize you aren't actually about to watch TLK.
Some of you were probably hoping and expecting this one to be ranked last. Well, you weren’t too far off. Home on the Range is sadly the last 2D film Disney created before their jump to computer animation, and unfortunately, is not a very good send-off.
Whereas Chicken Little didn’t really have a plot, this one does. Unfortunately it’s very clichéd and predictable. It starts off with some sweet old lady manning a farm by herself learning that she needs to come up with a sum of $750 in three days or her land will be seized. Never heard that story before! So naturally the three cows decide to go into town and win some prize money at a fair or something. Because if the cows ever actually won someone would just give the cows $750 and let them hoof off with it. Okay. But wait! While in town they spot a reward poster for a criminal! Sure enough, his bounty just so happens to be $750. What luck! Like it never even happened, they dissolve their plan and decide they would be much better as bounty hunters. Bounty hunter cows.
There are all kinds of problems with this movie. For one, the characters suck. Maggie is a terrible lead, as she’s shown to be loud, brutish, bossy and brash. Oh, she’s voiced by Roseanne Barr. That makes sense. This then serves to demonstrate why at times celebrity voice actors are bad for the movie: they let too much of their own unappealing personality into the character. The side characters are uninteresting and unmemorable, and LOL Alameda Slim. This guy’s evil power is that he possesses the ability to control cattle with a hypnotic yodel. Just let that sink in for a moment. A hypnotic yodel. Alameda Slim for SMDCVI champion! But yeah, in general the characters were either forgettable or awful. Buck was good for small doses of humor every once and a while, and Grace was so lovably meek and stupid. I couldn’t help but like her. Or maybe I was just tolerating her and mistook it for liking her due to the general badness of the rest of the cast. We don’t really see any character depth, back story, or motivation beyond “save the day” vs. “take over the West.”
Apparently this movie is a musical, but I can hardly remember any of the songs. The only one I do remember is Alameda Slim’s introductory yodel, and really the only thing I remember about that is the fact that he was actually yodeling. Seeing as how I watched this not too long ago, the inability to remember the songs is certainly a bad sign.
Over the course of the film I found myself wondering how absurd it would look if it were remade in live action instead, and how much more I would enjoy it. That said, the animation wasn’t bad by any means, and I did enjoy the Western themes and backdrops. I might be a little nit-picky with this one, but one my biggest grievances from the film came when they were in the desert and a flash flood came out of nowhere. Maybe I’m ignorant as to how flash floods work, but I’m pretty sure they don’t turn the desert into an ocean after three seconds.
This film came out right before Chicken Little did, and ranks right after it on my list. I’m so glad I wasn’t a child growing up with Disney during these dark times.
Slim actually was the lone villain with his own song in between Hellfire and Friends on the Other Side.
I haven't got around to rewatching it yet (next week some time) but I do find that song pretty uhh... fun. Not necessarily what I usually like out of a villain song but yeah. Much like Emperor's New Groove, Home on the Range went through several changes before it was actually created. I've read that originally Slim was going to be an undead and his goal would be to drive cattle over the edge of cliffs to gain revenge for being trampled down in life.
Might have been a better movie, I just dunno. Whereas I feel Chicken Little was just awful and Disney actually tried too hard, this movie (from what I recall) is the opposite. It feels like they simply didn't try hard enough.
I've read that originally Slim was going to be an undead and his goal would be to drive cattle over the edge of cliffs to gain revenge for being trampled down in life.
Oh, btw Doc, I was wondering if it would be all right for me use your topic to repost the writeups from my own ranking two years ago for comparison with your own rankings. There are quite a few new people who never saw them and such.
-- SuperNiceDog is about 20% cooler then the other gurus.
Oh, btw Doc, I was wondering if it would be all right for me use your topic to repost the writeups from my own ranking two years ago for comparison with your own rankings. There are quite a few new people who never saw them and such.
Ok, gonna post these in Doc's order rather then the order that they originally appeared.
Chicken Little
Doc's Ranking: 51/51 Karo's Ranking: 41/49
This was the first movie in Disney's thankfully short-lived 'pretending to be Pixar' phase, though, in reality, this piece of crap has nothing in common with Pixar's outstanding movies other then the CGI animation. The models are poorly made, and are constantly recycled throughout the movie, for example, the bunny mom with the pink skirt all the kids in the opening is seen in several other places during the same scene (which can't be the same character, cause the first bunny is still pulling all her kids out of the stroller), and then shows up later as one of Chicken Little's classmates (teen pregnancy, ftw!). Y'know, you are going to cut corners like that, the least you could do is change the color of her f***ing dress! If that wasn't bad enough, the dodgeball scene puts a duplicate character twice in the same shot. I get the feeling throughout the movie that the producers don't really give a s***, and the whole movie is dragged down with it. Like Treasure Planet, I think this movie had a great idea with a lot of potential, but one that quickly went to hell due to the poor management of the producers.
Best Character: Fish Out of Water
In a movie where nearly the entire cast is loud and obnoxious, a mute character can be quite a reprieve. Plus he's just plain awesome, and didn't get nearly the amount of screen time he deserved.
Worst Character: Runt of the Litter
His whole purpose in the film was to be fat, annoying and stupid. The whole movie would have been done a great favor if he was simply deleted from the film and his supporting role given to Morkupine Porcupine.
-- SuperNiceDog is about 20% cooler then the other gurus.
Ah yes, the notorious Home on the Range. this movie was just plain bad through and through. The animation was especially bad, arguably the worst the studio has ever done. But, unlike Disney's other movies with poor animation, Home on the Range did not have a low budget to use as an excuse. In fact, Home on the Range had a higher budget then the recently released The Princess and the Frog! (even with inflation, too!) So apparently, the production staff were building bonfires made of money to toast marshmallows, cause I don't see where else the $110 million could have went. Poor character design is the real killer here, though. there isn't a single likable character in this movie (outside of the villain), and not giving a flying f*** about what happens to the heroes in a movie will quickly kill a movie like nothing else can.
Best Character: Alameda Slim
The idea of a cattle thief that hypnotizes cows with yodeling was a great idea, it's a shame you actually end up wanting him to win cause the heroes are just so awful.
Worst Character: Buck
Also known as the worst Disney character ever created, 5 minutes of listening to Buck's 'Annoying Narcissistic Douchebag' routine will have you wanting to give Jar-Jar Binks a great big hug. I'm sorry, but this is supposed to be one of the heroes? Do you expect us to actually like him? What the hell were you thinking?
-- SuperNiceDog is about 20% cooler then the other gurus.
Have you since included Winnie the Pooh and Tangled?
Like I said, these writeups were pulled pretty much as-is from my ranking topic two years ago (as were the ranks), where those two movies didn't exist yet. It's possible I could writeup those two from scratch along with giving an approximate ranking position at the time you get to them in your ranking.
-- SuperNiceDog is about 20% cooler then the other gurus.