Top 5 Disney Combination Animation and Live Action Films

Ah, the wonders of Disney.  I mean, first they lure you in with these adorable cartoons when you're just a little tot, and before you know it, you're watching PG-13 action films like Pirates of the Caribbean.  Okay, hopefully, there's about 10 years in there, but not always.  Like my youngest brother, who kind of started in on the whole PG-13 thing when he was, like, nine.  And then there's the kids who just start out life that way.  Anyway, that's a whole different topic fit for some parenting blog.  Since I'm not a parent, I can't really give out parenting advice, although I'll probably find myself in that position as a teacher.  Anyway, after I've taught for a while, then maybe I can start giving out parenting advice, but this is not that day!  Today is the day that I submit before you my Top 5 Disney films that are a combination of both animation and live action.

Now, obviously, with the increasing prevalence of CGI, the line between what's a live action film and what's a combination live action and animation film becomes more and more blurred.  So, how does one determine what to include when they're doing such a list?

I think that's supposed to be a beaver.

After sitting down and doing much thinking (and by that I mean I've been sporadically thinking about this on and off for about ten years now), I finally determined that the determining factor was that it couldn't be just a few animated characters thrown in.  I mean, yes, Pirates of the Caribbean has skeleton pirates and fish people animated because it just looks neater than the dorky costumes of the anytime-up-to-the-90s and Chronicles of Narnia animates the talking animals because well...I mean, have you seen the old BBC version?  Let's talk about a need for advances in technology.  Seriously, go Google it.  Right now.  Yeah...

Anywho, back to the topic, I guess you could say that when a live action character is placed in an animated world or transforms into an animated character, OR an animated character is either placed in the "real" world or transforms into a live-action character, then you have what I consider to be a "true" combination animation-live action film.  (Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 end up kind of fitting into some sort of gray area that I'm not quite sure how to describe, but those aren't really films as much as animation shorts set to music.)

So, finally, after all that rambling on and on about how I reached my decision of what counts as what, during which time I managed to somehow NOT give a summary of Disney's history of mixing these two media, I present to you my top five combination animation-live action films.

5.  James and the Giant Peach--Okay, so this one was really hard for me to determine if it could indeed be counted as combination animation and live action mostly because the animation used is stop motion, which means they moved the figures a tiny bit, snapped a picture, moved the figure a tiny bit again, snapped a picture.  It's an extremely time-consuming process that's also brought us such wonderful works such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Chicken Run (which is actually claymation, a form of stop motion).  In the end, I decided I should count it because it is in fact called stop motion animation.  In other words, I decided it got to count.  Basically, it makes it because I've only seen eight of Disney's films like this, and Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros are basically more like Donald's advertisements for Latin America than actual films, and I can't remember a thing about So Dear to My Heart other than it's something about a lamb.  Besides, who doesn't enjoy getting creeped out as a child about a gigantic rhino in the clouds and dream about flying away in a peach with a bunch of bugs?  No wonder Tim Burton was involved with this project.  I'm surprised Johnny Depp or Helen Bonham Carter (or both) didn't voice one of the bugs.  Also, come on, it's based on a book by Roald Dahl.  Seriously, adults want us read this man's books and have us watch movies about his books and then wonder why we don't grow up to be normal well-adjusted human beings.  I WATCHED A FILM ABOUT A CHILD WHOSE PARENTS WERE KILLED BY A RHINO!  And I actually liked watching this.  Count me into the legions of children permanently scarred at the hands of Roald Dahl.

Why this stuff did not frequent my nightmares, I do not know.

4.  Song of the South--*dodges all the rotten fruit and garbage tossed at her; Okay, now let's all calm down and talk about this film peacefully.  Now, some of you have never heard about this film, but you have all probably heard of the ride that goes with it:  Splash Mountain.  Yes, the only time I know of that a ride has overshadowed the film it was about.  Why did this happen?  Oh, because some people couldn't handle the fact that Uncle Remus was a slave who didn't hate his masters.  Now, I know this is going to be hard for some to handle, but 1) not all slave owners were mean hateful people who constantly beat their slaves within and inch of their lives and 2) not all slaves hated their masters.  In fact, some loved their masters so much that even after being freed, they elected to stay back and work for them.  This did lead to other problems such as sharecropping, etc., and, yes, some slaves did stay back because they didn't know any other life, but that's also kind of the point.  In fact, Disney has stated that SONG OF THE SOUTH IS SET AFTER THE CIVIL WAR (a fact they sadly didn't make clear in the film), so technically they aren't slaves.  They're just the slaves that chose to stay behind because some did that.  If they had a good master and they knew nothing else, they didn't really need to "get out of Dodge" while they still could.  They were happy to remain on that plantation and chose to stay.  Furthermore, although Disney could have told its Bre'r Rabbit stories simply as an animated cartoon, they did choose to include the character of Uncle Remus as storyteller.  So, although it's a very controversial film, I personally like it.  I watched it for the first time when I was probably sixteen and was well aware of the controversies.  And I ended up liking it.  I mean, I love Bre'r   Besides, come on, it's got the song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"!  How could someone hate "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"?  Okay, probably lots of people do, but it just is so happy-sounding!

3.  Alice in Wonderland--Honestly, you wouldn't believe how many time I have flipped back and forth on whether or not this should be counted as live action or combination.  I finally had to settle down on it being a combination because Alice does end up in a very computer-animated world.  I mean, nearly everyone besides her, even the human characters such as the Red Queen, Stane, and the Mad Hatter, is partly to fully computer animated.  So, I would definitely loosely say that this is a human character entering an animated world.  Anyway, why do I love it?  Johnny Depp.  Do I need any other excuses?  I'm sure a normal, sane person would, but I am neither normal nor sane.  The awesomeness of my top two is the only thing preventing me from just automatically assigning Johnny Depp the top spot.  (Yes, I have issues.  I know.  Even Benedict Cumberbatch and David Tennant combined couldn't cure them, so I figure the only person who can stop this is Future Husband, whomever he may be.)

2.  Mary Poppins--"WAIT!  This isn't your #1?  What is wrong with you?"  Absolutely nothing.  I just really, really like my #1, but I can't deny Mary Poppin's sheer awesomeness.  I mean, although the combination animation-live action is only one segment of a very long movie (for a kid), it's the part that really sticks with you as a kid.  You know, along with every other part.  Who doesn't want to ride up the bannister (attempting to ride down even?  Which caused me injury at least once as a child) or have a tea party on the ceiling?  And, come on, unless you're a scientist who knows long chemical names, the longest word you probably know is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious; and, yes, I did spell that from memory).  If you have watched Mary Poppins, you have wished that your horse would escape the carousel, that penguins could be your waiters, and that your house would have a fireplace so that a chimney sweep could come and dance on the roof.  Well, okay that last part not so much because I'm actually scared of roofs.  I have friends who have seen the freak-outs, and my mom has video evidence.  Anyway, Mary Poppins has never been put in the Disney vault, which is where movies go every ten years or so until Disney can manage to gather up enough demand before swooping in and saving our not-so-inner childhoods with yet another release, restored to greater than its original glory, with more bonus features than the last time it was out.  Mary Poppins instead just gets to stay on the shelves all the time until the next edition comes out, which since next year is its 50th anniversary, will probably be happening in the next few months or so.  You know why?  Because this is an amazing movie with the most wonderful songs, like "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Jolly Holliday, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," "I Love to Laugh," "Feed the Birds," "Chim-Chim Cheree," and "Step in Time."  Plus, it's been made into a Broadway play.  So what manages on Katrina's private list to beat out this classic?

1.  Enchanted--Yes, I must admit that if you made me choose between Mary Poppins and Enchanted, I'd probably go for the latter.  I'm almost ashamed to admit it because in comparison to the great classic that is Mary Poppins, Enchanted is just...a spoofy fairy tale thing.  But, that's why I liked it.  Disney basically made this movie into a treasure hunt of "Count the Disney (and Non-Disney) References," even bothering to include references to movies not yet released at the time!  Plus, Giselle and Robert's (and Morgan's) love story is so sweet, and it does teach girls a very important lesson about the fact that we need to wait and not just rush into relationships (never mind the fact that Edward and Nancy end up rushing into a marriage at the end anyway).  And Disney does do a bit to make up for the fact of 70 years of evil stepmothers by making Giselle, a princess-type character, into Morgan's stepmother and showing how absolutely wonderful of a stepmother Morgan saw Giselle could be.  Personally, at the end, I even ended up falling a bit in love with Nancy's character.  Yes, you initially are designed to dislike her, but to see the fact that she still fell in love with cured-of-mutant-gene Cyclops Prince Edward at the end and also got her happy ending was simply marvelous.  Plus, come on ANDALASIA GETS GOOD CELL PHONE RECEPTION!  How many other fantasy worlds actually have good reception?  Okay, so I admit that from a strict interpretation of all things, Mary Poppins is probably the better film, but as for me, I just like the idea of curling up with myself and a blanket and watching Giselle sing about "That's How You Know" a guy loves you and hoping that someday my guy will come and we can have "True Love's Kiss" (after, of course we date for a good, long while and are engaged).  Plus, I promise you, Future Husband, that I am not bringing any chipmunks into the relationship.

Please Note:  Any promises Katrina makes about a lack of chipmunks in future relationships could be broken if she ended up finding a chipmunk who was willing enough to do this.

So, there you go, Katrina's Top 5 Disney Combination Animation and Live Action Films--a list even she admits has problems because it doesn't follow "what should be."  Then again, why should a few Academy Awards determine my number one?  I shall wave my princess flag high in the air and declare my love for Enchanted, the love story that makes more Disney references than the Geek boards on Pinterest.