This might seem a weird topic for here, but...

[anarky]

What are y'all's favorite and least-favorite Disney cartoons? I know it seems strange as hell to ask that of a bunch of Malibu-chugging, trash talking SOBs and cartoon characters, but I figure most of us have probably seen most of them. (I'm missing a few: Fantasia 2000, Aladdin, The Great Mouse Detective, and pretty much everything after Treasure Planet that wasn't Pixar, since it all looked ball-suckalicious... though the upcoming Bolt looks rather good from what I've seen).

Oh, and don't count any sequels (aside from The Rescuers Down Under, Fantasia 2000, and Toy Story 2), as they were all done by the incredibly shitty TV division to go straight to DVD and are of sickeningly bad quality.

Best, hands-down, is The Lion King (like I just said in another thread). This is just a great movie, period. I hate to use the word, since it sounds like an exaggeration, but the movie really is Shakespearean. The story is light years beyond any other movie of this type: epic, emotionally powerful, simultaneously tragic and laugh-out-loud funny. And despite all its dark and serious moments, there are SIX comic relief characters, all of whom work on a different level and actually add to the film (and it's a rarity for Disney to get one or two of them to really "work"). Think of it this way: James Earl Jones is at his best when playing a father who comes back from the dead through supernatural means to visit his son or when playing an African king. Here, he does both at once.

Second, toss-up. Lilo & Stich if you're only counting non-Pixar, traditional animation. (For now, why not?) Like The Lion King, it seems like they tried to make a great movie, and it just happened to be animated. Here, it's more of a family-friendly comedy. It's impossible to not like a movie about an outcast girl teaching a genetically-engineered alien superweapon (which she thinks is an unruly dog) to behave by having him modeling his behavior on Elvis Presley.

Others I dig are The Emperor's New Groove (insanely funny flick, though not as full of heart as L&S), Atlantis (criminally underrated "animated Indiana Jones" flick with designs by Mike "Hellboy" Mignola), Lady & The Tramp, Pocahontas (which was a lot stronger than I'd anticipated), and, of course, Snow White.

Factor in non-traditional movies, and The Nightmare Before Christmas is a virtual tie with L&S for second, and Dinosaur isn't too far behind (the story is a bit weaker, but, damn, that's such beautiful work that I can forgive a few minor rough patches in the story).

Anything from Pixar is golden, and I would like to again encourage mabs to actually watch one of them and not lump them in with Shrek. Best would be The Incredibles, because a superhero comedy by the guy who directed The Iron Giant could've beaten the others even if it was only the teaser trailer and a shot or two of Frozone.

Worst, well, I've not seen most of the recent output, and it looks horrible. Tarzan was disappointing (Rosie O'Donnell failed where Nathan Lane succeeded in The Lion King, and she was, unfortunately, in the whole damned movie), and Treasure Planet moreso (following Atlantis, I had high hopes for that, but it seemed like it just wasn't exactly finished--worst retelling of Treasure Island I've ever seen).

I'd have to say The Black Cauldron is the hands-down loser, though. It came near the lowest point in a long lull in quality, and pales next to some of the other animated features of the time (look at Bluth's The Secret of NIMH, for instance). Like NIMH, it was an adaptation of a classic young-adult novel. However, where NIMH makes changes that are mostly relatively minor, and the major ones work in condensing it into a 90-minute cartoon, Black Cauldron is quite possibly the worst adaptation of any book I've seen. And I'm counting the abysmally bad My Side of the Mountain from the 1970s, where the fucktard didn't seem to have read it. No, Disney succeeds (or fails) in taking an epic on par with LOTR or Narnia and turning it into a weak, farcical piece of shit. And, possibly worst of all, the fucking story is almost entirely based on The Book of Three (Book 1 in the series), not The Black Cauldron (Book 2). WTF?

[RoIIo Tomassi]

May I also add,

Mulan is a GREAT action movie. Plus it's got great comedy in the form of Eddie Murphy. And a rousing montage scene.

Aladdin. Forget the 15 crappy straight to DVD sequels. The original is a fantastic big screen film. And Robin Williams is brilliant. His hyper rampaging freeflow thought process transcribed by Disney animators? That could only work in a cartoon.

Going old school, Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, and Jungle Book are some of the best beloved films of my youth, and they still make me chuckle today.

[anarky]

Jesus, how did Mulan slip my mind? That's one of the better ones, easily. It's sad that that division of Disney only did that and Lilo & Stitch before Eisner disbanded them; they were off to a great start.

I always get sorta (not really, but bear with me) pissed at the "Disney Princesses": Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, Ariel, and Jasmine. First, one of them's not a fucking princess. She's a commoner who's into bestiality and happened to get lucky with a prince. Another's a commoner who won a contest involving a shoe.

Which leaves us with Snow White, Ariel, and Aurora, unquestionably princesses. Jasmine's status is a bit iffy--is the daughter of a sultan technically a princess? I dunno. But, if it is, then Pocahontas should qualify. She may not dress glamorously, but her pappy is the chief. And Kida's father is the king of a whole fucking continent. Why is she not considered a princess? It's not her skimpy attire, since Ariel always gets counted with her clamshell bra.

And if Belle and Cinderella count by virtue of marrying into royalty, why not Mulan?

The reason this bugs me is that I keep hearing Beyonce or Brandi or some other pice of carp singer of what passes for R&B these days is soon supposed to be the first non-white princess. What the fuck? You've got a Chinese princess, a Native American princess, an Arabic princess, and whatever Kida is (likely quasi-Greek, but who knows--her skin is a bit dark to have been away from sunlight for thousands of years). Are they all white? It's especially weird that they actually include the Arabic princess in the bunch, and still say they're all white. Douchebags.

I suspect they had Kida and Mulan in the batch for a day or two, but they got sick of the others bitching about their hair and singing douchy songs and beat the shit out of them, Joan Jett style. And Pocahontas' raccoon wouldn't stop shitting on Cinderella's glass shoes.

[Double_G]

The reason this bugs me is that I keep hearing Beyonce or Brandi or some other pice of carp singer of what passes for R&B these days is soon supposed to be the first non-white princess.

I read about that one too, but I don't recall them ever advertising it as Disney's first "non-white" princess. From what I read, they were just publicizing the fact that it's their first black princess.

Anyhoo...as for favorite Disney cartoons, I always think of the four that impacted me most when I was a kid, which are "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", and "The Lion King". I loved those, as well as "Snow White" and of course, "The Jungle Book".

All of Pixar's stuff has been good to outstanding, so they're in a category all their own.

As for bad stuff, I never really saw any traditional animated Disney movie that I hated (though to date, I still haven't seen "Treasure Planet", "Brother Bear" or "Home on the Range"). But if I had to pick a least favorite, I'd pick "Cinderella". I just found it extremely boring. I haven't seen it in more than 10 years, so maybe my opinion of it may change if I watched it again, but I'm in no hurry.

[Ran]

I don't have a single favorite, but I like Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood, Sword in the Stone, Fantasia, and Jungle Book (the bear makes it better).

Even though I read all the books, I never saw The Black Cauldron. It has been so long since I read them, I don't even remember what they were about.

The Tinkerbell movie just came out today. Since I have 2 girls who are into the whole Disney Princess thing, it is just a matter of time before I see it. As far as I know, it was direct to video, so it probably blows.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

When I was about 2-4, I fucking loved Aladdin. That was the shit. I watched it all the time, got the figures and coloring books and everything. (As an aside, I previously carried Sesame Street figurines through the grocery store and everywhere else, so I guess I've always liked figures.)

I also constantly watched a video of Mickey Mouse cartoons that we dubbed "Mickey and the seals" due to one of the cartoons. It had the one where they were in the trailer on the road, and the one where Chip n' Dale try to steal Donald Duck's unfortunately-named Nut Butter. Fuck, I loved that tape.

After Nightmare Before Christmas came to video, I watched that every day for a while. Though it wasn't technically Disney at the time (they've changed the opening logos from Touchstone to Disney after it became famous and they wanted to associate themselves with it more closely, it seems), that's probably still my favorite "Disney" movie. I'm gonna watch it tomorrow, actually.

What was the Winnie the Pooh one with those heffalumps and woozels or whatever? That was fucking scary as fuck, when the guy with a honey jar for a head was walking. It was like a bad acid trip for preschoolers. My oldest sister liked Winnie (is his species Pooh, like how Jabba the Hutt is a Hutt?).

For me, The Emperor's New Groove was the last great animated movie Disney made, and that one doesn't really feel like a typical Disney movie. Most of the stuff in the 90's was just fantastic, but maybe I think that since I was a kid in those years. Everything after that (including, yes, Lilo & Stitch) has been a huge drop in quality. As Double_G said, though, everything Pixar touches turns to gold (though I still haven't seen Ratatouille).

The Tinkerbell movie just came out today. Since I have 2 girls who are into the whole Disney Princess thing, it is just a matter of time before I see it. As far as I know, it was direct to video, so it probably blows.

Plus, it's in extremely shitty-looking CGI. I don't know why they have to fuck with the classics; it's not like they don't have a fucking license to print money anyway.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

Take back what you said about Lilo and Stitch, you sonofabitch! take it back!

That movie is so awesome because if Walt Disney were alive to see it, he would say "What the Fuck?!?" It's like everything before it was pitched right handed, and Disney (the company) realized 2D was on the way out so they decided to throw the last one southpaw. It's such a bizarre, wonderful film. They've kinda sucked up the franchise with the sequels and the half hour cartoons ( like they do all their properties) but that movie is the cherry on top of their 2D sundae legacy.

Which reminds me. I have to go on ebay and find one of those Disney exclusive Emperor Stitch figures.

[Diabolical]

I really don't like any of the traditionally animated Disney films. I'm not saying their shit, but seeing them once was more than enough for me.

The Tinkerbell movie just came out today. Since I have 2 girls who are into the whole Disney Princess thing, it is just a matter of time before I see it. As far as I know, it was direct to video, so it probably blows.

Plus, it's in extremely shitty-looking CGI. I don't know why they have to fuck with the classics; it's not like they don't have a fucking license to print money anyway.

Works for Lucasfilm.

[kidhuman]

Faves:

Lion King
Aladdin
Robin Hood
Fantasia
Fox and the Hound

about all I can think of right now

[Kirk Lazarus]

I read about that one too, but I don't recall them ever advertising it as Disney's first "non-white" princess. From what I read, they were just publicizing the fact that it's their first black princess.

What do you mean black princess?

[Slicker]

Probably my favorite Disney movie is Dumbo. It just goes back to being a kid. "Baby Mine" is probably the saddest Disney song ever too.

I also like:

Lion King
All Pixar films
Aladdin
Beauty and the Beast

[Double_G]

What do you mean black princess?

You're Australian. Be Australian.

I forgot to mention "The Nightmare Before Christmas". I love the hell out of that one, too, but I've never really considered it to be a Disney movie.

Since everyone else seems to be bringing up "Lilo and Stitch", I'll share my thoughts on it too. Honestly I don't remember much of it. I haven't seen it since it was in theaters six years ago. I wasn't crazy about it, but I thought it was okay. I do remember loving the trailers (like this one and this one) much more than the movie itself. Those were awesome enough without the addition of AC/DC.