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YMMV / Disney Animated Canon

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  • Adaptation Displacement: When Disney adapts a story or fairy tale, their version tends to become the best known and may influence future adaptations. They have their own subpage for it.
  • Angst Aversion: The sheer amount of tearjerking moments in their movies have turned some people away from watching their films.
  • Archive Panic:
    • There are 62 films. It takes a full day to watch all 19 of the Walt Disney-era films alone (Snow White to The Jungle Book) and over 80 hours, or more than three days without sleep, to watch all 62 consecutively. Add on other Disney films which partially feature their animation, note , The Brave Little Toaster, A Goofy Movie, and maybe all the Pixar films, and you'll take even longer. Good luck.
    • For the things that spun-off from the Disney movies: there were 28 sequels made to the films that aren't part of the canon, not counting their Winnie the Pooh and Disney Fairies movies. There were also 14 Spin-Off series, including TaleSpin and Lilo & Stitch's two Eastern-produced shows, totaling 788 episodes. As big as the canon is, if you really want to be through, you'll be at it for awhile longer.
    • Thanks to Disney's convoluted re-release tactics, any collector trying to gather all their various home video imprints has their work cut out for them. These imprints include, but are not limited to, the original Classics line, the Masterpiece Collection, the Limited Issues, the Gold Classics Collection, the Platinum Editions, the Diamond Editions, the Signature Collection, the Ultimate Collector's Editions, the Special and Anniversary Editions, the Disney Movie Club exclusives and the multi-movie collections on DVD and Blu-Ray. Thankfully, the debut of Disney+ has made this possibly easier than ever before.
  • Audience-Alienating Era: Has gone through three distinct ones:
    • The Package Age (1942-1949), where, after their hot streak of gorgeous, epic narratives that defined the medium, they could only afford to make Compilation Movies that were not nearly as ambitious. Only a few segments, such as Pecos Bill, Willie the Operatic Whale, Mickey and the Beanstalk, the characters in The Three Caballeros (and the film itself to some) and the entirety of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad are well-remembered while the rest are usually forgotten.
    • The Bronze Age/Dark Age (1970-1988, though some would say it didn’t really start till the release of The Fox and the Hound in 1981), after Walt died and the entire company lost its way, in which production of films grinded to a halt. Their stagnation was apparent in an era where film was drastically evolving and, once they finally started to experiment with The Black Cauldron, audiences swiftly rejected it.
    • The Experimental Era/Post-Renaissance Age (Late 1999-anywhere from 2006 to 2009, depending on who you ask), where most of their films flopped, their attempts at differentiating from their 90’s musicals failed, and they drastically fell far behind in popularity against newcomers Pixar and DreamWorks Animation. This was also when Disneytoon Studios began churning out their DTV sequels. However, in this era, the only film anyone in the Broken Base agrees on as being undeniably bad is Chicken Little.
  • Awesome Art: No matter what one thinks of Disney or their storytelling, the only thing that people almost unanimously agree on is just how good their films look. Of course, it's their testament to their unwavering commitment to high-quality, groundbreaking animation as to why many people believe that All Animation Is Disney.
  • Awesome Music: Naturally, since they are the Trope Codifier for the Animated Musical. See for yourself.
  • Broken Base:
    • You'll find fans who only love the Walt-era films, fans who love the xerox period (which goes from 101 Dalmatians to Oliver & Company — although some fans classify the latter film and the two before it as an entirely different period), fans who love the Renaissance era films and view most of the older ones as Narmy, and even fans who love the earlier Renaissance films but don't care much for the later half. And then, of course, you have fans who judge each film based on its own merits.
    • There is a general consensus that, by the time Wreck-It Ralph was released, Disney had entered a new period of glory. The contention lies in exactly which film started this new period of glory, due to differing opinions over the importance of quality, financial success, and style:
      • Meet the Robinsons, which, despite mixed reviews, showed a marked improvement over Chicken Little, and helped Disney's CG films gain credibility;
      • Bolt, the first film made fully under John Lasseter, and received a respectably positive reception from critics, fans, and the box office;
      • The Princess and the Frog, which attempted to restore hand-drawn animation and revived many of the classic elements of Renaissance-era Disney; however, it failed to make a substantial profit, further damaging 2D animation prospects;
      • Tangled, which clearly established a new style for Disney, blending classic Disney traits with modern CG animation comparable to Pixar, resulting in the first CG film with a clear "Disney" look that would later be utilized in Frozen. Additionally, it was a major financial success for Disney, as well as a critical and fan hit.
    • Whether or not the Revival Era is continuing or has ended with Moana and the change of CCO from John Lasseter to Jennifer Lee. Some view the latter era films from Ralph Breaks the Internet onward to be of the same narrative quality while others find them to be more contested, with the only universally positive exception being Encanto.
    • The switch from 2D animation to CG. As soon as it was announced that Disney would switch from 2D to CG, fans were all over the place about it. Some don't mind the change, saying that the new animation is nice and works itself into the films rather well, while others hate the change and would prefer it if Disney continued to do 2D films instead (or at the very least, do them alongside CGI animated films). While the debate has cooled down since then, the 2D to CG switch is still a very bitter topic among fans.
    • Fans are divided by the use of xerography from 101 Dalmatians to The Rescuers, since it gives the films a noticeably sketchy appearance not present in Disney's other films. Some despise the style and view it as cheap and rough looking compared to the standard expected from Disney (the fact that it was meant to be a cost-saving measure didn't help), with some (like former Disney animator Don Bluth) viewing it as being overly self-indulgent. However, others like the rough and sketchy look since it shows the clear work of the animators and argue that not only is the animation itself still stellar, but the sketchier look gives many Disney films that used it a bit of unique charm not present in their other films.
  • Complete Monster: Even Disney has enough villains that are this for the site to give its own section under that trope.
  • Contested Sequel: The Black Cauldron, Pocahontas, Dinosaur, The Fox and the Hound, Treasure Planet, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Brother Bear, and Home on the Range are the major ones. Some like The Great Mouse Detective and Hercules are less contested, but still broke the base. Even official sources conflict on whether Hercules was any good or not, when the general opinion among fans was "flawed, but still enjoyable."
  • Cult Classic: The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Treasure Planet are the big ones, while Brother Bear, The Emperor's New Groove, The Sword in the Stone, The Rescuers (and its sequel), The Three Caballeros, Oliver & Company, Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and Home on the Range also have some rather rabid fanbases. Fantasia and Alice in Wonderland used to be this, but then they became Vindicated by History. Also, Robin Hood is one among the Furry Fandom.
  • Director Displacement: Expect only hardcore animation buffs to know the names of the individual directors of the early Disney Films, everyone else giving Walt Disney sole credit. It didn't help matters that when much of the early Disney animated films were released, they were generally made by a team of segment directors under the command of a supervising director, who was himself answerable to Walt. Under that system, each segment director would direct a single portion of the film, and then report back to the supervising director so he could edit all the portions into a single, cohesive film.
  • Evil Is Cool: Clearly several of the villains invoke these tropes in the eyes some fans, at least enough to have their own line of merchandise.
  • Fan Nickname: All the eras' names are this, even the widely-recognized Disney Renaissance. In fact, the names we use on the Recap page were partly taken from the Disney Wiki's articles before they later decided to delete all of them save for the aforementioned Disney Renaissance.
  • Fandom-Enraging Misconception:
    • Mistaking feature animation of other companies and animators, such as the works of Don Bluth, for films in the Disney canon.note 
    • Mistaking any of the direct-to-DVD sequels created by Disneytoon Studios as being part of the animated canon will quickly get you attacked by Disney fans, as only the films made by Walt Disney Animation Studios count as being part of the canon, not any of the direct-to-DVD sequels or spin-off media not made by WDAS.
  • Fandom Heresy:
  • Fandom Rivalry: Disney Canon Fans vs. Pixar Fans. It got at its worst when John Lasseter became the head honcho, and his Executive Meddling of Bolt led to Chris Sandersnote  Rage Quitting and going over to DreamWorks in protest.note 
  • First Installment Wins:
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: A few Disney characters are surprisingly popular in some countries. Sometimes even the film itself would turn out like this.
    • Stitch is huge in Japan with an anime and manga spin-off made and an Jidaigeki manga spin-off, a Stitch-themed version of The Enchanted Tiki Room exclusive to Tokyo Disneyland, and tons of Stitch merchandise that can be found everywhere in the country. The same goes for Angel who has a bigger role in the anime, and she's not even from the original film.
    • Marie is also huge in Japan to the point that she was given her own spinoff between 2009-2012 (June 2018 for the US) called Miriya & Marie and there's a lot of merchandise that feature her in Japan.
      • Similar to Japan, Marie is very popular in Brazil and Italy. The aforementioned Miriya & Marie manga was able to gain an official translation to Brazilian audiences before an official western release. While in Italy, Marie's Italian name (Minou) is among the top 10 most popular names for Italian cats.
    • While Oliver & Company was a moderate success, the film was very popular in France. Especially after Anne Meson made tie-in song called "Oliver" which quickly became a hit in that country. She even performed the song at Disneyland Paris (then "Euro Disney") with Oliver and Dodger during the park's inaugural year.
    • Ariel is also a very popular Disney Princess in Japan due to the Japanese loving stories about mermaids.
    • Tangled was very popular in India, due to the uncanny coincidence that Rapunzel's birthday celebration song "I See the Light" unintentionally resembles the Diwali festival.
    • According to two of Disney's Nine Old Men, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, in their famous book "Disney Animation and the Illusion of Life", The Rescuers became the highest grossing picture of all time in Germany.
      • The Rescuers was also a huge hit in France, and grossed more money there than even Star Wars of all films. It's still beloved there, thanks to the top notch vocal performances of Roger Carel (Bernard) and Perrette Pradier (Madame Medusa). There was even a 25th anniversary reunion featurette on the 2002 DVD in France.
    • In general, Disney animated movies tends to have their second or even highest gross in Japan, inspire many of its anime creators big name and even created the Kingdom Hearts franchise. This, couples with the unpopularity of every other American feature animation studio in the country (with the exception of Pixar and Illumination Entertainment, occasionally) reached the point where a lot of new releases aren't even sent to Japan, while others go straight-to-DVD.
  • Growing the Beard: Has happened three times over the course of the past 75+ years. The first was Cinderella, which was Disney Studios' first big hit since Dumbo. The second was The Little Mermaid, which was the starting point of the Disney Renaissance. The third and most recent was Meet the Robinsons, which was the first film released in the Lasseter Era (which would lead to the Disney Revival beginning with the following two films, Bolt and The Princess and the Frog).
    • Arguably, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is this for Disney as a whole, shifting away from short cartoons and into feature length, and better animated stories.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Disney's Nine Old Men alumnus Woolie Reitherman dying in a car crash only a few years after he retired became this when one of Disney/Pixar's elite animators, Joe Ranft, also died in a car crash 20 years later, and this fate nearly claimed Jeffrey Katzenberg 10 years later, and 30 years after Reitherman's passing, no less.
  • Memetic Badass:
    • Aladdin, as a playful, rough-and-tumble trickster thief who with his street smarts and a pet monkey went from stealing bread to setting a genie free, defeating an evil sorcerer, and winning the hand of a princess in the span of half a week. Not bad for a mere street rat.
    • Mulan, as a capable Action Girl who joined the army as a boy and proved her worth to the extent of defeating the main Hun forces, even having the emperor of China bow to her. She's seen as one of the most badass Disney heroines.
    • Anna's willingness to brave harsh snow, dangerous heights, Hans, and the mistrust of her people to save her sister with no magical powers whatsoever.
    • Elsa's Instant Expertise of her ice magic once she gains confidence, whipping up an Ice Palace and Snowlems as well as starting and dispelling an Endless Winter with minimal effort, has proven her to be remarkably high on the Super Weight scale.
    • Moana's been getting this treatment, what with her Determinator status in getting the Heart of Te Fiti back, taking precisely none of Maui's crap and earning his respect through her sheer determination, and refusing to give up the quest after he bails with a non-traditional body type for the company, and no love interest in sight.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Many of the movies have the main villain cross it at some point in the franchise where they wreak their havoc — mostly so that the small kids the films are targeted towards can tell who is the good guy and who is the bad guy, and determine that the bad guy DID deserve a violent death or, at the very least, a thoroughly spectacular form of Abject Humiliation. You can read on for yourself here.
  • Once Original, Now Common:
  • Sequelitis: From the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, Disneytoon Studios released a flood of Direct to Video cash grab sequels to these movies out on the market. Reception of each individual film is heavily mixed (some, like Bambi II, the Aladdin sequels and Cinderella III: A Twist in Time are at the very least considered to be decent, while other films like Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World and The Hunchback of Notre Dame II are seen as dire drek), but it's safe to say that none of them are thought of to be in the same league as their largely acclaimed predecessors, and haven't left any real cultural impact beyond being easy films to take potshots at on the internet.
  • Strangled by the Red String: This is the case with earlier movies, particularly ones like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Justified, as it can be chalked up to Disney trying to keep to the source material, which in those cases were mostly fairy tales meant to teach morality and not build a believable love story. (The former two actually inserted scenes so that the "prince out of nowhere in the end" was actually introduced to both the audience and the princess earlier on in the movie, but they still get flak for it.) Later movies fix this, by giving the couples more interaction and personalities beyond "She's the girl of my dreams!"
  • Sweetness Aversion: Moments that can elicit this reaction full are common throughout, especially in the earlier movies. That said, there are plenty of exceptions, and even the lighter movies can have some unsettling moments.
  • Tough Act to Follow: These movies have left such a massive cultural impact and legacy that nearly every follow-up to them that Disney's produced over the decades has been stuck in its predecessor's shadow. The most notable example is in what the popular consensus is on Disney's run of live-action remakes released from the early-2010s onward (outside of the much more polarized reputation that they have online) — which is that they retell the story of their classic source materials sufficiently, with critics and audiences generally considering their casts, visual effects, and soundtracks to be good, but also fail to live up to the animated originals.note 
  • Vindicated by Cable: The 2000-2004 time frame of box-office flops and disappointments: Fantasia 2000, The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, and Home on the Range have all found new shelf-life after being reaired on the Disney Channel.note  They all, to varying degrees, have gone through vindication.
  • Vindicated by History: Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, Sleeping Beauty, and Alice in Wonderland, were all commercial disasters when first released. Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty were both critical flops as well when first released, a far cry to now be considered some of the best animated films period. Later movies like Robin Hood, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Hercules would all get much better reception than when they were originally released.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Most people think of violence as not kid-friendly, yet the vast majority of people (including Disney's marketing) consider these to be family or kids' films. Most of these films have a villain who tries to commit murder (and succeeds in the case of The Lion King) and ends up dead himself/herself by the end of the film.

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