r/DisneyMovies

Rules

1. The comment with the most upvoted movie wins the day.
2. No "either/or" votes; be specific about the movie you're going to choose, even if you mention another one you admire. Emphasize that your vote is only ONE.
3. No Pixar movies, no live-action movies, and no Marvel movies; only films produced by Walt Disney animated studios. See below for list of films not included

Winners of each day:

1. The Lion King (Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, 1994)

2. ⁠Beauty and The Beast (Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, 1991)

3. ⁠Little Mermaid (John Musker and Ron Clements, 1989)

4. ⁠Aladdin (John Musker and Ron Clements, 1992)

5. ⁠Hercules (John Musker and Ron Clements, 1997)

6. ⁠Mulan (Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft, 1998)

7. ⁠Hunchback of Notre Dame (Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, 1996)

8. ⁠Tarzan (Chris Buck and Kevin Lima, 1999)

9. ⁠Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi, Eric Larson, Les Clark and Wolfgang Reitherman, 1959)

10. ⁠Lilo and Stitch (Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, 2002)

11. ⁠Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson e Hamilton Luske, 1950)

12. ⁠Emperor's New Groove (Mark Dindall, 2000)

13.101 Dalmatians (Wolfgang Reitherman, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi, 1961)

14. Tangled (Nathan Greno and Byron Howard 2010)

15. Snow white and the 7 dawrfs (David Hand, Perce Pearce, William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson and Ben Sharpsteen 1937)

16. Robin hood (Wolfgang Reitherman 1973)

17. Zootropolis (Byron Howard and Rich Moore 2016)

18. The Princess and the Frog (John Musker and Ron Clements 2009)

19. The jungle book (Wolfgang Reitherman 1967)

20. Lady and the tramp (Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi and Wilfred Jackson 1955)

21. Pinocchio (Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Norm Ferguson, Jack Kinney, Wilfred Jackson and T. Hee 1940)

22. Treasure Planet John Musker and Ron Clements 2002)

23. Fanstia (Samuel Armstrong, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Ben Sharpsteen, David D. Hand, Hamilton Luske, Jim Handley, Ford Beebe,, T. Hee, Norm Ferguson, and Wilfred Jackson 1940)

24. Brother bear (Aaron Blaise and Aaron Blaise 2003)

25. Forzen (Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee 2013)

Can you believe there's actually a wikipedia dedicated to this exact subject? Of course, I had to check the sources, but it was interesting to learn about regardless:

• Kingdom of the Sun--An epic Inca musical that included plot points like an emperor and a commoner switching identities, the emperor being turned into a llama, and the emperor's advisor trying to blotch out the sun in order to regain her youth. The story had a lot of moving pieces and was eventually reworked into "The Emperor's New Groove." It'd be fun to see them try the idea again, though. Maybe try a new culture so it doesn't get comparisons and nix the animal transformation subplot.
• Swan Lake--Okay, according to that specific page, it was scrapped due to "The Swan Princess" being made...buuuuut if you check out Ron Clements' wiki page and follow the source, he did an interview saying he and John Musker were given it as an option to direct, but chose to do "Aladdin" instead for the action-comedy content as well as it being too similar to "The Little Mermaid," which is fair. It'd be so cool to see it revived though, preferably keeping the ballet aspects of it and maybe keeping the original score while making it a musical (but "Sleeping Beauty" did that and they didn't have a lot of songs, so that sucks). It'd also be neat to see it take place in a culture where ballet is very popular, ie Hungary. And if it is a musical, a return to operatic vocals like "Sleeping Beauty" would be MUCH appreciated.
• Gigantic--Disney's take on "Jack and the Beanstalk," set in the Golden Age of Spain with the songwriters of "Frozen" and a team that had been involved in (or would go on to be involved in) "Tangled" and "Inside Out 2." It kept getting delayed until finally being scrapped for some reason. I'd like to see it, though I'm curious if Disney would want to keep it in Spain since they just did Iberia with "Wish." I read a fan idea of it being set in Thailand a year ago, and I do like the idea of Disney returning to SEA sooner than later, especially for a musical.
• The Emperor's Nightingale--I'll admit I wasn't a fan of the fairy tale, but seeing Colin Stimpson's concept art and finding out it was gonna be an epic Indian story, I'm very curious to see how it panned out. Sadly it was scrapped in the 2000s since Disney saw the profitability of comedies and found a soaring, dramatic, and bittersweet film to not be in the cards right now.
• Tam Lin--I think Roger Allers could've had a great future at Disney if he'd gotten to produce all his planned projects. He wanted to do an Irish take on the Scottish ballad of Tam Lin, which Roy E. Disney--someone very in touch with his Irish roots--supported, but since Disney was in a power struggle with Michael Eisner and Eisner saw how much it meant to him, he cut the project, giving an explanation akin to "it was too Irish." I can't imagine how heartbreaking that must have been. Allers then took the project over to Sony and was gonna direct it with Brenda Chapman (but seeing how she was big on embracing her Scottish heritage, I'm curious if the story was gonna revert back to that; also wonder how it would've affected "Brave" if she made this), but Sony was also afflicted by the "let's make a comedy" bug and scrapped the project, making Allers direct "Open Season" instead.
• Sinbad--The film was greenlit thanks to the success of "Aladdin" and largely based on the 1950s comic series. However, it got cancelled, and Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to revive the idea when he made Dreamworks (and on a personal note, that movie frustrates me greatly).
• Homer's Odyssey--Supposedly it was cancelled since it couldn't translate to action-comedy. I do wonder if there would've been more push to adapt it if "Hercules" had performed stronger at the box office, though.
• Aida--A lot of people don't know we almost got a black lead earlier than Tiana. Disney bought the rights to a children's book version of the opera "Aida" and wanted to get Elton John involved in it due to his success with "The Lion King," AKA the highest-grossing animated film ever at that point. But Elton John didn't want to do another animated film and Disney suggest a Broadway musical instead. To this day, I mourn what we could've had--plus I really wish things with Stephen Schwartz hadn't went down the way they did; what he did for "The Prince of Egypt" he could've done for "Aida."
• Rumpelstiltskin--Well, I am kinda glad this one got cancelled since I'd want another angle on it. The original "Uncle Stiltskin" idea would be about Rumpelstiltskin trying to steal kids because he wants a family of his own.
• Untitled Persian Film--Suzi Yoonesi worked on a Persian film for 5 years for Disney and we heard very little about it. It's suspected that it was scrapped in favor of "Moana 2" due to the underperformance of "Wish" and "Strange World." Disney can't just stick to sequels whenever their original films underperform, but I'm not sure they know that.

From LA Remakes to constant Star Wars and Marvel junk to bogged down creativity in Disney's movies, this essay talks about the troubled legacy he'll leave behind

I made a posts on this on another subreddit, but I'll just combine them into one post here:

1. MENA (Middle East and North Africa)--I understand that this may not be Disney's first priority, seeing how they cancelled Suzi Yoonessi's Persian film, but seeing how they have a Disneyland planned for the United Arab Emirates and Jasmine is one of the most popular Disney princesses, it feels like a good idea for a MENA film. In particular, a MENA film with obvious influences; "Aladdin" was originally planned to take place in Iraq, but eventually became an amalgamation of Middle Eastern and South Asian influences mixed with an American touch. It'd be neat to see a Hollywood film that depicted this region without mystifying or exotifying it. On another post, someone did suggest the idea of Scheherazade, the woman who's story is the frame story of "1001 Nights," and while I wouldn't want a literal adaptation, a film where the female protagonist uses her wit and gift at storytelling would be welcome from a company who's best films are beloved for their unique adaptations and storytelling.

2. Romani or Indian culture--I remember reading that Spain has the highest Romani population in Europe and that someone was making a rewrite of "Wish" where the female lead was Romani, and I will admit it's been on my mind. Nevermind that we were robbed with Esmeralda not being a (permanent) member. I get why, but...it just sucks. Honestly I find it interesting that the average American probably won't know who the Romani are, but pop culture seems to love them, as evident in comics and shows. Granted, Disney doing an Indian musical would probably be the easier option (and potentially more lucrative, seeing how big India is on musicals), and doing a film focused on a nomadic culture could easily be misconstrued and done poorly--or undermined, emphasizing the country they live in and not diving into their unique culture; people have said similar for Asha's Amazigh culture in "Wish." Disney was going to adapt "The Emperor's Nightingale" and set it in India instead of China in the 2000s, but due to animation in America pivoting to comedy, it was scrapped due to it's epic, bittersweet tone. I'm not well-versed in Indian culture, but from the little I know, I think it'd be interesting to see them focus on Southern Indian-influenced cultures and territories, since Northern India usually gets most of the media attention. And not saying they HAVE to do it, but due to the Indian influence on several Southeast Asian cultures, the story could essentially work as damage control for the SEAs who felt disappointed with "Raya and the Last Dragon." From what I understand, there's a legend that the first king and queen of Cambodia were an Indian merchant and a naga (divine half-human half-serpent) princess, and Thailand has a tale of the Hindu god Hanuman having a mermaid lover named Suvannamaccha, so there's some cultural overlap.

3. Indigenous Americans--There's a great irony to the fact that Hollywood is a prolific industry but very little (positive) mainstream representation for the Indigenous people of the USA. "Pocahontas" is one of the most controversial Disney films due to taking creative liberties with a historical figure, but I do think some of that would decrease if it wasn't the only major Native American Disney princess movie and there was something more positive, or if another Native American film with positive representation took over the American zeigeist. Disney did make "Brother Bear," but that never reached significant heights. And even if it did, I'm sure a lot of people would like one that didn't follow the pattern of "POC is stuck as an animal for most of their film," especially since BB only talks about culture when Kenai is a human. Obviously we'd abandon any historic content (and the cliche of being a colonial story) for a new NA story and have fun with a fully fantasy film like many other Disney films. Heck, play their cards right, and it could be just as big as "Moana." I know "Native American" could refer to any indigenous group within the Americas, but I'm from the United States, so I am biased for the culture to be inspired by that country. Since "Pocahontas" was based on the Powhatan people of the Eastern Woodlands and "Brother Bear" was influenced on the Inuit people of the Arctic, perhaps the Southwest (interestingly, this region is known for having a significant albino community; an albino Disney princess or prince would be unique representation of it's own), the Great Plains, or the Pacific Northwest region could serve as inspiration.

4. Brazil--Given the buzz of "Encanto," creating another Latin American musical feels like the obvious choice--especially since Latin America is so diverse that it wouldn't feel like "just another Encanto"; outside of the Spanish-speaking areas, South America is also home to countries shaped by French and Portuguese cultures (definitely not limited to these, but just mentioning it in the "Latin" vein). In terms of diversity, Brazil has one of the largest black populations in the world outside of Africa. Of course, they also have the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, so that's also an option for the MC's identity. Plus Brazil has a big fanbase for Disney, to the point where they hosted D23 in 2024 and made me think they'd announce a Brazilian film--but oh, well.

5. Thailand--Given that Raya was the representation for Southeast Asia as a whole (with Thailand being one of the countries the team visited and researched for her film), I doubt we'll have a Southeast Asian Disney film anytime soon--the cultures become monoliths for some reason. But that doesn't mean I can't dream! Thailand is trying to get Disney to build a Disneyland there as the first one in Southeast Asia (though IDK if they'll seriously consider it since they're trying to build one in Abu Dhabi now; plus I wonder how that'd work since Thailand has a reputation for being a cheaper vacation destination, and Disneyland would essentially be the antithesis of that), so maybe Disney would make a film to celebrate that if it happened. Perhaps Fawn Veerasuthorn (head of story for "Raya and the Last Dragon" and co-director for "Wish") will offer some new ideas, or someone else entirely. It's a shame Matt Braly's too busy right now. I still feel like we were robbed of an SEA musical, and I remember reading online a suggestion where it was suggested Disney retool their Spanish idea for "Gigantic' into a Thai one.

6. Japan--Well, duh. Whether they use an anime style or not (I think they'd need something to rival "Demon Slayer"), I know I'd want it to be a musical. "Belle" and "Inu-Oh" are the only anime musicals I've ever heard of, and Disney could definitely make something memorable with the right people and less exec interference. Maybe it's my "Kingdom Hearts" side, but Tetsuya Nomura is one of my candidates to direct it (he did want to make FFXV a musical, after all) and Hikaru Utada to write the songs. I'm curious what time period they'd try. They could go modern to compete with "Belle" and "Kpop Demon Hunters," (as well as other western films with Asian leads from the 2010s to now) or try an older age. As it stands, "Mulan" took place somewhere between the 4th and 6th centuries while "Raya and the Last Dragon" takes place between the 9th and 12th centuries, so it's possible a Japanese Disney film would take place would take place around one of those period. Perhaps the Heian period would work. Of course, Japan is the one country where animation is taken more seriously than live-action, so it'd behoove Disney to come correct, perhaps having a director from Studio Ghibli or Studio Chizu head it--though as many have said, Disney's too corporate to really let their creativity work as it should. Shame, but maybe one day they'll be less self-conscious with self-image and branding (especially seeing how animation fans value quality).

7. Sub-Saharan Africa--Given the Disney+ shows of "Iwaju" and "Kizazi Moto" that explore African cultures through a sci-fi and fantasy lens, as well as Beyonce making a whole African-influenced companion album to the live-action remake of "The Lion King," I'd say it's overdue, particularly since Disney's made two films set in Africa, but they were either about animals or white people, so...I still feel robbed with us not getting an "Aida" film. Would've wanted Stephen Schwartz doing the music over Elton John and Tim Rice, though. I keep thinking that if Disney wants to do a fairy tale, "The One Armed Maiden" or "The Boy with a Moon on His Chest" are good places to start.

8. Hungary--This is largely due to being exposed to the works of Marcell Jankovics, known as the Hungarian Walt Disney, and really enjoying his work. It'd be interesting to see Disney pull some influences from his work for it.

Rules

1. The comment with the most upvoted movie wins the day.
2. No "either/or" votes; be specific about the movie you're going to choose, even if you mention another one you admire. Emphasize that your vote is only ONE.
3. No Pixar movies, no live-action movies, and no Marvel movies; only films produced by Walt Disney animated studios. See below for list of films not included

Winners of each day:

1. The Lion King (Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, 1994)

2. ⁠Beauty and The Beast (Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, 1991)

3. ⁠Little Mermaid (John Musker and Ron Clements, 1989)

4. ⁠Aladdin (John Musker and Ron Clements, 1992)

5. ⁠Hercules (John Musker and Ron Clements, 1997)

6. ⁠Mulan (Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft, 1998)

7. ⁠Hunchback of Notre Dame (Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, 1996)

8. ⁠Tarzan (Chris Buck and Kevin Lima, 1999)

9. ⁠Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi, Eric Larson, Les Clark and Wolfgang Reitherman, 1959)

10. ⁠Lilo and Stitch (Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, 2002)

11. ⁠Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson e Hamilton Luske, 1950)

12. ⁠Emperor's New Groove (Mark Dindall, 2000)

13.101 Dalmatians (Wolfgang Reitherman, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi, 1961)

14. Tangled (Nathan Greno and Byron Howard 2010)

15. Snow white and the 7 dawrfs (David Hand, Perce Pearce, William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson and Ben Sharpsteen 1937)

16. Robin hood (Wolfgang Reitherman 1973)

17. Zootropolis (Byron Howard and Rich Moore 2016)

18. The Princess and the Frog (John Musker and Ron Clements 2009)

19. The jungle book (Wolfgang Reitherman 1967)

20. Lady and the tramp (Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi and Wilfred Jackson 1955)

*21. Pinocchio (*Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Norm Ferguson, Jack Kinney, Wilfred Jackson and T. Hee 1940)

22. Treasure Planet John Musker and Ron Clements 2002)

23. Fanstia (Samuel Armstrong, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Ben Sharpsteen, David D. Hand, Hamilton Luske, Jim Handley, Ford Beebe,, T. Hee, Norm Ferguson, and Wilfred Jackson 1940)

24,Brother bear (Aaron Blaise and Aaron Blaise 2003)

Also how far down do we want to go

Top 25 and bottom 20

Top 30 and bottom 10

Top 40 and bottom 10

Top 50 and bottom 10

Top 50 and bottom 5

All 64 films ranked

Other