For our latest Hoyts Movie Poll, we’re asking you “What is the Greatest Disney Animated Classic?” You’d think it’d be as difficult as answering “Who’s your favourite child?” but we doubt you have 10 children and we have no ‘I love them all equally’ option, so this question’s actually way harder.
VOTE HERE RIGHT NOW (and score some free Hoyts movie tickets).
But how do you even begin to figure this one out? What puts a classic above another classic?
Well, the easiest route is to go on general legacy. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the very first animated feature ever, breaking new cinematic grounds and putting socks in the mouths of critics who believed no one would go to the cinema to watch a fully animated movie. The Academy took note though, making Walt Disney his OWN SET of Oscars – one statuette, seven miniature statuettes – in honour of what he and his team set in motion.
It’s also the highest-rated of all the classic animated Disney films on the list on IMDb, so if being 0.1 movie points ahead of the pack makes you believe it’s the greatest of them all, then that’s a solid way to go.
But perhaps you prefer looking more in-depth at the craftsmanship of each movie, in which case, you can make a solid argument for 1940’s Pinocchio. The animated prowess on display is impeccable to this very day, from the physics applied to making you believe a puppet can move on its own to the flawless motion of two-dimensional water during the film’s oceanic climax. It’s a significantly more daring effort than Snow White, and you can conclude that to be the reason for calling it the greatest of the lot.
However, while the meticulous craft of animation is essential to recognise, these films are only regarded as cinema classics because of the stories they tell – and how they are told. As such, you might consider the greatest of their classics as the storytelling apex, which would most likely lead you to Dumbo.
Then again, in this current age of hyper social awareness, you might not be willing to expose your children to intoxicated dream sequences and family-friendly racism. For some, the “greatest” classic is the “timeless” classic, the one that may show its age but never reveals anything outdated. And what film better explored timelessness than Peter Pan, the story of the boy who never ages?
I could go on for each of these films, but what we really want is for you to think hard on this one – not TOO hard, but just a little bit more than average.
To you, what does it mean to be the greatest among a group of animated films that are already regarded as classics? You can think about the engineering of animation, the mechanics of storytelling, the historical relevance of a film, the social adoration it received, etc. There are so many factors to take in, it’s enough to make your head spin.
Or… the complete opposite.
But what if your fondest memory as a five-year-old is seeing a classics screening of Alice in Wonderland at the cinema? Or catching Lady and the Tramp sucking noodles for the first time at your cousin’s house? Maybe you stretched the tape of your VHS copy of 101 Dalmatians after that 71st play-through…
For a film to be regarded as ‘The Greatest’, maybe it boils down to something as simple as personal, nostalgic attachment. If that’s the case, then for me, The Jungle Book is the greatest classic animated Disney film of all time. Hands down.
So, what’s the greatest classic Disney animated film? Vote below – and stay tuned for New Zealand’s answer which we’ll announce on May 4.
