For over 100 years, Disney has stood as a towering monolith in the pop-culture landscape. Founded by brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney, the company got its start on animated theater shorts, then made history in 1937 with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, America’s first fully animated film, and the first animated film in Three-Strip Technicolor. Since then, Disney has released many live-action films and acquired other companies like Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios, making it perhaps the largest media conglomerate in the world.
Disney has released countless game-changing movies in this century of existence. To list them all would be an arduous task, so rather, this list will focus on some Disney gems that are incredible but aren’t usually held to the same level as the likes of Snow White, Mary Poppins, or Beauty and the Beast, but are still more than worthy of the praise they have garnered over the years.
10
‘Tarzan’ (1999)
Shortly after losing her infant to the leopard Sabor (Frank Welker), a gorilla named Kala (Glenn Close) discovers a human baby recently orphaned by the same predator. Against the wishes of her mate, Kerchak (Lance Henriksen), Kala adopts the baby, naming him Tarzan (Alex D. Linz and Tony Goldwyn) and teaching him how to survive in the jungle. Tarzan struggles to find where he belongs; however, things are further complicated in his adult years when British explorers come to the jungle to study wild gorillas.
Tarzan is the last movie to come out during Disney’s much-loved Renaissance era, and while not on the same level as the classics, the gap isn’t too big. For one thing, it boasts perhaps the most impressive animation techniques, both in terms of the character movements and the environment, as best seen whenever Tarzan surfs his way down trees. It also has strong emotional storytelling, likable characters, and a killer soundtrack by Phil Collins.
9
‘Tron’ (1982)
After having his ideas stolen and getting fired from tech corporation ENCOM, programmer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) tries to hack into the system to find the proof he needs to get credit and take down the executive vice president, Ed Dillinger (David Warner). With help from some friends, Kevin sneaks into ENCOM, but is confronted by the company’s Master Control Program (David Warner), who uses an experimental laser to digitize Kevin. Now inside the computer system, Kevin must team up with a security program called TRON (Bruce Boxleitner) to stop the MCP from assimilating all programs in ENCOM’s database or destroying those who refuse to comply.
Tron was a game-changing movie in the early days of CGI, and spawned a franchise that is still going strong today. It’s certainly one of the most visually striking movies in Disney’s repertoire, with a very creative and visually distinct digital world of bright colors and geometric shapes, where humans, called Users, are viewed as god-like beings. While the characters are nothing to write home about, they all serve their function in the story, especially Warner, who plays a trio of villains in Dillinger, the MCP, and a command program named Sark.
8
‘Return to Oz’ (1985)
After returning from the land of Oz, Dorothy Gale (Fairuza Balk) finds herself in a sanatorium and nearly subjected to electrotherapy, but she is saved by a mysterious girl. She escapes downstream in a chicken coop and returns to Oz, this time with her pet chicken, Billina (Denise Bryer), who gained the ability to speak. However, Oz is far from the land she remembers: the Emerald City is in ruins, its people turned to stone, and the Scarecrow (Justin Case) is a prisoner of the Nome King (Nicol Williamson), who conquered Oz.
Return to Oz is best remembered as the movie that traumatized a generation, and while it’s full of things like head-swapping witches, maniacal Wheelers, and characters being turned into inanimate objects, it’s also deserving of much praise. From a technical side, the movie is a visual masterpiece, with impressive puppetwork from The Jim Henson Company and breathtaking stop-motion from the legendary Will Vinton bringing Oz and its inhabitants to life like never before. It also does a good job of blending both familiar imagery from the MGM classic and the original Oz books by L. Frank Baum to create its own identity. The cast all give very likable and charming performances that evoke a bit of the whimsy we expect from Oz, even during such dark times.
7
‘Dragonslayer’ (1981)
Galen Bradwarden (Peter MacNicol) is the young apprentice to the last great sorcerer, Ulrich of Cragganmore (Sir Ralph Richardson). One day, they are approached by an expedition from the kingdom of Urland, which is forced to sacrifice virgin women to appease the dragon Vermithrax Pejorative, in the hopes that Ulrich can slay it. He dies while attempting to demonstrate his powers, but his magic amulet chooses Galen as its new wielder, and he vows to slay the dragon or die in the attempt.
Dragonslayer is very atypical for a Disney film, presenting a very dark, grounded world of low fantasy and short lives. Most of the emphasis is on the characters, each of whom have complex personality that have believable motivation behind the actions they take, adding a lot to the otherwise standard fantasy trope of hero vs dragon. Speaking of the villain, Vermithrax still stands as cinema’s best dragon, thanks in no small part to the brilliant effects used to bring it to life, inspiring George R. R. Martin and Guillermo del Toro.
6
‘Wreck-It Ralph’ (2012)
Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the villain of the arcade game Fix-It Felix Jr., but is feeling frustrated by the fact that everyone only sees him as a villain, especially when he isn’t invited to the game’s 30th anniversary party. Thus, Ralph hops into the first-person shooter game Hero’s Duty to earn a medal and prove he’s a hero, but he then gets lost in the racing game Sugar Rush. As Ralph tries to recover his medal, Felix (Jack McBrayer) and Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun (Jane Lynch) join forces to retrieve Ralph and stop a potential infestation from destroying the arcade.
Wreck-It Ralph is a love letter to the days of video game arcades, and features numerous cameos from franchises like Street Fighter and Super Mario Bros. The story, meanwhile, is an effective look into themes of self-acceptance and ostracization, shown primarily through Ralph and his friend from Sugar Rush, Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman). The two of them seek acceptance and external validation as a source of happiness and fulfilment, but the film explains very early through a humorous villain-sharing circle that the only way to achieve those goals is to find peace with oneself.
5
‘The Princess and the Frog’ (2009)
Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) is a hard-working woman living in 1920s New Orleans who dreams of fulfilling her father’s dream of opening a restaurant, though she is outbid on her ideal building at the last minute. Desperate, she wishes on a star and meets a talking frog who claims to be Naveen (Bruno Campos), the prince of Maldovia, transformed by a voodoo bokor named Dr. Facilier (Keith David). Mistaking Tiana for a princess, Naveen convinces her to kiss him in an attempt to break the spell, only for her to transform into a frog as well.
The Princess and the Frog was Disney’s attempt to return to 2D animation after a string of failures in the early 2000s, and while it didn’t make the big numbers they were hoping for, the movie is still worthy of praise. The story updates the classic tale of The Frog Prince in some fun ways, such as the aforementioned transfer of the curse. Furthermore, the decision to set it in New Orleans allows the film to dive into the culture of the Roaring 20s, especially through jazz music courtesy of Randy Newman. It also boasts a wide variety of colorful characters, with Tiana in particular cementing herself as one of the best Disney Princesses thanks to her hard-working attitude.
4
‘Alice in Wonderland’ (1951)
Bored with her elder sister’s lessons, Alice (Kathryn Beaumont) begins to fantasize about a world of her own. Suddenly, she spies a white rabbit (Bill Thompson) in a waistcoat running down the road, saying that he is late for a very important date. Her curiosity piqued, Alice follows him into his rabbit hole and winds up in Wonderland, a topsy-turvy place where logic is an afterthought and behind every corner is a new, curious character.
Alice in Wonderland was a box-office failure on release, but subsequent re-releases have seen it recognized both as an animated classic and perhaps the best adaptation of Lewis Carroll‘s book in terms of tone, if not accuracy. The film perfectly captures the mystery of Wonderland through its vibrant animation, which blends bright colors and fluid motions with stylistic and dark backgrounds to emphasize the unknown. Each of the characters is memorable in their own right, but Alice stands out the most thanks to her charming design and Beaumont’s spectacular performance, which perfectly balances the character’s maturity and curiosity.
3
‘Zootopia’ (2016)
After years of hard work, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) fulfills her dream of becoming a police officer and is appointed the first rabbit officer in the multi-habitat megacity of Zootopia. She has a rough go of it from her megafauna co-workers, so she decides to prove herself by accepting a case to find a missing otter. She enlists the help of a hustler fox named Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), and the more they follow the trail of clues, the deeper they plunge into a horrible conspiracy that could threaten to tear Zootopia apart.
Zootopia proved to be one of Disney’s biggest hits in recent decades thanks to its great writing. Zootopia itself is a fascinating location, with plenty of little details and intricacies that show how the city can function with so many different animals co-existing, and is even divided into different districts based on biomes. Meanwhile, the story and characters explore themes of prejudice and preconception through a very nuanced lens, with multiple characters and groups holding biases without even knowing it, rather than sticking to a basic predator vs prey conflict.
2
‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ (1996)
When Judge Claude Frollo (Tony Jay) kills a Romani woman on the steps of Notre Dame, the Archdeacon (David Ogden Stiers) demands that he raise her deformed child as his own, lest Frollo’s soul be condemned to eternal damnation. Twenty years later, Frollo keeps the child, now named Quasimodo (Tom Hulce), in the cathedral’s bell tower, though Quasi longs for nothing more than to walk among the streets of Paris. After an incident where he sneaks into the Festival of Fools, Quasi meets and befriends a Romani dancer named Esmeralda (Demi Moore). When she stands up to Frollo’s injustice, the judge declares her a witch and begins a hunt that will see Paris in flames.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame makes lots of concessions in order to adapt Victor Hugo‘s classic novel, such as toning down the amount of death and giving Quasi a trio of pop-culture spewing gargoyles to serve as comic relief. That said, the film is still one of Disney’s most epic outings, with impressive camera angles that make Notre Dame feel larger than life, arguably the best music from the legendary Alan Menken, and plenty of mature themes regarding justice, compassion, the dangers of obsession, and what separates a monster from a man. Concerning characters, Quasi is a fantastic hero thanks to his gentle nature and Hulce’s terrific performance, while Frollo easily stands as one of Disney’s most vile antagonists, making him a delight to watch.
1
‘Sleeping Beauty’ (1959)
As punishment for not inviting her to the christening of Princess Aurora (Mary Costa), the dark fairy Maleficent (Eleanor Audley) punishes her parents by cursing the baby to prick her finger on a spinning wheel at 16 and die. The good fairy, Merryweather (Barbara Luddy), is able to adjust the spell from death to a deathless sleep broken by true love’s kiss, but as a precaution, she and her fellow fairies, Flora (Verna Felton) and Fauna (Barbara Jo Allen), take Aurora to raise in the safety of the woods. The plan works at first, but on Aurora’s 16th birthday, things become complicated thanks to Maleficent’s persistence and the arrival of Prince Phillip (Bill Shirley), who falls for what he believes is a beautiful peasant girl.
Sleeping Beauty is the textbook example of a film that was ahead of its time: it bombed hard at the box office, but is now heralded as a classic and one of Disney’s most beautiful movies. The animation is spectacular, with bold colors and sharp lines that make it look like a medieval tapestry come to life, all set to beautiful music based on Pyotr Tchaikovsky‘s 1889 ballet of the same name. While Aurora and Phillip are admittedly flat characters, the three good fairies make up for them with their bravery and hilarious banter, and Maleficent completely steals the show as she lives up to her title as the Mistress of All Evil.
