The archaic movies[]
I know some nickname that « the first golden age », but I don’t think this is one of their best periods.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves[]
There are a lot of beautiful things in the animation, the music’s good, there are good stuffs in the plot… but I can’t help but thinking to it as an « archaic » movie. There is something in the animation, I don’t know, like if they had not found their style yet. Understand me, I’m not criticizing: that’s normal for their first movie to still be searching their style ! But that makes that I can’t consider it their all-times best. Also, another thing they had not found yet was their public: some parts are interesting for everybody, while there are gags and stuffs which seems only for little children…
Pinocchio[]
Here I don’t understand why some people consider it their best movie ever. The animation is a bit better than in SNOW WHITE, but they have still that problem in the style… However, I must applaud the animation of the sea sequences (which announces the upcoming masterpiece Fantasia), the first anthropomorphic animals in a feature animated film (Honest John, Gideon, Cleo) and the backgrounds. Jiminy Cricket’s a very good character.
The beginnings of the Disney Style[]
It’s hard to place the frontier between the « archaic style » I was describing in Snow White and Pinocchio, because some gods in Fantasia, the Ringmaster in Dumbo and some Thumper moments in Bambi seem still in the « archaic » category. But they’re lonely examples, and on all the other characters we begin to see the classic style, so here we go with a new category.
Fantasia[]
A masterpiece in animation. What can I say more ? EVERYTHING IN THAT MOVIE IS JUST PERFECT. The introductions of Deem Taylor doesn’t bother me at all, despite some people’s opinion. Also, it’s a shame that they don’t put back « Clair de Lune » in the DVDs instead of just making it a separate short.
Dumbo[]
Half-fun, half-emotion, with a beautiful animation: just what I want to see in a Disney movie. This one is in its way a masterpiece too, but not in the same sense as Fantasia: it doesn’t invent new stuffs in animation, it just uses in an excellent way everything that already existed.
Bambi[]
The backgrounds, music and animation are excellent. (I wonder if I’ll ever find a movie in that period which I don’t have a reason to call a masterpiece). Perhaps a bit less humor than I usually like to see in a Disney movie, but I don’t feel any lack when watching it, so whatever.
The Cartoon Period[]
What they did during that time was on the complete contrary of what I’d call « the artistic feeling » that you can see in Fantasia or Bambi. Here, everything’s made for fun. And it WORKS !
Saludos Amigos[]
The featured cartoons are extremely funny, special mention to Gaucho Goofy, the Lama in Donald’s Titicaca lake adventure, cute Pedro, and the idea of the paintbrush in « Aquarella di Brazil ». Of course, some didn’t like the documentary segments, but I find them interesting if yu manage to forget that this is meant to be a Disney Classic and just take them in the same mmod than the one you’re in when you actually watch a documentary. I also don’t understand why they cut off « Pluto and the Armadillo » to make it a separate short… To conclude, when we see the word « the end », we’re sad to see that it’s already finished…
The Three Caballeros[]
…and we’ere glad ot learn that WAIT, there’s on hour more with the « Three Caballeros ». And this time, with a complete plot. The Aracuan bird is delicious to watch and the animation’s partly cartoony and partly using Fantasia-esque special effects. And that’s not even speaking of the wonderful live-action/animation mix in some scenes. The Three Caballeros may not exactly be the best Disney ever (I’ll admit its plot is a bit thin), but it’s very enjoyable to watch.