What Do You Like/Dislike About Disney?

[Avaitor]

This is the first in a series of different thread ideas I've been wanting to make for a while, but haven't gone around to yet. I should be sleeping, but I'm not feeling tired and still have to do this before my mom wakes up, so this will be a little rushed.

But when you guys think of Disney, what comes to mind? Not just the movies, although I'll be focusing on them right now. I also want to know what your favorite and least favorite qualities about the shorts, animated series, Pixar, etc are.

I think of simple, likable stories with appealing lead characters, usually entertaining villains and sidekicks, and art styles that stick to a particular theme or two and expand on them as best as they can in the animated form.

I admire the art style of most Disney movies. From the detailed looks of Europe in most of the fairy tale stories to the realistic-meets-simplistic nature settings of Bambi to the luscious Africa backgrounds of The Lion King, there are always some great layouts and designs planned out for the studio's movies. Disney has always had some of the best artists on them to make each film stand out and look different but altogether stunning, which is why sometimes watching a couple of their movies one after another is a treat.

I mean, watch The Princess and the Frog and Tangled in succession. You'll go from an Americana and dark arts based hand drawn experience that has plenty of heart in it's look to a fully-rendered computer animated European kingdom that balances light and dark, woods and villages, humans and creatures majestically. This is why I'm all for Disney continuing CG animation along with bringing back hand drawn- if they continue to evolve their CG department like they did in Tangled, we'll only continue to find more breathtaking pieces like in the majority of it. I think Tangled was the first CG Disney movie that gave Pixar a run for it's money.

Music is also good. Be it an unforgettable score or a catchy song, when I watch a Disney film, I expect some piece of music to stand out. Walt was very into classical music, especially so when working on Fantasia, and watching his films after it's making can give you an idea of how. For one thing, Sleeping Beauty was based off of a ballet, and pieces and ideas from it's music show up in the film.

And then the modern Disney animators are inspired by Broadway, who in turn was inspired by the older Disney films of lore. Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's music for Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid were very much inspired by shows as well as the films of Walt's age, and contributed not only to these movie's stories, but the atmosphere of the studio, and how the staff handled the rest of their films. I think there's still traces of Ashman present in Disney today, nearly 20 years since he passed on. Making his impact nearly equal to Walt's.

Themes are also another thing. I discussed some of the ones that come to mind in my Tangled review, and rather than go over those again, I like to think that each one of these movies contain a few ideas that stick to children viewing these at a young age, as well as a couple that matter to us moreso when we're older, and some that are present no matter how old we are. Rarely do Disney films preach, but it's not impossible to grow from them either.

I'll try to add more to this later, as well as make more of these across the board, but let me ask you a few questions. What do you think of the points that I made? Is there anything else that comes to mind from the Walt Disney studio, either good or bad? And while I don't want you to necessarily just list your favorite works by them, do yours meet or surpass any of the criteria you consider to qualify for a good Disney work?

[Avaitor]

I'm trying to think of what more to add, but I think I got my point across well.

Another thing to add is how characters are certainly important, especially when they're handled as gently as they are in most Disney stories. There's warmth in most projects from them that you can't get anywhere, and that's my problem with a lot of the series they have made in the past few years- how soulless they are.

There's a major difference in how the characters are handled and treated in comparison from DuckTales and TaleSpin to The Buzz on Maggie or The Replacements. Even KP and AD succeeded by giving some much-needed warmth and optimism to the cast that you don't find as strongly elsewhere.

[Angus]

It was well said.

likes: Disney Princess: genius marketing concept for girls. Suddenly there's demand for Cinderella again. A big chunk of the storybooks we have are Disney related.

likes: Reviving old cartoon characters: Goofy, Scrooge McDuck, Baloo, and even Tinker Bell. Who'd think they'd ever get and then carry their own TV series or movies? And even Kingdom Hearts was a great boost for video game adaptations, and can open the doors for stuff like Epic Mickey.

dislikes: Much as there's so much innovation in Fantasia, both that and the 2000 version put me to sleep faster than zzzzz...

dislikes: bleh direct-to-video sequels. Bambi II did not need to be made. Or Little Mermaid II. I'm okay with just calling it some side stories like how they handled Disney Princess Stories, then the expectation can be set appropriately. But please, don't make it canon.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The thing I've always loved about Disney is the amount of care that goes into every aspect of their creation. From the amount of depth they put into their animation and character design, to the way the characters are developed throughout, there's an undeniable amount of effort they put into their films.

I like how in everything they do (even their lesser films) that there's always a sense of imagination and exuberance to them.

I dislike how the cheapquels went completely against this idea and basically attempted to dumb down and discredit classic films by making them seem like nothing but formulaic dross.

Disney is at their best when they go all out, and at their worst when they reign it all in.

[skyesweetcherry]

What I like:
-They make/produce good movies.
-They have worked with great actors.
-In movies, they have a lot of great effects (EX: sound, animated...)
-They make the 1st season of a show amazing.
-Their parks.
-The singers, they write & sing good music.

What I dislike:
-They re-make classic movies into new movies that aren't good at all.
-They manage their actors at the way they want, without caring if the actors want to take that decision.
-They make the 2nd seasons of the show horrible, for not to watch them. -.-
-Hollywood records is kinda a fail. They don't know how to manage good music & they let people leak the artist's songs.
-What they turn SWAC S3 now. -_-
I think that's it for now.