I really, really had to narrow this list down. I thought I’d go with Animated Movies. Then Animated Children’s Movies. And then I had to make it Disney Movies. And then Disney Movies I watched as a child or else I couldn’t have decided at all. And it’s been hard enough as it is. Even though I cheated (there’s a few ties there I didn’t count correctly). Sorry!
As it is, I guess there will be a follow-up list with non-Disney movies. :)
Anyway, this is not a critical analysis of these movies (because oh, boy! I’d be sitting here next year still if I did that…). I’m aware that most, if not all of them send problematic messages – anti-feminist, racist, etc etc. But this post is a celebration of nostalgic childhood memories.
10. Cinderella
I love fairy tales. In all forms. But for this list I limited myself to one of the three big Grimm adaptations (the others being Sleepy Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). While I love them all, Cinderella is definitely my favourite. The music and the mice and the fairy godmother…
They made the right decision to stay with the much less bloody and cruel version by Charles Perrault, thus rendering this fairy tale almost truly fit for children.
9. Oliver & Company
This lovely take on Dickens‘ Oliver Twist really has a special place in my heart. It’s one of the movies where I can still quote bits and pieces despite not having seen it in about 10 years. Probably because I had the movie and the radio play and some fan book.
It even made me try to read Oliver Twist, but I never made it. Dickens remains inaccessible to me. (He and Enid Blyton. But that’s a different story.) Anyhow, love the film.
8. The Little Mermaid
Hans Christian Andersen is probably my favourite fairy tale writer. [Maybe I’ll make a ranking of those as well. :)] And although Disney changed quite a bit about the story (like making it happy), I love their version, too. Again, the music is remarkable and it’s really funny.
Also, it’s a lesson in cultural relativity and the difficulties in intercultural realtionships. [Even if the problems are resolved fairy tale-style – by marrying – growing up in an environment where I was the different one, culturally, seeing that other people have these problems as well meant a lot to me. [Though as a child I never saw it that clearly, of course.]
7. The Rescuers tied with Peter Pan
Based on two novels by Margery Sharp, we have here the combination of two successful things: mice and orphans. But the actual star of the film is of course Orville the albatross. And the firefly.
Plus, who couldn’t love a movie with the UN of Mice?
Peter Pan, adapted from J. M. Barrie‘s exceptional book, is a wonderful story. And a wonderful film. Full of magic and danger and love and hope. It is amazing how I love the whole thing, even though I don’t like Peter, nor Wendy, nor Tinkerbell.
Oh, I need to read it again. :)
6. AristoCats
AristoCats has charm and wonderful music and it’s funny. And it still hasn’t lost its appeal – my nephew loves it, my atheistchild loves it. The kittens might be the sweetest kittens in the history of kittens.
Please excuse me for a second.
[*sings* Everybody wants to be a cat]
Btw. – did you notice that it’s the first film in this list that wasn’t adapted from a book? At least as far as I know.
5. Robin Hood tied with Alice in Wonderland
Robin Hood is pure genius. The music, the characters, the character design and the whole story. Nuff said.
And we’re back to book adaptations. Lewis Carroll‘s book is a wonderfully weird experience and so is the movie. And I have two words for you: Cheshire Cat. Love it.
4. The Great Mouse Detective tied with The Sword in the Stone
And here we are again – mice, almost orphans and adapted from books (based on other books). I never noticed the overrepresentation of mice in animated movies before…
Anyway, the plot is ludicrous and that what makes a good part of the charm of this movie. Plus, Vincent Price speaks Professor Ratigan.
The Sword in the Stone is a fabulous take on the King Arthur legends. I’m pretty sure that it’s even the best. Which is not undue to Merlin, Mim and mostly Archimedes. It’s been ages that I’ve seen it, but – just like with Oliver & Co – I can still quote dialogue and describe scenes in detail.
3. Beauty and the Beast tied with Pocahontas
Again, the music is wonderful. And the enchanted castle and its employees, and of course the story (kind of originally by Jeanne Marie Le Prince de Beaumont) itself. But what I liked most about it was Belle. She was beautiful, but she was also smart. She read a lot and I loved to have a woman like her in my fictional life. [In real life, most of my family members are voracious readers, so that was never a problem.] She was cool because she did the same things I did.
And I’m pretty sure that Beauty and the Beast was where my fascination for various were-animals started. :)
Pocahontas is a magical movie. Absolutely magical. There’s no need to say more.
2. Aladdin
This movie has it all – the music… Abu… the sweet story… Rajah… Iago… and Robin Williams was still funny! Plus I always thought Jasmine and Aladdin the most beautiful of all the pairs in Disney movies. [Though I think Prince Erik from the Little Mermaid and Pocahontas more beautiful than either, as a pair Jasmine and Aladdin beat them. Now, if Prince Erik were to meet Pocahontas…]
1. The Lion King
My absolute favourite. Makes me laugh, makes me cry, I know all the songs by heart and I even played the Nintendo Game for weeks on end, over and over again. I still watch it at least every three months. What can I say? I love it absolutely and irrevocably.
kalafudra's Stuff 
Oooooooooooh, that’s my kind of list.
I’m pretty much with you on most of them, although I’d rank them differently, and I’d put “Dumbo” on the list instead of “Alice in Wonderland”, because I never actually saw that one, although I had the picture book. I have no idea how that happened *shrug*.
Now I can’t even decide what to sing. Maybe I’ll do a medley…
Oh my goodness! I can’t believe that I didn’t mention Dumbo!!! Bad kalafudra, bad, bad, bad!
*cries*
I weep openly every time I see The Lion King. Don’t know what it is – some of the other Disney movies have the same elements: emotional plot, beautiful artistry, gorgeous music – but nothing makes me cry like Simba heading up Pride Rock in the rain…
Not sure what I’d take out of your top 10 to make mine (I’d probably have 20 all tied!) but I’d definitely have Mulan in there: it’s wonderful, and if I could be any Disney lady I’d be Fa Mulan, she was kick-ass. Plus, Li-Sheng was rather attractive… :)
Simba heading up Pride Rock, Mufasa’s death, Simba’s eviction etc – there’s so many scenes where I cry, it’s almost worrying. :)
Mulan was good, but it wasn’t a favorite of mine… Although you are right about Li-Sheng. ;)
Man, it’s surprising how many of these I HAVEN’T seen… although The Lion King is totally my favourite, too.
Well, I think it’s necessary for your basic education that you watch all of the movies mentioned here (including the ones mentioned in the comments).
So, pip-pip! :P
I haven’t seen half of them :P
Which one is racist? (I see the anti-feminism, but the racism I really can’t see.)
Lion king is my favorite, too.
People, people, what am I gonna do with you? ;)
Racism is evident in The Little Mermaid (Sebastian is Jamaican and sprouts such wonderful things like [paraphrased] I only want to relax and never work, which is not only completely out of character for him, but underlines the lazy black man “theory”), in AristoCats (just think of the “Chinese Cat), Pocahontas and Aladdin (their “exoticism” is practically unbearable when you think about it) and the general white washed world of all of these movies.
Unfortunately, that’s only what comes to mind off the top of my head…
Yup, Sebastian is bad. But he’s only bad if you watch the undubbed version, because the Jamaican accent was disappeared in the German one. And you have to know a lot about stereotypes and racist dogwhistling concerning people from the Caribbean, which chidren, specifically Austrian children can’t be expected to know. You can’t fault anyone for having missed something like that.
Same with all the others. We watched this stuff as children, and no matter how well we can decypher them now, there is nothing wrong with having missed it back then.
Oh, did that come across like faulting anyone? Then I’m sorry, I surely didn’t mean to…
The “What am I going to do with you”-part was regarding the fact that L. hadn’t even seen half of the movies… Not the racism question.
And you’re of course right about all you said.
The most racist of all is Peter Pan! The whole subplot of “going to kill the Injuns”? They even have two songs about it! And all the bad stuff they say…I haven’t seen it in quite a while, so the only line that comes to mind is something along the lines of “The Injun is a particularly dumb animal so it’s easy to catch.” And then the portrayal of the Indians is nothing but one big stereotype. I never really noticed it as a kid, but the first time I watched it when I was older, I was absolutely horrified that this was in a kids’ movie.
Very true! And it still happens today, though mostly it’s not that blatant anymore.
pffff und wo ist das letzte einhorn??
haha. titel lesen ist halt auch von vorteil, nicht wahr?
top 10: animated DINEY movies of my childhood.
alles klar.
ich bitte um verzeihung; ansonsten haettest du bestimmt das letzte einhorn bedacht..
ansonsten coole liste, obwohl bei mir arielle, bernhard&bianca und die schoene und das biest es weiter rauf geschafft haetten… ich hab in erinnerung, dass ich fuer koenig der loewen einfach schon zu alt war, aber wir sind ja gleich alt, also *???* keine ahnung.
a propos: zu alt ist man fuer gute disney filme natuerlich nie, und ich muss zugeben, dass ich ein großer fan von mulan bin. erstens ist das der einzige disney-typ, der mir gefallen wuerde und zweitens ist einer meiner lieblingssongs von mulan:
hoer ich immer im auto und sing sehr laut dabei mit :D letztens hatte ich meine schwester mit dabei, und mitten im lied fragt sie mich ploetzlich: “und wer ist dieser hans?” und ich so “haaeeh?” und sie “na sie singen doch: to defeat the hans..” jaja. lieb, gell.
(obwohl mir gerade klar wird, dass du diesen schoenen song sicher ganz schnell auf sexismus und anderen diskriminierungen zerfetzen kannst… hach.)
Natürlich hätte ich das letzte Einhorn bedacht. Ich arbeite schon an der nicht-Disney-Liste.
König der Löwen war 94, eventuell 95 – ich find mit 10 ist man noch nicht zu alt… :) Aber vielleicht hast du ihn erst später gesehen und warst dann schon weiter. Oder du warst früher in der Entwicklung dran als ich… Who knows? :)
Aber wie du schon sagst – ich schau auch noch mit Begeisterung Disney-Filme. Sogar im Kino.
lol @ Hans.
[Kennst du eigentlich die Agathe Bauer Songs? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fVuSGSvv4s ]
Das Lied ist aber echt schön. Und man kann so ziemlich alles zerfetzen auf diverse Disriminierungen hin – aber muss man ja nicht. Oder zumindest nicht immer. :)
ich? frueher entwickelt als du?
ich bitte dich.
durch dich hab ich als kind schon filme gesehen… im grunde hast du mich wesentlich mitgepraegt. zum beispiel “my own private idahoe”, erinnerst du dich?
waehrend ich nur an pferde gedacht hab, hast du schon satre gelesen. jaja.
Also, Sartre hab ich bis heute noch nicht gelesen… :)
Ich find’s witzig, dass du das sagst, ich hab nämlich immer gefunden, dass du schon viel erwachsener warst und du hast immer viel coolere Sachen gekannt als ich, besonders musikmäßig. Wahrscheinlich haben wir uns einfach gegenseitig sehr gefordert…
Oh ja, natürlich erinner ich mich an my own private idaho…
[…] Top 10: Animated Non-Disney Movies of My Childhood Thursday, 2. April 2009 As a follow-up to last week’s post about the my favourite Disney movies, here are my favourite non-Disney movies. Sad as it is, there are by far not as many movies in this […]
The top ten movies in here are for little children like 2-10 or 3-10, maybe more adventuring to us 11-15 or 11-16.
[…] could I ever choose? May I direct you here and here for lists of my childhood, but in the meantime there are like billions […]
does anybody ever notice the penises in the background?
lion king!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am 12 and i actually cry in almost every scene its just so beautiful o_O
Absolutely. It’s a wonderful film!
The Cinderella a wonderfull …and very much like film cinderella ….