Top 50 Best Traditional Animated Movies of All Time Part 2/5

40. Hercules (1997)

In Disney's 35th animated feature, Zeus and Hera have a child named Hercules. Hades (James Woods), who fears that Hercules will intrude with his plan on taking over Mount Olympus, sends his devil flunkies Pain and Panic to turn Hercules mortal. However, before he gets to drink the last drop, two adults see Baby Hercules and adopt him. Eighteen years later, everyone in town labels him as dangerous. Wondering to know where he belongs, Hercules sets on a mission to find Phil (Danny DeVito), a satyr who trained wannabe heroes like Perseus, Theseus, Odysseus, and Achilles, and train with him to rejoin Zeus. Hercules got good reviews when it premiered, but like 'Hunchback', it didn't meet box-office expectations. Also, in Greece, people hated it because it didn't stick to the original story.

39. Anastasia (1997)

In 1994, after the failure of A Troll in Central Park, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman got a promotion from 20th Century Fox to create a new animation studio in Phoenix, Arizona. They both agreed, and thus, Fox Animation Studios was born. Their first feature was Anastasia, based on a real-life event in Russia. The story revolves around a young woman named Anya (Meg Ryan), who suffered from amnesia as a child. When she gets spotted by Dimitri (John Cusack), who is trying desperately to find the real Anastasia Romanov to earn money from the queen, he thinks that Anya is the real Anastasia, and not just an imposter, and brings her to France to prove to the queen that she's the real Anastasia. When the evil Rasputan (Christopher Lloyd) finds out that Anya is still alive, he won't rest until all the Romanovs are dead. Anastasia premiered in November 1997 to glowing reviews, became Don Bluth's most successful animated film, and even got nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song (Journey to the Past).

38. Dumbo (1941)

After the box-office failures of Pinocchio and Fantasia, Walt Disney decided that they should make a shorter and cheaper animated feature, but still tell a compelling story with brilliant animation. Based on the obscure children's book by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, Dumbo tells the story of a baby elephant named Dumbo, who has very large ears. After being made fun of at the petting zoo by a human boy, Mrs. Jumbo, Dumbo's mother, gets furious and slaps the boy's bottom. Because of this, the ringmaster of the circus puts Mrs. Jumbo in solitary confinement. Dumbo seeks out help from a mouse named Timothy, and, through a series of events, learns how to fly with his big ears. Dumbo did very well at the box-office, got great reviews, and won the Oscar for Best Original Score. Dumbo was even going to appear on an issue of TIME magazine, but because Pearl Harbor got attacked by the Japanese military, he got replaced with Admiral Yamamoto instead.

37. The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

After the box-office disaster of The Black Cauldron, Walt Disney Productions lost a ton of money. To top it all off, they were forced to move to a smaller apartment in Glendale, California, and Walt Disney Productions was renamed Walt Disney Feature Animation. During production of The Black Cauldron, some team members wanted to work on a different project. The result: The Great Mouse Detective, the directorial debut of Ron Clements and John Musker, who would later work on Disney classics like The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. Based on the book 'Basil of Baker Street' by Eve Titus, The Great Mouse Detective tells the story of a mouse detective named Basil. Young mouse Olivia seeks Basil's help because her father has been kidnapped by Rattigan (Vincent Price). He wants Hiram Flaversham, Olivia's father, to build an animatronic queen so Rattigan can rule all of England, or at least the mouse population. The Great Mouse Detective did good at the box-office, but was overshadowed by An American Tail.

36. Tarzan (1999)

Tarzan was the last animated Disney movie to be released in the Disney Renaissance. Based on the book by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the story is about a human baby who was raised by gorillas. When he reaches adulthood, he sees other humans, including a female named Jane Porter. Clayton, the leader and hunter of the human troop, uses Tarzan to find the gorillas so he can kill them to make a profit. For Tarzan, the filmmakers made a program called the 'Deep Canvas' technique, in which computer generated backgrounds would look hand-drawn, but still feel 3D. This technique would later be used for Atlantis and Treasure Planet. Anyway, Tarzan earned over 400 million dollars at the box-office and won the Oscar for Best Original Song (You'll Be In My Heart).

35. The Fox and the Hound (1981)

In the late 70s, Disney's Nine Old Men were considering on retiring, even though the next Disney feature, The Fox and the Hound, was on its way. To makes matters worse, Don Bluth, the most skilled of the younger generation of Disney artists, left to form his own studio. That means the rest of the project required Disney to hire new animators, like Andreas Deja, John Lasseter, John Musker, and Brad Bird. Also, returning from The Rescuers, there was Ron Clements, Glen Keane, and Andy Gaskill. Others listed in the credits include Don Hahn and Burny Mattison. Anyway, The Fox and the Hound tells the story of Tod, a fox, and Copper, a hound, who become childhood friends, but grow up to find themselves face-to-face with the conventional prejudices of the adult world– a world in which foxes and hounds are not supposed to get along. Tod's adoptive human mother has no choice but to release him back into the wild when he becomes an adult. The Fox and the Hound was a transitional movie in that- despite important contributions from the Nine Old Men- it was carried out largely by younger artists, some of whom would be key figures in the Disney Renaissance.

34. The Princess and the Frog (2009)

In 2004, Disney abandoned hand-drawn animation in favor of the more profitable 3D computer animation. Their first CGI movie WITHOUT the aid of Pixar was Chicken Little, released in 2005. Chicken Little got mainly negative reviews from both critics and fans, but it earned enough money to pay off its budget. In 2006, Disney bought Pixar for 7 billion dollars, and John Lasseter, co-founder of Pixar, became head of Walt Disney Feature Animation, which would eventually be renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios. The first thing he declared is that the directors can use any form of animation they want. John Musker and Ron Clements, who were 2D veterans with The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, decided that there should be a new princess movie, which would lead to The Princess and the Frog. The plot is very hard to explain, so let's just say it's like The Frog Prince with a twist. The Princess and the Frog was Disney's first princess movie since Pocahontas in 1995, and their first hand-drawn feature since Home on the Range in 2004. Princess and the Frog got good reviews, earned 270 million dollars at the box-office, and got nominated for three Oscars, including Best Animated Feature.

33. 101 Dalmatians (1961)

101 Dalmatians was the first animated feature to use the Xerox process, in which animation cels were transmitted into the machine and copied. Based on the book by Dodie Smith, 101 Dalmatians tells the story of two Dalmatians named Pongo and Perdita. When Perdita gets pregnant with 15 puppies, the villainous Cruella de Ville, who kills animals just so she can wear their fur, tells Roger and Anita, the owners of Pongo and Perdita, that when those puppies are born, they would belong to Cruella. Roger and Anita deny the request, so a few weeks after they were born, Cruella orders her flunkies Horace and Jasper to kidnap the puppies and bring them back to her. When Pongo and Perdita find out that their puppies have been stolen, it is up to them to rescue the puppies. 101 Dalmatians got really good reviews when it premiered, and has become a classic. Cruella is an outstanding over-the-top Disney villain, brilliantly animated by Marc Davis, and is one of the very few Disney villains who doesn't get killed or imprisoned, despite her dastardly motives.
 32. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
 

Six years in the making, Sleeping Beauty was Walt's most expensive movie he worked on. It tells the story of a newborn princess named Aurora, who gets cursed by the evil sorceress Maleficent. She predicts that when Aurora turns 16, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. However, Merryweather, one of the three good fairies, changes the spell so that Aurora doesn't die, but instead goes to sleep, which can be cured by true love's first kiss. To make sure nothing bad happens, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, the three good fairies, kidnap Aurora as a baby, rename her Briar Rose, and raise her by themselves. To make sure Maleficent and her raven Diablo don't find out that Aurora is still alive, the fairies decided to raise her without using magic, much to some of their dismay. While Maleficent is a threatening villain, she doesn't have much of a back-story. Why does she want Aurora dead? How did she earn her magic? Also, Aurora doesn't have much of a personality compared to Snow White and Cinderella. Even Anna and Elsa from Frozen have more rounded personalities compared to Aurora! Sleeping Beauty premiered in January 1959 and was a box-office disaster. Critics blandly compared it to Snow White and Cinderella. Thankfully, the next animated Disney feature, 101 Dalmatians, would prove to be more successful financially and critically.
31. The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

The Emperor's New Groove was Disney's 40th animated movie, and is considered one of their funniest among fans. The Emperor's New Groove tells the story of a selfish Peruvian emperor named Kuzco (David Spade), who plans on destroying a village to make room for his own amusement park. Enraged after being fired, Yzma (Eartha Kitt) plans on poisoning Kuzco at a dinner party. However, Kronk (Patrick Warburton), her slow-witted flunky, mixes up the potions and turns Kuzco into a llama with red fur. Yzma orders Kronk to put Kuzco in a bag and throw him off a waterfall. Kronk, however, feels like it is wrong to kill Kuzco, so he places the bag on a cart belonging to a villager named Pacha (John Goodman). Now, with the help of Pacha (who Kuzco thinks is the real mastermind behind the whole scheme), he and Kuzco must return to the palace to regain Kuzco's throne, and his human form. The Emperor's New Groove got really good reviews upon its release, but unfortunately, bombed at the box-office. It only earned 60 million dollars on an 80 million dollar budget. However, it did get nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song (My Funny Friend and Me, which plays during the end credits).