As a follow-up to Top 30 Greatest CGI Movies of All
Time, after almost an eternity, I have finally created the Top 50 Greatest Traditional
(hand-drawn) Animated Movies of All Time! HOWEVER, the rules will be stricter,
and here they are:
Rule #1: The movie had to have a theatrical
release in the US, with the exception of Kiki's Delivery Service.
Rule #2: The movie cannot be based
on or be a follow-up to a previous animated TV series.
Rule #3: The movie cannot be rated
higher than PG-13 because it’s against my personal policy.
Rule #4: The movie has to entirely,
or at least mostly, hand-drawn. Basically, no movies like Who Framed Roger
Rabbit, though The Three Caballeros is an exception.
Rule #5: The movie cannot be rated
lower than 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, except for The Last Unicorn.
Rule #6: The movie has to be at
least an hour long.
Rule #7: The movie cannot be made up
of smaller segments, with the exceptions of The Three Caballeros, The
Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and of course, Fantasia.
Rule #8: No sequels except for The
Rescuers Down Under.
ALSO, many of these consensuses I have taken from these three following books.
The Art of Walt Disney by Christopher Finch
100 Animated Feature Films by Andrew Osmand
The World History of Animation by Stephen Cavalier
Now that is out of the
way, let’s start the countdown!
50. Ferngully: The Last Rainforest
(1992)
In the continent of Australia, there
is a magical forest called Ferngully, where fairies and woodland creatures live
in peace and harmony. However, one fairy named Crysta is curious on what lies
beyond the rainforest. When she saves and shrinks a human named Zak, she brings
him back to Ferngully and they get to know each other. Little does Crysta know
that Zak was actually part of a deforestation team, and he accidentally set
free the poison demon Hexxus (voiced by the legendary Tim Curry), who is set on
destroying Ferngully! Like many Disney movies, the filmmakers went on a
research trip to Australia to capture the film's look. All the creatures and
plants featured in the movie are real-life species, even the singing goanna
(voiced by Tone-Loc), who was inspired by a goanna that director Bill Kroyer
encountered. Ferngully did moderately at the box-office, but got mixed reviews.
As the years went by, however, it would become a cult classic among fans.
49. The Three Caballeros (1945)
In the early 1940s, the Army took
over the Disney Studios and forced them to make WWII propaganda short films.
During this time, Walt Disney and a team of artists from the studio traveled to
Argentina, hoping American movies would become popular in Latin America. During
the trip, Disney and his crew made four shorts films, sewed them together, and
created Saludos Amigos in 1943. The Three Caballeros, which premiered two years
later, followed a similar concept, but this time, the short films would all
connect to the same story. In this case, Donald Duck receives numerous birthday
gifts from Latin America, including a visit from a parrot named Jose Carioca
and a rooster named Panchito Pistolles. The Three Caballeros was also Walt's
first attempt at mixing live-action footage with animated characters since the
1920s. Near the end of the feature, the birds of a feather would ride on a
magic carpet and travel to various locations in South America, in real life.
Even after the war ended, the Disney Studios would continue to produce package
films until the end of the decade.
48. The Rescuers (1977)
After Walt's death in 1966, the
Disney Studios were having trouble making animated features. The Aristocats got
mixed reviews, Robin Hood suffered from many character designs and animation
sequences that were used in previous features, and while The Many Adventures of
Winnie the Pooh is enjoyable, it is simply made up of three short films that
were made in 1966, 1968, and 1974. However, in the summer of 1977, The Rescuers
premiered in theaters, and became a big success. Based on the children's books
by Margery Sharp, The Rescuers tells the story of two mice named Bernard and
Bianca (voiced by Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor respectively) who set on a mission
to save an orphaned human girl named Penny from the greedy Madam Medusa (voiced
by Geraldine Page). The Rescuers was the last movie for all of Disney's Nine
Old Men to work on, but some of them did work on The Fox and the Hound.
47. An American Tail (1986)
After The Secret of NIMH, Steven
Spielberg teamed up with Don Bluth to make animated movies that were superior
to Disney's at the time. Their first collaboration was An American Tail, which
tells the story of a Jewish mouse named Fievel Mousekawitz, named after
Spielberg's grandfather. In order to escape from their home country Russia,
which was infested with cats, the Mousekawitz family, along with a whole gaggle
of mice with varying ethnicities, catch a ride on a human boat heading for
America. During a rainstorm, Fievel falls off the ship and gets lost in New York
City. During his adventure to find his family, Fievel encounters many
characters, like tax collector Warren T. Rat, a French swallow named Henri
(Christopher Plumber), and a cat named Tiger (Dom DeLuise), who refuses to eat
mice. An American Tail became the highest-grossing Non-Disney animated feature,
until it was surpassed by The Land before Time two years later. More will be
discussed in entry #29.
46. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
(2002)
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron was
DreamWorks' third hand-drawn animated feature, and their fifth animated movie
in total. The film tells the story of a wild horse named Spirit, who gets
captured by cowboys and taken to a Wild West town. Spirit gets rescued by a
Native American human, and together, go on an adventure to return Spirit to the
wild. Like Bambi and Lion King before them, the animators studied real animals
to achieve believability. In this case, they studied horses. 'Spirit' did only
modestly at the box-office, probably because it had to compete against the
first Ice Age. 'Spirit' is also, so far, the only movie from DreamWorks
Animation to have the G-rating, while others were rated PG.
45. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(1996)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is
considered by fans, aside from The Black Cauldron, to be the darkest movie from
Walt Disney Animation Studios. Based on the novel by Victor Hugo, this movie tells
the story of a deformed man named Quasimodo (Tom Hulce), who has been raised in
the Notre Dame bell tower for 20 years. The only friends he has are three
gargoyle statues named Victor, Hugo, and Laverne. On the Feast of Fools, Quasi
asks his boss and caretaker, Judge Claude Frollo (Tony Jay), if he could go.
Frollo resents, but Quasi sneaks out anyway. When the townspeople see Quasi,
they laugh at his ugliness and throw fruits and vegetables at him. However, he
gets rescued by a beautiful gypsy named Esmeralda, and she helps him escape.
Enraged by this, Frollo seeks revenge by burning down all of Paris to find
Esmeralda so he can kill her. 'Hunchback' got exceptional reviews, but
unfortunately didn't meet box-office expectations, maybe because of its dark
tone and themes.
44. The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
The Rescuers Down Under was the
first Disney movie to use the CAPS system, which stands for Computer Animation
Process System. That means the characters and backgrounds were colored
digitally, but were still hand-drawn. Disney would continue using the CAPS
system until 2004. Anyway, The Rescuers Down Under continues the adventures of
Bernard and Bianca (once again, Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor), in which
they have to rescue a boy in Australia named Cody, who was taken hostage by
poacher Percival C McLeach (George C. Scott) and his pet goanna named Joanna
(Frank Welker). McLeach kidnapped Cody because he had a feather that belonged
to a golden eagle that is worth a fortune. The Rescuers Down Under is a very
enjoyable follow-up to the original 1977 movie, with breathtaking animation,
great music by Bruce Broughton, a threatening villain, and a hilarious
albatross named Wilbur, voiced by the late John Candy. The movie unfortunately
bombed at the box-office, most likely because it premiered the exact same day
as Home Alone.
43. The Prince of Egypt (1998)
Antz may have been the first movie
to be released by DreamWorks Animation, but their first true film was The
Prince of Egypt. The movie told the story of Exodus as a musical, and starred
the voices of Val Kilmer, Sandra Bullock, Michelle Pfeiffer, Steve Martin,
Martin Short, Jeff Goldblum, and Danny Glover. The filmmakers wanted to tell a
more grown-up story without using talking animals or zany sidekicks like how
other studios were doing it at the time. 'Egypt' was also the American animated movie to have a female director, Brenda Chapman. The Prince of Egypt premiered in
December 1998, got really good reviews, and earned over 200 million dollars
worldwide. It also won the Oscar for Best Original Song (When You Believe).
42. The Adventures of Ichabod and
Mr. Toad (1949)
This was the only other Disney
package film I chose for this countdown. It comprises of two half-hour
segments: Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hallow. Wind in the
Willows, based on the children's novel by Kenneth Grahame, tells the story of a
wealthy toad named Thaddeus J Toad, who has a habit of reckless driving.
However, his driving would lead him to lawsuits and big financial trouble. The
Legend of Sleepy Hallow, based on the story by Washington Irving, tells the
story of a lanky, yet gluttonous teacher named Ichabod Crane. When he calls in
love with the beautiful Katrina van Tassel, Brom Bones gets jealous. To get
Ichabod Crane away from his girl, Brom Bones scares him by telling the story of
the Headless Horseman. Ichabod scoffs at the thought and leaves the tavern on
his horse, but soon discovers the legend is true. 'Ichabod and Mr. Toad', along
with The Three Caballeros, are probably one of the more memorable package films
from the 1940s.
41. Lilo & Stitch (2002)
After the box-office disappointments
of Fantasia 2000, The Emperor's New Groove, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire,
Michael Eisner, CEO of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 to 2005, decided that
Disney should make a shorter and cheaper animated movie that would hopefully
earn a lot of money. The result was Lilo & Stitch, the most successful
animated Disney movie during the 2000s. It was also the directorial debut of
Chris Sanders, who was a character designer and storyboard artist for movies
like The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Mulan.
In this movie, Dr. Jumba Jookiba (David Odger Stiers) is on trial for creating
an illegal genetic experiment nicknamed 6-2-6 (voiced by director Chris
Sanders). He is bulletproof, fireproof, can see in the dark, think smarter than
a supercomputer, and lift objects 3000 times his own size. His only instinct is
to destroy everything he touches! Because of this, the United Galactic
Federation plans to send 6-2-6 to a desert asteroid and Jumba to a prison cell.
6-2-6, however, escapes, hijacks a police cruiser, and crash-lands on Earth.
The Grand Councilwoman (Zoe Caldwell) has no choice but to send so-called Earth
expert Pleakley (Kevin McDonald) and Jumba to Earth and retrieve 6-2-6. Back on
Earth, on the island of Hawaii, there live two sisters: 19-year-old Nani
Pelekai (Tia Carrere) and 6-year-old Lilo Pelekai (Daveigh Chase). Both of
their parents died in a car accident, so Nani is doing all she can to take care
of Lilo and trying to get a job. When Lilo mistakes 6-2-6 for a dog and names
him 'Stitch', the state of Hawaii gets turned upside-down. Lilo & Stitch
did very well at the box-office, got great reviews, and even got nominated for
the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but lost to the Japanese-produced Spirited
Away.
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