Board 8 > Doc Ranks the Animated Disney Canon

(+) Yeah! (+)

Never seen Home on the Range. Glad I haven't.

Also Fish out of Water is easily the best character of Chicken Little out of who I remember. Only seen that one once and that was enough.

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Haven't seen HotR at all and haven't finished Chicken Little...

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Surprised some of you guys haven't actually seen some of these Dark Ages (my little name for 'that period') films. I've always felt that maybe the films get a little bit too much hate directed at them. Home on the Range isn't that good, but I'd probably still rank it above more things than just one.

I think a lot of people give it a hard time because it sent Disney into the spiral of Pixar-esque productions and almost destroyed hand drawn animation from Disney. It really isn't meant to be taken seriously as BatB, Aladdin, TLK, Hunchback, etc. though. Just a fun little film that I know for sure Disney themselves weren't expecting to measure up to their own library.

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Haha, given the way you were talking about it during the Disney contest I thought for sure you'd rank it last.

Anyways I'll likely put up #49 tonight since I'll be gone all day tomorrow.

Tag so hard.

I picked up Home on the Range with some of my Disney Movie Rewards points a while back. I want to own the entire canon someday but didn't want to spend actual money on that one. <_<

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DoctorBIind posted...

Haha, given the way you were talking about it during the Disney contest I thought for sure you'd rank it last.

Anyways I'll likely put up #49 tonight since I'll be gone all day tomorrow.

Well, it's just common to make fun of it. Most everyone is really used to making a mockery of it, more than other films that just as bad (or worse). I think it has a couple of redeeming qualities (Slim's song for example is pretty fun in both sound and animation) and that's enough to keep it out of last place.

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JonThePenguin posted...

Tag so hard.

I picked up Home on the Range with some of my Disney Movie Rewards points a while back. I want to own the entire canon someday but didn't want to spend actual money on that one. <_<

Probably a good choice. Although honestly I can find something good about every Disney film except maybe Chicken Little. That one was just a mess for me.

#49 – Melody Time (1948)

Best Character: Aracuan Bird
Worst Character: Little Toot

Ah, my least favorite of the six package films that dominated the 1940’s. I’m honestly struggling to remember details about the shorts in this film and I just watched it a few weeks ago. From what I remember, the shorts were incredibly boring, and either didn’t tell a coherent story or did so very poorly. One of my main problems with the package films is that as a whole, most of the shorts aren’t related to each other at all. There is no shared theme or meaning between the shorts here, and it begs the question why they were even pieced together to begin with. If a package film is going to work, it needs either one or two standout, memorable segments, or an easily identifiable underlying theme. Melody Time fails on both fronts.

It does have its bright spots however. “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed” was charming enough, and the only negative thing I have to say about that one would be the way Johnny pronounces applesauce “apple-sass.” I swear that was almost enough for me to rank him as the worst character of the film. I also enjoyed “Once Upon a Wintertime” and even “Bumble Boogie” was alright. The rest were largely unmemorable and/or annoying, and I have no interest in seeing them again. A large reason so many seemed boring to me were the uninteresting music choices. Take Trees for example. While the animation was nicely done, the music choice lulled me to sleep. I constantly found myself checking to see how much time was left in the segment.

While I find the Arucan Bird annoying as an isolated character, in the context of the film I have to rank him as the best. This is awarded solely because he alone makes an otherwise forgettable and repetitive short somewhat enjoyable through his antics.

The award for worst character is given to Little Toot. Little Toot is an inept steamboat that ruins his father’s life through his own childishness and arrogance. He messes around while hid dad is working, makes the other steamboats wait for him to finish playing around, and doesn’t learn a single thing. One day he decides he’s just as awesome as his father and tries to help him tow a boat into shore and fails miserably. This causes his father great shame, and he’s forced to take the burden of the punishment. We’re then seen a shot of the once proud Father Toot shilling garbage around. It’s very sad.

Honestly the main thing this one has going for it is simply how short it is compared to the previous two. If you’re going to make a bad film, at least make it short.

The Legend of Johnny Appleseed > Once Upon a Wintertime > Bumble Boogie > Blame It on the Samba > Little Toot > Pecos Bill > Trees

Next Up: Yet another film from the 2000’s.

Oh god that Aracuan Bird song got stuck in my head again.

2000's? Hmm... have to check the list...

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I've sort of "forgot" to watch Melody Time... since it has no bearing on my list, somehow I completely avoided even adding it to my Netflix queue (though I have all the other 'package' ones).

Guess that's just how completely forgettable it is.

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Eh, Melody Time a bit too low given some of the s*** that's still in. Bottom 10 for sure, but not bottom 3.

I guess Dinosaur is next.

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It's a little surprising to see one of the better package-era films so low.


Melody Time

Doc's Ranking: 49/51
Karo's Ranking: 39/49

The inferior of the two 'Fantasia lite' movies, Melody time still has quite a few decent shorts in it.

'Once Upon a Wintertime'
This short is about two parallel love stories in winter, a young couple and a pair of bunnies. Very cute and satisfying.

'Blame It On the Samba'
This seems to be like a deleted scene from The Three Caballeros or something. Seems a bit out of place in this movie.

'The Legend of Johnny Appleseed' & 'Pecos Bill'
Both of these are are musical retellings of the stories of their respective folk heroes. Both are decent.

'Bumble Boogie'
Another Disney drug trip short, this one about a bumble bee.

'Trees'
Boring and lame. The worst short of the movie.

'Little Toot'
This is the big attraction in this movie, and the main reason it's as high as it is. Little Toot is a superb little short that manages to tell a complete story (complete with hero's introduction, hero's disgrace, hero's redemption) all into a span of under 9 minutes. The music is amazing as well.

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Yeah, I also think it would be Dinosaur next.

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I guess Saludos Amigos because Dinosaur is not actually that bad imo.

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Hint says it's from 2000's though.

Atlantis? Treasure Planet? Meet the Robinsons? Bolt?

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Oh seriously? I didn't see it.

Mm... I guess it's Treasure Planet then.

(Oh who am I kidding it's Dinosaur. That movie gets a little too much flak. It's bottom twenty for certain, but bottom five? No way!)

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Could be because Dinosaur is seen as ushering in an age of poor, non-traditionally drawn films shortly afterward.

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Possibly Meet the Robinsons? That's the only other 2000's movie that was particularly poor. Not nearly as bad as the ones already here but there you go. Maybe Atlantis, but I always thought that was massively underrated.

Dinosaur is another possibility, because it came out when I was like 10 and featured dinosaurs. It probably wouldn't hold up as well upon rewatch though.

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Even though it was horrible compared to the book, i hope the black caldron is in the top half.

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I still don't get why Dinosaur gets so much hate, it isn't that bad.

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I never understood the dinosaur hate either. I mean... I guess I only watched it a few times when I was younger, and a rewatch would likely do nothing to help it, but I kinda liked it. Nothing fantastic, but enjoyable. I also rather liked Atlantis, and didn't realize it got as much negative criticism as it does.

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It's less that they're bad and more that they are following up the most acclaimed era in animation history, I think. Most of the "bad" movies from Disney are probably average to slightly below average at worse compared to other films of the same genre.

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most_games_r_ok posted...

I still don't get why Dinosaur gets so much hate, it isn't that bad.

It might have something to do with the unoriginal premise, abysmal animation, boring characters, and awful acting.

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vcharon posted...

It's less that they're bad and more that they are following up the most acclaimed era in animation history, I think. Most of the "bad" movies from Disney are probably average to slightly below average at worse compared to other films of the same genre.

Ah... yeah, I guess that makes sense. If I were to rank Atlantis among the Renaissance movies, it probably wouldn't be too high on that list, even though I did rather like it. Still, it's too bad a good movie gets tons of flak just because of the position it happened to fall in chronologically.

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#48 – Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Best Character: Bowler Hat Guy
Worst Character: Louis

Well I totally expect to see some outrage over this one’s placement!

I don’t have a lot to say about this one. The animation was fine and I appreciated the vision the filmmakers had for the future, but it was just too zany for my liking. The humor was a little too childish, and the whole movie felt like it was trying too hard to be unique or “out there” that most of it fell flat. It kind of feels like Disney just collected every quirky and zany idea it had and threw it at the screen to see what would stick. To me Disney got lazy with the humor in this one, substituting legitimate and well-constructed humor for the weird factor. Everything is so sudden and out of nowhere like it’s trying to be so weird that’s it’s funny. No thanks, Disney.

The characters were alright… but they didn’t have a whole lot of development to them, especially the minor ones. Louis is the protagonist of the film and also my least favorite from it. He came off as annoying and bossy to me, and a little arrogant to boot. Aside from Mrs. Robinson and her son, the rest of the family is only given about a minute of screen time as the focal point to shine. And again, instead of developing their characters we just see multiple shots of zaniness and don’t really connect any of the characters with any memorable trait except for being zany. Bowler Hat Guy was probably the bright spot for the film, as he definitely had the most development. I enjoyed his villainous antics, but was a little let down at how his character ended up. It makes sense given his predictable secret identity, but I was hoping he would have a stronger resolve for revenge towards the end. Predictability was an issue for me in this one, as despite its efforts to be random, the plot itself followed a fairly predictable pattern.

Next Up: Back to the package films!

Aw man, Meet the Robinsons at least 10 spots too low.

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I haven't seen any of the movies ranked so far. I'm okay with this.

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... I think I would've preferred it be Dinosaur now... =(

I kind of liked Meet the Robinsons

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DoctorBIind posted...

#48 – Meet the Robinsons (2007)
It makes sense given his predictable secret identity

Really? Because I didn't his his identity (or Cornelius' for that matter) coming at all.

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AdmiralZephyr posted...

Really? Because I didn't his his identity (or Cornelius' for that matter) coming at all.

Yeah, it wasn't a surprise to me at all.

I can't think of anything that screamed Goob was BHG, but I remember connecting the two pretty early. Goob was given a pretty good chunk of screen time in the beginning, and it was clear he blamed Lewis for a lot of his problems. BHG also acted a little strangely when Lewis was brought up in a couple of scenes. Just a hunch, I suppose.

Cornelius happens to be the only family member not present for some reason, so I knew there had to be some kind of connection there, and the way The Robinsons acted so strangely around Lewiss was another big hint (especially when he took his hat off).

Maybe I'll rewatch Robinsons again tonight. I recently picked up the DVD through Disney Rewards.

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Robinsons looks pretty good to me actually. Never seen it but I'm thinking about using my rewards points on it.

I got Dinosaur for free with their May offer of register two Blu Ray combo packs and get a free Blu Ray (choice of three). I'll be interested to see if that one is as lame as it looks when it arrives.

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Haven't got around to rewatching this one yet.

I never viewed it very favorably though, most overly silly films don't fly well with me, especially if they have no really redeeming characters and MTR has very few I formed any connection with. We'll see if that changes in a week or so when I watch it again.

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Meet the Robinsons

Doc's Ranking: 48/51
Karo's Ranking: 37/49


The second 'Pixar clone' made by Disney. It's a big improvement over their previous attempt (Chicken Little) especially in the character development department. Still, considering the quality of the other movies left, it can't be placed any higher on this list even with the villain being as awesome as he is.


Best Character: Bowler Hat Guy

BHG is easily the deepest character in the movie, especially when you find out his true identity. He's a great comedic villain in the tradition of Captain Hook and Prince John.


Worst Character(s): All of Wilbur's Relatives

Wilbur's family's existence in the movie has very little to do with the overall story. They are at a level of absurdity where they are just plain silly and not very believable. (contrast this with how well Pixar creates a group of eccentrics in the 'Finding Nemo' aquarium scene)

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Yeah, I haven't seen any of the films listed yet. Hurray!

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At least you both agree on the only good character in that movie.

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Bowler Hat Guy single handily made that movie enjoyable.

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Saludos Amigos has gone far enough.

I do like that Tom Selleck joke from MTR though.

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Meet the Robinsons is one of those movies I thought would be terrible and stupid, then was surprised at how charming it was. I personally wouldn't rank it this low, but I guess I can see why someone would.

And I didn't find BHG's secret identity "predictable". I was legit surprised when they revealed that.

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#47 – Saludos Amigos (1942)

Best Character: Donald
Worst Character: Goofy

The hate for this movie kind of took me by surprise a little bit on this board. Every time someone called for it to be ranked lower I wanted to adjust my ranking just so I could post it and justify its placement. I kept my patience though, and now I present my reasoning as to why it’s just barely a bottom five Disney film.

The origin of this film is essentially that Walt Disney and a bunch of other animators were commissioned by the U.S. to fly down to South America and create some goodwill between the U.S. and that region. Disney magic was essentially being used to create U.S. propaganda and stifle growing pro-Nazi sentiment within the region. Oh, the humanity! Yes, this movie is essentially a glorified travel documentary. But maybe I like travel documentaries. I do. Traveling is one of my great passions in life, and watching depictions of far-off places with a spritz of Disney magic was somewhat enjoyable to me. I’m also biased in the fact that I just returned from a trip to South America over the summer, and had the opportunity to visit many of the places documented. In that sense it was interesting for me to see how the locations had changed over time, and brought back fond memories from my own trip.

That said, this movie just isn’t Disney enough to warrant any higher placement, and the fact that the film’s genesis had ulterior motives aside from entertainment doesn’t come off well to me. There is way too much live-action, and frankly I don’t want to sit around and watch a bunch of Disney employees have a good time in South America.

The animated shorts were for the most part forgettable. I appreciate that Disney was trying to make them educational, but some of them just fell flat. I’m looking at you, Pedro. Pedro was supposed to represent the Chilean culture, but nothing about it struck me as inherently Chilean. I did enjoy the segments where the paintbrush was used to animate the scene as we were watching it, and Donald’s reactions were priceless. As far as the classics go, Donald killed every scene he was in, whereas I thought Goofy didn’t really shine. I normally love Goofy, and in actuality he’s not the worst character of the film. I had to place him there however due to the expectation that I would be getting more from him. He takes the lead role in a largely forgettable third segment, whereas his presence alone should be enough to carry the segment to levels of at least moderate enjoyment. Maybe I’m asking too much of him, but his segment was one of the weakest and for that, he ranks as the worst character. The final segment, where Brazil is the focal point, is actually my least favorite. It drags on too long, and aside from a brief introduction of Jose Carioca we don’t see many characters. Boring.

Saludos Amigos is also the shortest animated feature in the Disney canon, with a running time of about 42 minutes. This alone helped the film rank above some of the others in that to me, it didn’t seem like it was as drawn out (no pun intended).

Next Up: A box office failure.

I'm a bit worried honestly... every film you have ranked I have yet to rewatch, meaning I am effectively saving all the worst stuff for last >_>

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Yeah, I don't envy you at all. I intentionally made sure I saved some of the best for last just so I wouldn't be left with terrible movies at the end. Although like I mentioned in the write-up, I kind of like Saludos Amigos. Pretty much all of them but Chicken Little I would be alright with watching again. Maybe not right now or anytime soon, but eventually.

At last we get that blight on the Disney Canon out of the way.

Saludos Amigos

Doc's Ranking: 47/51
Karo's Ranking: 49/49

Words cannot describe how awful this movie is. All it is is four extremely mediocre cartoon shorts interspersed with live action shots that seem to be some sort of 'making of' featurette for the movie we're currently watching. Its like the producers we like: 'hey, we don't have enough material here for a full length movie, so lets splice the production clips and Walt Disney's vacation movies into the film!'
Even with all the fluff, the movie still only clocks in at a mere 43 minutes.
Saludos Amigos actually bored me, a feat that was only duplicated by one other movie on this list (which will be addressed in it's own writeup).
Basically, Saludos Amigos is pretty much the same as the movie released 2 years later (The Three Caballeros), but inferior in every way imaginable. Avoid this like the steaming pile of fecal matter it is.


For something rather funny, note the subtext at the top of the movie's poster:



If you say so, Mr. Disney.

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#46 – The Black Cauldron (1985)

Best Character: Fflewddur Fflam
Worst Character: Taran

I never read the book series this movie was based off of, which is too bad since I’m sure it would have provided the answers to some of the numerous unanswered questions that came up such as:

Princess Eilonwy is a princess, but what of? And for that matter, why is she locked away in the castle? Why would our heroes go off in search of the cauldron if it’s already hidden so well that The Horned King can’t find it? And for that matter, why does Taran trade his sword for the cauldron? Hey Taran, what are you planning on doing with the cauldron without your sword? Placing it in the open for The Horned King to find? Oh, okay. So after The Horned King’s plans are botched the witches then decide to give Taran the sword back for some unexplained reason. Stupidest witches ever. Wait, why does Taran proceed to immediately trade in the sword for Gurgi’s life? Ughughugh.

Terrible characters. Taran is an awful lead, and probably the worst voice acting for a lead protagonist in the entire Disney canon. The instances where he attempted to sing were pitiful and agonizing to listen to. Eilony was alright, but she didn’t have a lot of character to her. She was just sort of there for Taran to fall in love with. Fflewddur was actually pretty funny, and definitely the best character from the film. He didn’t have much development, but hey, neither did anyone else. Gurgi was super annoying and gross, as was Creeper. Despite his cool design, The Horned King is one of the worst Disney villains ever. He had a lot of potential, but ultimately doesn’t do anything significant throughout the film. All he does is sit on his throne and talk. He also has arguably the lamest death scene in any of the Disney films. Taran doesn’t even have to confront him. He pretty much just gets sucked into the cauldron as soon as he activates it despite being farther away from it than Taran. So, so lame.

I’m sure the books answered a lot of the unanswered questions, but the lack of explanation in The Black Cauldron really weakened its potential. I felt like they tried to cram everything that was in the books into the movie just for the sake of doing it. The scenes with the fairies hardly had any impact on the story at all. The film also suffered from poor editing. There were a couple scenes at the start of the film where you’ll see a character talking or doing some kind of action, then a cut occurs and they’re not doing it anymore. The negatives aside, I did appreciate the fact that Disney tried something new. It’s unfortunate that it was met as a box office failure, as it definitely showed signs of potential. The animation was well done, and I really enjoyed the setting. Unfortunately these positives aren’t enough to make up for the mess this movie ended up becoming.

Next Up: A major box office success

If it's The Lion King, heads are going to roll. Maybe... Snow White? When adjusted for inflation, I think it's the top grosser.

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The Black Cauldron

Doc's Ranking: 46/51
Karo's Ranking: 44/49

I watched this movie hoping to discover a underrated gem of sorts. But sadly, it's just as bad as everyone says it is. The characters are weak, Gurgi for some reason is a f***ing scottish terrier, and the whole movie seems to be missing a certain something that I can't quite put my finger on.
The fact that I watched this movie not more then a couple months ago (back when these writeups were originally made) and I have less memory of it then movies I haven't watched in years shows just how forgettable it is.
Basically my experience of watching the movie can be boiled down to this: stuff happened, and I didn't really care. Apparently, most everyone else didn't either.


Best Character: Princess Eilonwy

Eilonwy gets this honor simply by not being another prissy Disney female (such as Aurora and Wendy Darling), and due to the lack of anyone better in the movie.


Worst Character: Creeper

Creeper is pretty much the same as a million other sniveling sidekicks you can find in saturday morning cartoons.

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Black Cauldron, more like Blah Cauldron. I've heard great things about the book(s) it's based on, but the Disney movie was so bland it was painful. I rather liked Gurgi though!

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I was just briefly ranking the films I've seen. It's a lot harder than it looks. Looking forward to seeing the films you really like, Doc :)

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