Loveday Writing

Now that I’ve watched and written analysis pieces on the ten animated feature films of the Renaissance Era: The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, and Tarzan, I’m going to rank them from my least favourite to my favourite.

10 – The Rescuers Down Under

It’s probably a surprise to no-one that this film came in last place for me, due to the fact that it doesn’t belong in the Renaissance Era or is at least this Era’s outlier. It’s not a bad film by any means, but it definitely wasn’t Disney’s best either. I felt that this film would have been better suited to end the Bronze Age and the disinterest from the film maker’s was evident in the film.

9 – Pocahontas

Whilst I felt that this was a good quality film due to taking a different approach by focusing on a historical figure, instead of one from folklore or a fairytale, it wasn’t as great as some of its predecessors. The film’s pace was inconsistent and there were times where it was hard to engage with.

8 – The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The darkest film of the Era, I personally felt it was too dark and too adult to be classified as a “kid’s film”. However, I felt that the film was more engaging to me personally than The Rescuers Down Under and Pocahontas.

7 – Hercules

This film’s brighter and comedic tone and nature was welcome after the darkness of its two predecessor films (Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame), however this film ranks in seventh place for me due to its uneven and jarring tone changes throughout via the appearances of the Muses.

6 – Tarzan

The final film of the Era, this film marked the start of Disney’s shift from Broadway-like musical films to traditional non-musical animated features, and fully leaning into the seamless integration of 2D and 3D animation. This film is not rated higher than this due to its initially slow pace.

5 – The Little Mermaid

The first film of the Era and definitely the right film to kick the Era off, I enjoyed watching this film and found it captivating. I enjoyed the adult but not “too adult” humour and the colour palette changes to match moods, emotions and vibes.

4 – Aladdin

I honestly found it hard to decide whether this film would come in fourth or third place, however it ultimately came in fourth for me due to its personal and more modern feel. The personal and more modern feel wasn’t a bad quality, but a quality that did take away from the film’s geographical and time setting, as well as made the tone of the film inconsistent.

3 – Beauty and the Beast

Similarly to Aladdin, I found it hard to decide whether this film would come in fourth or third place, ultimately this film came in third place due to its neat and clean structure as a musical film and was one of the strongest earlier films of the Era.

2 – The Lion King

Marking the halfway point of the Era, and the most successful and renowned film of the Era, I found this film highly enjoyable and could see why it was such a success. However, it comes in second place for me purely because I enjoyed the film that came in first place more than this one.

1 – Mulan

This film comes in first place for me as I enjoyed this film the most out of all of them, especially as I had never seen it before. I appreciated the film’s lighter and comedic tone, the fact that it pulled off a tone and genre change seamlessly, and its strong female lead.

What do you think of my rankings and how would you rank the ten films of the Renaissance Era? Feel free to let me know by leaving a comment below.