Favorite Disney Animations

[sassafras]

Dumbo and Pinnochio always gave me anxiety as a child.

Pinocchio did for me too... and even watching it as an adult. There's something deeply unsettling about that movie. I hate the energy of it.

 

[Deleted member 16771]

Pinocchio did for me too... and even watching it as an adult. There's something deeply unsettling about that movie. I hate the energy of it.

The story itself is unsettling, like A.I.

 

[Infjente]

I can't choose between The Little Mermaid and The Lion King (and not Disney, but sharing the first spot: The Land Before Time).

I love Alladin and Alice in wonderland.

Honourable mentions: Mulan, Brave, 101 Dalmatians, Pocahontas, Sleeping Beauty, Brother Bear, Toy Story, The fox and the hound.

Tangled was good, but had me seriously creeped out. Frozen sucked and had me seriously concerned for the targeted generation. Pinocchio was dark af. Bambi was boring.

 

[Freaky Chameleon]

Pinocchio did for me too... and even watching it as an adult. There's something deeply unsettling about that movie. I hate the energy of it.

Yea I think a lot of those old Disney movies that were animated versions of fairy tales are a little dark and creepy. I never thought about it from a young child's point of view. Hmm.... I guess one of the reasons for fairy tales is to frighten small children, "This will happen to YOU if you do THIS..." Why would Walt Disney animate that kind of thing?

Maybe that's why I like The Jungle Book. Hmm.....

 

[Deleted member 16771]

Why would Walt Disney animate that kind of thing?

Why not?

Creepiest thing I remember right now is an old animation of 'Sing a Song of Sixpence', which I used to inexplicably watch often.

 

[sassafras]

Why would Walt Disney animate that kind of thing?

Our values and ideas about what is child appropriate changes over time, I guess.

Public executions used to be considered perfectly child appropriate spectacles.

 

[Freaky Chameleon]

Why not?

Hmmm.... I always just thought that Walt Disney wanted to appeal to small children. But thinking about it, I guess not. He wanted to appeal to children and adults because it's the adults that buy tickets. And if it ONLY appealed to small children then ticket sales would plunge. A cynical way to look at it.

 

[Infjente]

Hmmm.... I always just thought that Walt Disney wanted to appeal to small children. But thinking about it, I guess not. He wanted to appeal to children and adults because it's the adults that buy tickets. And if it ONLY appealed to small children then ticket sales would plunge. A cynical way to look at it.

Or maybe he just wanted to appeal to everyone?

Preparing children for the reality of the world is a difficult, but such an important task. If you ask me, the Disney movies today aren't doing the best job at that. Frozen is a good example.

 

[John K]

Yea I think a lot of those old Disney movies that were animated versions of fairy tales are a little dark and creepy. I never thought about it from a young child's point of view. Hmm.... I guess one of the reasons for fairy tales is to frighten small children, "This will happen to YOU if you do THIS..." Why would Walt Disney animate that kind of thing?

Maybe that's why I like The Jungle Book. Hmm.....

I think that all the best fairy tales are like play in the wild - they are safe rehearsals for life. If we only provide our kids with a sanitised view of the world, they maybe don't learn so well how to deal with stress, disappointment, danger and fear and to manage them when they meet them in real life. It could be almost as disabling as not teaching them to talk properly. Really good fairy tales give a safe place to experience these and the emotions that go with them in a fun sort of way when we are young - at least the well crafted tales do. My favourite chilhood fantasy books, such as The Hobbit, the Narnia stories, the Moomins, are full of that pattern of light and dark. I do sometimes wonder if the old stories present us with fears that are no longer so relevant now? Yet thinking about it, although few children in the West lose a parent through illness and death, many have lost a parent to divorce and separation and are being brought up by a stepmother or stepfather - maybe (eg) Cinderella isn't out of date after all because it sees that situation from a child's perspective and works through some of the issues.

 

[Freaky Chameleon]

I think that all the best fairy tales are like play in the wild - they are safe rehearsals for life. If we only provide our kids with a sanitised view of the world, they maybe don't learn so well how to deal with stress, disappointment, danger and fear and to manage them when they meet them in real life. It could be almost as disabling as not teaching them to talk properly. Really good fairy tales give a safe place to experience these and the emotions that go with them in a fun sort of way when we are young - at least the well crafted tales do. My favourite chilhood fantasy books, such as The Hobbit, the Narnia stories, the Moomins, are full of that pattern of light and dark. I do sometimes wonder if the old stories present us with fears that are no longer so relevant now? Yet thinking about it, although few children in the West lose a parent through illness and death, many have lost a parent to divorce and seperation and are being brought up by a stepmother or stepfather - maybe (eg) Cinderella isn't out of date after all because it sees that situation from a child's perspective and works through some of the issues.

All very good points. A lot to ponder.

 

[MoonFlier]

Hmmm.... I always just thought that Walt Disney wanted to appeal to small children. But thinking about it, I guess not. He wanted to appeal to children and adults because it's the adults that buy tickets. And if it ONLY appealed to small children then ticket sales would plunge. A cynical way to look at it.

You're close here. Walt Disney was not a natural business man, that was his brother Roy you're describing, and Walt drove him nuts.

Walt was an idealist who simply wanted to be a story teller. He had found refuge in stories since he was young and had a knack for bringing them to life in media as he eventually found out after many attempts and failures with film.

(Side note: Stories are never discovered by a child alone. There is always an adult present in some form, be it reading a book, acting it out on stage or through making films.)

Walt felt that family should experience stories together and what a better way than to take those dark, well known stories from the past and put into them some magic, and soften the story line (by a lot). Walt did not imagine an age when children would have access to movies on ipads sitting in the back seat of a car. It was all about keeping the connection between parent and child.

 

[Daustus]

Walt did not imagine an age when children would have access to movies on ipads sitting in the back seat of a car. It was all about keeping the connection between parent and child.

Great line! I spend an hour a day reading stories to my 3 year old son. Its probably our favorite shared time. I spent a lot of time with my Dad watching movies and it was probably our favorite time. Just need to make experiences and technology shared. My favorite part of seeing a movie with friends is the discussion afterwards.

 

[Freaky Chameleon]

You're close here. Walt Disney was not a natural business man, that was his brother Roy you're describing, and Walt drove him nuts.

Walt was an idealist who simply wanted to be a story teller. He had found refuge in stories since he was young and had a knack for bringing them to life in media as he eventually found out after many attempts and failures with film.

(Side note: Stories are never discovered by a child alone. There is always an adult present in some form, be it reading a book, acting it out on stage or through making films.)

Walt felt that family should experience stories together and what a better way than to take those dark, well known stories from the past and put into them some magic, and soften the story line (by a lot). Walt did not imagine an age when children would have access to movies on ipads sitting in the back seat of a car. It was all about keeping the connection between parent and child.

Now that you say all that, I remember watching a Walt Disney documentary that said everything that you just said. Funny how an INTJ brain will take an hour long documentary and congeal it down to "I always just thought that Walt Disney wanted to appeal to small children." and loose all the details. Where are the ISTJs when you need them? Man they could remember how to do specific college calculus problems from 30 years ago when all I could remember was taking the class!

 

[MoonFlier]

Now that you say all that, I remember watching a Walt Disney documentary that said everything that you just said. Funny how an INTJ brain will take an hour long documentary and congeal it down to "I always just thought that Walt Disney wanted to appeal to small children." and loose all the details. Where are the ISTJs when you need them? Man they could remember how to do specific college calculus problems from 30 years ago when all I could remember was taking the class!

Aw, I thought you did great. Certainly wouldn't expect most folk to know what WD was feeling and why he made the many seemingly irrational decisions that he did in his career. I recall seeing that documentary recently, it was pretty horrible to watch as it was created for the masses: sensationalizing his steps in life too much and leaving out his true personality.
It's easy: Walt was to heart what Roy was to ledgers. He never saw his creations as children's movies, but rather meaningful family movies and entertainment.

 

[Asa]

I've taken a few classes on the original Grimm's fairy tales - understanding the meaning, the origins, the intentional misogyny.... Disney lightened them up considerably. The originals are much darker and the misogynist tones people complain about in some of the Disney movies like Cinderella are much worse in the original tales. The Grimm's tales were collected via interviews. The stories were very old by the time they were recorded. The time period they were collected in was a different age when life was much darker. The stories taught lessons that were important for social and natural survival. There is one about cutting the rind off cheese and the sister who cuts the rind off "just right" (not too stingy and not too wasteful) is the girl the young man chooses to marry. There are several where the maiden calls out a man who wronged her, or tries to steal the prince back from a witch who stole him, etc, and she is inevitably punished for this. The maiden doesn't win.

Disney made the tales much softer.

 

[John K]

I've taken a few classes on the original Grimm's fairy tales - understanding the meaning, the origins, the intentional misogyny.... Disney lightened them up considerably. The originals are much darker and the misogynist tones people complain about in some of the Disney movies like Cinderella are much worse in the original tales. The Grimm's tales were collected via interviews. The stories were very old by the time they were recorded. The time period they were collected in was a different age when life was much darker. The stories taught lessons that were important for social and natural survival. There is one about cutting the rind off cheese and the sister who cuts the rind off "just right" (not too stingy and not too wasteful) is the girl the young man chooses to marry. There are several where the maiden calls out a man who wronged her, or tries to steal the prince back from a witch who stole him, etc, and she is inevitably punished for this. The maiden doesn't win.

Disney made the tales much softer.

Yes, I remember reading my mum's book of Hans Christian Andersson fairy tales when I was seven or eight and they are weird, but not as bad as the Grimm tales. There's some pretty gruesome stuff in modern cartoons too - darker than any of Disney's when you really look at them closely. It's clever how extreme gratuitous violence is slipped into the Simpsons as a comic within a comic. It's clever but only funny seen through the eyes of the Simpson family.

 

[Asa]

It's clever how extreme gratuitous violence is slipped into the Simpsons as a comic within a comic. It's clever but only funny seen through the eyes of the Simpson family.

A lot of those cartoons (Simpsons, Ren and Stimpy, Watership Down, etc) weren't/aren't really made for kids, though, even if kids watch them.

Its a tough call and parents need to make their own decisions regarding content, but there is a lot of peer pressure to see certain films and shows.

 

[Freaky Chameleon]

Walt was to heart what Roy was to ledgers. He never saw his creations as children's movies, but rather meaningful family movies and entertainment.

I watched the movie "Saving Mr. Banks" just a few months ago about how Walt Disney obtained the movie rights from Pamela Travers to make Mary Poppins. You can really see Walt's heart in that movie much more than the documentary.

 

[John K]

A lot of those cartoons (Simpsons, Ren and Stimpy, Watership Down, etc) weren't/aren't really made for kids, though, even if kids watch them.

Its a tough call and parents need to make their own decisions regarding content, but there is a lot of peer pressure to see certain films and shows.

Definitely - a lot of them are shown when kids are around, and I suspect a lot of people think cartoons -> kids' shows without much reflection. Despite the hype that goes with the Disney brand, by and large they succeed with what Moonflier said:

Walt felt that family should experience stories together and what a better way than to take those dark, well known stories from the past and put into them some magic, and soften the story line (by a lot). Walt did not imagine an age when children would have access to movies on ipads sitting in the back seat of a car. It was all about keeping the connection between parent and child.

I remember reading The Hobbit to both my sons when they were about 6 and we all really enjoyed doing that - like @Daustus I'd been reading to them from when they could talk. I think I was about 6 when my folks took me to the cinema to see Alice in Wonderland, and I remember being really scared when she got lost in the woods, but that was OK because we were all together. It's hard to describe the experience to people nowadays because when we didn't have TVs and computers, the cinema was much more dramatic, particularly for a child. I stayed with that film for weeks afterwards, I enjoyed it so much.

 

[Asa]

I think I was about 6 when my folks took me to the cinema to see Alice in Wonderland, and I remember being really scared when she got lost in the woods, but that was OK because we were all together. It's hard to describe the experience to people nowadays because when we didn't have TVs and computers, the cinema was much more dramatic, particularly for a child. I stayed with that film for weeks afterwards, I enjoyed it so much.

Hahaha. My first trip to the cinema was a double feature with Winnie the Pooh and a Disney movie about pit ponies called "Escape From The Dark" (aka "The Little Horse Thieves"). It's a movie about saving mining horses from slaughter. Some/one of the horses die. Needless to say, I was inconsolable. My poor mother.


On a happier note, "The Fox and the Hound" (still really sad) was at the cinema for weeks and it was only $2 for kids, so we'd save our nickels and dimes and go every Sunday.