Animated Disney movies: Best/worst

01 of 31

BEST: Moana (2016)

If anyone needed proof that the Walt Disney Animation Studios of the 2010s was in the midst of another period of artistic renaissance, Moana — a powerful musical epic about a dauntless island girl discovering her identity as a voyager — was that evidence. Moana operates at the top of its game on every level: shrewdly crafted characters bolstered by memorable performances (Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson), a sweeping score that includes an instant classic “I want” tune (written by Lin-Manuel Miranda), and a thematic underlay that makes the film feel both beautifully traditional and cleverly modern. As the last movie to be co-directed by legendary Disney duo Ron Clements and John Musker, Moana was a milestone by definition — but time has already shown it to be special on its own merits, a creative benchmark that encapsulated WDAS' graceful reclamation of its storied stories. —Marc Snetiker

02 of 31

BEST: Frozen (2013)

For the first time in forever — yes, we went there — it felt like Disney hit all the right notes with Frozen. Frozen got the formula right thanks to its incredibly appealing, Broadway-ready songs from Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez and its princess-with-a-twist story. Not only was Frozen a modern, feminist tale of sisterly love; it was also a culturally dominant force thanks in part to the inescapable ''Let It Go.'' But directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee touched on something intangible, imbuing their movie with a sense of wonder that can only be described as Disney magic. —Esther Zuckerman

03 of 31

BEST: Beauty and the Beast (1991)

If The Little Mermaid gave Disney animation a heartbeat again, Beauty and the Beast lent it spirit. A show-stopping tour de force courtesy of musical wunderkinds Alan Menken and Howard Ashman — who provides golden lyrics like "I use antlers in all of my decorating!" for the oompah barroom carouser ''Gaston'' — it's the film's quiet moments of spiritual yearning that may resonate the most: Belle in her village bookstore imagining far-off lands, then finding her own adventure to be unlike she'd ever imagined it when taking her father's place in the Beast's dungeon, and finally seeing humanity in her captor's eyes before a climactic, snatched-from-death transformation that touches upon the divine. Unlike previous Disney heroines who needed to be rescued by a prince themselves, Belle not only saves the Beast's life, she saves his soul. Is that powerful stuff or what? —Christian Blauvelt

04 of 31

WORST: Song of the South (1946)

It's a great irony of Disney's filmmaking history that one of its most technologically progressive efforts should also be among its most socially regressive. Based on Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus stories, Song of the South is a disturbingly idyllic presentation of Reconstruction Era southern plantation life, glutted with racial stereotypes — as such, it's never received any home video release. But it's also one of the earliest, and most ambitions, attempts at mixing live-action photography with animation, an enduring technique also explored in 1949's So Dear to My Heart, 1964's Mary Poppins, 1987's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and 2007's Enchanted. Despite the film itself being kept under lock and key in the Disney Vault, Song of the South's characters and setting inspired the Disney theme parks' wildly popular Splash Mountain rides. And, of course, this was the movie to give the world ''Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.'' —Abby West

05 of 31

BEST: Bambi (1942)

How many kids first learned about death because of Bambi? Five decades before King Mufasa lectured Simba on the circle of life, Disney animators painted this quiet tableaux vivant of birth, life, and death centered on the childhood of a woodland deer, his doting mother, absentee father, and friends Thumper the Rabbit and Flower the Skunk. Bambi also marked the first time Disney employed its famous multi-plane camera, which breaths 3-D depth into hand-drawn images. But, let's face it, this movie will be forever known for the death of Bambi's mother at the rifle-wielding hands of Man, a moment of primal trauma that began the enduring trend of dead moms in animated movies. —Christian Blauvelt

06 of 31

BEST: The Jungle Book (1967)

Disney's adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling classic is a bebop slow jam of a film. The bare necessities of the original plot are there — an orphaned boy in India is raised by a pack of wolves, befriended by the panther Bagheera and bear Baloo, and menaced by the tiger Shere Khan — but veteran director Wolfgang Reitherman turns it into a laid-back mood piece with some of the richest character animation Disney ever produced. It doesn't hurt, either, to have a tony cast of voices like Phil Harris (Baloo), Sebastian Cabot (Bagheera), George Sanders (Shere Khan), Sterling Holloway (Kaa), and jazz-man Louis Prima (King Louie) who contributes the movie's grooviest song, ''I Wanna Be Like You.'' —Christian Blauvelt

07 of 31

BEST: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

The very first feature-length animated film remains one of the best. Despite claims of narrative whitewashing, Disney successfully taps the Brothers Grimm's primordial understanding of the connections among beauty, aging, and power in their rendering of a vain, wicked queen who orders her stepdaughter's death. Though a pre-feminist creation to be sure — ''Someday My Prince Will Come'' is her anthem, after all — Snow White herself displays a remarkably vivid subjectivity that we're privy to as well. Never more so than during her nightmarishly surreal flight through the woods after learning the queen has marked her for death. —Christian Blauvelt

08 of 31

WORST: Tarzan (1999)

The last of Disney's animated musicals in the '90s is its weakest. And the reason for that is two words: Phil Collins. Actually, that's being a bit harsh. His songs are lackluster, but so is the animation. Instead of visualizing the famous jungle-dweller swinging from vines, Disney's artists imagined him surfing along branches, an effect that's silly and disorienting. Worst of all for the studio, the fact that Tarzan scored $171 million at the U.S. box office may have influenced their decision to adapt another Edgar Rice Burroughs character for the big screen: John Carter. —Christian Blauvelt

09 of 31

BEST: The Lion King (1994)

Translating the Danish court intrigues of Hamlet to the big cats of the Serengeti, The Lion King conjured up a heady blend of pop mysticism and pop music, courtesy of Elton John, that catapulted it to the ranks of the 10 highest-grossing movies of all time. Some of it's pretty dark — especially the epic wildebeest stampede that claims the life of young cub Simba's father and the murderous machinations of his uncle Scar — but it's not all Shakespearean sturm und drang. Altogether now! Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase.... —Christian Blauvelt

10 of 31

BEST: Pinocchio (1940)

The story of a marionette made of pine who comes to life — he's got no strings to hold him down! — and tries to become a ''real boy'' is both intimate and epic, at once a stirring father-son story and a sprawling journey. From the Tyrolian charm of Geppetto's workshop to the lurid, pea-green hellscape of Pleasure Island to a climactic underwater battle with Monstro the Whale, Pinocchio is full of enough indelible images for a half-dozen movies: boys turning into donkeys, Jiminy Cricket almost drowning inside a bubble even though he can breathe underwater, the wishing star. If there?s a Citizen Kane of animated filmmaking, this is it. —Christian Blauvelt

11 of 31

BEST: 101 Dalmatians (1961)

''Cruella DeVil/Cruella DeVil/If she doesn't scare you/No Disney villain will.'' The chain-smoking, road-raging, bipolar-haired fur lover is pretty terrifying, and her puppy heist produces real dread. Are Pongo and Perdita's offspring really going to become Dalmatian coats? But this canine caper is so much fun, you'll forget its more disturbing implications. —Christian Blauvelt

12 of 31

WORST: The Black Cauldron (1985)

Disney had long wanted to purchase the rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for animated film adaptations. Needless to say, the Tolkien estate refused. So the studio decided instead to adapt another sword-and-sorcery fantasy, Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain. Newly appointed animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg was so horrified by the results that he decided to delay The Black Cauldron's original 1983 release by six months and re-edited the film himself. That still didn't help. —Abby West

13 of 31

BEST: Aladdin (1992)

The Arabian Nights saga of the street rat who becomes a prince after rubbing a magic lamp containing a genie is a lighter-hearted follow-up to Beauty and the Beast. But composer Alan Menken and lyricists Howard Ashman, who tragically died of AIDS before completing the film, and Tim Rice cook up musical razzle-dazzle, especially on ''Prince Ali,'' with the Genie's vocal acrobatics courtesy of Robin Williams at his most manic. With hindsight, Aladdin is the first step toward Shrek: a pastiche of classic storytelling and hyper-referential pop-culture shout-outs — the Genie sings like Ethel Merman! But like its hero, Aladdin is a diamond in the rough. —Christian Blauvelt

14 of 31

BEST: Cinderella (1950)

Following 1942's Bambi Disney feature animation, production slowed down. The studio concerned itself with making wartime propaganda — including two experimental, highly entertaining films touting the United States' Good Neighbor Policy toward Latin America, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. Then after the end of World War II, labor disputes prevented the release of another full-length until 1950's Cinderella. Returning to the fairy-tale magic of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with the ease of a ''Bibbity Bobbity Boo," Cinderella solidified the Disney Princess brand that's still a cash cow today. —Abby West

15 of 31

BEST: Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Yes, this computer-animated comedy is a lot like Pixar's Toy Story. Both are about the secret inner lives of children's amusements (in Toy, it's plastic playthings; in Ralph, it's video games); both feature real-world properties (Mr. Potato Head, Q*bert) cracking wise alongside invented characters (Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Vanellope von Schweetz, the titular Ralph); both also wring real pathos out of literally inhuman protagonists who fear that someday people will want to stop playing with them. Yet Ralph also stands on its own two feet as a funny, fast-paced, delightfully surprising story that has a habit of zigging when you think it's going to zag. (Thank writers Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee, the latter of whom would go on to pen Disney's smash hit Frozen.) —Hillary Busis

16 of 31

WORST Brother Bear (2003)

The $88.5 million box office haul of Brother Bear in 2003 would, in any other year, have seemed respectable. But the $339.7 million raked in by its Pixar rival, Finding Nemo, all but drowned it. The bigger problem, though, was that Brother Bear, the story of an Inuit boy turned into a grizzly after seeking revenge on the bear that killed his brother, couldn't compete artistically with Nemo either. —Abby West

17 of 31

BEST: Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Disguised as a simple princess story, Sleeping Beauty is actually one of the most exquisitely terrifying films in the Disney canon, probably because of its gorgeous, horrifying villain, Maleficent. Aside from that, Sleeping Beauty is an artistic achievement, as Eyvind Earle drew on a variety of inspirations, including, according to the Walt Disney Family Museum, ''Van Eyck and Peter Bruegel and Albrect Durer and Botticelli.'' Pairing that with the score adapted from Tchaikovsky's ballet, and the result is something both classic and original. —Esther Zuckerman

18 of 31

BEST: The Little Mermaid (1989)

Eye-popping, thrilling, and heartfelt, the musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen tale represented nothing less than the rebirth of Disney animation after two decades of wandering through a cinematic desert. It also offered up a new Disney Princess archetype in fish-tailed Ariel: feisty, self-aware, and independent — but still something of a hopeless romantic. Perhaps most significantly, though, it introduced the unbeatable team of composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman. If you were born between 1975 and 1990, their ''Part of Your World,'' ''Under the Sea,'' ''Kiss the Girl,'' and ''Poor Unfortunate Souls,'' are likely branded on your brain. —Christian Blauvelt

19 of 31

BEST: Peter Pan (1953)

J.M. Barrie's immortal tale of the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up wasn't just a perfect fit for Disney. It overlapped with the studio's own Neverland — Disney

J.M. Barrie's immortal tale of the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up was a perfect fit for Disney as it overlapped with the studio's own Neverland mission statement to appeal to kids and kids at heart. So it's strange that the movie adaptation itself isn't better: The pastel colors feel wan and under-textured, Peter Pan's Lost Boys are barely characterized, and some motley ''smoke 'um peace-pipe'' Indians are stereotypically cringe-worthy. But Peter Pan's not without some pixie-dust magic, including a hungry crocodile, a minx of a fairy in Tinker Bell, and a diabolical villain in Captain Hook. —Christian Blauvelt

20 of 31

WORST: Robin Hood (1973)

Ooh-de-lally, ooh-de-lally, golly what a lousy movie. Don't think twice, watch 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn instead. —Abby West

21 of 31

BEST: Fantasia (1940)

Walt Disney got experimental with his third feature-length animated film. Imagining a ''pure cinema'' fusion of sound and image, he ditched a conventional plot for a collection of episodes set to classical music. Some play like story-driven standalone shorts, such as Mickey Mouse showcase ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice,'' while Bach's ''Tocatta and Fugue in D-Minor,'' on the other hand, is basically a glorified lightshow. The best sequence? Disney's prehistoric take on Igor Stravinsky's ''Rite of Spring'' that imagines the beginning and evolution of life on earth across hundreds of millions of years, culminating with the extinction of the dinosaurs. That's epic filmmaking by any standard. —Christian Blauvelt

22 of 31

BEST: Mulan (1998)

The girl-power trend of '90s Disney reached its apex with a lush rendering of a Chinese legend dating back to the fifth century — that of Fa Mulan, the daughter of an aging war veteran who takes her father's place when he's summoned to battle once again. A rousing fusion of hand-drawn and computer animation techniques, particularly during a snowy, mountain-pass battle between Chinese imperial troops and the Huns, Mulan is not without its share of corn. ''Mysterious as the dark side of the moo-ooon!'' Donny Osmond belts on power ballad ''I'll Make a Man Out of You,'' which would probably be at home in a Transformers movie. But, hey, corn can be tasty! —Christian Blauvelt

23 of 31

BEST: Dumbo (1941)

Clocking in at a scant 64 minutes, this brightly-colored big-top treat is an underdog story for the ages. What kid hasn't identified with poor, bullied, floppy-eared Dumbo at one time or another? Who hasn't felt that their life can be as crazy as a circus? Who hasn't wanted to have a mouse dressed like a ringmaster whisper encouragement in their ear? (Okay, that last one may just be me.) —Christian Blauvelt

24 of 31

WORST: Home on the Range (2004)

There's a lot to like about Home on the Range: the fact that Roseanne Barr, Judi Dench, and Jennifer Tilly voice its bovine leads, Bonnie Raitt's terrific song ''Will the Sun Ever Shine Again,'' and...that's about it. It's a lazy effort that would have seemed more at home on TV as a Saturday morning cartoon than a big-screen feature. —Abby West

25 of 31

BEST: Lady and the Tramp (1955)

Sometimes overlooked, Lady and the Tramp may actually have been Walt Disney's most personal film. Based in part on his memories of growing up in Marceline, Mo., it captures picket-fenced, turn-of-the-last-century Americana, in which a pedigreed Cocker Spaniel and a mutt from the wrong side of the tracks find love over spaghetti, like an animated Meet Me in St. Louis. —Christian Blauvelt

26 of 31

BEST: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

Disney unfurls the full mythological grandeur of Victor Hugo's classic novel and makes something unprecedented: a kid's movie about religious fanaticism and sexual obsession. A sample lyric from Stephen Schwartz on the song ''Hellfire'': ''Beata Maria, you know I'm so much purer than the common, vulgar, weak, licentious crowd!'' Quasimodo, the misshapen bellringer of Paris' Notre Dame cathedral, discovers a world beyond his cloistered church tower with the help of a kindly, comely gypsy named Esmerelda (voiced by Demi Moore!). Too bad his guardian, the puritanical Judge Claude Frollo, chooses to launch a genocidal campaign against Esmerelda's people. Dark stuff to be sure, but the characters are so winning and Alan Menken's Gregorian-chant-influenced score so richly symphonic, you'll be entranced every minute. The most ambitious movie Disney's ever made is also one of its most satisfying. —Christian Blauvelt

27 of 31

BEST: The Aristocats (1970)

Though sometimes considered an inferior remake of 101 Dalmatians, The Aristocats is actually just as strong a film. A bumbling butler spirits away the household kitties of a Parisian grande dame after learning they're to receive her fortune instead of him. That's pretty much all the plot there is, because, like on The Jungle Book before it, director Woolie Reitherman is interested more in making a Hawksian hangout movie than a nailbiting story. Again, the character animation — rendered in Reitherman's trademark heavy-ink style — is superb and the screwball comedy spark between mother aristocat Duchess (the velveteen-voiced Eva Gabor) and their swinging guide on the journey back to Paris, Thomas O'Malley (Disney vet Phil Harris), plays like an animated Bringing Up Baby. —Christian Blauvelt

28 of 31

BEST: Alice in Wonderland (1951)

It's hard to imagine any live-action film doing justice to Lewis Carroll's puzzle-box fantasy of mad hatters, white rabbits, Cheshire cats, and hookah-smoking caterpillars. But the Disney animators brought his surreal dreamscapes to vivid life — shoes, ships, sealing wax, cabbages, and kings included. —Christian Blauvelt

29 of 31

WORST: Chicken Little (2005)

The sky is falling, the sky is falling! And so was Disney's ambition. —Abby West

30 of 31

BEST: Tangled (2010)

It's kind of hard to believe it took Disney 70+ years to tap the Rapunzel story for a big screen fairy tale. But the wait — Disney

It's kind of hard to believe it took Disney 70-plus years to tap the Rapunzel story for a big-screen fairy tale. But the wait was worth it. Their first princess-driven computer-animated film bridged the studio's '90s musical aesthetic with some of Pixar's digital magic. —Christian Blauvelt

31 of 31

BEST: Hercules (1997)

The fact that this update of the exiled Olympian's life features bloody violence, gross-out humor, and possibly James Woods' most disturbing performance to date — — Disney

The great genius of Hercules is not in its swirl-happy animated style or its superheroic (if simplified) origin-story take on a violent Greco-Roman myth: It's the lightning-bolt epiphany that when you sing about God, you sing gospel — and when you sing about the gods, you bring that exultant musical style all the way to ancient Greece. The film's directors (Ron Clements and John Musker) and songwriting team (Alan Menken and David Zippel) turned a bright idea into a truly singular score, one that came late in WDAS' '90s Renaissance but stands up there with some of Disney's all-time best, bounciest, and most beautiful musical suites. -Marc Snetiker