DVDizzy Forum

Is there any kind of canon or list of classic Disney live-action movies, like the list(s) for animated movies?

Of course I know the animated list varies by country according to what is included. But does a live action list exist in any country?

A couple of years ago I started a project to watch all the animated classics (according to the US list) as I'm sure many have before. There are only 55 films or so on the list, so it's an achievable goal.

For live action films I count around 275 films released to date (excluding Marvel, Lucasfilm etc), which is a much less achievable goal if one wishes to have seen all of them.

Is there some shorter list of live action films, which includes genuine classics like Treasure Island, Swiss Family Robinson and Pollyanna but excludes such atrocities as Superdad?

There's no official list in any country of all the live-action films, nor a shorter list that is just composed of the classics (such as the Platinum/Diamond/Signature Line for live-action films). I didn't grow up with the live-action films except for Mary Poppins so I was also searching for some sort of master list of the classics that I could watch. Back when Disney was still somewhat interested in their live-action films, certain ones would get special 2-disc treatment on DVD. They were called the Vault Disney Collection and featured Old Yeller, Pollyanna, Swiss Family Robinson, and The Parent Trap. Two other films, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Love Bug, were not in this Vault Disney Collection, but they were also given the master 2-disc treatment and so basically treated as if they were part of this line. Unfortunately some other films that may still be regarded as classics like Treasure Island or Darby O'Gill and the Little People got few bonus features or none at all, so Disney's own treatment of their classics wasn't consistent (although that applies to their animated films as well).

This site has a list of the 30 best Disney live-action films which might tell you which ones are generally well regarded as classics. The list is outdated though because it was created more than a decade ago so it won't have any recent films.
http://www.dvdizzy.com/countdown2/

There was a blog where someone was chronicling Disney live-action features, but because of the sheer amount of films, he only picked the well-known ones. Even then though, I felt quite a few important films were missing such as Treasure Island, so there doesn't seem to be a consensus on which live-action films represent the cream of Disney's film collection.

Give this a go.

Www.ultimatedisney.com/la-checklist2.html

That covers all up to 1979 and there is another from 1980 to about 2008ish