What makes a good Disney film ?

[SleepingBeautyAurora]

What makes a good Disney film ? Is it the story? Is it the songs ? Music ? Animation / Artwork ? Is it simply everything combined together to produce the final product ? What do you think is the most important part of Disney movies ?

[Flanger-Hanger]

The last question you asked is the one I agree with. The story should be interesting, songs should only be included if they fit the needs of the story (you got that every Disney animated movie from the 90s! Excluding The Rescuers Down Under of course) and are well written. Everything should fit the needs of the story and help tell it in the best way possible, that's what makes a good movie, Disney or otherwise.

[Balto123]

So if thats the case, what has been missing from the Disney films of late since arguably 2000? What sets them apart from the renaissance films of the 90's?

[Disney's Divinity]

Well, there's really no magic formula that produces a great [Disney] film. Different stories work different ways. I mean, you honestly wouldn't expect Snow White and Treasure Planet to both be told the same way. 'Heart' is really the defining factor. For instance, while Atlantis is a great film, you never become too interested/invested in the characters and their problems don't really affect you as a result.

As for music, singing isn't always necessary and sometimes a film might do better without it. But as long as the songs aren't cumbersome and distracting (like I find The Sound of Music to be), they're usually a plus.

[David S.]

That's what I was going to say - heart

The best of Disney's animated and live-action films have this and also an underlying optimistic spirit that never succumbs to a world-weary cynicism. And therefore the films can be uplifting, positive experiences for the viewer.

[Flanger-Hanger]

So if thats the case, what has been missing from the Disney films of late since arguably 2000? What sets them apart from the renaissance films of the 90's?

What sets them apart? Trying to be different and creative, with varying degrees of success of course (Good: Emperor's New Groove, Treasure Planet, Lilo and Stitch, Not so Good: Atlantis, Home on the Range, Brother Bear) The only thing missing is a public that's willing to try something new, which is why we're getting the Princess and the Frog.

For live action films, there is such a wonderful array of genres that Disney has done that for the most part all pre 1993 live action Disney films have at least one good thing about them (excluding Condorman). Post 1993, eh.....

[merlinjones]

Why not ask Walt Disney himself...?

"The span of years has not much altered my fundamental views of mass amusement. Experience has merely perfected the style and method and the techniques of presentation. My entertainment credo has not changed a whit. Strong combat and soft satire are in our story cores. Virtue triumphs over wickedness in our fables. Tyrannical bullies are routed or conquered by our good little people, human or animal. Basic morality is always deeply implicit in our screen legends. But they are never sappy or namby-pamby. And they never prate or preach. All are pitched toward the happy and satisfactory ending. There is no cynicism in me and there is none allowed in our work."

"To captivate our varied and worldwide audience of all ages, the nature and treatment of the fairy tale, the legend, the myth have to be elementary, simple. Good and evil, the antagonists of all great drama in some guise, must be believably personalized. The moral ideals common to all humanity must be upheld. The victories must not be too easy. Strife to test valor is still and will always be the basic ingredient of the animated tale, as of all screen entertainments."

"Animation is different from other parts. Its language is the language of caricature. Our most difficult job was to develop the cartoon's unnatural but seemingly natural anatomy for humans and animals."

"What seems real to the mind can be as important as any material fact. We live by the spirit and the imagination as well as by our senses. Cartoon animation can give fantasy the same reality as those things we can touch and see and hear."

"All cartoon characters and fables must be exaggeration, caricatures. It is the very nature of fantasy and fable."

"Fantasy, if it's really convincing, can't become dated for the simple reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond the reach of time."

"Sheer animated fantasy is still my first and deepest production impulse. The fable is the best storytelling device ever conceived, and the screen is its best medium."

"Fantasy, when properly done in the one medium best adapted to its nature, need never stale for the family taste."

"I try to build a full personality for each of our cartoon characters - to make them personalities."

"A good ending is vital to a picture, the single most important element, because it is what the audience takes with them out of the theater."

"If I can't find a theme, I can't make a film anyone else will feel. I can't laugh at intellectual humor. I'm just corny enough to like to have a story hit me over the heart..."

"I just make what I like - warm and human stories, ones about historic characters and events, and about animals. If there is a secret, I guess it's that I never make the pictures too childish, but always try to get in a little satire of adult foibles."

"There is nothing wrong with good schmaltz, nothing wrong with good heart... The critics think I'm kind of corny. Well, I am corny. As long as people respond to it, I'm okay."

"We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us."

"Childishness? I think it's the equivalent of never losing your sense of humor. I mean, there's a certain something that you retain. It's the equivalent of not getting so stuffy that you can't laugh at others." óWalt Disney

"You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway."

"Adults are interested if you don't play down to the little 2 or 3 year olds or talk down. I don't believe in talking down to children. I don't believe in talking down to any certain segment. I like to kind of just talk in a general way to the audience. Children are always reaching."

"I am interested in entertaining people, in bringing pleasure, particularly laughter, to others, rather than being concerned with 'expressing' myself with obscure creative impressions."

"Our part in things is to build along the lines we are known for, with happy family stories and comedies. I've never thought of this as art. It's part of show-business."

"I am not influenced by the techniques or fashions of any other motion picture company."

"Part of the Disney success is our ability to create a believable world of dreams that appeals to all age groups. The kind of entertainment we create is meant to appeal to every member of the family."

"When we consider a new project, we really study it - not just the surface idea, but everything about it. And when we go into the new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right. And we work hard to do the best possible job."

"You hate to repeat yourself. I don't like to make sequels to my pictures. I like to take a new thing and develop something. There's really no secret about our approach. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We're always exploring and experimenting."

"Movie makers are often too introverted about their production. They tend to build up myths about audiences and to prattle glibly about shifting public taste and its unpredictables. In considering one thing: Americans are a sociable folk, we like to enjoy ourselves in crowds, at sports arenas, at picnics, fairs and carnivals, at concerts and at the theater."

"Above all, we like to laugh together - even at our own shortcomings. I don't like to kid myself about the intelligence and taste of audiences. They are made up of my neighbors, people I know and meet every day. Folks I trade with, go to church with, vote with, compete in business with, help build and preserve a nation with."

"We're not out to make a fast dollar with gimmicks. We're interested in doing things that are fun - in bringing pleasure and especially laughter to people...it's proven it's a good business policy. Give the public everything you can give them..."

—Walt Disney

[Jack Skellington]

I think what make the old Disney movies so amazing are the meaningful stories, the relatable characters, and the music.

[SpringHeelJack]

DVDs with slipcovers.

[Chernabog_Rocks]

DVDs with slipcovers.

Sequel/Prequel DVDs with slipcovers you mean

Not sure I can add much really, script, story, characters, villain seems to all have been covered from what I've read. But it seems everyone forgot one thing.

a lace collar

[2099net]

A Hawaiian shirt.

I know one thing. A "good" Disney film does NOT have to have music (does 101 Dalmatians or Lilo and Stitch?). It does not have to have villains or a even a narrative (Does Fantasia or Fantasia 2000?). And most importantly it does not have to be animated! (Was… well, I can't even begin to list all the titles here…)

I don't think there is a description of a good "Disney" film, only a description of a good film, regardless of who made it. Personally, I think the phrase "Disney film" is part of the problem the 2000+ era films are constantly fighting and apparently losing.

[Chernabog_Rocks]

A Hawaiian shirt.

I know one thing. A "good" Disney film does NOT have to have music (does 101 Dalmatians or Lilo and Stitch?). It does not have to have villains or a even a narrative (Does Fantasia or Fantasia 2000?).

Didn't Lilo and Stitch have ones like Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride, He Mele No Lilo etc. or am I thinking of the wrong music?

Fantasia has Chernabog, the T-Rex, Zeus (if you'd consider him a villain) but Chernabog most dominatley, the T-Rex is debatable considering he's just acting on instincts.

Fantasia 2000 has the Firebird who I've seen identified as Fantasia 2000's version of Chernabog.



Oh and Yensid, althought that is also debatable I have this CCG and Yensids card has him labeled as a villain for some reason

[Wonderlicious]

Didn't Lilo and Stitch have ones like Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride, He Mele No Lilo etc. or am I thinking of the wrong music?

Fantasia has Chernabog, the T-Rex, Zeus (if you'd consider him a villain) but Chernabog most dominatley, the T-Rex is debatable considering he's just acting on instincts.

I think what Netty means by "music" here are big song and dance numbers like what you'd find in Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins etc. Of course, Lilo and Stitch has songs, but it plays more as a film which happens to have the odd song here and there (and then mainly in the background). And as for Fantasia having no villains, I think what is implied here has something to do with the fact that the film has no plot and is a selection of animated shorts. Due to it being little segments of music set to animation (some of the segments not even telling a proper story anyway, being just experimental or observational), there is/are no standard villain(s) like how there is in the likes of a single-story film (think of the Queen in Snow White or the hunters in Bambi, who pose a threat to the protagonists regularly at a number of times throughout the film). If you were to take the "Night on Bald Mountain" part and watch that alone, then Chernabog could be argued to be the villain. As a villain of the entire film, however, he is not, for he does neither torment Mickey Mouse, nor the dancing hippos, nor the orchestra and Deems Taylor.

Back to the topic at hand...there isn't really much to say. It just has to be a good movie in general. I like traditionally-animated musical fairy-tales such as Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Pinocchio, but that doesn't mean to say that every good Disney movie has to be of that ilk. None of the Pixar films are like that. Also, many popular animated classics which get my seal of approval aren't necessarily fantasies based on a great fairy-tale or most-read children's' classic In addition to 101 Dalmatians, Fantasia(s) and Lilo and Stitch, there's Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo, Bambi, Saludos Amigos/The Three Caballeros, Mulan...okay, a number of those films are musicals, but still, you won't find their source material listed in a countdown of most popular children's' classics.

And there's a nice number of fine live-action films aside from Mary Poppins and Pirates of the Caribbean, ranging from The Parent Trap to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (shame Prince Caspian was a bit more like Prince Crappy-an). Sure, there's a lot of Snow Dogs and childish stuff of that ilk, but then you may as well say that Warner Brothers or Paramount ought to be shut down due to also producing crappy kids' movies. Every major studio produces turkeys.

Naturally, it has to have been made by the Disney Studios to be called a "good Disney movie"...and bear the "Disney" sticker and not "Touchstone" or "Miramax", with perhaps the odd exception (Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Nightmare Before Christmas namely, since they went through much of production under the Disney label and only in initial release changed to Touchstone).

[PeterPanfan]

I agree with Netty and Wonderlicious in the statement that it doesn't need to have musical numbers. A lot of fantastic Disney films are without songs and dance.

Substantial animation and a great plot on the other hand, are essential to a great Disney movie. The recent crappy sequels and direct-to-video releases Disney are throwing at us do not cut it.

Everything should tie together neatly, and there should be no stodgy lines or dialogue that could be written by a primate, as is the case with the recent DTVs...