News

When Will Finn's and John Standford's animated musical Western "Home on the Range" was released, it came with an elegiac announcement. Disney, you see, had been struggling throughout the early 2000s. The 1990s renaissance was over, and much of the studio's more recent output was either failing critically or commercially. Films like "Fantasia 2000," "The Emperor's New Groove," and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" were only modest successes, while films like "Dinosaur" and "Brother Bear" were coming and going without much notice. The studio's clunky sci-fi epic "Treasure Planet" notoriously lost buckets of money, which didn't inspire confidence. It didn't help that DreamWorks was attracting huge animation audiences with films like "Shrek" — a notoriously anti-Disney movie.

As such, to appear competitive, Disney announced that "Home on the Range" was going to be the studio's last-ever traditionally hand-drawn feature film. After that, it was to be 100% CGI. Animation purists panicked, feeling...

Avatar's story and characters were heavily influenced by Princess Mononoke, showcasing parallels in narrative and themes. Both movies portrayed complex relationships between nature and humanity, highlighting the impact of industrialism on the environment. James Cameron's love for anime, including Miyazaki's works, was reciprocated in the anime industry, with influences seen in Avatar's themes and characters.

Countless jokes and memes have been made about how James Cameron's Avatar is basically a sci-fi remake of Kevin Costner's sweeping Western epic Dances with Wolves and Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg's animated period musical Pocahontas. Some chalked the movies' overlap to the unavoidable reality of pop culture osmosis, while others went as far as baselessly accusing Cameron of ripping off the aforementioned movies. Though the narrative similarities and thematic parallels are undeniable, these reductive jokes unfairly reduced Avatar to a punchline. In fact, the jokes were so overplayed that they're...

Since its first feature film in 1937, Disney has crafted a sterling reputation as one of the most consistent studios in the world. More often than not, audiences can head into a Disney production knowing they're likely to see a quality picture. Although, this sterling reputation isn't to say they haven't had any duds.

Ranking every movie made under the Disney banner would take forever. Between their live-action and animated works, Disney's movie portfolio is massive. Plus, this sizable group only continues to grow with acquisitions such as Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars. That said, it's possible to rank the least popular that Disney has to offer based on animation quality, narrative consistency, and character dynamics.

Updated by Ajay Aravind on January 9, 2024: Disney movies never go out of style, but not all of them are created equal. Some of these Disney animations have gotten lower ratings than others for various different reasons.

The Disney Renaissance was a time of great experimentation for the Mouse House — one that saw its animation division tackling all sorts of challenging material, from ancient legends spanning cultures around the world to decidedly dark and mature literary classics by Victor Hugo and Edgar Rice Burroughs. But with great daring comes the risk of committing equal-sized blunders, and that's just what the studio did when it decided to turn the tale of the real-life Indigenous American woman Pocahontas (a nickname passed down by her father) into an animated musical extravaganza.

That's not just the hindsight talking. "Pocahontas" earned a lackluster critical reception upon its theatrical release in 1995, with reviews arguing it was stunningly animated but otherwise lacking in personality. The film's reputation has only worsened over the decades thanks to its soft-peddling of the violence perpetuated by European colonialism, along with its rehashing of Indigenous American stereotypes. Adding insult to injury,...

Disney is bringing their treasure trove of their short films from the last deacde and a half to blu-ray/DVD for you and your family to enjoy together in one complete set. Come inside to learn more about the shorts being collected!

With each new release, Disney continues their tradition of having a short animated film play before their movies, and now they're brining all of their latest (including this year's Frozen Fever) together in one collection on Blu-Ray/DVD...and it's available Now!

From Walt Disney Animation Studios comes an extraordinary new collection of award-winning and beloved short films featuring the never-before-released Frozen Fever, starring Frozen's Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Sven and Kristoff, and the Oscar®-nominated Lorenzo. The Short Films Collection features contemporary shorts starring classic characters, including the 2012 groundbreaking Mickey Mouse cartoon, Get A Horse!, holiday treats like Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa as well as hailed Oscar® winners Paperman and Feast.

The 1990′s introduced the world to Quentin Tarantino, saw the creation of the Nc-17 rating, and began the slow call toward fully computer animated films. It began the slow (still slow) movement toward a more diverse industry, with the first African-American director earning an Oscar nomination (John Singleton for “Boyz in the Hood”). And the year after one of the greatest years in the history of film, 1995 came plodding along, trying to keep up. So, for the first definitive list of 2015, we are going to look back 20 years at a year that, at first glance, doesn’t look so hot. It’s ripe with flops, but it’s also full of debuts, trailblazing beginnings, and better films than it gets credit for. But, the caveat still stands: this is not a “best of” list. In fact, there are a lot of bad movies on this list. But, they are movies that made a cultural impact,...

Before audiences saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in 1988, Walt Disney Productions had tried to make the film several years earlier after initially getting the rights to Gary K. Wolf's novel on which the film is based. In fact, animation director Darrell Van Citters actually shot some test footage, but not with Bob Hoskins as Eddie Valiant and Charles Fleischer as the voice of Roger Rabbit. Instead, it was Pee-Wee Herman star Paul Reubens (though he wasn't known as that character yet) voicing the titular rabbit with Peter Renaday and Mike Gabriel as the human detective. Now that footage has surfaced. Watch below! Here's the early 1980s test footage from the first attempt to make Who Framed Roger Rabbit?: The footage above was shown on The Disney Channel in 1983 on a program called "Disney Studio Showcase" but it was never seen again. Thankfully, Thief Archive (via SlashFilm) has unearthed...

Years before Robert Zemeckis directed the revolutionary live-action/animated hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in 1988, an earlier version was mounted at Walt Disney Studios between 1981 and 1983, which had Darrell Van Citters set to direct. Today, an eight-minute video has been unearthed that shows John Culhane taking viewers behind-the-scenes of this unmade version, which featured Paul Reubens as the voice of Roger Rabbit and Russi Taylor as the voice of Jessica Rabbit.

The video also shows a number of concept art images, that show how vastly different the earlier versions of these characters were, and we have a few split-screen photos with the 1981-1983 artwork next to the finished characters from the 1988 film. Take a look at the video and photos, then read on for more information, where you'll see that one of the animators is Frozen and Surf's Up director Chris Buck.

Before Richard Williams directed the animation for Who Framed Roger Rabbit?...

Between 1981 to 1983, Disney made its first attempt at adapting Gary K. Wolf’s book “Who Censored Roger Rabbit.” Below, is an eight-minute video that contains test footage and concept art. It looks a bit different from Robert Zemeckis' final version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which hit theaters in 1988. Most the obvious differences are with the final looks of two of the main characters, Roger Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit. This is because the animated in the footage below was directed by Darrell Van Citters, but the animation in the 1988 version was directed by Richard Williams. You'll also notice that Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman) voiced Roger Rabbit, Peter Renaday and Mike Gabriel as Eddie Valiant and Russi Taylor voiced Jessica Rabbit. Why don't you do right, like some other men and women do and watch it. It's 1947 Hollywood and Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), a down-on-his-luck detective is hired...

News Simon Brew 7 Apr 2014 - 06:41

Wreck-It Ralph 2 is being developed at Disney, it's now been revealed...

Given that director Rich Moore and his team were very open to the idea of a Wreck-It Ralph sequel around the time of the film's original release, it's been pretty widely assumed that one's on the stove at Disney somewhere. After all, Wreck-It Ralph took nearly $500m worldwide at the cinema box office, and garnered generally very positive reviews.

Walt Disney Animation Studios, however, is hardly known for its sequels. You have to go back to The Rescuers Down Under for the only one on its official line of animated movies (trivia time: Mike Gabriel co-directed The Rescuers Down Under, and was art director on Wreck-It Ralph). However, rumours now persist that we're getting a Frozen 2 as well, so there may be changes afoot.

Right now thought, the first tangible sign that Wreck-It Ralph...

With the release of Disney's Wreck-It Ralph on Blu-ray/DVD, the studio has shared some behind-the-scenes concept art that reveals a look into the visual development process. The images show early conceptual designs of the title character, Vanellope, the Sugar Rush racers and the virtual worlds of the various games. Rich Moore's Wreck-It Ralph features the voices of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch and Alan Tudyk. Hit the jump to check out the concept art images. Check out the Wreck-It Ralph concept art below, followed by an in-depth look into the visual development process: [gallery link="file" order="Desc" columns="1"] The Artistry And Influence Of Visual Development Meet the visual development artists that helped conceptualize the video game worlds and gaming characters in Wreck-It Ralph. Learn about the research that went into creating the look of this film – from game playing to unexpected trips – and the unique ways these artists found to showcase their ideas.

I’m surprised it took this long to come up with a concept like Wreck-it Ralph, the hilarious, arcade-game-hopping journey from Disney which was something of a Toy Story for a generation weaned on Nintendo and Sega. Wreck-it Ralph was a lot of fun (much more so than Brave which took home the Oscar last week). Wamg’s Jim Batts gave the film 4 ½ stars (read his review Here)

http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2012/11/wreck-it-ralph-the-review/

Now Wreck-it Ralph has been released on Blu-ray and, unsurprisingly, it looks spectacular. Sharpness consistently appears immaculate on the Br disc. Even the widest shots of the “Sugar Rush” racers zooming around the track demonstrated excellent clarity, as every aspect of Wreck-it Ralph looked detailed and distinctive. No issues with jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and I saw no edge haloes or processing concerns. Of course, print flaws weren’t a factor, as they stayed away from this unblemished presentation.

The Rescuers Down Under

Directed by Hendel Butoy and Mike Gabriel

Written by Jim Cox, Karey Kirkpatrick, Byron Simpson, Joe Ranft

Starring Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, George C. Scott

The level of faith the Walt Disney Company places in its own products never ceases to be amazing if inexplicable. Each era at this massive corporation is so categorically different from what came before, well back into when Disney was still a struggling film studio desperately trying to pay the bills with its shorts or, at the time, a handful of massively ambitious feature-length animated films. Thus, the faith placed in the product has always shifted. However, the Mouse House’s modern era, beginning in 1984, when Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the late Frank Wells began their tenure in various high-level positions, has been concurrently maddening and glorious to behold. Whether we like it or not, Disney fans are something of...

Disney continues its Blu-ray releases of the animated movies from their 1990s "Renaissance" with Pocahontas and its sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, thrown in for fun. The three-disc collection features the two films on one Blu-ray and individually on two DVDs. Both are quality projects but look completely different in comparison to each other. Each received a nice facelift and restoration to make them look better than they ever have before. 

Pocahontas shows us how the young Native American Princess meets Englishman John Smith. The two engage in a romantic relationship which brings to mind Romeo and Juliet. Her Indian tribe and his group of settlers clash over the land with tragic consequences. 

This was the first Disney movie based on an actual historical figure. It does a great job of keeping true to the spirit of the actual incidences it's based on. That's not to say...

Disney continues its Blu-ray releases of the animated movies from their 1990s "Renaissance" with Pocahontas and its sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, thrown in for fun. The three-disc collection features the two films on one Blu-ray and individually on two DVDs. Both are quality projects but look completely different in comparison to each other. Each received a nice facelift and restoration to make them look better than they ever have before. 

Pocahontas shows us how the young Native American Princess meets Englishman John Smith. The two engage in a romantic relationship which brings to mind Romeo and Juliet. Her Indian tribe and his group of settlers clash over the land with tragic consequences. 

This was the first Disney movie based on an actual historical figure. It does a great job of keeping true to the spirit of the actual incidences it's based on. That's not to say...

Every movie buff appreciates a cinematic list. The arrival of vast information on a subject we love so dearly will always be welcomed with open arms. And what better than the esteemed list of all-time greatest films? Whether it’s a monumental effort like Empire’s The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, or the country-specific AFI list of 100 Greatest American Films, there’s no denying the lasting appeal and insight a list can offer to reminiscence about old favourites and to put us on our way for new discoveries. After all, they’re usually spot on, having polled critics, filmmakers, and a devoted public who know exactly what makes a motion picture entertaining, important and timeless.

The problem is, of course, that after so many years, we’re used to reading the same old lists over and over again – how many times have we been told that The Godfather or...