Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

[OogieBoogie]

RottenTomatoes.com has put out a list of the top Disney animated films. Before you read the list however, it is important to understand how Rotten Tomatoes evaluted each of the films. According to the website,

It's difficult to overstate the influence of Disney's animated feature films on the history of cinema. Not only did Uncle Walt's works transform the concept of family entertainment forever, his company's visionary, exuberant, and sometimes haunting films have left and indelible stamp on moviegoers' consciences. Now, with the release of The Princess and the Frog on the horizon, we at RT thought it would be a good time to rank every single Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film.

However, before taking a stroll through this magical kingdom, we'll give some of the "bare necessities" (to quote Baloo) as to how we arrived at an order. We used a weighted formula that takes into account the Tomatometer, number of reviews, and release year of every film included. We excluded all Disney subsidiaries and companies through which Disney has distribution deals hence, no films from Pixar, Studio Ghibli, or DisneyToon Studios are on the list. So get ready to take a trip to never-never land with RT's Disney Animation Countdown! Can you feel the love tonight?

• Each critic from our discrete list gets one vote, all weighted equally.
• Reviews without ratings are not counted toward the results.
• Because reviews are continually added, manually and otherwise, we have a cutoff
  date at which new reviews are not counted. The current cut off date is 11/19/2009.
• We use a weighted formula to account for variation in the number of reviews
  per movie per year. The winners are determined by the rankings,
  designated as the "adjusted score," after applying said formula:
  
  corresponding year.
  
  corresponding year
  t if number of reviews = average number of reviews for
  corresponding year
  with "r" representing the number of rated reviews, "t" the
  Tomatometer score, and "a" the average number of reviews
  per movie for corresponding year
  

And the winners are.....



48. Fun and Fancy Free

47. Make Mine Music

46. Melody Time

45. Saludos Amigos

44. Chicken Little

43. Brother Bear

42. The Great Mouse Detective

41. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

40. The Rescuers Down Under

39. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

38. Oliver and Company

37. Atlantis: The Lost Empire

36.The Black Cauldron

35. Robin Hood

34. Home on the Range

33. Pocahontas

32. The Fox and the Hound

31. The Three Caballeros

30. The Aristocats

29. Dinosaur

28. Meet the Robinsons

27. Treasure Planet

26. The Sword in the Stone

25. The Hunchback of Notre Dame

24. Alice in Wonderland

23. Peter Pan

22. Hercules

21. Fantasia 2000

20. The Rescuers

19. Lilo & Stitch

18. The Emperor’s New Groove

17. Mulan

16. Lady and the Tramp

15. Tarzan

14. Bolt

13. The Jungle Book

12. Bambi

11. The Little Mermaid

10. Sleeping Beauty

9. Cinderella

8. Aladdin

7. The Lion King

6. Beauty and the Beast

5. Dumbo

4. 101 Dalmatians

3. Fantasia

2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

And the #1 Disney film according to Rotten Tomatoes is….





Pinocchio.


I understand how the did the voting, but I still think they were on something when they made this list.

What do you guys think?

[aashee]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

I HATE seeing Peter Pan & Alice in Wonderland so low. I'm still amazed at why Fantasia always gets such praise, Sleeping Beauty was just as visually stunning.

Yeah, the more I look at it, the list is messed up. 101 dalmations way too high and Lilo and Stitch higher than Peter Pan? You suck Rotten Tomatoes.

[sir clinksalot]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

Not only those, but Tarzan and Bolt are WAY too high IMO. Meet the Robinsons is still the best of the recent "Disney" animated movies. And at 34, Home on the Range is STILL too high.

101 Dalmations is also too high for my taste. :mob:

[BC_DisneyGeek]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

Does Dinosaur really belong in that list?

Bolt is surprisingly high, but I didn't mind it.

Glad Lilo & Stitch got a good ranking. Stitch has been over-used, so it's easy to forget what a charming movie that was.

I'd place Brother Bear higher.

It's hard to compare older Disney movies to newer ones, for me at least. Movies like Bambi were artistic and revolutionary for their time, but they feel soooo slow and dull compared to some of the more modern films such as Aladdin, with their faster pace, and sweeping musical numbers.

From that perspective, this list doesn't mean a whole lot to me, or bother me, but it is a fun jumping off point to discuss how the various Disney movies should be ranked.

[sailerm]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

I whole heartedly agree with Pinocchio being #1, but disagree with Aladdin ranking better than The Little Mermaid

[dead_Mau5]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

43. Brother Bear
............

37. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
34. Home on the Range

*beats Rotten Tomatoes list annalists with chair*

[sediment]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

I HATE seeing Peter Pan & Alice in Wonderland so low. I'm still amazed at why Fantasia always gets such praise, Sleeping Beauty was just as visually stunning.

Yeah, the more I look at it, the list is messed up. 101 dalmations way too high and Lilo and Stitch higher than Peter Pan? You suck Rotten Tomatoes.

I think you should be more upset at the critics, whose data RT compiled. Lots of it. The more the movie is reviewed (and most Disney films get reasonably positive ratings), the higher they're ranked.

1. Pinocchio: 100%. In short not one of 37 critics panned it.
2. Snow White: 1 person out of 40 panned it. So, there is one person with a black heart. Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine. Probably just some RT spoiler.
3. Fantasia: 1 out of 41 panned.

The list goes on, but the important point is that there are not enough data points to distinguish the movies' excellence from each other.

Oh, and down the list, at #41, Winnie the Pooh has 1 pan out of ten reviews.

Surely, there is a better method than this too-objective-not-enough-info one.

[sediment]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

*beats Rotten Tomatoes list annalists with chair*

I don't understand. You think those movies are better than the others that are higher-ranked on the list, or are you surprised they even made the list?

I mean, this is a list of EVERY animated Disney (using their own studio) movie.

[aashee]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

I think you should be more upset at the critics, whose data RT compiled. Lots of it. The more the movie is reviewed (and most Disney films get reasonably positive ratings), the higher they're ranked.

1. Pinocchio: 100%. In short not one of 37 critics panned it.
2. Snow White: 1 person out of 40 panned it. So, there is one person with a black heart. Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine. Probably just some RT spoiler.
3. Fantasia: 1 out of 41 panned.

The list goes on, but the important point is that there are not enough data points to distinguish the movies' excellence from each other.

Oh, and down the list, at #41, Winnie the Pooh has 1 pan out of ten reviews.

Surely, there is a better method than this too-objective-not-enough-info one.

I didn't see that's how they came up with their rankings and it's flat out stupid. Good leg work Sediment!

[royaldisneyfan]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

I HATE seeing Peter Pan & Alice in Wonderland so low. I'm still amazed at why Fantasia always gets such praise, Sleeping Beauty was just as visually stunning.

Yeah, the more I look at it, the list is messed up. 101 dalmations way too high and Lilo and Stitch higher than Peter Pan? You suck Rotten Tomatoes.

Couldn't agree with you more there aashee. Peter Pan is one of my favorites. AiW and PP should've finished ahead of Lilo and Stitch and Emperor's NG in my opinion.

[Imagineer Scott]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

Enchanted isn't even on this list? That movie was pretty awesome!

[astrologic]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

Wow. I strongly disagree, but I'll leave it at that!

[sir clinksalot]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

Enchanted isn't even on this list? That movie was pretty awesome!

Contains animation, but not an animated movie.

[flynnibus]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

I think the problem with such ratings today is they often get skewed towards the more recent films as most of the reviewers probably never saw the originals in their prime.

To think the Emperors New Groove is above films like Pan and Alice is just crazy.

What I think would be interesting is to look at each of the eras in the films... pick the best of each era.. and then compare them against each other.

While not a technical or stylish gamechanger like Snow White, SB, or even like Alice... I personally think Alladin deserves to be top 3. It blended a perfect amount of humor, art, technology, and music. It was such a solid formula it became the basis of many movie character sets since. B&TB is a close match, but Robin Williams puts Alladin over the top IMO.

I also don't get all the hate for Robin Hood. It's one of my favorites from that Era.

[sir clinksalot]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

I agree about Robin Hood. Certainly better than Sword and the Stone IMO.

As for Aladdin, I don't know. Lion King is one of my personal favorites. I'd actually put Aladdin #5 from that era behind Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid and Hunchback. But that's just me.

But I think seperating them by era would be a good idea.

[sediment]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

I didn't see that's how they came up with their rankings and it's flat out stupid. Good leg work Sediment!

Thank you, and I agree. Not sure why they even bother to put out the list if there are so few critics' reviews. Do note that it's only reviews on RT. There are no reviews prior to RT's existence, apparently.

To gain more credibility (both statistical and the colloquial), they should simply group them in tens or so.

[Rocker]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

Does Dinosaur really belong in that list?

Bolt is surprisingly high, but I didn't mind it.

Glad Lilo & Stitch got a good ranking. Stitch has been over-used, so it's easy to forget what a charming movie that was.

I'd place Brother Bear higher.

It's hard to compare older Disney movies to newer ones, for me at least. Movies like Bambi were artistic and revolutionary for their time, but they feel soooo slow and dull compared to some of the more modern films such as Aladdin, with their faster pace, and sweeping musical numbers.

From that perspective, this list doesn't mean a whole lot to me, or bother me, but it is a fun jumping off point to discuss how the various Disney movies should be ranked.

Dinosaur to me was pretty forgetful. I only saw it once, but looking back, it really wasn't that good.

Lilo and Stitch is the best of the recent Disney films. It was funny, fast paced, and fresh to use Elvis Presley songs.

I agree about Robin Hood. Certainly better than Sword and the Stone IMO.

As for Aladdin, I don't know. Lion King is one of my personal favorites. I'd actually put Aladdin #5 from that era behind Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid and Hunchback. But that's just me.

But I think seperating them by era would be a good idea.

Robin Hood was the bomb. As for 101 Dalmations, that was another one of my favorites growing up.

Aladdin was funny and well-made, but Lion King had a better story.

[MickeyMousePal]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

Some of the movies like Dinosaurs, Meet the Robinsons and Bolt shouldn't even be on that list.

Here's my top 5

5. Sleeping Beauty
4. Beauty and the Beast
3. The Little Mermaid
2. The Lion King
1. Aladdin

[JungleCruiseFan]

Re: Rotten Tomatoes lists and rates the top Disney animated films

Definitely some strange choices on there... Especially Bolt, Atlantis, Home on the Range, and Dinosaur... Oh and Saludos Amigos. Terrible terrible movie.
The fact that Bolt is ahead of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Hercules, and Tarzan is pretty horrifying.