Sunday Top Ten - Animated Disney films

It feels like it's been ages since I last cobbled together a Sunday Top Ten list... because it has. But if I don't do one now, before the heat of Oscar season really starts beating down upon us, then it'd never get done! So here's a top ten list that a number of people have been asking for.

In anticipation of Frozen's imminent release (which I am very much looking forward to), I've finally joined the sizable flock of Gen-Y-ers on the Internet who have their own distinct ranking of the animated features of Walt Disney Studios. No two lists (and there are a ton of them out there) are quite the same, but they all share one thing in common: No one has an easy time making them.

I've discovered that my own relationship with the iconic studio's 52 theatrical releases – needless to say, the works of Pixar do not count – is a conflicted and perpetually evolving one. As a child of the 90s being raised on the miracle of “home video”, I indiscriminately loved Disney films of all ages, from the antiquated Snow White to their most state-of-the-art releases. Frankly, I couldn't tell that some of these films were made 60 years apart, and the notion of systematically ranking them against each other never crossed my mind for even a split second. It was the only phase of my life when what I felt for the movies was pure, unconditional love.

As my burgeoning interest in cinema (and a nettlesome sense of pretentiousness) began to develop in adolescence, I suddenly found that certain toons I had blissfully smiled through not long ago were failing to pass my new-found discernment. At the same time, new charms and nuances that had flown over my head when I was knee-high began to reveal themselves. The magic wasn't gone from these films – not all of them. The magic was simply changing. Letting a movie win you over a second time but for different reasons is a special sensation.

Weighing a combination childhood nostalgia and that unnameable quality that genuinely speaks to me as an adult was the only way I could come close to sussing out a top ten. I'm sure many readers will cry foul that 'this' film or 'that' film was omitted, but I believe it to be an appropriately diverse and personal list that nicely represents the things I love most about the Disney legacy. And no, I did not have an easy time making it (although long-time readers should easily be able to predict my #1 pick). 

So without further ado, my top ten Disney animated features:

Review - Beauty and the Beast 3D

Aiming to take a load off my awards-addled mind – something I recommend everyone do this time of year – I spent the afternoon taking in the 3D resurrection of an old favourite. Springboarding from the surprisingly profitable release of The Lion King last fall, Disney is giving their timeless musical romance Beauty and the Beast the same treatment in hopes of drawing in audiences over less-than-compelling January fare.

It didn't take much to get my butt in a seat. The film is, in my opinion, a high watermark for Walt Disney Animation. While The Little Mermaid is justly adored and credited with being the game-changer for the struggling studio in 1989, Beauty and the Beast must be acknowledged as the film that refined the new formula to the point of near perfection, approaching the love story with more emotional maturity and the musical format with more sophistication than any of its many predecessors in the Disney canon. It won unanimous critical praise and a cool Best Picture nomination as reward. That it continues to charm new generations of movie lovers to this day is merely a verification of the "instant classic" status that was bestowed upon it in 1991.

Sunday Top Ten: Alan Menken songs

This past Friday marked the 62nd birthday of a man whose legacy has left a lasting impression on anyone who grew up with the Disney renaissance of the 1990s. I refer, of course, to the awesome Alan Menken, the master of melody whose tuneful compositions earned him a whopping fifteen Oscar nominations and eight wins between 1987 and 1998.

I can't tell you how tricky and frustrating it was for me to try and pare down his accomplished repertoire of songs to just ten for this list. Ask me again tomorrow and as many as five of them could be replaced by songs that don't appear on it today! I also tried to be as equitable as possible to the many projects to which Menken has contributed his music, but still wound up giving a couple of titles multiple spots on the list while many others got shut out completely. Sigh. Such is the bind of a top ten list: you can only pick ten. So I'll start things off by giving a shout out to the likes of Newsies, A Christmas Carol, Enchanted, and Tangled, all of whom came close to finding representation alongside these ten unforgettable ditties:

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Beauty and the Beast

Shame on me for having not taken more initiative to partake in Nathaniel Rogers' “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” series over at The Film Experience this year, but when I heard his next subject would be Walt Disney Pictures' Beauty and the Beast, quite simply the best film to ever come out of the storied animation studio, I could no longer merely spectate. The movie is a visual splendour from start to finish, and picking a favourite shot came down to one of three choices:

Once upon a time, in a far away land...

This sequence of slow push-ins that open the haunting prologue immediately recall Citizen Kane, drawing us ever closer to the unknown subject of our intrigue; in this case, a series of stained glass tableaux depicting the Beast's woeful backstory. Less obvious and more fleeting than the pretty colours and angular window art that quickly grab our attention is the architecture and sense of space communicated by those two early wide shots, providing a brief but necessary contrast to the stifling Gothic environs that dominate the first half of the film. We've seen Eden, so now we actually have an appreciation for the simultaneous isolation and congestion of the Beast's personal hell:

As the sun will rise...

Even for a film with the word “beauty” right there in the title, I can't overstate how beautiful it is! There are literally dozens of shots I could include for their sheer gorgeousness, but I decided to pick one representative. And it's probably the most obvious choice:

Seamlessly rendered with what were, at the time, revolutionary advancements in computer animation, this majestic “crane” shot stands out as the visual apex of the film. As much credit should go to Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's lovely title tune, but unlike every other shot in the film (which work to fit the music), this one actually elevates the power of the music, and elevates us too along with those soaring strings. It's no longer just a pretty ballad, but a perfect synergy of visual and musical stimuli that yields a genuinely emotional effect.

I wonder why I didn't see it there before...

But my favourite shot is not the most artistically accomplished or visually impressive one. Instead, it's one that's easy to overlook; one of those rare, subtle details that went over your head as a child, but that just make you glad you've revisited it as an adult. In the charming musical number “Something There”, the Beast tries – a tad too aggressively – to feed some birds. With Belle steadying his arm and soothing his ambition, he manages to get one bluebird to overcome its reluctance and fly into his hands:

This quick and simple metaphor for Belle (her being the only denzien of her poor provincial town to sport the colour blue) defeating her prejudices and coming to trust in the Beast is not dwelt upon too long, nor of any real significance to the plot, but as a more discerning adult viewer rewatching a childhood favourite for the first time in years, it was this moment that made me realize Beauty and the Beast was more than simply an enjoyable piece of family entertainment, but a thoughtful and nuanced piece of cinema as well.