Your favourite Disney Renaissance movie

[Zontar]

So for the past week I've had a particularly bad cold (so bad I had to take four and a half days off work. Got "don't spread it around" pay but not "caught it at work" pay. Oh well, better then nothing) and in my moments of not being out of it and being caught up with YouTube videos from those I'm subded to I decided to watch Disney's Renaissance movies since I hadn't done that in some time and I needed something to kill time that wasn't too active.

Lot of memories came back and I remembered why I loved the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Amazing visuals, beautiful art crafted to make an interesting but still real feeling setting and a story that managed to be an amazingly child friendly take on the horrifying story.

So what is your favourite in the bunch?

 

[Saelune]

For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Renaissance

I suppose I would have to go with Aladdin, since I was obsessed with that movie as a little kid. Though I love almost all of them. Beauty and the Beast, and Hercules fighting for second place.

Hard to say why though, but thinking of the three Id want to re-watch the most, it would be Aladdin.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Aladdin is probably my favorite. Beauty and the Beast comes in second.

 

[tippy2k2]

For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Renaissance

Thank you!

OT: My childhood says The Lion King because every kid has that one movie they watch over and over and over in an attempt to force their parents to commit suicide just to get some relief and my movie was The Lion King. However, my heart says Mulan or Hercules because non-child tippy2k2 loves those movies.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Once upon a time I'd have said The Little Mermaid but as I've gotten older I've shifted towards The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

You're asking me to choose? You are a sick man...uh, no pun intended.

Hm...I've often said that Mulan, Hercules, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast are my top three Disney movies (don't point out the inaccuracy because I said so!), but for right now, at this very second...Mulan. Mulan is currently sitting in the number one spot for me.

 

[Queen Michael]

My absolute favorite is Mulan. Beauty and the Beast is a very close second. Third place is shared between Hunchback and Hercules.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Aladdin

It's just so much unbridled fun. The romance plot is secondary to the Genie shenanigans, and Robin Williams is at the top of his game. The songs are all great, and Jasmine as a Disney Princess doesn't fall into that weird constricted, plastic-y look that characters like Ariel and Belle fall into. Jafar is a wonderful villain who gets more deliciously high on his own evil as the movie progresses, and his repore with Iago is a hoot.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Best song in any Disney movie, ever.

 

[RedRockRun]

"The Little Mermaid" for sure, and Ariel remains my favorite Disney heroine.

 

[Hawki]

Of all the Disney Renaissance films I've seen, I rank them as follows:

6) Pocohontas
5) Hercules
4) The Hunchback of Notre Dame
3) Beauty and the Beast
2) Aladdin
1) The Lion King

 

[Fox12]

Oh yeah, definitely Hunchback. It's so perfectly built around it's ideas. It's also... surprisingly complex.

 

[Nazulu]

It's The Hunchback of Notre Dame out of the renaissance (behind being The Little Mermaid). The Bells Of Notre Dame and Hellfire are both in my top 5 favourite Disney original songs, including it tackles more mature themes than the standard Disney animation.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

The Lion King. No doubt about it. But I love 'em all. I grew up with those animated films. I must have seen each of them more than a hundred times. I miss 2D animation. Those films have more soul than 3D animated films IMO.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

The Hunchback. Aside gargoyles, it's pretty much perfect in every way.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Hercules. I'll admit, this has nothing to do with how good it is in comparison to the others, but on entirely other factors.

Reasons why I rank it above the others:
- It was the first film I ever saw in a cinema
- It had the Hydra fight, the titans, the centaur, Hades, Cerberus, Philoctetes, swords... basically everything a 5-year old (which I was at the time) will lose their mind over.
- The film has a sort of nutty slapstick energy I haven't found that much in other Disney films. While the comedy in Disney films is usually delegated more to the animal sidekicks, here the whole cast was in comedy mode
- The songs, while no one cites them along A Whole New World or Circle of Life as classics, are for the most part actually really fun and groovy.
- Films I never saw as a kid: Lion King, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hunchback, Beauty and the Beast... I'm not exactly caught up on this subject am I?
- I did see Pocahontas, but it had girls in it, ewwwww.
- Mulan's alright, but it didn't have the energy of Hercules.
- Tarzan was a bit grim for a 7-year old, the songs were forgettable, and the characters weren't that interesting.

No matter how much I'll try, I'll never be able to judge it without the shiploads of nostalgia and joy it evokes in me.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

The romance plot is secondary to the Genie shenanigans, and Robin Williams is at the top of his game.

I'll second this. Genie absolutely steals every single scene he's in.

I've never been a big fan of Williams and his rather tragic end hasn't changed that, but I'll readily admit that when he was good, he was really, really good. And most of his lines were ad lib, apparently so much so, the script was turned down for a Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award nomination because of it. And he recorded 16 hours (!) of material. That's dedication right there.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Spoiler

Best song in any Disney movie, ever.

You know a song's good when even the parodies are stirring:

The Emperor's New Groove is apparently post-Disney Renaissance if Wikipedia is to be believed, so I guess I'll have to go with Aladdin. While Aladdin himself is rather bland and boring, the rest of the main cast more than makes up for it, particularly Robin Williams as the Genie. I also had a crush on Princess Jasmine as a kid, so there's that too.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Fantasia 2000 trumps all these movies even the Hunchback and Lion King: