Disney Animated Canon Round 3: The Awkward Age

[Mr. Smith]

With Zootopia coming soon to mark the 55th Animated film to come of Disney itself [and not Pixar], this seemed inevitable.
This specific round is focused on those films is focused on those made after Disney himself died, but before The Little Mermaid came out. Most notable is that Don Bluth left and started his own thing, making The Secret of NIMH in 1982, and from there managed to make two films that actually outperformed Disney at the box-office.

Also notable was that one of these films had a princess that is not in the Merch and bombed against The Care Bears Movie.

Anyway here's the line-up:

The Aristocats: I only remember really disliking this one. Someone else probably has a better take

Robin Hood: The one about Robin Hood the Fox and King John the Thumb-sucking Lion

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Everyone knows of this one, probably because of Eeyore and Tigger.

The Rescuers: This one's about mice working for their UN who go out rescue a kidnapped girl in Louisiana

The Fox and the Hound: This one's self-explanatory

The Black Cauldron: This one's the "failure", for proof, why is there a princess here who didn't make the merch line-up. She's far more interesting than Aurora

The Great Mouse Detective: This is the one where Vincent Price is a campy bad guy.

Oliver and Company: Very loose version Oliver Twist, in New York City, with a cat named Oliver and a bunch of dogs.

BLUE IS WORST, RED IS BEST.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The Black Cauldron: This one's the "failure", for proof, why is there a princess here who didn't make the merch line-up. She's far more interesting than Aurora

That is most likely not because it was a failure, which it was, but because unlike the other Disney princesses the source material it is based on is NOT in the public domain.  If Disney wanted to turn it into a marketing phenomenon, they'd have to share the loot they took in with the estate of Lloyd Alexander who wrote the pentology the movie is based on: The Chronicles of Prydain.  (Technically, the movie is based on just the first two books: The Book of Three and The Black Cauldron. Had it done well, Disney might well have made a couple more movies out of the series.)

[Mr. Smith]

The Black Cauldron: This one's the "failure", for proof, why is there a princess here who didn't make the merch line-up. She's far more interesting than Aurora

That is most likely not because it was a failure, which it was, but because unlike the other Disney princesses the source material it is based on is NOT in the public domain.  If Disney wanted to turn it into a marketing phenomenon, they'd have to share the loot they took in with the estate of Lloyd Alexander who wrote the pentology the movie is based on: The Chronicles of Prydain.  (Technically, the movie is based on just the first two books: The Book of Three and The Black Cauldron. Had it done well, Disney might well have made a couple more movies out of the series.)

Fair enough.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Many of the films on this list are horribly underrated.

The Aristocats: Very similar to Gay Purr-ee, a Chuck Jones film that also involved cats in Paris.  Not bad, but not especially good, either.

Robin Hood: Awesome film.  Using animals for the characters adds a special charm, and the obvious political themes can appeal to both liberals and conservatives.  (And BTW, his name is Prince John, not King John.)

The Rescuers: Haven't seen it in years, but had some awesome music.  I loved "Someone's Waiting for You," and my mom used to sing me to sleep with it.

The Fox and the Hound: Pretty good.  The scene where Widow Teed releases Tod made me cry.

The Black Cauldron: Haven't seen it, don't care to.  Obvious occult themes.

The Great Mouse Detective: Like The Aristocats, not bad, but not real good either.

Oliver & Company: Good story and characters, but not especially great.

[Chuck Schumer Can Go F*** Himself]

Was the Great Mouse Detective the one with the crippled bat?  I liked the evil bat cripple a lot when I was little for some reason.

[Sic Semper Fascistis]

Best: The Great Mouse Detective. This movie is AWESOME! Don't understand why it's so overlooked. It might actually be my favorite Disney movie.

Least good: Meh, Winnie the Pooh I guess. Never cared much for it.

[OSR stands with Israel]

The Rescuers

[dead0man]

This is why people of my generation care a lot less about Disney than the people older and younger.  The Disney movies were garbage when I was a kid.  DisneyWorld/Land was cool when I was a kid, but the Disney movies, not so much.

best Robin Hood I guess

worst the Aristocats.....I'd much rather watch the Aristocrats documentary about the joke.

[Mr. Smith]

I made it pretty clear that I despise The Aristocats, but as for my favorite, I have to give it to The Rescuers.

Bianca and Bernard were just great, the opening with the floating bottle, and now as an adult the fluidity of the story. Unpopular as this opinion seems to be these days, but I like it better than the sequel.

@dead0: I'll have to re-post this for another round, it rather nicely describes the 2000's as well.

@Tony: Probably because An American Tail came out simultaneously and felt more like the old style (courtesy on Don Bluth) of Disney.

[Sic Semper Fascistis]

@Tony: Probably because An American Tail came out simultaneously and felt more like the old style (courtesy on Don Bluth) of Disney.

Aside from featuring mice, they have nothing in common. Haven't seen An American Tail yet so I can't judge on which is better, but it's definitely not the same kind of story, and I definitely have a preference for the mystery/detective story one.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

i need to watch the black cauldron at some point. loved the chronicles of prydain when i was a kid

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

Let me throw in a controversial opinion somewhat related to earlier discussion:

Don Bluth > Disney

[Sic Semper Fascistis]

Let me throw in a controversial opinion somewhat related to earlier discussion:

Don Bluth > Disney

How is that controversial? I'm pretty sure most people who grew up in the 1980s/early 90s would agree with that.

It's certainly hard to deny that Bluth is one of the greatest animators in history.

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

Funnily enough the first movie I ever saw in theaters but can't remember (and according to my mom slept through most of) was a Disney one (a Bambi re-release), the first movie I remember seeing in theaters was a Don Bluth one (The Land Before Time).

Also Tony so many people in that age range actually would just think Bluth's movies are Disney, it's a very common misconception, the most confused one is Anastasia (although to be fair that was a pretty blatant attempt to be as Disney-esque as possible, even making it a musical which most of Bluth's films are not.)

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I almost forgot The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  I was a huge Pooh fan when I was little, so I liked it then, but now, I'm not a big fan.  It's just a package film of previously released featurettes.

[Kamala-Tim 2024]

I grew up with these Disney movies, actually, since my parents had Fox and the Hound, Rescuers, Aristocats, and Robin Hood on VHS. So I doubt I'd be able to evaluate them too objectively; that said, I'm voting Rescuers for best and O&C for worst.

[Mr. Morden]

I greatly enjoyed Black Cauldron when I was a kid, but have no idea if it would hold up at all as an adult.  Probably not.  It does have that annoying hairy creature that talks just like Gollum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqja6OXjGn4