Jungle Book
The songs alone stand up on their own. I dare you not to be cheered up when "Bear Bare Necessities" is played
(and personally I think the animation is superb)
The characterisation is superb; but it marked the start of Disney's low budget scribbly animation style after the previous richly animated masterpieces.
I don't mind the drawing/animation in The Jungle Book - it's better than in The Aristocats and 101 Dalmatians, for a start. But the story is really badly told, the script is shockingly poor and some of the characters are utterly cringeworthy - the Beatles-esque vultures being the worst offenders. Yeah, the songs are great but it's a hugely overrated film.
Surprised that their first fully home-grown offering The Lion King hasn't been nominated
Lion King is good but suffers from the awful Timon & Pumbaa element. Of the "modern" Disney films, I'm rather fond of Beauty & The Beast - which has great songs, great animation, great characters and a great story.
But I'm surprised that only one person so far has given the
correct answer to the question, namely Adrian, who I always knew to be a wise and sensible fellow.
OK, so Dumbo suffers from being rather too short but it's otherwise pretty damn well perfect. The songs are easily as good as those in Jungle Book and the animation is far superior. What I really love about the old Disney films is that they always had at least one scene of gratuitous animated showboating, and Dumbo has the best example of them all, viz Pink Elephants On Parade. Utter genius.
Good shout by RogerZ on Mary Poppins too - definitely the best mostly-live-action Disney. Julie Andrews is quite something in that.
Treasure Planet is truly awful, by the way.
d.
