Not exactly what the OP is asking for, but I saw The Little Mermaid recently, after only having vague memories of seeing it when I was about 6 or 7.
It’s…still a classic, but I was surprised how poor the animation looks now.
Ariel and many of her friends seem to move at about 4 frames per second, and a lot of the time there’s basically no background.
At the time they didn’t know they had a revolution on their hands. The Little Mermaid is considered the first of their renaissance, but Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin* were still being made even before they knew it was all happening, and The Little Mermaid was made when everything was still low budget and rough around the edges in places; it was essentially going to be as throwaway as Basil The Great Mouse Detective or Oliver and Company. Instead its magical mix of show tunes and whimsy fell into place in perfect balance, and captured hearts. The rest is history.
*Quality did improve markedly for both of those subsequent films, but I still chalk that up to more experienced animation skills, not a dedicated effort after knowing what they had. And you can see quite a few dodgy bits in each of them. Whereas The Lion King is flawless, it having begun production after Beauty and the Beast was released when they finally had some real money.
With the exception of Jungle Book, Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, and Robin Hood; I saw most of the animated Disney features as an adult when they became available on VHS or theatrical re-release. Growing up, we went to see almost every Disney live action film that came to the theater, especially the Dean Jones comedies. When I was a kid, you were more likely to see those non animated films show up on TV where I saw Mary Poppins and the Flubber movies repeatedly.
I was 20, and saw the 1987 rerelease. I also saw it as a kid, though, and a pretty little one.
I saw it in 87 mainly because of all the controversary, and also because Disney had said it was going into the vault for good after that release.
However that info got leaked (maybe on purpose to increase attendance in spite of the recent unpopularity the film had acquired), it put the black market filmers on notice, and there are hundreds of pirated versions around-- the kind made by people sitting in the theater with hand-held video cameras.
We didn’t live anywhere near a movie theatre, and my parents didn’t have the habit anyway. So the only ones I remember seeing as a child were 101 Dalmatians (the animated version) and Lady and the Tramp.
Since then as an adult I haven’t seen that many. Still never seen Bambi, Dumbo or Fantasia.
The Little Mermaid was going to be a throwaway? Huh. That was pretty stupid. Legions of little (and big) girls adore mermaids. I know I did when young and still do.
It was same as it ever was - only boys and men count. Pander to them, they’ll bring in the money.
Just like some are tiresomely still reeling over ‘Barbie’ making so much money.
Maybe “throwaway” was too harsh a term. I just think they didn’t approach it with any better expectations than any other they’d been making in the 80s, but it turned out to resonate and worked out very well for them going forward.
“Disney was rumored to be set to close the doors of the animation studios if this film was not a success…”
“More money and resources were poured into this film than any other Disney animated film in decades. Aside from its main animation facility in Glendale, California, Disney also opened up a feature animation facility outside Orlando, Florida.”
“Early in production, Katzenberg warned Clements and John Musker that their film would be perceived as a “girl’s film” and that it would make less money at the box office than Oliver & Company. As the film neared completion, Katzenberg was forced to backtrack and admit that he thought that the studio had a major hit in the making.”
Two of my favorite Disney movies I didn’t see until I was a mom. My son, when he was little, came across them at the video store and ended up re-renting them so many times that I finally bought them. The Ugly Dachshund with Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette and Sammy, the Way-Out Seal with Robert Culp and Bill Mumy. We must have watched those movies a million times.
While I recognize all the Disney animated feature length films from pictures and books and have seen dozens of clips over the past 50 years of my life, I have never seen any of them in their entirety. Maybe caught parts of them while babysitting or while nieces and nephews watched them on VHS but I have never sat down to see one from beginning to end.