WHAT’S at the top of the list of films that have been rated as the definitive countdown of the Disney studio’s finest animated features?
Is it the tale of cuddly lion cub Simba? The story of mischievous jungle boy Mowgli and his furry mates? The chronicle of the wooden puppet who dreams of being a real boy?
Perhaps the tale of angelic-voiced mermaid Ariel? Maybe even the 1985 film The Black Cauldron, a medieval fantasy inspired by Star Wars?
Well, it’s certainly not The Black Cauldron, a movie that proved such a flop on initial release that it almost closed Walt’s world for good – and, not unexpectedly, lands up in the last spot on Total Film’s countdown of what it rates as the finest and most forgettable of all Disney animated movies.
Crowning the chart is 1991’s Beauty and the Beast, which has the distinction of being the first animated feature to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar – a groundbreaking move which many in the movie business say is the main reason why full-length animated films now have their own category at the annual Academy Awards bash.
“Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise’s masterpiece reached a level of artistry that made it easily the equal of that year’s finest live-action fare,” says Total Film in a six-page feature in its February issue.
The report adds: “Taking inspiration from both Jean Cocteau’s La Belle Et La Bete and the traditional tropes of the Broadway musical, Beauty would be a sophisticated beast even without its intelligent bookworm of a heroine, its Fragonard-flavoured visuals and its neat inversion of stereotypes.”
The article continues: “Technically, too, it’s a marvel, with the action embellished by flashes of non-distracting CGI (computer-generated imagery), particularly in the truly majestic ballroom scene.”
The magazine concludes that Beauty and the Beast is the only Disney animation from the studio’s second golden age to truly rival the classics of the first – “and the benchmark every one of the studio’s ’toons has had to measure up against since. Nothing has come close in the past two decades”.
In second position on the Total Film chart is a 1967 film that spawned a hit soundtrack album, and featured the vocal talents of Phil Harris, Louis Prima, Sebastian Cabot and George Sanders. It is, of course, The Jungle Book, Disney’s 19th animated feature, which was released just 10 months after his death.
The Internet Movie Date Base (IMDB) reports that in spite of The Jungle Book’s phenomenal success, the Disney studio had to contend with a bit of a dark cloud when a disgruntled Elsie Kipling Baimbridge, daughter of author Rudyard Kipling, on whose stories the film was based, made complaints.
Baimbridge maintains the name of jungle lad Mowgli is pronounced “Mau-glee”, not “Moh-glee”, and she reportedly never forgave Walt Disney for the gaffe, according to IMDB.
Third position on the Total Film countdown? That’s occupied by 1942’s Bambi, a film about a young deer hailed as the Prince of the Forest at his birth.
The magazine reports that the film was originally intended to follow Disney’s first animated feature, Snow White, but was delayed because of Walt Disney’s hunger for realism. This led to eight years of painstaking pre-production on the film, the magazine adds.
Disney’s first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which won a special Oscar, is in fourth spot on the countdown.
“Risking bankruptcy for his debut feature cartoon, Walt pioneered multiplane cameras, larger cels, rotoscoped actors… Result? Animation that’s alive,” reports Total Film.
In fifth spot? The honour goes to everyone’s favourite film about a lion cub, The Lion King, a hit from 1994. Noted as “Hamlet with paws”, the film signalled Disney’s pinnacle for getting things right, the magazine notes.
The 1992 success, Aladdin, noted for the voice of Robin Williams as the flamboyant genie of the lamp, fills position six.
“Williams’s feral pop culture genie is why animation now comes with A-list voices,” the magazine notes.
A 1989 success based on a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale, The Little Mermaid is at No 7 on the Total Film countdown, a film that rates as the “magical fantasy that lifted Disney out of the ’80s slump, won two Oscars and powered the studio’s ’90s renaissance”.
The 1940 classic, Pinocchio, about a living puppet which, with the help of a cricket as his conscience, must prove himself worthy to become a real boy, is in eighth position.
The film, which was Disney’s follow-up to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, contains the Oscar-winning song When You Wish Upon a Star.
“Panned by critics and loved by viewers” is how Total Film describes 1955’s Lady and the Tramp, which is at number nine on the list. The report adds that the film, which was Disney’s 15th animated feature, was, at the time of initial release, its most successful since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Rounding out the top 10 is 1941’s Dumbo, a film that was reportedly originally made to recoup the cash lost with Disney’s Fantasia and Pinocchio.
“But, the tale of a circus elephant delivered their biggest hit of the ’40s,” reports Total Film.
Positions 11 to 20 on the countdown are occupied by, in ascending order, 1961’s 101 Dalmatians, 1950’s Cinderella, 2000’s The Emperor’s New Groove (a somewhat surprisingly high placing), 1959’s Sleeping Beauty, 1996’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1953’s Peter Pan, 1961’s Alice in Wonderland, 1973’s Robin Hood, 1977’s The Rescuers and the audacious 1940 film, Fantasia.
Among other random placings on the countdown are 1997’s Hercules at No 25, 1998’s Mulan at No 26, 2008’s Bolt at No 27, 1963’s The Sword in the Stone at No 28, 1999’s Tarzan at No 31 and 2009’s The Princess and The Frog at No 33.
Pocahontas, from 1995, fills position 34, 2002’s Treasure Planet nestles at No 36, Fantasia 2000 from 2000 is in spot 37 and the 2007 computer-animated treat, Meet the Robinsons, occupies position 38.
A 1944 hit, The Three Caballeros, is at No 39, with 40th spot occupied by 2005’s Chicken Little, followed by 1988’s Oliver & Company in spot 41, 2001’s Atlantis: the Lost Empire at No 42 and 2003’s Brother Bear at 44.
This reviewer thinks the rather fun, photo-realistic Dinosaur, from 2000, is getting a pretty bad deal being lodged at position 47.
Tangled, the story of Rapunzel locked in a tower, is not on the countdown as the film had yet to be reviewed at the time the article was printed in Total Film.