DVDizzy Forum

Wondering what people consider as Disney's best animation that is NOT on the Animated Classics list? Pixar stuff doesn't count as that is primarily a Pixar creative product, not Disney.

But Pixar is now 100% owned by Disney now! Oh well still playing by the rules:

My favorites are:

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/nightmare.html

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/rogerrabbit.html

For me it's James and the Giant Peach, Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin, and The Brave Little Toaster. They're the only non-WDFA from Disney that I can say I love.

Timon/Pumba fan wrote:My favorites are:

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/nightmare.html

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/rogerrabbit.html

The two Touchstone films most embraced as "Disney" works at the parks, etc.! Personally, I consider both to be quite a bit overrated, but I suppose I should give them second chances.

Looking at the "Other Animation" page we have here, I think the range in that middle section is pretty narrow. Pixar films are in a class of their own, and even though I don't regard them quite as highly, Ghibli as a studio is starting to look more and more like an Eastern Hemisphere Pixar. Anyway, for the purpose of this thread, I imagine if Pixar doesn't count, then neither does Ghibli, and both deserve to be distinguished from DisneyToon Studios output. Though Disney would appear to have more input into those films (Ghibli in the English dubbing) than some of the acquistions found on that page (actually there's just <i>Valiant</i>, as <i>The Brave Little Toaster</i> got whisked away to "Direct-to-Video" a while ago). Excluding that, we have 15 years of off-season TV Animation/DisneyToon releases. Some I would definitely label as being lesser works (<i>Return to Never Land</i>, <i>The Jungle Book 2</i>, <i>Pooh's Heffalump Movie</i>) and there are a number I haven't seen (<i>A Goofy Movie</i>, <i>Piglet's Big Movie</i>, <i>Doug's 1st Movie</i> - notice a recurring trend to their titling?). The rest are a fairly enjoyable lot; I've recommended <i>Teacher's Pet</i> and <i>Recess: School's Out</i>. I'd do the same for <i>DuckTales: The Movie</i>. And I remember <i>The Tigger Movie</i> being extremely good, though it's been a while since I've seen that. And even though its storytelling shortcomings bother me more than most film's weaknesses, <i>Dinosaur</i> is still rather impressive visually and aurally, enough to count for something. I don't think I can single out any of those really as being the best. All have their weaknesses, but for the most part, I heed people to give them a chance because they don't seem to be as viewed and discussed as any of the films in the "Animated Classics" canon.

Having a hard time picking one, so I'll list what I consider to be the cream of the crop, in no particular order:

Theatrical Releases
James and the Giant Peach
The Nightmare Before Christmas
A Goofy Movie
Ducktales: The Movie
Dinosaur

Direct-to-Video
Mckey, Donald, and Goofy: The Three Musketeers
The Lion King 1.5
The Brave Little Toaster

I don't consider Who Framed Roger Rabbit? to be an animated movie.

-Aaron

Luke wrote:

Timon/Pumba fan wrote:My favorites are:

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/nightmare.html

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/rogerrabbit.html

The two Touchstone films most embraced as "Disney" works at the parks, etc.! Personally, I consider both to be quite a bit overrated, but I suppose I should give them second chances.

Overrated?

Never!

If anything, these films are both hugely underrated! "The Nightmare Before Christmas" may have a huge cult following filled with a bunch of "goths", this film is often ignored by non-fans and is often under-appreaciated at Disney(ignoring the entire Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland ). Alot of people haven't even SEEN it! It's a little dark, but that's why it's brilliant!

As for WFRR, it was popular back in the day it saved animation and paved the way for the "Fab-Four", it has been completely unrecognized these days sadly, thanks to the imfamous Katzenberg and Spielberg/Disney split. Now all it has is "Roger Rabbit's Car-Toon Spin" at Disneyland and the DVD and VHS release. We can't even see Roger at the parks anymore. I hope we get to see Roger Rabbit in another short someday in the future!

I definetely recommend you rewatch both of these Luke. These are the movies that tend to grow on you the more you watch them.

Great Animated Films:
The Nightmare Before Christmas
James and the Giant Peach
Dinosaur
A Goofy Movie
The Brave Little Toaster-if this counts
The Pixar Films

Good Films:
The Jungle Book 2
Peter Pan 2
Valiant- if this counts
Ducktales the Movie
Pooh's Hephalump Movie
The Tigger Movie

These I don't include at all (and do not go into my collection):
Recess the Movie
Teacher's Pet the Movie
Doug's First Movie

Arggh!

So many non Disney movies being listed!

Must refrain form insane outburst!

It's hard, because Teacher's Pet: The Movie does indeed ROCK MY WORLD, but I have to put them is this order:

Peter Pan: Return to Never Land
Luke doesn't like this film - even when spelt it with a two word "Never Land" as it should be - but what does he know? He only runs the Ultimate Disney website, moderates the forums, watches countless Disney DVDs and write reviews for them all. Obviously the man knows nothing.

Seriously, I think Return To Never Land beats the original Peter Pan, with a stunning opening, a more logical and less episodic storyline, and pure emotion at the end. Yay! Return to Never Land, and let the flames begin.

Teacher's Pet: The Movie
Good on Disney for having the guts to release this - a totally unique artistic vision which refuses to compromise itself for anyone or anything. In addition to that, it has top spoofs and parodies, lots of clever dialogue and… interesting songs. It really does ROCK MY WORLD. (And check out the surprisingly positive reviews too, considering the final box office taking).

A Goofy Movie
Ah yes, the "other" father-son movie, and it features a much more realistic and natural relationship than that of Marlin and Nemo (in my opinion). However, some things do drag this film down from the greatness it all-so-nearly attained, such as the Bigfoot nonsense and the dated Powerline concert which really does make the film seem both aged and desperate to appear "hip". Still, I love it. (Quite a good Pete too, who's a bit more Pete like than his normal neutered "Goof Troop" Persona).

My Top 10 Favorite Non-Disney films were:

1. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (It's not an animated film, but whatever. It's still my favorite )
2. The Lion King 1.5
3. Pixar's Films
4. A Goofy Movie
5. Ducktails: The Movie
6. The Brave Little Toaster
7. The Tigger Movie
8. Doug's 1st Movie
9. The Nightmare Before Christmas
10. James and the Giant Peach

I somehow dislike DTV films but "The Brave Little Toaster" and "The Lion King 1.5" were the exception as favorites.

Nightmare is the obvious choice, but I always did have a soft spot for A Goofy Movie.

Outside of the Pixar movies, it would have to be The Nightmare Before Christmas, for it's unique vision and deeply realized characters.

Prince Eric wrote:Outside of the Pixar movies, it would have to be The Nightmare Before Christmas, for it's unique vision and deeply realized characters.

Is someone starting to have growing appreaciation for this film!?!

Maybe I am wrong, but it seems that when "Nightmare Before Christmas" came out it didn't have the Walt Disney logo on it. It wasn't until later (about two years) and after it had become such a cult phenomenon that the folks at Disney decided to attach themselves to this great Tim Burton project.

Now, though it is still called Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas I have noticed that the Disney logo is now there. Being sort of anal about this, I still don't consider this film to be a 'Disney film'. Am I the only one?

That being said I would add my two cents in saying that I think "Dinosaur" is probably the most underrated of the Disney films of the past. I think it tells a very good story, and I thoroughly enjoy watching the opening sequence even more now that I know how it was done. I think it has a very good story and very good characters and being a CGI movie, it is a lot better than "Chicken Little" ever thought of being.

dvdjunkie wrote:Maybe I am wrong, but it seems that when "Nightmare Before Christmas" came out it didn't have the Walt Disney logo on it. It wasn't until later (about two years) and after it had become such a cult phenomenon that the folks at Disney decided to attach themselves to this great Tim Burton project.

Now, though it is still called Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas I have noticed that the Disney logo is now there. Being sort of anal about this, I still don't consider this film to be a 'Disney film'. Am I the only one?

Sort of...I normally think of Touchstone label films as separate from those with the DISNEY logo prominently attached, but I guess I see this as more a part of the Disney family than most Touchstone films because they wrote about it in Disney Magazine before its release the same way they would with other DISNEY releases but not as much as films from their other branches, and even though they thought it was so important to release it under Touchstone and create a little distance...it was OK to put teasers for its theatrical and home video releases on the mainstream 'Disney' home video releases. Seeing a teaser for that movie's video release right after the one for Snow White on the Return of Jafar VHS as a kid made it seem like connecting it to the DISNEY label was OK.

dvdjunkie wrote:Maybe I am wrong, but it seems that when "Nightmare Before Christmas" came out it didn't have the Walt Disney logo on it. It wasn't until later (about two years) and after it had become such a cult phenomenon that the folks at Disney decided to attach themselves to this great Tim Burton project.

Now, though it is still called Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas I have noticed that the Disney logo is now there. Being sort of anal about this, I still don't consider this film to be a 'Disney film'. Am I the only one?

Well, Touchstone is 100% owned by Disney. Nightmare Before Christmas was actually going to have the Disney logo(if you watch old trailers, (there's one on my Pinocchio VHS) you'll see the Disney logo on it) but decided to change it to Touchstone at the last minute since they didn't know how people would react to such a dark film putting Christmas in a somewhat negative light. And as you point out, once it started getting a huge cult following, Disney now considers it a "full-blood" Disney film.

Tim Burton is just the producer. It was his idea and he created the story and characters, but Disney owns all of the Nightmare merchandise and the film itself.

Timon/Pumba fan wrote:

Prince Eric wrote:Outside of the Pixar movies, it would have to be The Nightmare Before Christmas, for it's unique vision and deeply realized characters.

Is someone starting to have growing appreaciation for this film!?!

No, I've always had a high regard for this film.

dvdjunkie wrote:Maybe I am wrong, but it seems that when "Nightmare Before Christmas" came out it didn't have the Walt Disney logo on it. It wasn't until later (about two years) and after it had become such a cult phenomenon that the folks at Disney decided to attach themselves to this great Tim Burton project.

Now, though it is still called Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas I have noticed that the Disney logo is now there. Being sort of anal about this, I still don't consider this film to be a 'Disney film'. Am I the only one?

I totally agree with ya. I think Disney just wants a cut of money on that one. They also added some songs to a greatest Disney CD, which I don't know why, it wasn't Disney in the first place!

BATBFan1 wrote:I totally agree with ya. I think Disney just wants a cut of money on that one. They also added some songs to a greatest Disney CD, which I don't know why, it wasn't Disney in the first place!

A cut of money...from Touchstone? As has already been pointed out in this thread, Touchstone is and always has been entirely owned and operated by Disney. The only thing that distinguishes Walt Disney Pictures from Touchstone Pictures is what division gets credit/blame for the film's performance. Obviously, the films are different in their nature and their appeal, but there are plenty of movies that could go either way. In fact, that has happened a bunch of times over the past few years.

BATBFan1 wrote: I totally agree with ya. I think Disney just wants a cut of money on that one. They also added some songs to a greatest Disney CD, which I don't know why, it wasn't Disney in the first place!

Wow. That statement just offended me in so many ways, because it was just so wrong.

You say Nightmare isn't a Disney movie. Well you know what, playing by those rules, your beloved "Beauty and the Beast" isn't a Disney movie as it wasn't created by ANYBODY from the Walt days.