Favorite piece of Disney animation (from any film)

[slave2moonlight]

Sleeping Beauty - The fairies making the cake and dress with magic. You see the scissors cut the sleeve and the needle going in and out on the music.

Awesome one! Can't believe I forgot to mention that!

[rodis]

The Little Mermaid - the opening sequence, main titles (I'm surprised nobody mentioned that!), Ariel's stay in the castle (from her bathtub to when she goes to sleep).

Beauty and the Beast - prologue, Belle (reprise), west wing.

[Drawken]

Sleeping Beauty - The fairies making the cake and dress with magic. You see the scissors cut the sleeve and the needle going in and out on the music.

Beauty and the beast - Belle singing "There must be more than this provincial life" in Belle

I'll steal those as two of my favorites.

-The Hunchback of Notre Dame-
While others pick Hellfire, I like the part of the movie when Esmeralda does her dance at the Feast of Fools.

-The Little Mermaid-
Obviously, for the most part, the whole of "Part of Your World" is beautiful, but the parts I am most impressed with are when she sings "has everything, look at this trove....." (love the camera movement) and when she spins upward.

-Aladdin-
"A Friend Like Me" The Genie constantly manipulating his body, him conjuring up different objects. The whole scene is fun.

[Jack Skellington]

I've got so many :

B&B : Stained Glass prolouge, Belle following the Beast and lumiere through the castle to her room, the transformation scene.
Pocahontas running through the woods so she could wave at John Smith on top of a high cliff.
The scary scene in which Malefecint hypnotisis Aurora,The Dragon scene.
The scene in which Wendy and her parents look up to the sky to see Peter's flying pirate Ship.
The Evil Queen's transformation into an old hag.

[Jules]

Hmmm... I'm going to try to find stuff which you guys didn't mention.

1) How can anyone forget the Nutcracker Suite from Fantasia? To hell with The Sorceror's Apprentice! I think the former segment could very well be one of the most ornately elegant examples of animation to ever grace the silver screen. From its glistening snowflakes to the more subtle stuff, such as the silky, slow, but expressive movement of the goldfish.

2) "Blame it on the Samba" from Melody Time. Now here is a piece bursting with inspiration and pure eye candy. The package films may have not been the most lavish in Disney's history, but you have to be a fool to not appreciate the wonderful stylized animation on exhibition there. Perhaps the animation in "Blame it on the Samba" can best be distinguished as wacky, bouncy and whimsical - portraying an energy and zest for life rarely seen on film. (I'm glad some people on this forum actually appreciate the package features, like Lars).

3) The Sword in the Stone - Despite being far from majestic, like the likes of Sleeping Beauty, I think SitS has some pretty good animation if you care to look beyond the Xerox lines (don't know why people consider the Xerox features to have weaker animation) and limited animation (limited to main characters - no more flying leaves and special effects, as in Bambi). Just because animation became more expensive in the 60s, and "full animation" died, doesn't mean that the core character animation was trite. I, for one, think Kay and Sir Hector (sp?) are very realistically animated, and the stylized and artistic duelling sequence is pure eye candy (let's just ignore the fact that animation for that was lifted off the "The Truth about Mother Goose" short).

4) The Aristocats - Take a good look at George's character animation. Brilliant or what?

5) Treasure Planet - Why hasn't anyone mentioned this yet? I'm not talking about the special effects here, but even in the subtler moments (as explained by Disney-Fan), this is Disney animation at its finest. OK, let's talk about the flashy parts! Isn't the solar-surfing Jim Hawkins just damned stunning to look at? Look at his adam's apple and the pulsating veins in his neck.

6) Meet the Robinsons - This film achieves something I don't think other CG animation studios bother with. The plasticity and elasticity of 2D animation. Don't let the seemingly simple-looking environments fool you. This is, imho, one of the most stunning-looking CG films to date, rivalling Pixar Animation Studios' output in technical merits. My favourite piece of animation in the film is the formation of the Insta-Building. Now be honest, all of you ... have you ever seen anyone manipulate the computer to produce such remarkable results? Think of the Insta-Building!!

[akhenaten]

on the contrary...the insta building is one of the cheapest easiest trick in 3d animation.same application for animation a worm. i u look carefully it didnt morph into the building but there was some neat cheat transition in between.

[Jules]

on the contrary...the insta building is one of the cheapest easiest trick in 3d animation.same application for animation a worm. i u look carefully it didnt morph into the building but there was some neat cheat transition in between.

Do you mean it's not much of an achievement after all? I was awed by its "squash and stretch" type of animation.

Oh well ... it looked awesome anyway.

[Disney Duster]

Hey Julian, if it cheers you up, I think either the Disney animators Frank Thomas or Ollie Jihnston (or both of them in agreement) said The Sowrd in the Stone has some of their best animation. Found out where I read it:

Frank and Ollie's Animated Features

(1963) SWORD IN THE STONE

Some of our best animation is scattered throughout this lively film.
OLLIE: Directing Animator: Merlin, Wart, Archimedes, Laughing Owl.
FRANK: Directing Animator: Squirrels, Madam Mim.

[Jules]

Hey Julian, if it cheers you up, I think either the Disney animators Frank Thomas or Ollie Jihnston (or both of them in agreement) said The Sowrd in the Stone has some of their best animation. Found out where I read it:

Frank and Ollie's Animated Features

Glad you uprooted that up, Disney Duster. Great find! I remember reading that somewhere, and I think it's high time more people got to know what Frank 'n Ollie themselves thought of their own animation in The Sword in the Stone.

Surprisingly, UD's review for the film describes the animation as "unimpressive".

[Disney Duster]

Surprisingly, UD's review for the film describes the animation as "unimpressive".

that is surprising. I also read somewhere a favorite scene of Frank Thomas was Arthur as a squirrel breaking the heart of a girl squirrel. And that part always stuck with me when I watched it, it was heart-breaking. Kind of disturbing in a Disney film, this anti-romance almost. It's like in the Brave Little Toaster, where the flower sees itself reflected in the toaster, and falls in love, but the toaster leaves and the flower's left with its petals falling sadly like it's crying.

Found out where I found it:
Frank and Ollie Tribute

Thomas had one of his personal favorite scenes in “The Sword in the Stone,” where a love-struck squirrel encounters the once and future king who is temporarily inhabiting the body of another squirrel.

But I must say, the whole of Sword in the Stone I didn't really like enough to watch and remember much, but at least some of it stuck with me. And thanks for the claps.

[271286]

ONE of my favorite pieces of animation is the transformation scene in BaTB!

[leuchtmuschel]

The following scenes I most like on Disney classics:

The little mermaid
Ariel has got her legs and sits in the water on strand. Scuttle lands on her feet and guess her changing: “Neue Austernkörbchen?” This is a beautiful translation into the German: The verbal translation is “New oyster basket?” Scuttle means her bikini top

Mulan
Otto Waalkes German translation is better than the English original voice of Mushu. The English voice is good but against Otto very weak. Otto is a well known comedian in Germany. I like the scene who he wakes up Mulan in her own tent in a military camp.

Aladdin
The beautiful scene in with magic carpet kiss the hand of Jasmin before the magic carpet ride with the music “A whole new world” begins to start.

The Jungle Book
The face from king of ape as Baloo the bear leaves and the king must hold alone the ruin of an ancient temple.

The Jungle Book
The way the tongue of the snake appears under the paw from the lion Shir Khan.

Peter Pan
Tinker Bell laughs beautiful on the ABC-cube as the children try to fly without the necessary pixie dust to Never Land.

Robin Hood
The scene Prince John put on the crown.

These scenes are only a few from all the many Disney scenes I love.

[thebiach]

he's moving around...while swinging in a cage...at night...in the rain....with lightning flashing...riding over a cobblestone road...puppets swinging...

no competition...this is the best animated sequence ever...

Nic

[Jack Skellington]

he's moving around...while swinging in a cage...at night...in the rain....with lightning flashing...riding over a cobblestone road...puppets swinging...

no competition...this is the best animated sequence ever...

Nic

Is that from Pinocchio ?

[bradhig]

Cinderella - Cinderella coming down the stairs in the pink dress before Tremaine causes trouble.

[akhenaten]

here's a few animation pans and tilts i did.i was inspired to do this from reading hans bacher and rob richard's blog.

enjoy!

[Disney Duster]

That is so cool, I've wanted to do those assemblages of backgrounds for a few of my favorite movies. This is why I love The Rescuers Down Under!

I might as well add that one of my favorite scenes in animation is the opening of The Rescuers Down Under, when we go very fast through some parts of Australia (I don't know where, there's rock formations and those weeds that Belle let's blow in the wind in "Belle Reprise"). WONDERFUL! THRILLING!

[BelleGirl]

A sequence that springs to mind is the 'Rite of Spring' from Fantasia.

As mentioned by others: transformation scenes in 'Snow White and the seven dwarf' and "Pinocchio"

The 'Rhapsody in blue' sequence from Fantasia 2000

The sourcerers apprentice from 'Fantasia'

'Willy the operatic whale who wanted to sing at the Met' from Make Mine Music

Tarzan and Jane meeting

Pinocchio's nose growing with each lie he tells.

The silly symphony 'Music Land'

Tramp fighting the rat in Lady and the Tramp

Confrontation between Shere Kan and Kaa in Jungle Book

The silly symphony The skeletton dance

Pink elephants on parade in Dumbo

The dwarfs coming home from work and discovering Snow White, and all the confusion that comes along with it.