Watching all the Disney films from the very beginning

[Gr8WideSomewher]

The Great Disney Movie Marathon Challenge of 2018

So a little while ago my sister Bex suggested that we should have a Disney movie marathon of some the old animated classics starting with Snow White. Loads of these films, like Fantasia, Pinocchio etc I haven't watched since I was a (renaissance) kid so I thought it sounded like a good idea.

Then she came to me with a new idea...why not challenge ourselves to watch ALL of the feature length animated films from the very beginning?!

It sounded like a big challenge, but definitely one I was up for!

So we've decided to watch all the animated Disney films as well as the Pixar ones (though that's waaaaaay in the future) and maybe we'll add in some of the live-action films that feature animation heavily (such as Mary Poppins) mostly for the sake of nostalgia.

Of course, it may not be possible to access every single one, but we will do our best!

I thought I might write our thoughts on here and people can share their views on the films if they would like to. Hope that sounds like a nice idea?

Let's see how far we get! Please join in watching if you are interested in a trip down nostalgia lane!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Disney_theatrical_animated_features

Day: 1 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)




*Obviously I don't own any of the images I'll use in this thread.

So Disney's first animated feature film. We watched this as children when it was re-released in 1993, but didn't appreciate how revolutionary it is in terms of all it's doing with music and animation.

Such high quality considering it's the first feature length animated film EVER! The backgrounds are very detailed and the animators were equally good at portraying the soft and romantic and the dark and scary aspects of the film. The animation is breathtaking and the characters (apart from Prince Charming - who is somewhat dodgy) are all fantastic. It's proper dark and scary, but humorous as well.

I remember not taking to Snow White as a child because basically she was no Belle, but actually she's kind of awesome. I don't subscribe to the view that she's wet and useless - she's actually just nice and maybe a bit naive, but perfectly capable of molding her environment and the people around her to be how she wants them to be. She just does it with charm rather than by force.

I love the relationships they develop between Snow White and all the dwarves - especially Grumpy. Her 'Oh, and you must be Grumpy!' said in that adorable voice is one of the best moments in the film. This is also what I'm going to say to misogynists if they step to me from now on!

The evil queen is perhaps unnecessarily evil considering they give her almost no motivation - definitely didn't clock the bit where she walks past the skeleton and kicks it in the face when I was a kid, but I don't think such a dark moment would appear in a Disney movie nowadays.

It's definitely the dwarves' movie rather than Snow White's and in places it does feel like a very weak story tacked onto some quite good comic shorts.

However, re-watching has given both of us a new-found appreciation for Disney's first princess as well as awe for the talent and artistry of his animators way back in 1937!

How do others feel about Snow White? Does it rank high on your list of Disney faves?

Next stop Pinocchio...

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 2: Pinocchio (1940)



Hi All, Disney movie number 2! I can appreciate the art work in this film is lovely, but I have always found it the most difficult Disney film to watch and it doesn’t get any easier as an adult.

The music of course is iconic; When You Wish upon a Star is a gorgeous song especially when Jiminy Cricket sings it. However, the whole boys turning into donkeys never gets easier to handle. It's a very unforgiving view of humanity which these days is hard to swallow.

We watched the National Theatre's production of Pinocchio with Disney’s music this year and interestingly the producers clearly felt the original story was not disturbing enough and so made the music creepier sounding. Even When You Wish Upon a Star. One cool (in a disturbing way) feature however was that the puppets were played by people and the human characters by puppets.

I’ve watched this movie many times and I can understand why it was a critical success, but I just cannot like it, because the message, as far as everyone but Pinocchio is concerned, seems to be unforgiving.

Tomorrow Fantasia, which we haven't seen in years!

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 3: Fantasia (1940)



We both really enjoyed watching this! This is definitely one of the best of the early Disney films – it is just a bit episodic. It needed a theme running through it (other than 'music = inspirational') that could tie it all together.

The highlights are the dinosaurs and the Sorcerer's Apprentice, in which Mickey is really cute and his iconic self.

As children we took the dinosaurs for granted, but watching the whole Rite of Spring sequence as adults we found it surprising. The whole section makes quite a strong statement about evolution, and we wondered how that had gone down with audiences at the time. Especially since creationism is still taught as a legitimate theory in some American schools, I believe. We checked this out and apparently, the sequence was ok’d as long as it did not feature human evolution. Fun fact of the day!

Some of the movie is a bit saccharine (particularly the Pastoral Symphony bit), but as a little girl I loved those bits, and you've got to put something in there for the little girls! Especially as this film doesn't seem like it's really for kids at all. It's very experimental (which I LOVE as an adult) with lots of bits that aren't the least bit kiddy (Night on Bald Mountain in particular) juxtaposed a bit jarringly with bits that are obviously more aimed at kids (Dance of the Hours). I’m still not sure what is going on between the crocs and the hippos?

Definitely, a really beautiful film and I wish they had done more such films as intended, but maybe sticking to one kind of animation or musical theme throughout?

New film for us tomorrow: The Reluctant Dragon!

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 4: The Reluctant Dragon (1941)



Ended up loving this one! It's really nice when you try something new and it ends up surprising you by how good it is.

Weirdly, as I'm such a fan of animation, I preferred the filmed sections. For those who haven't seen it, after a nudge from his wife the main character, Benchley, sets out to the Disney Studios to pitch a story idea to Walt and ends up getting a tour. The main character was a pillock (can see why his wife was trying to get him out from under her feet for a few hours) and didn't seem to understand that he'd stumbled on the chance of a lifetime, but all the other 'characters' (many of whom were real Disney animators, sound people etc.) were great. Watching it we also got a bit of a thrill every time we recognised a piece of artwork or a model or something from one of the well-known films. You'd never get to see that kind of thing now, even if you did get a chance to go 'backstage' at the Disney Studios. (One day when I win the lottery I will ABD Backstage Magic)!

A really interesting film about the making of films, but done with a lot of charm. The mixture of animations and film didn't feel clunky - bits like Donald Duck coming to life to tell the main character off showed how well this concept could work.

The reluctant dragon itself was quite funny, but definitely not my favourite bit. Of all the filmed sections my favourite bit was the lovely foley lady showing Benchley how they made the sounds, for example Casey Junior's voice. My favourite 'animated' bit was Baby Weems - don't ask me why, the concept just really appealed to me and I was emotionally invested in his poor parents getting him back!

I highly recommend checking this out if you haven't seen it!

[eeyoremad]

this is a fantastic idea, I love the older Disney movies

[caj]

This is such a fun idea!

[clochette]

This is such a good idea. We often re watch our favourite old Disney films (well my favourites that have now become the girls') but watching them in order is a great idea. I have to confess I've never even heard of The Reluctant Dragon, let alone seen it. Where did you manage to find it?

[coggie]

Do you have all of these on dvd... some collection if you do

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Hey chaps, thanks for replying!

I am also really enjoying going back and watching all the old Disneys, including some brand new ones.

Originally Posted by coggie

Do you have all of these on dvd... some collection if you do

See more...

No, we don't have any of these ones actually! Amazon are actually currently doing a deal where you can get a three month membership to Disney Life for 99p, if you have an Amazon Fire Stick (which we do). Disney Life seems to have most of the films on it, including the oldies.

Originally Posted by clochette

I have to confess I've never even heard of The Reluctant Dragon, let alone seen it. Where did you manage to find it?

See more...

Disney Life is where we watched The Reluctant Dragon. I'd never heard of it either - but I'm glad I know about it now.

There are a few movies on the list that aren't even on Disney Life and I think we're going to have to search Youtube and other places to find them. For example, I'm pretty sure Disney denies all knowledge of Song of the South so that one's going to be a challenge! But we're going to give it a good go.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 5: Dumbo (1941)



I still find this film almost too painful to watch - I know it's supposed to be one of the more light-hearted ones and was a big success for Walt at the time, but it is so sad from about five minutes in until five minutes before the end. And the payoff of Dumbo realising his flying powers and being reunited with his mum isn't enough to make up for it. He needs to escape the circus!

The animation does not seem to be as strong as Fantasia but Dumbo is a great example of how to give human emotions to animal characters - you really feel for him because he is so fully realised as a character.

I don't find any of the circus bits funny or entertaining - they seem quite dark to me as well. It's quite a difficult thing for them to balance in the film - to suggest heavily that animal cruelty is wrong, but also to try and get us to laugh at animal cruelty.

The pink elephants sequence is baffling - only word for it. Again they're treading that line between menacing and funny - an odd choice for a children's film. Some of the editing and transitions are amazing, but the sequence is definitely too long considering it adds nothing to the story. Apparently, they were experimenting with Cubism! Why 'pink elephants' though? Why not build the sequence around 'flying elephants' being a weird thing to see when you're drunk? It is interesting that we tend to think of Disney as 'safe', 'fluffy' and somewhat 'conservative' and not one of these early films is.

The crows are really great. I do have problems with the choice to have the lead crow played by a white guy and have him definitely impersonating black musicians, but in general I don't find them racist. They're enormously charismatic and the only ones that believe in Dumbo and help him find his flying powers. Plus their song is easily the best in the whole movie - whoever wrote that song was having as much fun with language as the crows seem to be having singing it.

Next up, Bambi!