The Walt Disney Company has made a lot of fantastic movies in its over 100 years of existence, and these seven are basically perfect. Disney owns a lot of production and distribution companies, with Pixar, 20th Century Studios, Marvel Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Touchstone, and more falling under the Disney umbrella. However, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ films are the quintessential Disney movies, meaning that all the entries on this list come from that division.
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Walt Disney Animation Studios was founded on October 16, 1923, and started with Walt’s Alice Comedies shorts. However, the studio got into the feature business with 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and they’ve continued regularly making animated features ever since. From Snow White to Zootopia 2, the studio has made 64 feature-length animated films, but only these seven are perfect.
7) The Little Mermaid
1989’s The Little Mermaid is the movie credited with kicking off the Disney Renaissance, the popular period of Disney movies that helped save the company in the late 1980s through the 1990s. The first of many Disney films solely co-directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, the film tells the story of Ariel, a mermaid princess who gives up her voice to a sea witch in order to live on land and experience the world of humans.
The Little Mermaid is a classic story, has beautiful animation, and is incredibly memorable. The most beloved part of the film is its music, with The Little Mermaid‘s soundtrack being the first one that Howard Ashman entirely composed for Disney. The Little Mermaid set the template that all subsequent Disney fairy tale movies followed, proving how perfect the story and music are.
6) Lilo & Stitch
2002’s Lilo & Stitch is the most recent Disney film on this list, proving how perfect it is. Co-directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, the film follows a young girl in Hawaii who, after wishing on a shooting star, is gifted with a blue alien whom she believes is a dog.
Lilo & Stitch is one of Disney’s best examples of merging narrative storytelling with theme. The film works as a simple children’s sci-fi story, but it also contains layers of commentary on topics like family and colonialism. The film has a unique animation style when compared to Disney’s other animated films, and it manages to remain musically recognizable despite not being a musical at all.
5) Sleeping Beauty
While many aspects of Disney’s early animated films undoubtedly have a shared style, Sleeping Beauty was one of the company’s earliest movies that really experimented with its visuals. The entire film manages to look like a stained glass window, and the characters are much more angular and colorful than before. This makes the film’s iconic villain, Maleficent, stand out even more, cementing her as one of Disney’s most recognizable big bads.
There is a lot to love about Sleeping Beauty outside of the art. The film is full of iconic songs, and the dragon fight in the finale gave Sleeping Beauty a sense of grandiosity that no previous Disney movie had reached.
4) Pinocchio
While Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disney’s first attempt at an animated film, the company made a masterpiece with their second attempt, Pinocchio. The 1940 film adapted the various vignettes of the original story and turned it into the definitive version of the fairy tale. The film massively ups the scale when compared to Snow White, and it is still one of Disney’s most beautifully animated movies to this day.
3) Beauty & The Beast
As the first animated film to be nominated at the Oscars for Best Picture, 1991’s Beauty and the Beast is almost always considered to be among Disney’s masterpieces. The film is gorgeously animated, with nearly every scene utilizing incredibly difficult methods of animation in order to seamlessly imitate camera moves. The character design is top-tier, with the various anthropomorphic household items in the Enchanted Castle being beautifully brought to life.
Songs like “Be Our Guest” and “Beauty and the Beast” prove that the film is Howard Ashman at the top of his game, and the musical score is just as good as the songs. Plus, the film is one of Disney’s first metatextual commentaries on their own films, with Gaston being a villainized take on previous Disney heroes.
2) Fantasia
1940’s Fantasia is a truly experimental Disney film, with it pushing the limits of what was possible with animation. The film is a collection of several animated shorts that are set to classical music, with the stories beautifully illustrating the pre-existing orchestral compositions. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the rest of the shorts are some of the best work that Disney has done, and it is hard to argue that Fantasia isn’t perfect.
1) The Lion King
1994’s The Lion King is the best film that Disney has ever made, and that’s saying a lot considering how many classics they have. The combined force of Hans Zimmer and Lebo M. creates a soundtrack truly like no other, with each song in the movie being instantly recognizable. The film starts off at its best with “Circle of Life,” and somehow maintains that momentum throughout its run.
The epic story features a grand scale not seen in other Disney movies, with the story spanning years and chronicling three different kings of the Pride Lands. It balances hilarious jokes with incredibly weighty moments, and features one of Disney’s best villains. All of this and more make The Lion King a perfect movie.
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Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.
