2009

I’m a fan of animated films. I thought that I’ve watched ALL the Disney films, but it turns out I was wrong. This image below features all the Disney animated films that were ever made. I really did not know there were 52 of them. This is just proof that one is never too old to learn. The films listed on this photo date back to 1937. This list DOES NOT include the Pixar films.

Here are the names and short descriptions of all the Disney Animated Films that are on the list:

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937): Snow White, pursued by a jealous queen, hides with the Dwarfs; the queen feeds her a poison apple, but Prince Charming awakens her with a kiss. Featuring the voice talents of Adriana Caselotti, Harry Stockwell, Lucille La Verne and Roy Atwell. I’ve seen this and I must say that animated has come a LONG way since this movie.
• Pinnochio (1940): A living puppet, with the help of a cricket as his conscience, must prove himself worthy to become a real boy.  Featuring the voice talents of Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Mel Blanc and Don Brodie. I remember riding on my bike to the video rental outlet and renting this movie when I was 10 or 12 years old.
• Fantasia (1940): A collection of animated interpretations of great works of Western classical music. Featuring Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor, Corey Burton and Walt Disney. Groundbreaking film at the time it was released. Some people label this a classic.
• Dumbo (1941): Ridiculed because of his enormous ears, a young circus elephant is assisted by a mouse to achieve his full potential. Featuring Sterling Holloway, Edward Brophy, James Baskett and Herman Bing.
• Bambi (1942): A story about a young deer, Bambi, growing up in the wild after his mother is shot by hunters. Featuring Hardie Albright, Stan Alexander, Bobette Audrey and Peter Behn.
• Saludos Amigos (1942): Disney animators tour South America and present four animated shorts inspired by their trip. Featuring Fred Shields, José Oliveira, Pinto Colvig and Walt Disney.
• The Three Calleberos (1945): Donald Duck receives his birthday gifts, which include traditional gifts and information about Brazil (hosted by Zé Carioca) and Mexico (by Panchito, a Mexican Charro Rooster). Stars Aurora Miranda, Carmen Molina, Dora Luz and Sterling Holloway.
• Make Mine Music (1946): Animation done to contemporary popular music. Featuring Nelson Eddy, Dinah Shore, Benny Goodman and The Andrews Sisters.
• Fun & Fancy Free (1947): Jiminy Cricket hosts two Disney animated shorts: “Bongo,” about a circus bear escaping to the wild, and “Mickey and the Beanstalk,” a take on the famous fairy tale. Featuring Edgar Bergen, Dinah Shore, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd.
• Melody Time (1948): An anthology of animated vignettes set to contemporary music. Featuring Roy Rogers, Trigger, Dennis Day and The Andrews Sisters.
• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949): Two animated adaptions of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “The Wind in the Willows.” Featuring Bing Crosby, Basil Rathbone, Eric Blore and John McLeish.
• Cinderella (1950): When Cinderella’s cruel stepmother prevents her from attending the Royal Ball, she gets some unexpected help from the lovable mice Gus and Jaq, and from her Fairy Godmother. Featuring Ilene Woods, James MacDonald, Eleanor Audley and Verna Felton.
• Alice in Wonderland (1951): Alice stumbles into the world of Wonderland. Will she get home? Not if the Queen of Hearts has her way. Featuring Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn and Sterling Holloway.
• Peter Pan (1953): Wendy and her brothers are whisked away to the magical world of Neverland with the hero of their stories, Peter Pan. Featuring Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried and Bill Thompson.
• Lady and the Tramp (1955): The romantic tale of a sheltered uptown Cocker Spaniel dog and a streetwise downtown Mutt. Featuring Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Peggy Lee and Bill Thompson.
• Sleeping Beauty (1959): A snubbed malevolent fairy casts a curse on a princess that only a prince can break, with the help of three good fairies. Featuring Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley and Verna Felton.
• 101 Dalmatians (1961): When a litter of dalmatian puppies are abducted by the minions of Cruella De Vil, the parents must find them before she uses them for a diabolical fashion statement. Featuring Rod Taylor, Betty Lou Gerson, J. Pat O’Malley and Martha Wentworth.
• The Sword in the Stone (1963): Merlin the Magician teaches a young boy who is destined to be King Arthur. Featuring Rickie Sorensen, Sebastian Cabot, Karl Swenson and Junius Matthews.
• The Jungle Book (1967): Bagheera the Panther and Baloo the Bear have a difficult time trying to convince a boy to leave the jungle for human civilization. Featuring Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima and Bruce Reitherman. If my memory serves me correctly this is the first film that I watched on the big screen. I was 4 or 5 years old and in kindergarten.
• The Aristocats (1970): With the help of a smooth talking tomcat, a family of Parisian felines set to inherit a fortune from their owner try to make it back home after a jealous butler kidnaps them and leaves them in the country. Featuring Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Sterling Holloway and Scatman Crothers.
• Robin Hood (1973): The story of the legendary outlaw is portrayed with the characters as humanoid animals. Featuring Brian Bedford, Phil Harris, Roger Miller and Peter Ustinov. One of my favorite cartoons when I was growing up.
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977): A collection of animated shorts based on the stories and characters by A. A. Milne. Featuring Sebastian Cabot, Junius Matthews, Barbara Luddy and Howard Morris.
• The Rescuers (1977): Two mice of the Rescue Aid Society search for a little girl kidnapped by unscrupulous treasure hunters. Featuring Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, Geraldine Page and Joe Flynn.
• The Fox and the Hound (1981): Two childhood animal friends find themselves forced to become enemies. Featuring Mickey Rooney, Kurt Russell, Pearl Bailey and Jack Albertson.
• The Black Cualdron (1985): A young boy and a bunch of misfit friends embark on a quest to find a dark magic item of ultimate power before a diabolical tyrant can. Featuring Grant Bardsley, Freddie Jones, Susan Sheridan and Nigel Hawthorne.
• The Great Mouse Detective (1986): Basil, the rodent Sherlock Holmes, investigates the kidnapping of a toy-maker and uncovers its link to his archenemy, Professor Ratigan. Featuring Vincent Price, Barrie Ingham, Val Bettin and Susanne Pollatschek.
• Oliver & Company (1988): A lost and alone kitten joins a gang of dogs engaged in petty larceny in New York. Featuring Joseph Lawrence, Billy Joel, Cheech Marin and Richard Mulligan.
• The Little Mermaid (1989): A mermaid princess makes a faustian bargain with an unscrupulous seahag in order to meet a human prince on land. Featuring Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Rene Auberjonois and Christopher Daniel Barnes. I’ll never forget that scene on the boat where that crab looking thing sings “Kiss The Girl”.
• The Rescuers Down Under (1989): The RAS agents, Miss Bianca and Bernard, race to Australia to save a boy and a rare golden eagle from a murderous poacher. Featuring Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, John Candy and Tristan Rogers.
• Beauty and The Beast (1991): Belle, whose father is imprisoned by the Beast, offers herself instead and discovers her captor to be an enchanted prince. Featuring Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White and Jerry Orbach. Groundbreaking animation at the time, but not my cup of tea.
• Alladin (1992): Aladdin, a street urchin, accidentally meets Princess Jasmine, who is in the city undercover. They love each other, but she can only marry a prince. Featuring Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin and Jonathan Freeman. Robin Williams made this film for me. He cracked me up. He’s still one of my favorite comedians. The only thing that pissed me off about this film was the theme song by Paebo Bryson and Regina Belle. “A Whole New World” has a tendency to get stuck in my head.
• The Lion King (1994): Tricked into thinking he killed his father, a guilt ridden lion cub flees into exile and abandons his identity as the future King. Featuring Matthew Broderick, Rowan Atkinson, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones and Whoopi Goldberg. Still one of my favorite animated films of all time.
• Pocahontas (1995): The daughter of a Native American tribe chief and English soldier share a romance when English colonists invade 17th century Virginia. Featuring Mel Gibson, Linda Hunt, Christian Bale and Irene Bedard. All the jokes that came out after this film were pretty brilliant. Not a huge fan of the film itself though.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1997): A deformed bell ringer must assert his independence from a vicious government minister in order to help his friend, a gypsy dancing girl. Featuring Demi Moore, Jason Alexander, Mary Kay Bergman and Corey Burton.
• Hercules (1997): The son of the Greek Gods Zeus and Hera is stripped of his immortality as an infant and must become a true hero in order to reclaim it. Featuring Tate Donovan, Susan Egan, James Woods and Josh Keaton. James Woods cracked me up in this film. I’ve watched this at least 10 times and I’ll watch it again. Hercules always puts me in a good mood.
• Mulan (1998): To save her father from death in the army, a Chinese maiden secretly goes in his place and becomes one of China’s greatest heroes in the process. Featuring Ming-Na Wen, Eddie Murphy, BD Wong and Miguel Ferrer. Eddie Murphy pulled off a hilarious role as the dragon. That’s about all I can remember.
• Tarzan (1999): A man raised by gorillas must decide where he really belongs when he discovers he is a human. Featuring Tony Goldwyn, Minnie Driver, Brian Blessed and Glenn Close. Groundbreaking animation at the time of its release. I’ll have to watch it again to refresh my memory.
• Fantasia 2000 (1999): An update of the original film with new interpretations of great works of classical music. Featuring James Levine, Steve Martin, Leopold Stokowski and Ralph Grierson.
• Dinosaur (2000): An orphaned dinosaur raised by lemurs joins an arduous trek to a sancturary after a meteorite shower destroys his family home. Featuring D.B. Sweeney, Julianna Margulies, Samuel E. Wright and Alfre Woodard.
• The Emperor’s New Groove (2000): Emperor Kuzco is turned into a llama by his ex-administrator Yzma, and must now regain his throne with the help of Pacha, the gentle llama herder. Featuring David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton. One of the funniest Disney cartoons that I’ve ever watched. David Spade was brilliant in this.
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001): A young adventurer named Milo Thatch joins an intrepid group of explorers to find the mysterious lost continent of Atlantis. Featuring Michael J. Fox, Jim Varney, Corey Burton and Claudia Christian. The explorer inside me found this film extremely enjoyable.
• Lilo & Stitch (2002): A Hawaiian girl adopts an unusual pet who is actually an notorious extra-terrestrial fugitive from the law. Featuring Daveigh Chase, Chris Sanders, Tia Carrere and David Ogden Stiers.
• Treasure Planet (2002): A Disney animated version of Treasure Island. The only difference is that the film is set in outer space with alien worlds and other galactic wonders. Featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emma Thompson, Martin Short and Roscoe Lee Browne. This was an interesting adaptation of Treasure Island.
• Brother Bear (2003): When a young Inuit hunter needlessly kills a bear, he is magically changed into a bear himself as punishment with a talkative cub being his only guide to changing back. Featuring Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Suarez, Rick Moranis and Jason Raize.
• Home on the Range (2004): To save their farm, the resident animals go bounty hunting for a notorious outlaw. Featuring Judi Dench, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jennifer Tilly and Randy Quaid.
• Chicken Little (2005): After ruining his reputation with the town, a courageous chicken must come to the rescue of his fellow citizens when aliens start an invasion. Featuring Zach Braff, Joan Cusack, Garry Marshall and Don Knotts. I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Zach Braff is definitely one of my favorite comedic actors.
• Meet The Robinsons (2007): Lewis is a brilliant inventor who meets mysterious stranger named Wilbur Robinson, whisking Lewis away in a time machine and together they team up to track down Bowler Hat Guy in a showdown that ends with an unexpected twist of fate. Featuring Daniel Hansen, Wesley Singerman, Angela Bassett and Jordan Fry.
• Bolt (2008): The canine star of a fictional sci-fi/action show that believes his powers are real embarks on a cross country trek to save his co-star from a threat he believes is just as real. Featuring John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman and Mark Walton. This was such a feel good movie and the hamster in this film was friggin’ hillarious, had me in stitches.
• The Princess and the Frog (2009): A fairy tale set in Jazz Age-era New Orleans and centered on a young woman named Tiana and her fateful kiss with a frog prince who desperately wants to be human again. Featuring Anika Noni Rose, Keith David, Oprah Winfrey and Bruno Campos. I have no intention of EVER watching this film. Not my cup of tea.
• Tangled (2010): The magically long-haired Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but now that a runaway thief has stumbled upon her, she is about to discover the world for the first time, and who she really is. Featuring Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy and Ron Perlman. One of my favorite films from 2010. It’s cheesy, but it’s such a feel good movie.
• Winnie the Pooh (2011): Eyeore has lost his tail, and Winnie the Pooh and his friends hold a contest to get him a new one. Featuring Jim Cummings, Craig Ferguson, John Cleese and Bud Luckey.
• Wreck-it Ralph (2012): A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives. Featuring John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch and Sarah Silverman. I still have to watch this film but I hearing good things about it.

The Next Disney Animated Film that will be released in 2013 will be Frozen. In the upcoming film a mountain climber and a young girl named Anna journey through snowy peaks and dangerous cliffs to find the legendary Snow Queen and end the perpetual winter prophecy that has fallen over their kingdom. The film will feature Kristen Bell, Josh Gad and Idina Menzel. Only time will tell if this will be an epic movie or not.

Which one of these Disney Animated Films is your favorite? Leave a comment and let me know. Feedback is appreciated and welcome here. If you’ve enjoyed this summary, feel free to share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Watch this space for regular updates in the Movies category on Running Wolf’s Rant.

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