My Year With...
Disney Animated Classics
Published: 17/01/22
If you’ve been keeping up with my reviews this year then you’ll know that Monday’s have been ‘Magic Monday’ where I reviewed a new Disney Animated Classic each week. I just wanted to take the time to say thank you to all those who have read the reviews, liked, commented, shared, reposted, retweeted, and kept me inspired to see this challenge through. It’s certainly been no easy feat and I just wanted to take some time to share with you how the challenge started, the difficulties encountered along the way, and what I’ve taken away from this experience.
On Black Friday 2020 I saw that HMV had the Disney Animated Classics Blu-Ray boxset on sale and I leaped at the opportunity to own it. Because despite having Disney+, I am a sucker for a physical film collection. I had previously started collecting the Disney Animated Classics on Blu-Ray, however at the rate I was going it was going to take forever to get them all and it was costing a fortune. With this boxset, I could get each film cheaply, in one go, and take up less space on my film shelf. So, it was a win-win-win.
It was then that I decided I would watch them all before the end of 2021, reviewing each one as I went. It’s here that I’d like to say thanks to my girlfriend, Kat, who wanted to go through this journey with me, and without her I don’t think it would have been anywhere near as enjoyable. Her opinions on each film also shaped my own, highlighting things I never noticed, or presenting a different view to my own initial reaction which in turn made me evaluate why I thought what I did in the first place.
The journey started on December 20th 2020 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs followed by Pinocchio on the 23rd. We didn’t get around to Fantasia, my first time watching the film, until the 2nd January, but we were done with the golden age by the 14th. This was a relatively easy process because we knew we would enjoy all the golden age films, and most of them we watch frequently anyway. But the Wartime Era was going to prove to be one massive hump to get over and without a doubt one of the biggest challenges we faced. We managed to get through each film, never having seen any of them before, between the 18th Jan and 8th Feb. But it was rough, a lot of effort went into just building up the motivation to watch these films, and although not all of them were bad, none of them were films we particularly enjoyed.
The Silver Age was just around the corner however and the first few films of that era are favourites of ours with Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Sleeping Beauty in particular being highlights. But then we took a bit of a break, we watched Sleeping Beauty on 7th March (meaning we had watched sixteen of the films in just three months) and we were way ahead of schedule. It took almost an entire month to get around to One Hundred and One Dalmatians on 5th April because of our more relaxed mindset, but we then had a hump to overcome with the final few Silver Age films, and it got right down to the wire with The Jungle Book where we watched it on the 25th April and the review went out on the 26th, which I think is the closest I ever cut it in terms of writing the review for one of these films.
The Bronze Age was also a tough one to get through, and though I never cut it as close as I did with The Jungle Book (where the review was finished minutes before it went live) there were a number of instances where the review was finished the day before it needed to go out. We were facing a burnout point here where we had almost no motivation to continue watching these films, but with Kat not wanting me to fall behind we soldiered on regardless.
We started Robin Hood on the 2nd May, and we finished Oliver & Company on 13th June, which considering how difficult it was to build up the motivation to watch the eight Bronze Age films I would say is pretty good going.
The Revival Era though was a blast and by far the easiest time we had in the whole challenge, mostly because these are our favourite Disney films by a considerable margin, and ones we will often jump at the opportunity to watch anyway. We watched The Little Mermaid on 15th June and we finished Tarzan on the 23rd July. We always knew that was going to be the easy part of the challenge, but the Post-Renaissance Era...not so much. We got off to a rocky start with Fantasia 2000 and Dinosaur (3rd & 8th August respectively) being films we weren’t overly eager to watch despite enjoying them both, with Emperor’s New Groove sandwiched in between on the 6th which made things a little easier. But then because of our busy schedules we didn’t get around to Atlantis until the 30th August despite it being a film we both love. I was starting to cut it a bit close again here with reviews and that lasted for the vast majority of the Post-Renaissance Era either due to busy schedules or because we just lacked the motivation to watch whatever film was next, taking until late-October to even get to the Revival Era with Bolt on the 22nd.
The Revival Era was one of trepidation for us, because although we had heard many good things about a lot of these films, we hadn’t seen very many of them and so didn't really know what to expect. But we persisted through and managed to watch our last film, Raya and the Last Dragon, on the 15th December. However, because of Christmas plans and tight schedules it meant that I had to go watch Encanto on my own as it hadn’t yet left cinemas. Altogether it took 360 days to watch all sixty-one films, and aside from one or two instances they were watched in order of release, and thanks to Disney+, Kat and I did eventually get to watch Encanto together shortly after my review for it went live on the 10th January 2022.
Watching all of the Disney Animated Classics in a single year was a big task to undertake, and I definitely feel like I bit off more than I could chew with it. There were times where it was so difficult to organise watching the films around other things that were happening in our lives, and there were many times where reviews weren't ready until very shortly before they were due to hit the website. But I am so glad I did it. I got to see the progression of not only a single animation studio over the course of over seventy years, but also see cinema change with it. The types of stories being told and the way they were delivered progressed massively between 1937 and 2021, and the technology used to bring them to life went through so many iterations. It’s easy to typify Disney animated films as happy-go-lucky musicals because that’s what the beloved Golden Age and Renaissance Era’s were, but there’s so much more to the Animated Classics than that and they do often reflect what was happening in the world at the time.
Magic Mondays were something I genuinely loved sharing with all of you, and my evenings will definitely lack the same kind of structure without coming home from work to see what the next film in the collection was. My journey may be over for now, but it won’t be long until new Animated Classics arrive, and I feel like now I’m in a far better place to understand and appreciate the importance of each new Animated Classic having battled through the back catalogue in the way I did.
On Black Friday 2020 I saw that HMV had the Disney Animated Classics Blu-Ray boxset on sale and I leaped at the opportunity to own it. Because despite having Disney+, I am a sucker for a physical film collection. I had previously started collecting the Disney Animated Classics on Blu-Ray, however at the rate I was going it was going to take forever to get them all and it was costing a fortune. With this boxset, I could get each film cheaply, in one go, and take up less space on my film shelf. So, it was a win-win-win.
It was then that I decided I would watch them all before the end of 2021, reviewing each one as I went. It’s here that I’d like to say thanks to my girlfriend, Kat, who wanted to go through this journey with me, and without her I don’t think it would have been anywhere near as enjoyable. Her opinions on each film also shaped my own, highlighting things I never noticed, or presenting a different view to my own initial reaction which in turn made me evaluate why I thought what I did in the first place.
The journey started on December 20th 2020 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs followed by Pinocchio on the 23rd. We didn’t get around to Fantasia, my first time watching the film, until the 2nd January, but we were done with the golden age by the 14th. This was a relatively easy process because we knew we would enjoy all the golden age films, and most of them we watch frequently anyway. But the Wartime Era was going to prove to be one massive hump to get over and without a doubt one of the biggest challenges we faced. We managed to get through each film, never having seen any of them before, between the 18th Jan and 8th Feb. But it was rough, a lot of effort went into just building up the motivation to watch these films, and although not all of them were bad, none of them were films we particularly enjoyed.
The Silver Age was just around the corner however and the first few films of that era are favourites of ours with Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Sleeping Beauty in particular being highlights. But then we took a bit of a break, we watched Sleeping Beauty on 7th March (meaning we had watched sixteen of the films in just three months) and we were way ahead of schedule. It took almost an entire month to get around to One Hundred and One Dalmatians on 5th April because of our more relaxed mindset, but we then had a hump to overcome with the final few Silver Age films, and it got right down to the wire with The Jungle Book where we watched it on the 25th April and the review went out on the 26th, which I think is the closest I ever cut it in terms of writing the review for one of these films.
The Bronze Age was also a tough one to get through, and though I never cut it as close as I did with The Jungle Book (where the review was finished minutes before it went live) there were a number of instances where the review was finished the day before it needed to go out. We were facing a burnout point here where we had almost no motivation to continue watching these films, but with Kat not wanting me to fall behind we soldiered on regardless.
We started Robin Hood on the 2nd May, and we finished Oliver & Company on 13th June, which considering how difficult it was to build up the motivation to watch the eight Bronze Age films I would say is pretty good going.
The Revival Era though was a blast and by far the easiest time we had in the whole challenge, mostly because these are our favourite Disney films by a considerable margin, and ones we will often jump at the opportunity to watch anyway. We watched The Little Mermaid on 15th June and we finished Tarzan on the 23rd July. We always knew that was going to be the easy part of the challenge, but the Post-Renaissance Era...not so much. We got off to a rocky start with Fantasia 2000 and Dinosaur (3rd & 8th August respectively) being films we weren’t overly eager to watch despite enjoying them both, with Emperor’s New Groove sandwiched in between on the 6th which made things a little easier. But then because of our busy schedules we didn’t get around to Atlantis until the 30th August despite it being a film we both love. I was starting to cut it a bit close again here with reviews and that lasted for the vast majority of the Post-Renaissance Era either due to busy schedules or because we just lacked the motivation to watch whatever film was next, taking until late-October to even get to the Revival Era with Bolt on the 22nd.
The Revival Era was one of trepidation for us, because although we had heard many good things about a lot of these films, we hadn’t seen very many of them and so didn't really know what to expect. But we persisted through and managed to watch our last film, Raya and the Last Dragon, on the 15th December. However, because of Christmas plans and tight schedules it meant that I had to go watch Encanto on my own as it hadn’t yet left cinemas. Altogether it took 360 days to watch all sixty-one films, and aside from one or two instances they were watched in order of release, and thanks to Disney+, Kat and I did eventually get to watch Encanto together shortly after my review for it went live on the 10th January 2022.
Watching all of the Disney Animated Classics in a single year was a big task to undertake, and I definitely feel like I bit off more than I could chew with it. There were times where it was so difficult to organise watching the films around other things that were happening in our lives, and there were many times where reviews weren't ready until very shortly before they were due to hit the website. But I am so glad I did it. I got to see the progression of not only a single animation studio over the course of over seventy years, but also see cinema change with it. The types of stories being told and the way they were delivered progressed massively between 1937 and 2021, and the technology used to bring them to life went through so many iterations. It’s easy to typify Disney animated films as happy-go-lucky musicals because that’s what the beloved Golden Age and Renaissance Era’s were, but there’s so much more to the Animated Classics than that and they do often reflect what was happening in the world at the time.
Magic Mondays were something I genuinely loved sharing with all of you, and my evenings will definitely lack the same kind of structure without coming home from work to see what the next film in the collection was. My journey may be over for now, but it won’t be long until new Animated Classics arrive, and I feel like now I’m in a far better place to understand and appreciate the importance of each new Animated Classic having battled through the back catalogue in the way I did.