Disney Debrief

And so ends a chapter. From Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Planes: Fire & Rescue, the Disney Animated, Hybrid and Pixar Films Retrospective has finished. It’s been a wild ride, witnessing the evolution of Disney’s animation from 1937 up til 2014. And it’s been interesting to see how the company went through its fairy tale beginnings to packages films out of a necessity to save money, back to fairy tales and other storybook tales to a more contemporary feel. Then it had the Renaissance and resurged fairy tales once again. But following that it was a creative funk that had some good films, but lacked the creativity and love seen in a lot of Disney films. Lilo & Stitch was the only one of this time period to even make it into the top 20. And some of those are higher than the classics in the rundown. Honestly though, throughout this adventure my analytical skills have vastly improved. Looking back, I wouldn’t put Atlantis above Peter Pan, rather putting it somewhere in the upper 50s. There may come a time when I do a look back and reevaluate some of the choices I’ve made.

And fighting through the trenches themselves weren’t always easy. The time following the Renaissance was a complete slog. There were weeks that contained one movie that was actually pretty good. And the rest were subpar and mediocre at best sequels. And getting to Pixar’s movies were sometimes finding a gold nugget in the middle of a sewer. That’s not to say that all of the sequels were completely bad though. The Lion King sequels were quite good and The Rescuers Down Under was honestly better than the original. But most of them fell down hard, with more than a few resting across the Edge of Dissatisfaction. And the rest just barely missed getting sentenced there. I also watched what will probably be the worst movies I will ever see (barring a viewing of The Room), with things like The Proud Family Movie, Fox and the Hound 2, and Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams. Actually. I think I’d rather watch The Room than any of those.

But there have also been some legitimate surprises. Mainly in the form of the Peter Pan franchise. Return to Neverland was great. And the Disney Fairies series not only subverted expectations, but were very much enjoyable. Sure, they didn’t make it across the Edge of Satisfaction, but they nearly did. They have great quality in terms of story and various elements that it makes me anticipate the next film coming in March.

How varied many of the Disney movies can be in terms of quality speaks volumes about how production studios can go through different phases of quality. Not everything’s going to be a smash hit, but if there’s no effort, then nothing will be. And when the sole focus is to make money by regurgitating storylines, quality is going to take a hard nosedive. But there’s always another day and Eisner being ousted in favor of Lasseter proved that.

Looking at what’s recently been put out: Wreck-It Ralph, Tangled, Frozen, The Princess and the Frog, it’s easy to see the Disney magic that was incredibly apparent in its earlier works and during the 90s. And looking ahead to this year’s release of Big Hero 6 and what’s to follow, like Zootopia and Moana, it’s easy to see we just might be in a Second Renaissance.

And I’m looking forward to see what magic the Mouse brings.