Five Disney Animated Movies I Love

Way back in January of last year I shared five underrated Disney movies I love and it was an incredibly popular post. In an attempt to fall back in love with my blog and the Disney blogging community (which quite frankly scares me these days) I decided today I’m going to share five Disney animated movies I love. This has taken me a long time to make a clear cut decision when there are so many wonderful movies to chose from that all hold special memories for me, but I finally narrowed it down to five. To be honest, I have one favourite and four runner up favourites! I’ve tried to choose different movies from my five favourite underrated movies just to make it better reading, so combined that probably gives me ten movies I truly love. I also avoided Pixar movies as that would make for a whole other posts.

So lets start with my all time favourite Disney movie, and I’m fairly sure it won’t be a surprise to any what it is!

Peter Pan. There are so many reasons why this is my absolute favourite and most watched Disney movie, one is the fact it’s the first movie I ever saw at the cinema on it’s re-release in the early 90s. I still remember coming out and chatting to my parents non-stop about it, I couldn’t have been much more than Little Miss’ age. Secondly, my love for it has grown since becoming a parent, LM’s love for Peter Pan is completely organic but it just enforces my love for the movie. I love Disney’s twist on the story, because if you read the book (like with many of the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson ones that have been reworked with Disney magic) it’s not as happy and fun, it’s quite dark and sinister (like the description of Captain Hook in the books). I love that Disney has made it a movie about adventure as a child, about not wanting to grow up because childhood is all about having fun. I love it for different reasons to what I did as a child. As a child I very much wanted to be Wendy Darling, I wanted to run away with Peter Pan and for him to rescue me from the pirates. I wanted to see the mermaids and battle Tink for Peter’s attention.. much like Little Miss does these days. It’ll always be my favourite Disney movie, no matter how main stream and generic it becomes.

Tangled. Hopping forward to a movie I saw as an adult, in fact it’s the first Disney movie I watched with Little Miss when she was only a few weeks old. She of course didn’t watch it but slept on my chest while I watched it. That’s not really got anything to do why I love it though, it’s just a memory connected to it. Anyway, I love everything about this movie, I love the story, the characters, the animation, the songs. Everything. I think it’s way better than Frozen. I relate to Rapunzel so much and did more so when I first saw this movie. I was a trapped in an abusive relationship, locked away from everything. It was soul destroying. Rapunzel gave me hope and she still does today. Plus Flynn Rider. The At Last I See The Light segment is absolutely beautiful and one of my all time favourite scenes in a Disney movie. I could watch Rapunzel over 100 times and never get bored of it. The When Will My Life Begin Reprise is actually one of my all time favourite Disney songs (also a post in itself!)

Alice in Wonderland. Another of my childhood favourites that still stands as one of my favourites today, Alice in Wonderland. I was so upset on her first watch Little Miss really didn’t like the movie and it wasn’t until we got to know Alice in person on holiday did she want to watch it all the time. She knows the Disney story so well now, but not as well as me, I still know every single line. I love the artwork for it and the art work it’s inspired, especially the Mary Blair pieces. I was obsessed with everything Alice growing up. I loved the stories by Lewis Carroll and I must have had 100 different copies over the years (I now have leather bound editions). However, as trippy as it was, I especially loved the Disney movie and I had so much merchandise that I collected over the years. I remember going on holiday to Walt Disney World and all I cared about was meeting Alice.

The Little Mermaid. So growing up I was expressly forbidden to like The Little Mermaid, why? Because it was my sister’s favourite and she was rather possessive over it. Which is fine because I liked Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, but Ariel was secretly my favourite princess and I would play Part of Your World ALL THE TIME because Ariel completely got me. Of course now as an adult I see Ariel was a bit of a brat but I still love that movie and the fact Ariel was really willing to do anything because she thought she could be happy with Prince Eric. The score is one of my absolute favourites, there isn’t a bad song on it plus one Ariel in that blue dress she wears into town and during Kiss The Girl is up there with Anna’s coronation gown as my favourite pieces of Disney fashion. Little Miss isn’t so keen on this movie so we don’t get to watch it as much as I would like, but I’m hoping it will grow on her. Ariel was also my main reason for dying my hair red in the first place, her hair is truly goals.

Big Hero 6. This is one of newest Disney movies, it was also the first Disney movie Little Miss saw at the cinema and through it we met one of my closest friends in Florida. These reasons alone put it into my top five. But on top of that it’s actually an amazing movie if not a little underrated. I love the storyline so much, I love the characters, all of them and the fact the main theme song is by Fall Out Boy. I laughed, I cried (to incredibly important things in a Disney movie these days!) The animation was also incredible, I loved the design of the characters and it was modern but still filled with Disney magic, and of course superheroes! Little Miss loves it and it was a gateway to the world of superheroes for her (because they’re not just for boys!) She wanted to be Hiro, and Baymax and Honey Lemon all at once. Because this was the first big screen movie for Little Miss I can guarantee it will always be one of her favourites too. The DVD has been watched so often and carried around with her that the box is completely battered, if that’s not a sign of love I don’t know what is? (My boyfriend also loves it and has a Baymax t-shirt, one he owned before we met.. winner!)

Honourable mentions go out to The Princess and the Frog, the animation, the soundtrack and the fact Tiana is the ultimate princess inspiration make it such a favourite. I also love Beauty and the Beast, I always cry and I see myself in Belle.