Welcome back to my Walt Disney Animation Studios Ranking! If you missed the first part (#60-#51), you can catch up here.
Without further ado, here are #50-#41!
50. Peter Pan (1953)
I found much of Peter Pan was unpleasant to watch because the titular character is not very nice, to Wendy or to anyone. In addition, much of the movie is undeniably and overtly racist in ways that sour the viewing for long stretches of time. My favorite part by far was the score, with its high whistles and chimes.
49. Fun and Fancy Free (1947)
Fun Fancy Free is another package film, but instead of several segments, it has two longer segments: "Bongo" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk." The individual shorts are cute, but they are not related in the slightest, and the framing of the whole movie that is meant to connect the two is quite strange.
48. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
Of the package films, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad may be the best. It is made up of two longer segments, like Fun and Fancy Free, but in this film the two segments have a common theme (characters from literature) and a framing device that makes sense (picking stories from a live-action library), which makes it one of the more cohesive of the package films.
47. Tarzan (1999)
So much trauma for young Tarzan, especially in the beginning. Add that to all the action sequences, and all the ways Clayton/Jane/Porter reminded me of the English colonists from Pocahontas, (a group from England descending upon a continent where a community is minding their own business; most of the people are decent, except their leader wants to exploit any resources found for personal gain; the young hot one falls in love with a local who they want to educate with Western culture). For all these reasons, the movie Tarzan didn’t do much for me.
46. Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Much of the beginning of Atlantis: The Lost Empire had some of the same colonization elements that were present in Tarzan and Pocahontas. However, things took an interesting turn when Milo fought back against Rourke (another character incredibly similar to Clayton from Tarzan and Ratcliffe from Pocahontas) in an attempt to rectify the damage that was done by Milo bringing the group to Atlantis in the first place. Also, I liked the varied cast of characters and that it was explained in the story how the explorers and the people of Atlantis are able to communicate with each other.
45. Oliver and Company (1988)
I’ll be honest, by the time I got to Oliver and Company, I was so tired of pet/animal movies. And in this one, the human characters didn’t do much for me either. However, I did think the found family element was endearing, and that the ending number was fun (Tito the chihuahua's character was pretty uncomfortable to watch, though).
44. Robin Hood (1973)
This one was a little goofy to me (the boob-related humor was a bit excessive in the opening scene). There was a lot of interesting class imagery though, and the romance between Robin and Maid Marian was surprisingly compelling to me.
43. Winnie the Pooh (2011)
I truly enjoy Pooh and the gang from the Hundred Acre Wood, but I don’t see the point in this movie. I don’t know why Disney chose to make it, especially at this specific point in time (between Tangled and Wreck-it Ralph). Honestly, the musical numbers are cute, but as someone who grew up with a lot of Winnie the Pooh media, it seems uninspired and unoriginal.
42. One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
My favorite part of this one is the very beginning. I love the way Pongo leads Roger to Anita and Perdita. The wedding scene for the two couples is adorable. However, I start to lose interest during sequences with the Twilight Bark and their escape from the De Vil place.
41. Bolt (2008)
The concept of Bolt is silly, and usually that’s fine, but having such an unrealistic concept in a movie where a lot of the tension comes from realistic problems doesn’t make much sense. However, the ending scenes made me very emotional, which is why I’m ranking Bolt as high as I am.
Check back here next week for the next installment of this series!