Disney Animated Film Discussion

duck soup

duck soup

son of a BANG son of a BOOM
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so, i realize this is kind of a daunting idea, but i wanted to propose an ongoing discussion of disney's animated features in chronological order. of course, since there's about sixty of them, i'm sure that we would only have, at best, a very casual discussion. i wouldn't expect anyone to watch them all, nor would i expect anyone to comment on them all. i'm just interested in going through them one at a time, revisiting some that are a little hazy in my mind, finally seeing some that i've never seen, and reading what other members generally think about them. i'm thinking of looking at maybe 1-2 per week - which, yes, will indeed take forever - and writing a few [superficial] sentences about each one, just in a super casual manner.

i know that ongoing discussion threads like these haven't always fared well here, and i don't think there's ever been one of this scale, so it's extremely likely that this will crash and burn, but that's okay. i figured it was worth a shot. personally, i'm very eager to watch all the stuff from the 1940s-50s, but it's possible that i'll significantly lose interest from the 90s-onwards, haha. i'm thinking that this should be limited to features produced by walt disney studios, so no pixar, disneytoon, etc. there's a handful of ones that combine animation and live-action - either in separate segments or simultaneously - that i'd want to include, and i marked them in blue on this list of all the titles (wasn't sure about including song of the south):

01. academy award review of walt disney cartoons (1937)
02. snow white and the seven dwarfs (1937)
03. pinocchio (1940)
04. fantasia (1940)
05. the reluctant dragon (1941)
06. dumbo (1941)
07. bambi (1942)
08. saludos amigos (1942)
09. victory through air power (1943)
10. the three caballeros (1944)
11. make mine music (1946)
12. fun and fancy free (1947)
13. melody time (1948)
14. so dear to my heart (1949)
15. the adventures of ichabod and mr. toad (1949)
16. cinderella (1950)
17. alice in wonderland (1951)
18. peter pan (1953)
19. lady and the tramp (1955)
20. sleeping beauty (1959)
21. one hundred and one dalmatians (1961)
22. the sword in the stone (1963)
23. mary poppins (1964)
24. the jungle book (1967)
25. the aristocats (1970)
26. bedknobs and broomsticks (1971)
27. robin hood (1973)
28. the many adventures of winnie the pooh (1977)
29. the rescuers (1977)
30. pete's dragon (1977)
31. the fox and the hound (1981)
32. the black cauldron (1985)
33. the great mouse detective (1986)
34. oliver & company (1988)
35. the little mermaid (1989)
36. the rescuers down under (1990)
37. beauty and the beast (1991)
38. aladdin (1992)
39. the lion king (1994)
40. pocahontas (1995)
41. the hunchback of notre dame (1996)
42. hercules (1997)
43. mulan (1998)
44. tarzan (1999)
45. fantasia 2000 (1999)
46. dinosaur (2000)
47. the emperor's new groove (2000)
48. atlantis: the lost empire (2001)
49. lilo & stitch (2002)
50. treasure planet (2002)
51. brother bear (2003)
52. home on the range (2004)
53. chicken little (2005)
54. meet the robinsons (2007)
55. bolt (2008)
56. the princess and the frog (2009)
57. tangled (2010)
58. winnie the pooh (2011)
59. wreck-it ralph (2012)
60. frozen (2013)
61. big hero 6 (2014)
62. zootopia (2016)

so yeah, super daunting list there, and the last 20ish titles don't look all that interesting to me, but would anybody else be interested in casually talking about these films, one at a time?
 
i have 34/62 on vhs so i could participate
i could actually feel comfortable critickering them with fresh rewatches
 
I actually watched the entirety of the Disney canon--a few years ago I caught a bunch of them in a row to see the ones I'd missed, since my sister owns most of them. I'd pop in here from time to time to give my thoughts on each.

Heck, I even ranked them all! Here they are (not including Zootopia):

54. Fun and Fancy Free
53. Chicken Little
52. The Aristocats
51. The Black Cauldron

50. The Three Caballeros
49. Dinosaur
48. Brother Bear
47. Saludos Amigos
46. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
45. Home on the Range
44. The Sword in the Stone
43. Treasure Planet
42. Bambi
41. The Rescuers Down Under

40. Robin Hood
39. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
38. Meet the Robinsons
37. Oliver & Company
36. Sleeping Beauty
35. One Hundred and One Dalmatians
34. The Jungle Book
33. Tarzan
32. The Fox and the Hound
31. Hercules

30. Make Mine Music
29. Pocahontas
28. The Rescuers
27. Melody Time
26. Cinderella
25. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
24. The Great Mouse Detective
23. Bolt
22. Winnie the Pooh
21. Frozen

20. Lilo & Stitch
19. Alice in Wonderland
18. Dumbo
17. Peter Pan
16. Big Hero 6
15. Mulan
14. Tangled
13. The Princess and the Frog
12. Pinocchio
11. Lady and the Tramp

10. The Emperor's New Groove
09. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
08. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
07. Fantasia
06. The Little Mermaid
05. Fantasia 2000
04. Wreck-It Ralph
03. Aladdin
02. Beauty and the Beast
01. The Lion King
 
funnily enough i was thinking about doing this earlier. it would be really fun, i've barely seen half of those films and definitely not in the chronological order

i don't quite agree with including films like mary poppins though. if you're gonna include films like those then really you should include stuff like a goofy movie, enchanted and song of the south as well. if i were you i'd keep it to the canon animated features

here's the canon films i've never seen:

fantasia (1940)
dumbo (1941)
bambi (1942)
saludos amigos (1942)
the three caballeros (1944)
make mine music (1946)
fun and fancy free (1947)
melody time (1948)
the adventures of ichabod and mr. toad (1949)
sleeping beauty (1959)
the aristocats (1970)
the many adventures of winnie the pooh (1977)
the rescuers (1977)
the fox and the hound (1981)
the black cauldron (1985)
the great mouse detective (1986)
oliver & company (1988)
the rescuers down under (1990)
pocahontas (1995)
mulan (1998)
fantasia 2000 (1999)
dinosaur (2000)
home on the range (2004)
meet the robinsons (2007)
the princess and the frog (2009)
tangled (2010)
winnie the pooh (2011)
frozen (2013)
zootopia (2016)
 
I'd be down. I had been wanting someone to start something like this because about a month or two ago I got really into watching disney films, I still haven't seen all of them recently but overall in my whole life there are maybe 5 i have not seen. Ones like Snow white, Pinocchio, Lady and the Tramp and Cinderella I have not seen since I was very young though so I can't really say much about em tbh

also lol at triforcebuns list.
 
Johnny Deformed said:
i don't quite agree with including films like mary poppins though. if you're gonna include films like those then really you should include stuff like a goofy movie, enchanted and song of the south as well. if i were you i'd keep it to the canon animated features
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fair enough. i included those five non-canon animation/live-action titles (+ victory through air) because:
- aside from mary poppins, i assume most members haven't seen them
- a couple titles in the main canon also have both animation and live-action elements (the three caballeros and fun and fancy free)
- unlike a goofy movie, the ducktales movie, etc., they were produced under the same banner as the rest of the titles on this list (at least, according to wikipedia they were)

so, that's my rationale. i've only seen the reluctant dragon out of those six 'non-canon' titles, so personally i'm very interested to see what the others are like, particularly victory through air. the reason i'm unsure about including song of the south is its content more than its format. if nobody else wants to watch or talk about these other films, that's fine with me.
 
yeah movies like treasure of the lost lamp and goofy movie were made by the same studio that made all of the direct to video sequels and junk. there's got to be a line drawn somewhere, or else you are going to be including all of those garbage movies as well.

i mean look at the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisneyToon_Studios

we going to review planes and shit too?
 
figured I'd rank the more recent dis canon films I've seen
I didn't include a decent amount of movies I have not seen in over decade, and combining those with the handful of titles I've never seen makes 18 movies that are not included in this list. I hope to complete the list because without some of the other movies in there some ranking feel very weird. Also realizing not many of these are fantastic imo, a lot decent ones but only a handful of great titles



Dinosaur
Chicken Little
Bolt
Brother Bear
The Aristocats
Meet the Robinsons
Oliver & Company
The Sword in the Stone

The Black Cauldron
Robin Hood
Hercules
Pochahontas
Frozen

Fun and Fancy Free
Fantasia 2000
Big Hero 6
The Princess and the Frog
Atlantis
The Great Mouse Detective
Winnie the Pooh
Tangled

Tarzan
Mulan
Sleeping Beauty
Ichabod
The Lion King
The Emperor's New Groove
Wreck-It Ralph

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Aladdin
Zootopia
Lilo and Stitch
The Fox and the Hound
Dumbo
Fantasia
Alice in wonderland
 
petes dragon was my favorite movie when i was 5 so ive seen it a hundred and one times
im not sure if i have ever seen all of mary poppins or just bits and pieces
probably in the minority for both those sentences
 
Definitely into this idea, even though it would take us forever. We've been trying to go through all the Disney movies with my daughter now that she's getting into all that. She was less receptive to Snow White than Cinderella. I think it was the forest stuff.
 
I guess I forget to give credit to Disney for growing me up in animation when I was young, as I spent countless hours watching Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Pinocchio on my still-working VHS tapes when I was around 2-4. Unforgettable musical numbers and lively animation were what I loved about those films, and even looking back now, they still hold up. I guess I can start with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as I've seen that multiple times (it was my family's first DVD in the year 2001) and I still remember most of it.

I think Snow White was a highly successful step for Disney into making an animated feature. The dwarfs were great characters with simple names, and once I hear the title of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", there's no way I can hear the title without hearing "Heigh-Ho." That song also gives me flashbacks to my childhood, sitting and watching this "highly resolution and recently restored" DVD on my parents' CRT television. I didn't care what it looked like back then. I cared that my movie didn't get interrupted and I could stare at this screen for hours without budging. At least, that's what I remember.

The animation still holds up really well considering it was a massive leap in 1937, particularly with the Mirror on the Wall and the shot with the dwarfs walking across the log during the Heigh-Ho sequence. It's been years since I have seen the movie, so while I'm not sure how much I'll take consideration into the story or plot, I know that the music and animation will be how I remembered it from when I was a kid as if it was just yesterday. 5/5
 
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This is how I'd rank the Disney canon:

1. Zootopia
2. Pinocchio
3. Mulan
4. The Little Mermaid
5. Lady and the Tramp
6. Beauty and the Beast
7. Wreck-it-Ralph
8. Dumbo
9. Big Hero 6
10. Hercules
11. Fantasia 2000
12. Fantasia
13. Alice in Wonderland
14. Tangled
15. The Fox and the Hound
16. The Sword in the Stone
17. The Great Mouse Detective
18. Sleeping Beauty
19. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
20. Treasure Planet
21. Frozen
22. Aladdin
23. Bambi
24. The Lion King
25. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
26. The Emperor's New Groove
27. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
28. The Rescuers Down Under
29. The Jungle Book
30. Winnie-the-Pooh
31. Saludos Amigos
32. Cinderella
33. Peter Pan
34. The Black Cauldron
35. The Aristocats
36. Robin Hood
37. Brother Bear
38. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
39. Melody Time
40. Dinosaur
41. Lilo & Stitch
42. The Rescuers
43. One Hundred and One Dalmatians
44. Make Mine Music
45. The Three Caballeros
46. Fun and Fancy Free
47. Meet the Robinsons
48. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
49. The Princess and the Frog
50. Bolt
51. Tarzan
52. Oliver & Company
53. Pocahontas
54. Home on the Range
55. Chicken Little
 
Maybe over the summer I'll have some time to contribute.

When I have kids (my wife is increasingly insistent on starting a family, so maybe not too much longer), this is the kind of project I'd undertake without necessarily going out of my way to do it. Disney films are great and double as background noise for kids.
 
Yeah I'd say they both have enough great segments to justify preferring 2000 over the original. Original is still better though
 
Fantasia 2000 is just so meh, like it has maybe 3 good segments (and no the Sorcerers Apprentice does not count), Rhapsody in Blue, Carnival of Animals, and Firebird Suite. Everything else is just so damn bland and forgettable, also it's sad as hell that a sequel to a film where the idea that it would be constantly updated, and had ideas for for decades is only like and hour long if you cut out the The Sorcerer's Apprentice and the lame celebrity cameo bits (the entire film with credits is only a meager 75 mins long). It's honestly a pretty pathetic sequel that constantly feels like it's struggling to fill time and live up to it's significantly better predecessor.
 
I have watched a lot of them and i have several disney movies at home so yeah i can participate. Hard to rank them but i can rate the ones i know i have seen:

01. academy award review of walt disney cartoons (1937)
02. snow white and the seven dwarfs (1937)
03. pinocchio (1940)
04. fantasia (1940)
05. the reluctant dragon (1941)
06. dumbo (1941)
07. bambi (1942)
08. saludos amigos (1942)
09. victory through air power (1943)
10. the three caballeros (1944)
11. make mine music (1946)
12. fun and fancy free (1947)
13. melody time (1948)
14. so dear to my heart (1949)
15. the adventures of ichabod and mr. toad (1949)
16. cinderella (1950)
17. alice in wonderland (1951)
18. peter pan (1953)
19. lady and the tramp (1955)
20. sleeping beauty (1959)
21. one hundred and one dalmatians (1961)
22. the sword in the stone (1963)
23. mary poppins (1964)
24. the jungle book (1967)
25. the aristocats (1970)
26. bedknobs and broomsticks (1971)
27. robin hood (1973)
28. the many adventures of winnie the pooh (1977)
29. the rescuers (1977)
30. pete's dragon (1977)
31. the fox and the hound (1981)
32. the black cauldron (1985)
33. the great mouse detective (1986)
34. oliver & company (1988)
35. the little mermaid (1989)
36. the rescuers down under (1990)
37. beauty and the beast (1991)
38. aladdin (1992)
39. the lion king (1994)
40. pocahontas (1995)
41. the hunchback of notre dame (1996)
42. hercules (1997)
43. mulan (1998)
44. tarzan (1999)
45. fantasia 2000 (1999)
46. dinosaur (2000)
47. the emperor's new groove (2000)
48. atlantis: the lost empire (2001)
49. lilo & stitch (2002)
50. treasure planet (2002)
51. brother bear (2003)
52. home on the range (2004)
53. chicken little (2005)
54. meet the robinsons (2007)
55. bolt (2008)
56. the princess and the frog (2009)
57. tangled (2010)
58. winnie the pooh (2011)
59. wreck-it ralph (2012)
60. frozen (2013)
61. big hero 6 (2014)
62. zootopia (2016)
 
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this will give me an excuse to watch all the disney flicks which o never have. will warily sign up to this but i have to doubt i would be able to do every movie on the list
 
Fantasia is great but it's honestly hard for me to sit through in its entirety. Many of the segments are very slow-moving or lack narrative. Dance of the Hours is overly-long for a comic section and doesn't tell much of a story, while Pastoral Symphony and Rite of Spring both take a while to go anywhere. Sorcerer's Apprentice and Night on Bald Mountain are great (although I do think the latter is similarly slow during the very last act), and I do like all the Tchaikovsky in the film. But between some overly-long segments and overly-long interludes, it's got some strange pacing.

Fantasia 2000 is very replayable to me. Not every segment is a winner, but I think almost all of them are successful at what they attempt. I think Carnival of Animals, Pomp and Circumstance, Firebird Suite and (especially) Rhapsody in Blue are terrific, while the rest are still at least decent. The celebrity wraparounds are a little gimmicky. But its short length is kind of a boon for Fantasia, I think, with the segments overall having better, stronger narratives and sense of emotion than the first film. Generally speaking, of course. Not too sound too much like a fidgety kid, but I think the pacing was just stronger and they pulled it all together nicely.

For a great segment that would've been in the (cancelled) following Fantasia film, be sure to check out the Disney short film, The Little Match-Girl, which is on the Short Film Collection on Netflix.
 
academy_award_revue_poster_zpshoobebaa.png


might as well get the ball rolling... first up is academy award review of walt disney cartoons (1937). it's just five silly symphonies shorts put together, and you've probably seen these ones before. apparently the actual theatrical release had title cards in between and a narrator, but i have no idea if those elements ever made it onto home video, so i'm just watching them separately. they're all on youtube and i have hyperlinked them for your convenience:

- flowers and trees (1932)
- three little pigs (1933)
- the tortoise and the hare (1934)
- three orphan kittens (1935)
- the country cousin (1936)

enjoy! i have a feeling most people don't care about these too much, but i love 'em. gonna go through these tonight and post a few thoughts tomorrow. we'll probably move on to the first proper feature (snow white) relatively soon.

academy_award_revue_tv_zps5fdhwt3z.png

i'll be watching these cartoons on the italian 'walt disney treasures collezione vol. 2' dvd. :cool:

edit: had a great time with these, so i just wound up going through the entire walt disney treasures silly symphonies sets (complete with the supplemental leonard maltin bits) over the last few nights. as far as these ones go specifically, i think they're all pretty fun, if a bit 'light'. some thoughts:

- flowers and trees is historically interesting for being the first three-strip technicolor film, but it kind of suffers from having no real 'characters' and a greater emphasis on spectacle than on plot. i mean, there's a linear narrative involving the various plants, but there's just really not much to it, and although it's a good cartoon, i don't think it really stands up as a 'great one'. weirdly, as simple as the plot is, my mind tends to wander a bit every time i watch it.

- i feel like three little pigs and the tortoise and the hare are far more engaging pieces because they do have relatively developed characters and stories (that is, as developed as they can be within the animated short format). i didn't know either of these little bits of trivia before watching the dvd extras, but according to maltin, the former is important because it was among the first cartoons to feature multiple characters with the same designs but unique personalities. the latter was apparently an experiment with conveying speed.

- i thought the country cousin was probably the funniest overall. laughed out loud at the mouse looking in the cat's mouth, and cartoon characters getting drunk is always a pleasure to watch. the running gag with the shushing got annoying after the hundredth time, though. three orphan kittens was probably the most visually strong one out of the five. the first shot with the snow falling is absolutely gorgeous. i would love to have a gif of that. also, the sense of depth conveyed during the left/right pans is incredible.

so yeah, i encourage you guys to check these out 'cause they're really interesting (and i've love to hear your thoughts), but might as well just move on to the first major feature, snow white and the seven dwarfs (1937). leaving on a trip to the uk today so i won't be watching this for at least a week. i appreciate startug already jumping on the discussion of this one.

snow_white_poster_zpssyf64zjq.png
 
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i finally got a chance to properly start this endeavour the other night with snow white and the seven dwarfs (1937).

snow_white_tv_zpsu6iqsiar.png


i watched the old diamond edition blu-ray (they've since released a 'signature edition' bd) and had a terrific time with it. i never really saw this one as a kid, so i went in fresh and was pretty blown away. it's hard for me to imagine how groundbreaking it was when it came out, but it seems like a strong work any way you look at it. if you're a big fan of the film, i would recommend seeking out the diamond edition, because it has a ton of amazing supplemental material that didn't make it onto the new version. the commentary track is absolutely top notch - it features a ton of archival recordings of walt talking about production history, hyperion, etc. there's also a bunch of superb documentaries. i always get misty-eyed hearing the old guys and gals gush about the good ol' days of disney. everyone typically portrays walt as the benevolent genius overseer and the studio itself as the most fun, fertile creative space in hollywood. not sure how realistic or accurate those anecdotes are, but boy are they beautiful. i have a few thoughts on snow white, but first off, i just want to say that this makes me smile:

disney-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-31563922-500-263_zpsybwvszgq.gif


- the animation here isn't quite as refined as it is in later disney films, but snow white is still a very pretty movie to look at. my favourite single image is the shot of the dwarfs heading home as the sun sets, with a waterfall on the right side of the frame. i think the most remarkable little piece of animation in the entire picture is snow white's dancing because of its staggeringly realistic depth and fluidity. it seems like there was a conscious effort to animate the protagonist as 'realistically' as possible, but to take a bit more cartoonish liberty with the dwarfs.

- not once in my entire life had i ever thought about sneezy, but i thought he was the funniest character in the movie. every time he had an extended sneeze i was dying. that running gag was very tastefully inserted into the narrative.

- the only thing that dates the film a bit for me is the fidelity of the voices on the soundtrack, which have that tinny, 'old-timey' timbre. also, the singing performance styles admittedly sound rather antiquated. by the way, how wonderful is the song 'someday my prince will come'? i'm sorta familiar with it as a jazz standard, but this particular recording/performance has a really special, magical aura, i guess because of its inclusion in the film. i downloaded it immediately after the movie wrapped up.

- the evil queen/witch creeps the hell of me. i was bit shocked by how dark disney was willing to go with her, and how psychopathic she came across, haha. there's a scene where she taunts the bones of a dead prisoner in her dungeon (link to gif) and then kicks a jug into it, breaking it apart. how twisted is that? brought back memories of 'snow white's scary adventures' at disney world. if you haven't experienced it, here's a pov youtube video of the disneyland ride. check out the effect from 1:14-1:23. that got me so hard as a kid, haha. the entire thing was(/is) actually pretty frightening, and i didn't realize until just now that it was tamed down at some point - here's a pov video of the original terrifying ride.

this was awesome and i can't wait to push on through the list. up next is pinocchio (1940). i'll be watching the single-disc uk blu-ray. :cool:

pinocchio_tv_zpsce8okj6o.png
 
Nice write-up! That transformation trick is pretty cool. Kinda funny how that ride was essentially two minutes of the witch cackling at you in the darkness. Good grief, the original version you linked! It's like a nonstop barrage of terrified and/or terrifying faces--totally disproportionate to the amount of light/shadow in the original film! I mean, it's cool, but...what were the imagineers thinking?? It's like if they made a ride based off of Fantasia and it was nothing but Chernabog chasing you through Hell.

Anyway, Snow White is a classic. When I watched it a couple years back, I was impressed by how well the story held up. It's got a good mix of fun visual gags and designs with the dwarfs, and more dramatic or romantic stuff with the more "human" characters. And of course, the innovative nature of "Walt's Folly" can't be underestimated; a feature-length cartoon is a major accomplishment, especially when it set as many tropes in stone as this one did. It's aged pretty well considering when it was made, even if it's a bit too quaint or twee at a few points (a pretty common Disney thing, at least for a few decades).
 
i just watched those five shorts and i thought they were all very charming.

rankings:
three orphan kittens
three little pigs
the country cousin
the tortoise and the hare
flowers and trees

flowers and trees is sorta boring but it does have a lot of that style of visual jokes that has become crucial in almost every disney/pixar film these days and is probably overused at this point where objects or creatures are used in unconventional ways for humor.

three little pigs and three orphan kittens are both adorable. love the song in three little pigs and i think the musical aspect is my favorite part of all these old cartoons.

will watch snow white soon.
 
TriforceBun said:
Fantasia is great but it's honestly hard for me to sit through in its entirety. Many of the segments are very slow-moving or lack narrative. Dance of the Hours is overly-long for a comic section and doesn't tell much of a story, while Pastoral Symphony and Rite of Spring both take a while to go anywhere. Sorcerer's Apprentice and Night on Bald Mountain are great (although I do think the latter is similarly slow during the very last act), and I do like all the Tchaikovsky in the film. But between some overly-long segments and overly-long interludes, it's got some strange pacing
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Not hard to imagine how this 3rd feature length film from Disney nearly brought about the early demise of that studio.. It cost a Lot to make, and was twice as long and boring in its original unedit cut,.. making it very unprofitable... The fact that Pinocchio before it had already cost a fortune to make and lost money on its first release didnt help matters much.

Its a miracle that the Disney name brand ever survived past the 40's
 
so, i revisited pinocchio (1940) for the first time in about fifteen years and it rules.

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i saw this film a few times when i was a kid, but it never became part of my regular viewing rotation. i think there's a few reasons why. first off, i was really into 'scary' stuff as a child - abbott and costello meet frankenstein and the nightmare before christmas were household staples - but i needed images like skeletons or dracula to clearly indicate when things were supposed to be scary. so, part of my disinterest in the film was probably because it doesn't have those things, which never actually scared me anyway. the 'message' of pinocchio, however, did scare me. my house was essentially built on guilt (probably because of our catholic background), and the importance of staying on the straight-and-narrow was always hammered into me. seeing pinnochio get led astray, as well as the consequences of moral corruption (getting locked in a cage, turning into a donkey) highly disturbed me. the idea that horrible things would happen to me if i was 'bad' was far scarier to me than skeletons or dracula could ever be, even though i didn't quite realize that at the time. basically, the film hit me too hard and i didn't like the way it made it feel, so it mostly just sat on the shelf.

revisiting pinocchio as an adult is a much different experience, though - now the film makes me really happy, haha. the innocence of the main character and the sweetness of geppetto make me feel all warm and fuzzy, while the sophistication of the sound + visuals is extremely impressive. the animation is definitely a step up from snow white, which is remarkable in itself. the blue fairy looks like she came right out of the earlier picture, but aside from her, the characters in pinocchio are both 'cartoonier' and more consistently on-model. i think it's particularly fascinating to compare the movements of the 'lifeless' puppet to the 'living' puppet, and see how the animators treated the character differently at each stage. i actually replayed the multiplane shots of the village a few times because of how impressively they sweep through 'space' (those shots are broken down quite nicely on this blog, although seeing them in motion is something else entirely). the fidelity of the soundtrack is still a bit 'old-timey', like snow white's, but it's interesting to hear how much more modern the singing styles are, only a couple years later. as is the case with 'someday my prince will come', i've become familiarized with 'when you wish upon a star' through jazz music and it really is a gorgeous composition. i can't think of the last time i actually heard the original cliff edwards version that opens the film, but man. when it started up, i got goosebumps. ain't it something?

i love all the moody, atmospheric imagery here - the foggy streets, poolhalls, and rainstorm sequence are right up my alley - but to once again compare it to snow white, i was surprised to see how dark pinocchio is, even though i knew it scared me as a kid. stromboli and the coachman are about as psychopathic as the evil witch - i'm thinking specifically about stromboli threatening pinocchio and throwing the axe, or the close-up of the coachman's ghoulish red face (here it is, not for the faint of heart). also, pleasure island is perfectly nightmarish (here's an iconic still) and that shot of pinocchio laying face-down in the water is fairly shocking (here's an iconic gif). god, i love scary cartoons.

once again, i listened to the audio commentary with leonard maltin and friends + archival audio snippets. like usual, it's top-notch and i would highly recommend it. since i only have the single-disc edition, which is missing a whole disc of supplements, i borrowed a copy of the platinum edition from work, which is now out of print. it's got some particularly great bonus stuff, like high-def archival footage of the filmmakers at work in the studio and some deleted scenes pieced together from storyboards. there's also an hour-long documentary called 'no strings attached: the making of pinocchio', which has been uploaded to youtube in six parts (i think you need a plugin to fix the aspect ratio) and it's decent, worth watching once or twice. however, the whole package left me wanting to learn more about the financial failure of the picture and how walt responded to it, which is barely even addressed in the supplements at all. aside from that one minor gripe, i had a whale of a time with this stuff (yep), and it feels great to revisit a film that i had no idea was so good. next time i'll write less.

up next is fantasia (1940). i'll be watching the special edition blu-ray. :cool:

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