Hello friends, happy Friday! I hope you are all doing well. Today I’m at it again and I’ve started a new project! In this new project I’ve set out to watch all the Disney movies in chronological order, let’s get started!

Before I jump right into this, I wanted to talk a little about my new project. First off, this is something I’ve always wanted to do, but I never got around to. Now that I have Disney+ I figured it was the perfect time to start, and I’ve been loving it. This project is a very laid back one, I watch a movie when I have the time to do so, so these posts are going to be sporadic. When I finish a decade (which will take longer after this first decade because the collection gets bigger and bigger) I’ll post my thoughts on the movies from it. I think I’ll have to break them up after this one so I’m not talking about 30+ movies in one post. In this first one there are only 15. I hope you enjoy reading this! 😊

I’ve added Snow White to this collection because it’s the only movie from the late 30s.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves: This wasn’t a bad movie; it was definitely entertaining. Disney+ 100% updated the quality because the animation was super clear. Watching this as an adult is interesting because the concept of a girl just barging into a cottage she finds and starts cleaning it, hoping that if she does, that will make the owners of the place keep her is wild. Obviously the dwarves have no problems having a girl live with them to do all their cooking and cleaning. Then you have the vanity of the evil Queen, which was super extreme. The way she died though, I didn’t remember that part so that was hilarious. Like most of these movies, you have to suspend your belief that Snow White isn’t dead and that she’s really in some sort of coma and true love’s kiss will wake her. One of my favourite parts, although sorta sad, was the poor turtle – every time he got to where everyone was going, they’d all be going back, poor guy… and that kept happening! Overall, it was entertaining and has good rewatch-ability. (1937)

Pinocchio: This movie was somewhat boring and I don’t think I’d see myself rewatching this one. The plot for the most part was good, but it was just so slow. I get the set up had to take place in order for things to progress but it never got exciting. Even when Pinocchio found himself down a dark path or trying to save his father, the stakes were never that high for me to be invested enough. I really like Jiminy Cricket as a character, he gave the movie spark and made for some great comic relief. He wasn’t always the greatest conscience but I think that played a great representation to real life. Other observations I had were even as a movie made for children they found a way to sexualize women in the marionette sequence. I thought his lying nose played more of a role in this than it actually did. For something so culturally known, it was a mere 5 minute scene. This is the second movie to have a mute, dopey like character, why is this feeling like it’s the beginning of a trend? I forgot how they got into the whale, I thought it was Pinocchio who was caught, not Geppetto, so it was good to see Pinocchio truly come alive to save him. In the end though, it’s a short movie (that feels long) about letting your conscience be your guide. (1940)

Fantasia: This film starts off with a proclamation saying that they depicted other cultures badly and that Disney as a whole are doing better to portray cultures more accurately, essentially. It went by too quick for me to read the whole thing, but I thought that was interesting of Disney to do that, seeing as they’ve removed the most blatantly racist parts decades ago (according to Google). Anyways, the movie as a whole was really, really long. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen this one before… and probably won’t again. This felt like going to a symphony because it starts with a conductor basically narrating everything the viewer is about to see. It’s told in different parts and after each part we come back to him to describe the next one. The idea and concept behind putting imagery behind classical music is cool and I mean for 1940 that feels pretty revolutionary, but did this need to be over 2 hours? The music was nice and it was a build up to any sort of imagery; it’s started real slow and then progressed to actually scenes played out by different people or animals/plants/wildlife. Some were more engaging to watch than others. As I stated above, I’d probably not watch this again because it was just super long with no true plot, just images to music. (1940)

The Reluctant Dragon: This one also starts with message saying some of the depictions are inaccurate, but instead of removing it completely they’ve kept it in their library to help them learn from their mistakes and do better (I finally got to read most of it). The reasoning for this statement is the stereotypical portrayal of the dragon and how he’s seen as gay and how they’ve cast a negative light towards the character. I’ve never heard of this movie before, and for something that is only and hour and 15 minutes in length, it sure felt long. This starts in live action, black and white. This man’s wife wants him to sell this book idea to Disney so he can make a movie of it. She makes him drive there and instead of going right to Disney he spends most of the movie barging into different work spaces and disturbing everyone at their job. For some reason no one is mad by this, instead they’re all happy to show him around – I guess for the sake of this film it makes sense, since we do get to see what went into making animation back then and it’s so mind boggling how many steps there were. I think the sound room was my favourite to see come to life. When they get to the technicolor room, the movie then moves into colour and eventually we get to see the story he’s trying to sell come to life in animation… the reluctant dragon… which had a good moral to it about not wanting to fight and had some good silly parts to it. I also felt like because the main character was so reluctant to see Disney that it was a metaphor for his character. This was also a way for Disney to show off his new studio. All in all, this was good to see once, I don’t think it needs to be rewatched. (1941) 

Dumbo: Again, this movie starts off with the do-better message; I think this is going to start becoming a theme within these early movies. This is due to the crows, and their depiction of Black people and stereotypes. So I reluctantly watched this because I am not a fan of Dumbo, every time I’ve seen it, I think why? I feel like this movie has no redeeming qualities – there’s bullying, jokes that aren’t funny, a drunk scene that goes on for way too long (again where I ask the question why)… all so he can learn to use his ears to fly? But anyways, I feel like this was written by people who don’t like elephants because the hatred and fear of them is very telling in this. They are always portrayed as the bad guys, even among their own group anyone who is different, in the case of Jumbo Jr. (who is later nicknamed Dumbo) with his big ears, is seen as unruly and not conforming to their “standards” as an elephant. Also when his own mother wants to defend and protect him she’s seen as mad and crazed. I’m not even really a fan of Timothy the mouse who tries to help Dumbo, I feel like he acts as Dumbo’s friend, but really how much of a friend is he when in the end he becomes his manager once he’s signed a Hollywood deal. Then you have the crows which are voiced by Black people… except the main crow, why would you do that? I mean, I know why, but if you want to depict Black people, you should probably ensure they are all Black. Yet, out of all the characters in this, I think the crows might be the true heroes of this film because they listen to Dumbo and his woeful tale, they empathize and they actually make him feel like he’s worth something. (So maybe 1 redeeming quality). At least this was only an hour and four minutes so it goes by quickly, but yeah this movie is not for me – no rewatchablity here. (1941)

Bambi: After watching this, I’ve come to realize I’ve never seen Bambi before. I know the story of Bambi… but have never actually seen it. It was a cute coming of age story of deer named Bambi (who I thought was a girl until I saw this… not that it matters). The synopsis says he goes on adventures with his friends, but can we really call those adventures? He just plays with them in the forest that is his home and they don’t do anything exciting really. The only time things are exciting/shocking/intense is when he’s with his mother or later in the movie his girlfriend who he protects. This movie is short, clocking in at an hour and 14 minutes… but it felt longer than that. The beginning especially felt like it dragged on. I got bored watching because I’m like so what’s the point? The animals were cute and the colours were so pretty – like looking at paintings the whole time – so that helped me stay in the movie. The first half was getting to know all the characters in the forest. The second half is where most of the action was. There’s always this ominous feel and we’re just waiting for something bad to happen, I mean it does happen, but it’s only a matter of when and we’re left in wondering suspense. Also the second half the characters we’ve met are now older and are all like ‘I’m not going to fall in love’ when the owl tells them it’s mating season… yet what do they all do?! It was really strange, but I get that it was supposed to represent regrowth and a new generation of animals. This could have done without all the vavavoom… even if they tried to make it subtle. In the end it was a cute movie – would I rewatch it? Probably not. (1942)

Saludos Amigos: This short film starts off with a message about inaccurate cultural depictions, and after some research I found out the ‘censorship’ was about Goofy smoking a cigarette (people were that mad about it?). Anyways, clocking in at 42 minutes this goes by fast and I thought was actually pretty educational. The premise of this is having some of the Disney employees (artists, composers, etc.) fly down to Latin America to get a feel for their culture. I also learned that there was a specific reason this whole trip and film was created – it was part of a good neighbour policy act during World War II. Because many Latin American countries had close ties with Nazi Germany, this trip/film was to neutralize and server those ties, as apparently Mickey Mouse characters were huge in Latin America. Anyways, enough of the history lesson (although quite interesting) as I mentioned this felt really educational from geography where we see these counties on the map to cultural where we actually see, in documentary style how the people in mainly, Brazil, Argentina and Chile live. These live-action scenes were broken up with animated shorts in between where we saw some of the well known characters (Donald Duck, Goofy) become a tourist in these countries. At first I thought the warning at the beginning was for cultural appropriation, but these characters are just trying to get a feel for the culture by embracing all of it. I enjoyed it and it reminded me a lot of The Three Caballeros, which will be coming up soon. (1942)

Victory Through Air Power: I’m going to start by saying this one isn’t on Disney+ and it’s very understandable why it’s not – this is a propaganda war film – that was based on a book (which is what I thought it was going to be, although at first I thought I could have been wrong… but I was not). This film (can I even call it that?) is in both animation and live-action. Most of this is animation, there are pieces thrown in where the author of the book this film is based off comes in and starts explaining things and I guess trying to boost American morale about the war. Aside from being a tool in aiding in war, I found this is also be slightly educational, which after some research I learned was made to be educational (even though it was heavily biased in Americans looking good, I mean the ending really took it home) but it starts with the history of aviation (sort of, again it was heavily biased in regards to planes being used in war) and moved on to how planes were used during World War I, then in peace times, and again how they upped their anti and made planes better for World War II. This felt educational to me in the sense that it was basically like watching a history textbook come to life. For the most part, this hit all the major key moments of the war… up until that point – this was released in 1943 when the war was still going on, obviously because the objective was to get Americans to sign up and join forces because they would take their victory in the form of planes. Why did I watch this you might ask? Well, purely because I was curious what a Disney propaganda documentary looked like and it looked typical of a join us, join the good fight propaganda film… and I’ve seen a few since I took a class on propaganda in the media. Would I recommend this, no unless you’re really into history or media. It definitely had interesting parts, and the animation helped but it was really dry to keep your attention. Would I rewatch it? Nope but I’m alright with having seen it once. (1943)

The Three Caballeros: This one again begins with the cultural sensitivity warning in the beginning, although there didn’t seem to be any truly negative depictions, or mistreatment of cultures in this. The only thing that really stood out to me was the whole Donald Duck lusting after all these women, which I’ll get to. After doing some research on the film, this one was part of the Good Neighbours film series Disney did in an effort for Latin America not to join forces with Nazi Germany. As I was reading, this film could also be seen as a propaganda film, since it’s trying to sway Latin America to one side, which I never knew or thought about (I mean, why would you as a kid?) I didn’t realize this film was part of this series, but it makes sense since it almost follows the same premise as its prequel, Saludos Amigos. I’ve seen this one and there are parts that I remember, like the beginning, then there were parts I didn’t, the end. For a movie that is an hour and 12 minutes, why did this feel like it dragged on for much longer than that? The premise is it’s Donald Duck’s birthday and he’s been sent presents from his Latin American friends and each one he opens is an exploration to a new place; he goes to Antarctica, Brazil and Mexico. At each place he learns a little about the culture and the people, which was fun and again, educational (although mostly for Brazil and Mexico – Antarctica was a short story about a penguin who hated the cold so he traveled to South America). It was fun and colourful and told in half animation and half in live-action, it was all very entertaining but near the end when they kept going and going, it felt like it was never going to end. The songs felt repetitive as well as the dancing but I could see how kids would love that kind of thing. What I didn’t truly like was this had a lot of Donald lusting after all the women he was dancing and singing with, which was strange for a kids’ movie and another weird way to sexualize women (like the women were real and Donald was a cartoon, it was just so odd – who though that was a great idea?!). In the end, would I rewatch this one? Probably not – I liked learning about the cultures but I don’t know, Donald kind of ruins it for me. He’s not my favourite Disney character. (1945)

Make Mine Music: I don’t really know what to make of this movie. First off, this one isn’t on Disney+ and I can sorta see why as it has a very of its time feel. It’s got music and animation that make it interesting to look at, but the storylines were wild – like a whale who loves to sing opera gets his chance to perform for people in New York City, like what is happening here? I don’t think the stories were made to relate to one another because they were all so different and unique in their own ways – some were more entertaining than others, some were just downright boring but this was only an hour and 7 minutes long so it didn’t go on for too long. By the end it started to drag a little. There were moments throughout that gave me deja vu and I don’t know where I would have seen this, but the baseball story sure had me going “I’ve seen this before”. So after doing some research this film is basically a mash up of what Disney had lying around since they weren’t really creating any new content thanks to the war. Aside from their propaganda films they were making they had a lot of unfinished stories that they wanted to do something with and that’s where this was born. It explains some of the half baked ideas we see in some of the stories and why some were possibly more boring as they lacked any real storyline. Would I watch this one again: no, once was good enough for me. (1946)

Song of the South: Up next on the Disney list is a movie that isn’t on Disney+ but is available online and if you know anything about this movie, you’ll know that it’s been banned. Going in, I knew it was racist, but I didn’t actually know what it was about. This takes place during the Civil War (at first it’s not really made clear when this is supposed to take place and that confused me.) The main character, Johnny and his mother are being taken to his grandmother’s plantation while his father is off to (we assume, it’s never said) fight in the war. Johnny is sad that his father has to leave him and he finds comfort in Uncle Remus and his stories. After reading a bit about this movie and why it was made, it sounds like it was made to be in the same vein as the Latin American movies were, to show culture, and in this film, Black culture, but the execution was terrible. It’s made to look like slavery was fun and a choice, when it wasn’t. It gives children the wrong impression of history. I feel like by 1946 there could have been better ways to show Black culture from the south instead of taking it back to the Civil War. Even if Walt wanted to show history, there’s no way to show it as cheery as this because it wasn’t. This was told in both live action and animation and the Black characters portrayed in the animation felt like caricatures and stereotypes, which left negative connotations. Plus they weren’t that entertaining to watch. Just looking at the plot alone this movie was boring; the story moves at such a slow pace that I found it hard to keep focus. It didn’t help the acting was terrible; everyone, except for the actor who played Uncle Remus, were so wooden and stiff, there was no emotion, when clearly there was meant to be. Would I recommend people to watch this, probably not. I get that Disney probably had good intentions going into this, but not only is it racist it’s also boring; the only thing we can learn from this is that we didn’t understand race or history and we can use this to learn from that to do better. (1946)

Fun and Fancy Free: I actually really enjoyed this one. I’m not really sure what the title of the movie had to do with the actual content though. This movie was divided into two short stories with Jiminy Cricket sort of playing host to introduce both stories. Both are animated, with the some live action thrown into the second story. The first one was a story of a bear named Bongo who was a circus performer; after years of hating it, he finally escapes and falls in love. Obviously, he has to fight for his love and so there’s this musical breakdown of bears showing each other they love them… with a slap. It’s so random, yet catchy and was definitely on the abusive side, but it was also comical in a weird way. I would hate to think people, or children saw this and thought to show someone you love them, you should slap them. I mean, this fits into the whole ‘if a boy bullies you, he likes you’ mentality… which makes me wonder if this fed into that. Aside from that, this story was good, and entertaining – it was really colourful, but dragged a bit in the middle. The second story was a Jack and the Beanstalk retelling and it was done really well; the pacing was good, the characters were good, there was something really magical about it that was striking. It starts off by Jiminy taking the viewer to a live action birthday party where a man is telling the story to a little girl and two ventriloquist dummies. They would pop in and out of the story and at first it was a little annoying, but in the end it actually made the story better because the side commentary was actually quite funny. The one dummy, Charlie, always had something witty or sarcastic to add, which if you’re into that kind of humour like I am, it was enjoyable and gave the movie something adults would enjoy. Would I recommend this one? Yes, I mean Bongo’s story, not so much, but I would definitely watch Jack and the Beanstalk again! (1947)

Melody Time: This felt like a reboot of Fantasia or Make Mine Music where you have a group of short animations timed to music. It wasn’t bad to watch, for the most part it was entertaining, but it didn’t feel original. As I did more research into the last few films it seems during and after the war it was really popular for Disney to make these anthology films in order to gain some money to again start producing bigger films. I mean, you’ve seen one film, it feels like you’ve seen them all – there was nothing really stand out about this. The music was pleasant to listen to, the visuals were really pretty, the stories were alright – if you didn’t pay too much attention to them and just watched the sequence of events unfold it was visually appealing. Again, they had to throw in some live action for the sake of mixing animation with live action. This film was doing great until the very end when they threw it in. First with the piano playing lady, which we’ve seen in the Three Caballeros, and who Donald Duck has an infatuation with, which I still think is weird. Then in the final story, it’s starts off as live action, all these cowboys have got together to hear the story of Pesco Bill. I have to say, that last story didn’t fit in with the rest of the movie. You’ve got all these animations of flowers, animals, boats and then you end on these guys? It felt out of place. I think without the last story this could have been a better viewing experience. Would I watch it again? Probably not. (1948)

So Dear to My Heart: This film isn’t on Disney+ and I can’t find a reason why, aside from there possibly being an issue as to who owns the rights to the film. My first thought was something was wrong with it and they removed it from existence, but that’s not the case, in fact it was a really wholesome movie. It takes place in 1903 on a farm in the American Midwest, where a boy finds one of their sheep has birthed a black sheep. When the mother doesn’t want it, the boy steps in to take care of it, despite his grandmother’s wishes. It’s a tale of a boy loving his sheep, flaws and all – and this sheep had quite a few flaws, he was very destructive. The boy loves it so much, he wants to take it to the County Fair,  he just knows he could win a prize, but his grandmother is very against that. So the second half of the film was about getting to the fair. This was longer than I had expected, and it lags a little in the middle and for a bit I felt like it had lost the plot of the movie, but we get an explanation and it begins to make sense again. The ending was sweet and really had a good message for not only children, but adults too. This was mostly live action, but they threw in some animation between scenes too, I guess to keep it entertaining, and to help move the plot along. Would I watch this again? Probably not, but I do think it’s worth watching once. (1948) 

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: For the most part this movie was entertaining. I still don’t get why these two stories were made in a film together, but that seems to be very on par for a lot of these anthology films of the 40s. Up first is the story of Mr. Toad and his need to have all the latest inventions. Automobiles are on the rise and so he has to get his hands on one any way he can… even if it means stealing one. But did he really steal it? This story was entertaining because it became a mystery surrounding Mr. Toad. The push and pull of did he do it, what’s going to happen to him. It definitely made it fast paced. What wasn’t fast paced was the second story, the story of Ichabod Crane. This new teacher in town that everyone is fascinated by. Then one day he meets Katrina and he’s completely in love… only, so are all the men in town. He then finds himself in competition with (what I’m going to assume is) the town stud, (he’s just a dumb guy if you ask me). When the other guy finds out that Ichabod’s weakness is superstitions he fills Ichabod’s head with stories, so as he’s riding home from a Halloween party (of all parties) he’s met with the headless horseman. He tries to get free, but he’s never seen again. Now it sounds really fast paced and exciting… but that was the last 10 minutes of the story. We spend most of it watching Ichabod around town and arguing with the other guy; it got to the point that I was bored (and this movie total is only just over an hour). There was so much set up to Ichabod’s character only for him never to be seen again; it didn’t feel like enough of a pay off for his character. For both the stories I really liked the animation and the colours – that made it a lot of fun to watch. All of the characters felt like caricatures of people though; it was probably for entertainments sake, but they felt so outlandish at times, I guess you could say it was comical. The stories themselves were alright, I wasn’t super into them, I definitely liked Mr. Toad over Ichabod Crane. Would I watch this again? Probably not. (1949)

Have you seen any of these movies? Let me know in the comments below!