Before I begin, I updated my site, which is at [link] to reflect my new URL (it was formerly called Vimscape). It's still under construction but I'm almost done putting up all the content.

Anyway, during the first half of this year, I've watched every movie in the "Disney Canon" that's ever been released thus far, from Snow White to Meet the Robinsons. It was... an interesting experience. It came with good and bad movies. It's hard to get in-depth about almost 50 films for one post, so I'll just say what sticks out in my mind.

The first couple of films were great, which included Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi. Fantasia may have been a bit too long (particularly the first half of the dinosaur sequence) but it turns out the one I liked the least from a long time ago is now my favorite: The Sorcerer's Apprentice. I'm not sure why I didn't like it before, but now I think it was the most successful short from the film that blended music and animation.

Then the quality dipped a bit with Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, and Melody Time. I didn't really like Saludos Amigos, but that may have been because the whole thing was in Portugese and I didn't have subtitles. The taste it left in my mouth gave me the impression it was more of a documentary than a fictional film. I guess it felt too... propagandic? The Three Caballeros handled Saludos Amigos' message so it wasn't so obvious that it's supposed to be a good-will message to a foreign country, which was nice. The next films were basically Fantasia Lite, like contemporary versions of Fantasia. Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet really stuck with me and is probably my favorite short from those two movies (referring to Make Mine Music and Melody Time). Fun and Fancy Free and the Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad were enjoyable too, though it was obvious these films didn't live up to the first couple of films, but I guess that's understandable because of the World War situation going on at the time.

Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Lady in the Tramp was Disney back in form. Personally I didn't really like Alice in Wonderland. The whole story was nonsense, and I guess maybe that was the point, but in the end it could've been more cohesive while keeping in with its nonsense theme. Actually, I feel My Neighbor Totoro or Spirited Away was Alice in Wonderland done right. But anyway these batch were still fine films.

Then came Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmations, The Sword in the Stone, and The Jungle Book. I think the only one I really liked was The Jungle Book. Sleeping Beauty was snooore, 101 Dalmations and Sword in the Stone were decent (but they all had a distinct interesting style, especially Sleeping Beauty), but The Jungle Book was really good. I think one of the highlights of the movies was the body language, so it was a treat even when the characters were doing nothing but walking for stretches of time, and the story was cohesive. I am definitely impressed with Walt's last endeavor.

After that there were The Aristocats, Robin Hood, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and The Rescuers. The Aristocats didn't do much for me, though I found the latter three to be mildly entertaining. I do think Pooh's been overmarketed to hell recently, but despite that I think the Winnie the Pooh movie had a nice child-like innocent approach to it, and it's probably my favorite of that batch of movies.

Then came The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, and Oliver & Company. The Black Cauldron is possibly the worst Disney movie I've ever watched, because it keeps introducing new irrelevant aspects to the story that makes the movie feel disjointed. It's like a King's Quest game story accurately translated to a movie.

The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King were great films, and I think Beauty and the Beast is the best film the studio was ever produced. The Rescuers (which came between Mermaid and Beauty) was okay too.

Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, and Tarzan were okay films but a problem that started to become noticeable was that they were leaning back towards to the "Disney formula" too comfortably so sometimes when a Disney cliche is used it feels forced, like the producers went, "Well, this is what made our previous films so popular, make sure these films have these things in it too!" like that unnecessary love story between Pocahontas and John Smith. Pocahontas was the worst offender but the later films handled it a little better. Tarzan's probably my favorite of this batch.

Another dark age was upon Disney with the start of Fantasia 2000, which happened to be inferior to the original. My main problem is that it's obvious the music was made first and the animation was made second. It's a hard thing to describe, but when I watched the original I could've easily mistaken the music being made for the animation and not the other way around. I think the main reason this is so is because of the heavy use of piano in Fantasia 2000- it's very difficult to suspend my disbelief when a large loud booming action is being represented by piano notes because simple piano notes just don't give the impression of a large, loud booming action (Rhapsody in Blue did this the most). I think my favorite piece was the flamingos with yoyos because the integration of music and animation just feels so natural.

Emperor's New Groove was rather predictable for a comedy. Atlantis: The Lost Empire had a strong beginning but in the second half it felt very deux ex machina. Lilo & Stitch was rather enjoyable. When I watched Treasure Planet in theaters I remember disliking it but watching it again made me realize how well crafted it really is. I didn't are much for Brother Bear but Home on the Range and Chicken Little sucked. Meet the Robinsons was a step up but I still didn't think much of it.

Anyway, I also watched Wall-E and Pixar continues to amaze me. Everyone should watch Wall-E, it's a wonderful film. There's just so much emotion coming from robots that, y' know, look like ordinary robots! It's very well done.