Are there any GOOD disney movies?

[rosebuds]

And I ask with my 3.5y/o in mind.

Why Why Why Disney you may ask, my answer...Dh.

He is big on movies, in fact it is his business. Why Disney, he loves the Disney classics and truth betold I loved them as a child as well, also grew up with many issues (obviously not going to pin it on Disney but who knows.) So, I have been able to convince dh that she doesnt need to see too many movies yet, there is lots of time for it.

Currently she watches Cinderella, I am ok with that, no violence.

Dh loves Lilo and Stitch but I am hiding that indefinitely, violence, name calling, generally a bad movie.

So what Disney movies are you ok with. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White have some pretty scary sequences dont they? Witches and what not, at what age would you allow your dc to watch those?

What about Bambi?

Just Curious. TIA.

[Elphaba]

i really like The AristoCats.
before we shut down the tv entirely, she had seen The Jungle Book (she became distraught when the bear was apparently dead), and Beauty and the Beast which she really enjoyed.
but AristoCats is pretty harmless IMO. lots of singing, and it's from 1964, and set in tunr of the century Paris, so it's pretty benign in terms of content and language.
my ILs wanted her to watch Lion King last week and I said hell no. that is too scary for an almost-2-year-old.
101 Dalamatians is pretty sick, too -- no way am I telling my baby that someone would want to kill puppies for their skins.

[N2theWoods]

Lady and the Tramp. The only truly scary thing is the rat who is killed by Tramp. Beloved bloodhound pal appears to have been hit by a car for a moment, but they show you almost immediately that he just hurt his foot and his OK. There are human babies born, puppies born, dogs adopted by loving families. Great film.

I like Beauty and the Beast - it's a gorgeous film with great music, but I don't plan to let my daughter see or read any B&theB stories - I think they're horribly damaging. How many galfriends do you know who are still trying to be beautiful/pure/loving/kind/patient/self-sacrificing enough to transform their beast? It can't be done. Beasts are beasts and you should just find yoursef a lovely loving man to be with who treats you right

I also like the Aristocats quite a bit. I love Mulan for its strong female heroine who succeeds because she's smart and she busts her butt working hard, but it would be scary for a younger child.

Am very fond of Hercules as well. The "bad guy" is played by a comedien, and he's quite silly.

I loved Bambi, but I also think that's an older child thing. Bambi's mother is shot & killed by humans and it's very traumatic.

I don't remember Peter Pan being terribly frightning - the crocodile is funny and Captain Hook is more bluster than actual threat.

Then there's some of the live action and semi-live action: The Parent Trap (the original,) is fun. Bedknobs and Broomsticks (though I haven't seen that one in a long time and so I may be forgetting something,) Mary Poppins.

Am a Disney head and we already have most of them - it will be hard for me to be sure my kids are ready for them - e.g., I LOVE Tarzan, but the opening sequence is scary and it's easy to forget that.

Hope that helps!

[mamallama]

I really like The Emperor's New Groove. It's hilarious, it has a good moral without seeming too preachy.

I wanted to like Mulan. There is a huge dearth of strong girl characters these days, and Mulan seemed promising. What I can't get over though is the way the opposing army is dehumanized--in fact, turned into monsters. War is not simple, and we do a grave injustice to our children and to the world by portraying it as such.

I have very fond memories of Lady & the Tramp, but we borrowed it from the library recently and the strict gender roles were a bit much for me. I don't mind that my girls have seen it once, but it's not something we can add to our own collection.

I really like A Bug's Life (isn't Pixar a subsidary of Disney?) I really dig the cooperative efforts & the grassroots organizing!

And I totally agree about Beauty & the Beast. Sure, it's beautiful (and the appliances crack me up), but the message is wrong, wrong, wrong! Ditto Little Mermaid.

Why does it have to be so hard to find good movies?!

[PM]

Hmmm. I've seen only a few.

Beauty & The Beast (unfortunately, at another's person's home) is so full of gratuious violence I wanted to puke! These characters are constantly pounding on each other for no apparent reason.

The Jungle Book has great music! Real jazz! But there are 2 or 3 gratuitous anti-feminist movement statements, ie the Colonel elephant says to his wife "What? A woman leading my herd? Preposterous!" for no apparent reason other than to something against women.

Bambi is good with a wonderful anti-hunting message.

What about Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang? I saw that as a kid. Or some of the other human/animation ones?

[ladylee]

Hard to find, isn't it?

I loved Cinderella, Aristocats, The Jungle Book, Pooh, Peter Pan & Lady and the Tramp when I was little, but was completely traumatized by Dumbo and Bambi.

Most contemporary Disney is junk, as far as I'm concerned. I really don't like Pixar animation (Steve Jobs is the CEO tho.)

Our favorite movie around here is The Red Balloon.

[PM]

Isn't Red Balloon great? Iris never liked it much, though. Now I don't have to worry about any of it, though! We're in our second month of TV freedom!

[Avonlea]

I would recomend "The Aristocats " and "sword in the stone" .Two of the lesser known movies but two of the best..in my humble opinion.

Avoid like the plague Dumbo, want to talk about traumatizing small children.

I think a few of the others( sleeping beauty,mulan,beauty and the beast) are really good as well.I LOVE Mary Poppins as well!!!!

We watch "The aristocats" at least once a week as it has become my sons favvorite movie..right up there with" Beauty and the beast". I like Peter Pan as well.

Hocapontus/pocahontus/this movie SUCKS will never darken my door however.

I would recommend renting them and watching them after your kids are asleep to see what you think.

[PM]

Ok, some people I admire here like Beauty & The Beast. Why? I'm not trying to be sarcastic.

[PM]

About good movies: I would recommend foreign language titles (dubbed or even silent) for children. I have discovered old Soviet animated shorts - they are so cool, so retro, so non-violent, so "for children"! Canada makes great stuff! Lots of other countries make wonderful, non-violent, non-Hollywood stuff suitable for young children.

There was also a link to something a while ago. I'll go search for it. There was a list of AP-friendly videos (quite a few of which I didn't agree with in the least - but a good list) that included The Red Balloon.

[Elphaba]

just wanted to point out that PIXAR is NOT a disney subsidy. disney does their marketing, and gets paid well for it, but that is going to change as pixar is now name people recognize on it's own.

PM, i'm probably not one of the people you admire, but i do enjoy beauty and the beast. i like that belle is literary and doesn't want to get married. but mostly i like the music. i could sing those songs on a road trip!

[PM]

Actually Elphaba, there are many things I admire and identify with in you!

[3boysmom]

Count me in as another Beauty and the Beast lover. We also love Toy Story and Bug's Life. In my opinion, the very best children's movie is "The Snowman". It is unbelievably beautiful, gentle, and there is no speaking...it is all set to very lovely music. We even have the soundtrack! It is definitely not Disney.

[DebraBaker]

In the fairy tale (as opposed to Disney) the Beast was a kind soul who was transformed into a 'hideous beast'.

It wasn't "beauty's" beauty but rather her ability to look beyone the exterior to see the true heart of the beast that makes the story so endearing (and breaks the spell)

It's beast's ability to sacrifice his own interest and "free" Belle and her ability in the end to look beyond the outward to love his heart that makes this good (I am bugged by the character flaws of "Beast" in the beginning of the movie and, as noted, there are far too many women who are trying in vain to be perfect to change their abusive mates rather than looking for a healthy, worthy man.

I hate the message in the Little Mermaid. I'm not thrilled with the servile message in Cinderella.

I don't mind having the kiddos exposed to some scarey parts of a movie (although I concur with Dumbo being entirely traumatic for a child and I wouldn't have a young child watch it (Lion King is similar but not as bad, I don't get the "oh, I just can't wait to be King....wake up, little Simba, your dad will die in order for you to get to be King)

I like Mulan for the most part, it's refreshing to have a strong female character who isn't sitting around waiting for her prince to come.

Debra Baker

[PM]

Violence, vanity, name-calling, perpetuating the myth that stick-thin women are the most beautiful, etc. etc. etc.. I just don't get it. But this isn't a debate about Disney. I'll excuse myself now.

[alsoSarah]

ParisMaman: I'd love more info on the animated shorts and foreign stuff!
Also, I just checked on amazon, and they have a handful of "Snowman" titles, but they don't seem to have just "The Snowman".... can you help me figure out which is the good one, 3boysmom?

Sorry to pull this OT....Dh's mom and sister just can't believe that we don't have a movie collection for ds yet : (he's only turning two next week, jeez), and they are always hot to buy him some. This way, at least he'll get good stuff...

TIA,
alsoSarah

[amnesiac]

We have Sleeping Beauty but I think it's only been watched once or twice. Pretty scarey for a little kid, as is Pinocchio. The favorite these days is Mary Poppins. All of my kids have enjoyed Mulan. The boys LOVED Peter Pan, but dd can't stand it. She does like the sequel to the Little Mermaid & Toy Story-- never seen the originals. She goes through phases of enjoying Jungle Book & Robbin Hood. We rented Aristocats recently & it lost her interest, as does Lady & the Tramp. We don't own Homeward Bound (I think it's Disney??) but they watch it every time we run across it on tv & have rented it before.

[PM]

Sarah - I'm afraid I can't tell you where to get this stuff in the States.

I can, however, highly recommend the Noddy videos out of the UK:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...31332?v=glance

[darlindeliasmom]

Hey, PM, got your back on Beauty and the Beast...all that ridiculous gratuitous violence. And for once you can't blame the old story for the violence, 'cause it's not there. There is no rival, so therefore no one needs to get thrown from a cliff, no need for the truly unpleasant and ugly scenes in the tavern, etc.
Guess Disney didn't want to handle the sibling rivalry and lack of character of Beauty's sisters, so they just eliminated them...or maybe they couldn't figure out how to portray them--no mention of physical deformities, etc., as in Cinderellla's poor stepsisters.

If I could show dd just the parts with Beauty in the castle, and if the beast was always righteous and the gentle soul he is in her storybook, we'd watch it often. But as it is, this is one Disney movie she's never seen...

I'd be happy to eliminate most American entertainment for kids these days...Lilo and Stitch is a good example--for having adult concerns all mixed up with the kids' stuff (like CPS coming for Lilo!!). And for the bad attitudes everyone has toward their supposed loved ones. YUK

[alsoSarah]

Thank you, ParisMaman!