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Disney Animated Canon - Tier List


Xator Nova
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Something I thought up for fun.

DISNEY ANIMATED CANON - TIER LIST:

Rules:

- Only films from the Disney Animated Canon. In other words, no Pixar, no Direct-to-Video, and no anime dubs from Studio Ghibli.

- Positions are based in merits of cinematography and narrative; or their contributions to the animation industry.

- This is more an especulation topic than an actual academic discussion, so please, no flame wars.

Top Tier (6): [9.0 - 10.0]
(Films that are structurally perfect, or nearly perfect, or revolutionary in animation or filmmaking. Their little flaws, if any, are mitigated by their numerous merits.)

Fantasia [10.0]
Snow White [10.0]
Beauty and the Beast [10.0]
Bambi [10.0]
Pinnochio [9.5]
The Little Mermaid [9.3]


High Tier (8): [8.0 - 8.9]
(Films with important flaws that prevent them of being masterpieces. However, their merits are so impressive that it is impossible to underestimate or dislike these films.)

The Lion King [8.8]
Frozen [8.5]
Aladdin [8.5]
Cinderella [8.5]
Rescuers Down Under [8.0]
Great Mouse Detective [8.0]
Hunchback of Notre Dame [8.0]
Sleeping Beauty [8.0]


Upper-Mid Tier (11): [6.6 - 7.9]
(Solid films, but not amazing. Above the average. They have more merits than flaws, and possess a particular niche.)

Tangled
Mulan
Wreck-it-Ralph
Dumbo
Peter Pan
The Many Stories of Winnie Pooh
Princess and the Frog
Fantasia 2000
Lilo & Stitch
Alice in Wonderland
Tarzan


Mid Tier (15): [5.0 - 6.5]
(Average films. They aren't bad, but are limited by their flaws, which decrease the impact in the audience.)

Lady and the Tramp
Bolt
Winnie Pooh (2011)

Fox and the Hound
Jungle Book

Robin Hood

The Emperor's New Groove
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

Treasure Planet

Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Pocahontas
Make Mine Music
Melody Time
Brother Bear

One-Hundred and One Dalmatians


Lower-Mid Tier (10): [3.5 - 4.9]
(Severely limited films due to technical disadvantages in narrative or animation.)

Hercules

Meet the Robinsons

Sword in the Stone

Dinosaur
The Rescuers
Oliver & Company
The Black Cauldron
Three Caballeros
Saludos Amigos
Fun and Fancy Free


Low Tier (1): [2.0 - 3.4]
(Films with numerous flaws which mitigate their few merits. In other words, bad films)

Chicken Little [2.0]


Bottom Tier (2): [0.1 - 1.9]
(Films with no redeemable qualities, or have had a considerable negative impact in industry.)

Aristocats [1.5]
Home in the Range [1.5]

Discuss.

Edited by Xator Nova
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What's so bad about Aristocats?

You vastly underestimate Jungle Book. Walt Disney died during production, and they still churned out a movie that featured an Academy Award winning song, and is something like in the top50 grossing films of all time due to having three re-releases. I think it's pretty darn good considering the times and trials overcome while the maker of Disney world fucking died.

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I want to punt this tier list so bad for the awful placement of Oliver & Company alone

Bolt should be at least two tiers lower, and Oliver & Company and the Aristocats upped significantly

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I disagree with The Sword in the Stone's placement too. It should be higher, imo. That movie is just pure gold! I also think The Great Mouse Detective should be higher. Those feels, man...

I also disagree with One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Oliver and Company, The Aristocats, The Emperor's New Groove, Hercules, The Rescuers, and Dumbo, they should be higher too. The Little Mermaid wasn't all that cool, imo. And where are all the sequels? I realize not many of them are really great, but a few are, like the Aladdin trilogy, The Lion King II, Kronk's New Groove, and Lady and the Tramp II.

But Bambi and Fantasia for top tier: YES! :D

Oh, and you misspelled Pinocchio. :P

I'll tier the sequels since you didn't. At least the ones I've seen, lol.

Top Tier

The Lion King II: Simba's Pride

The Return of Jafar

Kronk's New Groove

High Tier

Aladdin and the King of Thieves (sequel to The Return of Jafar)

Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure

The Rescuers Down Under

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas

Mid Tier

Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World (the only reason I put this one this high though, is because of John Smith's badassness in it. John Rolfe is lame. xP)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame II

The Fox and the Hound 2

Atlantis II: Milo's Return

Low Tier

Fantasia 2000

The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea (hey, I didn't like the first movie, so how would I like the second? :P)

Cinderella II: Dreams Come True

I believe I've seen Mulan II as well, but all I remember is the basic plot, so I didn't put it up here. Damn it, I have to see Bambi II. How come I never saw it when I loved the first so much?! D:

Edited by Anacybele
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Lion King, Bambi and Beauty and the Beast were my favourites in my childhood. But Aristocats was really good. I cannot remember that I have ever watched a bad classic Disney film, although I have not seen all of them from this list yet and some sequels like Cinderella II etc.

Edited by MisterIceTeaPeach
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I really think you're rating a lot of the Disney movies rather low, especially Treasure Planet (it should at least be mid tier, even after taking into account box office success). Sure, it didn't become as popular as many other Disney movies, but it arguably has the most interesting hero-villain relationship in Disney history (especially with how Silver breaks the general "pure evil" archetype most Disney villains have), with how Silver develops and changes throughout the story and how he's split between the treasure he's dreamed of finding his whole life and his newfound role as Jim's father figure.

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Racist? WTF? The Aristocats is about cats, not black people vs white people or anything. :/

I loved the movie and I don't even like cats. That's saying something.

Edited by Anacybele
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Racist? WTF? The Aristocats is about cats, not black people vs white people or anything. :/

I loved the movie and I don't even like cats. That's saying something.

Oh my goodness

Remember those old cartoons that got banned from television that had crows in them? That was a satire of race, despite them being crows, you know.

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if the aristocats is ranked so low solely for having a racist caricature background character, then the little mermaid should be as well given that its racist caricature character (sebastian) is actually fairly important

that said, loltiering films who cares

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Man, I hate the Aristocats. And I didn't even watch the movie, just hearing that commercial on like every VHS I owned...it was like nails on a chalkboard.

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Gosh, I gotta watch all these movies again. It's been so long since I've seen many of them.

The Great Mouse Detective... I recall a lot of brilliant suspense, dynamic animations and sound effects, and solid character design. It makes a lot of the scenes memorable. The Big Ben scene was so epic, a great climax.

Just out of curiosity, how much research did you put into this? If you had to factor in historical context and such, I bet you had to do a bit of studying. I'd like to hear someone knowledgeable discuss who the best Disney characters are as well.

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Oh, I watched that one (The Great Mouse Detective) recently! Like, for the first time. It's fantastic, and I don't even have any nostalgia glasses for it. You should definitely rewatch it.

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Expected reactions:

- People wanting The Lion King to rise to Top Tier.

- People wanting Frozen to drop below Tangled.

- People wanting Hercules to rise.

Reactions I actually get:

- People defending The Aristocats. o_o

The Aristocats is at the bottom due to being similarly lazy to Home on the Range in terms of narrative structure. Both of them present a very implausible and nonsensical premise for the first third of the movie... and then both movies pretend to replace narrative with filler for the other two thirds.

In Home on the Range, it was crappy humor, while in The Aristocats, it was crappy fanservice. Not the sexual kind, but fanservice in the sense that it deliberately tries to look cute in order to appeal to the audience so that it tries to compensate for its lack of substance (kind of like moe, before it was popular). Everything else is weak in the film: the characters, the designs, the animation, the story. No redeemable qualities. Inconsistent and boring movie overall.

None of the films in the Disney Animated Canon are offensive, though. However, one could argue that both The Aristocats and Home on the Range insult the audiences' intelligence. In order to be truly offensive, it should offend moral sensibilites in some way.

I'm going to remove the "offensive" from the bottom tier criteria. It is misleading, and I concede it was my fault.

-----

Must I assume that there are no problems with the Top / High Tier positions?

-> Considering raising Treasure Planet to Mid (I read a good argument somewhere in the last page), and dropping Lady and the Tramp to Mid.

----

"Just out of curiosity, how much research did you put into this? If you had to factor in historical context and such, I bet you had to do a bit of studying. I'd like to hear someone knowledgeable discuss who the best Disney characters are as well."

- I read a lot about the history of animation, and had to watch all of the films. I take into account what was possible for the era, obviously. I won't penalize Snow White for some nonsense like not having CGI.

- Best Disney Characters is complicated, since there's a ton of characters and a lot of criteria. Best Princesses or Best Villains would be easier to rank.

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You should totally rank the Disney villains~

Oh, I watched that one (The Great Mouse Detective) recently! Like, for the first time. It's fantastic, and I don't even have any nostalgia glasses for it. You should definitely rewatch it.

Yeah, I'll definitely get my hands on it somehow. I'm just itching to watch it again!

Edited by Gemma
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