The Shadow-gloom and Weight of the Sacred

Well, as I read over my "Happiness Ruined The Office" series of posts, I realized that all the video I edited of the show in order to help illustrate how the showed moved from unique to typical are no longer working. I'm hoping to work on that some this weekend. The truth be told, I'd rather just write new posts than repost old posts, but it's hard to focus for very long these days. Today just feels like a Top 5 Friday to me.

Like a lot of people, I was raised on Disney films and remain a big fan of them in my adult years. I'm going to list my top 5 favorite animated Disney films--I'm not including any Disney-Pixar collaboration, but only those films that have been distributed solely by and through Disney studios. My top four were easy to choose, but number five was tougher to narrow down. I could have placed several movies in the number 5 position, but I try to avoid listing ties if I can. I thought about having a top 4 instead of a top 5 but that would have been lame. So, in order to avoid lameness, here is a complete top 5 without any ties.

5. The Hunchback of Notre Dame--As mentioned, this was the most difficult slot in which to place a movie. I settled on The Hunchback because Paris is always beautiful, even in animation. I can watch a bad movie if it's set in Paris. It's beautiful in person, too, but I was disappointed how trashy the streets were. I think a city with as many people as Paris, with as many tourists as Paris, should better fund the sanitation of the city so that trash doesn't pile up up and overflow from the trashcans. I'm a fan of Notre Dame cathedral and Victor Hugo; the movie doesn't necessarily maintain the spirit of Hugo's novel, but it is a children's film after all. Other European cities in which Disney should set a film: Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Moscow.

4. The Jungle Book--I think this movie contains some of the best characters to ever appear in a Disney film. Baloo, Shere Khan, Bagheere, Mowgli, Kaa are all great characters with developed, unique personalities that make The Jungle Book a fun, exciting story.

3. Robin Hood--Except for that lame "Love" song (which firmly establishes the film as a production of the 1970s playing the background as Robin and Maid Marian frolic about the forest, this film has some of the best songs of any Disney production: "Oo-de-lally," "The Phony King of England," and "Not in Nottingham" are all good songs and really play a strong role in establishing the tone of the film/scenes in which they appear. I also like the characters in this movie, too.

2. The Sword in the Stone--Some movies make you want to be in them. This is one of those movies. I really wanted to be in this movie and receive and education from someone like Merlin. Oh, if only my teachers could change into a bird or fish and then take me underwater to learn about that ecosystem! I was always disappointed when this movie ended because I just wanted it to keep going.

1. The Great Mouse Detective--Another city of which I am a fan is Victorian era London--the setting of this movie. I'm also a fan of Sherlock Holmes, which greatly influences the Basil character. Much of this film is set at night--the tone of the film is a big on the dark side of things and I tend to enjoy those type of movies. It's difficult to really explicate why this is my favorite Disney movie, but it is most certainly my all-time favorite and I love watching it.


Honorable Mention: Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Mulan.