Top 10 Animated Disney Films

Hello, there.  Sorry, I've been away.  I'm working on moving, and I've also been focusing on other non-blog writing (I go through phases of that.).  So, what's been going on?

Well, after my Pixar post, someone united all the Pixar stories into one fabulous universe, so I guess my post was a little ahead of the curve.  Woohoo, though!  I love this theory!

Also, a royal baby was born, so in about 25 years, we can have a remake of Princess Diaries 2, with the new Mia proclaiming a total, "Yes!" to Prince George.  Or, you know, delay Princess Diaries 3 until then and uniting Genovia and the UK under one flag between Princess Mia's kid and Prince George--a union which I guess would probably result in a lot of pear-flavored tea.

Which already exists.  Go figure.  Former Queen Clarisse probably drinks this every night!

But, anyway, on to the real purpose of today's blog post:  to finally give my rundown of my absolute favoritest Disney animated films.  So hop on your albatross and get ready to fly away to Neverland as we count down Katrina's top 10 films in the animated Disney canon (a not-so-easy task, as Disney has made so many awesome films!).

10.  The Fox and the Hound--I've never actually cried in this film, but childhood memories prevail!  I mean, it's about this cute little fox and puppy that grow up, and they're supposed to hate each other, but they don't, so trouble happens and stuff, and no one dies, but Tod learns he can't just live among humans because Amos Slade can't get the concept of a pet and a wild critter settled in his hick, hunter mind.  In fact, for all you know, Amos Slade is Man from Bambi.  Think about it.  (Note:  Katrina has not read the book, but I hear it's even more emotional than the movie.)

9.  Lilo & Stitch--"Meenga-ala-queesta!"  I am not quite sure what I just said, but I'm pretty sure I just insulted you.  Anyway, take the beautiful tropical beaches of Hawaii and throw in Experiment 626, the cutest little evil genetic experiment blue ball of fur to ever invade!  I mean, Stitch is just so adorable and fluffy, and then they made three more movies and a TV show, and, and, and...Aunt Pleakley, Uncle Jumba, Cobra Bubbles, "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride," cousin!  Yeah...I may have had a bit too much Lilo and Stitch in my life as a teenager.  Wait, what am I talking about?  I'm still waiting for my experiment.

8.   The Jungle Book--"Look for the bare necessities, the simple bear necessities."  "I wanna be like you-oo.  I wanna walk like you, talk like you, too-oo-oo!"  Another early childhood favorite.  And come on, it's got some of the best Disney music ever--probably because of the Sherman brothers.  If you're wondering who they are, they're basically half the Disney songs you love; the other half is basically Alan Menken, although there are a few other amazing artists who have composed Disney songs.  Another reason I love this movie is ever since I was little, my favorite animals have been lions, tigers, bears, snakes, monkeys/apes, and hyenas.  This movie hits four out of six of my favorite animals.  Rock on, The Jungle Book.  (Psst, the book is good too.)  Favorite Songs:  "The Bare Necessities" and "I Wanna Be Like You"

7.  Aladdin--"I can show you the world, shining, shimmering, splendid..."  "You ain't never had a friend like me!"  "Arabian NIGHTS, like Arabian DAYS!"  Ah, remember way back into your childhood before Middle Eastern culture was turned into a culture we were trained to despise and hate?  That was the 1990s, and although Muslim culture is never something I'm going to praise, Aladdin probably came out in the perfect environment.  We got to fall in love with it before we had to go and fight the land where Genie and Magic Carpet and Iago and Jafar live.  Plus, this film still makes me want a genie.  If I were given the choice between a genie and a Time Lord, I'd take the genie, use my first wish on something cool, the second on a Time Lord, and the third to free the genie.  Bonus points if the genie is as awesome as the big, blue Genie we came to love as kids.  Favorite Songs:  "Friend Like Me," "Prince Ali," and "A Whole New World"

6.  Mulan--Yes, this is probably one of Disney's most feminist films, but Mulan also happened to come out right around the time I hit my boy-hating stage (Yes, I was delayed and hit it when I was eight.  Big deal.).  When I sang the words, I would make them be about girls instead and stuff.  But then I grew out of it but still liked Mulan, even if the movie is a bit feminist.  I mean, let's focus on the historical innacuracies of it all too!  I mean, the real Mulan (according to the poem) had siblings (which Disney cut out) and managed to supposedly hide the whole "I'm a girl" thing for years until her friends came to visit her and saw her as a woman.  I guess Shang walking in at the end to find Ping as a girl wouldn't have made as exciting as a film as a bunch of guys dressed up as girls breaking into the palace.  It certainly would have been less awkward, though.  Oh, also, let's not forget the fact that this film has Mushu, the coolest dragon (not lizard, he doesn't do that tongue thing) in the history of dragons.  Favorite Songs:  "Reflection," "I'll Make a Man Out of You," and "A Girl Worth Fighting For"

5.  Tangled--"And at last I see the light!  And it's like the fog has lifted!"  Ah, after eight years of mediocre movies (Well, Meet the Robinsons had its moments, but I tend to overthink time travel when there's as many paradoxes involved as in that film, and there was also The Princess and the Frog, but that was more a movie for the sole purpose of "let's get a black princess so we can say we have racial equality."), Disney finally gave us what we wanted:  a fairy tale, set in fairy tale times, with a princess who needs help, and a guy to help her out.  This is the movie that turned the frying pan cliche into something awesome, that took the required Disney Princess horse and gave him more personality than quite possibly every other horse ever, that took the room of scary people and made them sing and dance with the heroine, instead of singing and dancing while plotting against her.  This is the film that restored my faith in Disney films again.  Favorite Songs:  "When Will My Life Begin," "I've Got a Dream," and "I See the Light"

4.  Beauty and the Beast--"Tale as old as time, true as it can be..."   If I could pick one word to summarize this film, it would be:  elegant.  This movie just spills over with pure Disney magic:  the music, the animation, the characters, the love story.  Belle is my second favorite Disney Princess, and she's probably the one I'm most like.  I also read a lot and can polish off huge books in a matter of days.  Yes, there's the whole, Bell develops Stockholm Syndrome thing or whatever, but her bonding with her captor, whom she learned to love despite his angry, beastly exterior, broke the spell so they could live happily ever after.  Favorite Songs:  "Belle," "Be Our Guest," and "Beauty and the Beast."

3.  The Emperor's New Groove--"Boo-yeah!" "You threw off my groove!"  "Happy, happy, birthday, from all of us to you!"  "Cheese me no likey!"  "Let me guess, we're about to go over a huge waterfall."  "Squeakity, squeak, squeak, squeaken."  "I'm a llama again!"  "I'll turn him into a flea."  "My spinach puffs!"  "What's with the chimp and the bug?"  "He's doing his own theme music?"  "LLAMA FACE!"  "It's a good thing you're not a big, fat, guy, or this would be really difficult."  "Why do we even have that lever?"  "That's a harp...and that's a dress."  "Hey, I've been turned into a cow, can I go home?"  "Well, in my dream, Dad had to kiss a llama!"  "That's a little too far back."  "Why would I kidnap a llama?"

2.  The Little Mermaid--"What would I give to be where you are?  What would I pay to stay here beside you?"  Growing up in Japan with few to no friends, I often longed for America, and I sang "Part of Your World" a lot as my way of wishing for them.  Ariel became my Disney Princess because we both longed to be somewhere we couldn't be.  To this day, she is still my favorite.  Although I have become more Belle than Ariel over the years, The Little Mermaid will still always be extremely special to me.  Hey, come on, what girl, even as an adult, doesn't want to be a mermaid?  Also, this is another film with fantastic music.  Favorite Songs:  "Part of Your World," and "Under the Sea"

1.  The Lion King--"NAAAAAAANTS INGOYAMA BAGITHI BABA!"  Ah, nothing like realizing you forgot to turn down the volume on your TV when the opening notes of the majestic masterpiece "Circle of Life" come booming out of the speakers, sending you halfway to the Serengeti.  And after you turn the volume back down and watch the reporters animals all bow to Prince George Simba, you've officially sold yourself to this film.  And then you meet Scar and the hyenas (I should note this film covers my two favorite animals The Jungle Book missed.).  And then you're annoyed at Zazu, but Simba just can't wait to be king.  Then the wildebeest kill Mufasa (Still haven't cried over that.), and Simba runs away.  We learn the meaning of "Hakuna Matata" from Timon and Pumbaa (and also get introduced the concept of bromance years before it happened).  And despite how good those grubs looked, most of us still haven't eaten bugs.  And then Simba and Nala feel the love tonight, and Scar is defeated, and happily ever after.  This, my friends, is my absolute favorite animated Disney film, and I haven't traded it for another one in nineteen years.  Forget the genie, I want a pet lion.  STAT!  Favorite Songs:  "Circle of Life," "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," "Hakuna Matata," and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?"

So, that's that.  The 10 best animated Disney films that Katrina has ever seen.

Bonus Mention:  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow--I've only seen The Wind in the Willows part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad once, but I grew up on the Sleepy Hollow part because I'm named Katrina after the book character.  Although this film can't rightfully hold a spot on the list because of my only liking half, I feel it deserves to be mentioned because it holds a spot very close to my heart, even if that Headless Horseman scared me half to death as a child.  Still, I mean, that's completely a good thing.  It's probably the reason I'm not scared of half the stuff I see on Doctor Who as an adult.  Seriously, people, scare your kids to a certain limit when they're little.  It'll help them grow up either well adjusted or just very, very weird.

Also, I'm disconnecting my Internet in about an hour and a half, so I have no idea when the next post will be, although I feel an MK post brewing.

Also, remember, when we hit 1895 posts, I will finally post about Sherlock! :)

My Top 10 Pixar Feature Films

Don't worry.  I will eventually finally get to my favorite animated Disney features, but first:  Pixar!

Ah, yes, Pixar--the film company of the Millennials' childhoods.  The movies for which we get more excited about the sequels than the intended audience.  A company founded by George Lucas and associated with both Steve Jobs and the legacy of Walt Disney.  Is there any wondering why this company has without fail produced films that make us go, "PIXAR FILM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

So, I'm sure some of you clever brains have already done the mental calculations and come to the shocking realization that when you follow Katrina Policy of counting sequels and prequels at the same time as the regular film so as not to bog down the list with unnecessary stuff...Pixar really only has 10 films.  So, yeah, you will see every full length Pixar film somewhere on this list.  So where does your favorite film rank on Katrina's scale of awesomeness?  Well, either scroll down to your favorite one or politely and calmly read through the list and discover for yourself.

10.  WALL-E--This isn't a kid's film.  It's an hour and a half nearly-silent film about how we need to take care of the Earth, watch our weight, and not allow machines to control our lives.  This is an especially odd message coming from a bunch of animators who spend their days in front of computers.  My only fun memory of this film is when a group of us college students watched it with a four-year-old who kept asking, "Mr. Seth, Mr. Seth, why is WALL-E...why is WALL-E doing that?"  Adorable kid and it made for a fun memory.  Still, I think it was a little bit too message heavy.  And clearly over the head of a four-year-old.  I'm not quite sure who your audience was, but when I put in a Pixar film I'm expecting a kids' film adults can enjoy, not...whatever WALL-E is.

9.  Brave--I really hope not liking Brave is some sign I'm getting old.  To me, this film was just...okay.  I mean, I was all excited about this archery, but then I felt like it was lacking (Perhaps too much Hawkeye and Katniss in my life?).  I felt like I was promised more archery than what I was received.  Plus, the film was all about turning Merida's mother back into a human from being a bear, and not so much about defeating Mordor Mor'du.  I guess I felt this would be a lot more action and stuff, which shows how good my friends were at keeping it from me that Merida's mom turns into a bear.  I mean, there's still some classic Pixar comic relief in there, but it's still not Pixar's finest moment.  Oh well, at least Merida will go down as the only Disney Princess to walk away with her first film without a guy.

8.  A Bug's Life--I feel so bad relegating these childhood memories to number eight, but I promise you this that if I were able to show proper rankings of how I feel about eight through one, they would be very, very closely ranked.  A Bug's Life was the first of the Pixar films to show the bloopers during the credits (a trend they've sadly strayed from in recent years) and have a teaser trailer that featured a scene not in the film.  It has really great humor, like most Pixar films.  For all time, grasshoppers are now evil.  They used to be cute and cool, but now I know they do nothing but oppress ants all day until they're eaten by birds.  Typing this is making me want to go back and watch it again, but sadly my house is completely Pixar-less.

7.  Ratatouille--Ah, the film that was a pain to learn to spell.  But, Pixar made up for it with, once again, great humor, a bit of a love story, and a misunderstood rat who just wanted to cook because he's a picky eater that would starve to death if the Pixar universe was actually realistic.  But, nonetheless, the fact that Remy overcomes all the odds and gets to live the next year or two left of his short rat life helping the son of his cooking idol run a restaurant.  Plus, there's the fact that you find out that ratatouille is not the name of the character, but rather a peasant dish that snaps the secondary villain back to his childhood when he was possibly less critical of all the food in the world.

6.  The Incredibles--Pixar made its first (and so far only) foray into the superhero world with this film, and I instantly wanted another.  I mean, yeah, this was neither the best nor the coolest film they had made, but for a girl who knew nothing of superheroes outside of Larry Boy (VeggieTales), Underdog, and Powerpuff Girls, this was a cool movie.  Being more exposed to the superhero world now, I can see how Pixar referenced the way superheroes are often ostracized from society and that superpowers seem to gained genetically.  And, of course, it's got Samuel L. Jackson as Frozone (aka Lucius Best), which has made me wonder how Frozone becomes Nick Fury a few years later, but I'm sure it's the same explanation of how the Human Torch is also Captain America.  So sorry, terribly off topic.  It's kind of like I went monologing in them middle of that.  Speaking of which, why do superheroes and supervillains allow each other to monologue like that all the time, anyway?  I mean, it's like, just defeat the guy!  Plus, we also can't forget the best character in the film.  No, not Mr. Incredible, not ElastiGirl, not Violet (who isn't even cool enough to go get a codename), not Dash, and not Jack-Jack.  None of the characters the film is named after.  No, it's E.  Duh!  Designer of superhero costumes, hater of capes (Disney has not yet informed Thor of this apparently, but he's also immortal), owner of a high tech mansion, slapper of sense into superheroes.  Seriously, she needs to be part of the Avengers.  NOW!

5.  Up--You cry for the first eleven minutes but spend the next eighty-five smiling and laughing and just in general--SQUIRREL!  Sorry about that.  Anyway, despite the fact that Carl has way too few balloons to lift his house off the ground and the fact that Russell's parents apparently don't notice that he's missing for however long it takes them to go to Paradise Falls in South America and back, this film ended up being pretty great.  I mean, you've got Kevin the snipe who isn't all we think he is.  We have talking dogs, heroes who become nemeses, cranky old men, balloons, talking dogs (wait, did I say that already?).  And, come on, the whole message is "Adventure is Out There" but that life itself is an adventure, even if you don't get to go someplace cool.  SQUIRREL!

4.  Monsters, Inc.--To clear everything up, I have not seen Monsters University yet, so I have Monsters, Inc. ranked solely on the merits of the first film about two buddies who have to deal with a human girl Sully accidentally lets into the Monster World.  And then Boo has this adorable costume and draws adorable pictures and has these adorable pigtails and speaks adorable babble speech, and...and...CUTENESS OVERLOAD!  Plus, Randall and Henry J. Waternoose make excellent villains.  And Randall's got a pretty sweet skill there with the whole chameleon thing going on.  The door storage warehouse scene with them jumping all over the world was also excellent.  I now want to run into the Abominable Snowman (even though he doesn't actually exist, I know) and have lemon flavored snowcones.  Plus, look, monsters are more scared of you than you are of them.  23-19!  23-19!  We have a 23-19 here!  I am so looking forward to finally seeing Monsters University sometime.

3.  Cars and Cars 2--Cars 2 didn't affect my third favorite all-time Pixar film's ranking mostly based on the fact that the original Cars was awesome and the Japanese part of Cars 2 basically made the film for me.  That segment was so highly accurate, I nearly died of laughter.  So what lets the Cars franchise rank so high?  Well, you've got Mater, "as in Tow-Mater, except without the 'tuh!" making me laugh at nearly every turn.  And there's that whole heart-touching song "Our Town" about how Radiator Springs used to be in the glory days of Route 66 that makes you realize how history is passing.  Plus, the fact that Lightning doesn't actually win the final race was an excellent choice.  I like having a film every once in a while that points out that winning is everything, especially in the participation award-fueled (no pun intended) world kids are living in.

2.  The Toy Story Trilogy--A trilogy redeemed by the third film is a rare sight, especially in the realm of Disney.  How many of us will admit that we had some Toy Story toys around the house or at least wanted them?  Woody and Buzz are, like, the BFFs of our childhood.  We began to wish that we might accidentally see our toys come to life.  But the sequel came, and everything became, "Meh" for me.  As more Pixar films came out, Toy Story and Toy Story 2 found themselves falling on my list.  But redemption came in 2010 with the release of the third and final film of the trilogy.  I was a junior in college, and watching the film, I could remember the pain of giving up/leaving my own toys behind as I went to college not that long ago.  Oh, so many little children love and will love the story of Toy Story 3, as they see the continuation (and hopefully finale) of the lives of their favorite animated toys.  But for those of us who grew up with with the Toy Story franchise, this film represented everything we had done, were doing, or would do.  With this film, we learned that childhood was something we would have to bid farewell too.  Sweet pages were closing in our lives, but it was okay.  Those toys we gave up would continue to live and be happy with their new owners.  And although we were sad, they would be happy because toys are meant to be played with--not kept in museums or boxes.

1.  Finding Nemo--GET OUT OF MY WAY, CHILDREN OF 2015, I'LL HAVE BEEN TWELVE YEARS FOR THIS SEQUEL!  He-loo, weee aaare the Fiindinng NEE-moo FANS!  Wee can speeak wha-ALE.  "Mine!  Mine!  Mine!  Mine!"  "FISHY, WAKE UP!"  And what's the other address all of us have memorized besides our own?  P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney.  WE REMEMBERED!  "Hi, I'm Dory."  "Fish are friends, not food."  "Duude."  You'd think that a story about a father on his way to go find his son wouldn't garner such a dedicated and enthusiastic fanbase.  I mean, this is such a common theme in movies.  And they just redid with clownfish and we fell in love.  Plus, we never were so interested in dentistry as in those few intense moments with the dentist's fish watching it like it's a spectator sport.  And then Disney-Pixar was like, "Maybe a sequel" but then were like, "Nope."  And then they were like, "Hey, Ellen, how about a sequel for real this time?"  And the world was like, "Oh, yeah!"  Because, let's face it, the sharks, the turtles, the pelicans, the fish school, the fish tank gang--I mean, that was all great and stuff, but who was our favorite character?  Let's see...Corey.  No, I mean, Lori.  Oh, right, Dory!  So that is why I am so pumped and excited that two years, four months, and ten days from now, Finding Dory will be a real thing.  Because Finding Nemo is the best Pixar film of all time.

So, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's list.  Coming up next time, my final list in the Disney series.  And then I can finally move onto other stuff!