The Emperor’s New Groove for a comedy, Mulan for a “serious” movie.
I have to go with The Emperor’s New Groove as well. I remember Roger Ebert writing that it was simply a cartoon, nothing more, nothing less, and succeeds admirably. I can (and believe me, I do) watch it over and over again. Despite its playing fast and loose with mythology, I really like Hercules. It teeters on the edge of cartoonhood, whereas Groove just goes with it. “Call IX-I-I!!” gets me every time. 
Beyond that, in terms of adult enjoyability, I rate Mulan next (I really enjoy the “Be a Man” song – sung by Donnie Osmond, incidentally). Eddie Murphy is great as the voice of the dra-GON (“I don’t do that tongue thing”). Next comes The Lion King. Pocahontas and The Little Mermaid I endure. I have literally seen these movies so many times that nearly all the meaning has been sucked right out of them. I have a daughter who worked herself into a right tantrum one time, because she didn’t have a tail. Poor lamb. 
I found two interesting things browsing the “trivia” section for Mulan on the Internet Movie Database – The scene where Mulan disarms Shan-Yu with a fan shows an actual martial art technique and The scene where Mulan finds a child’s doll in the burnt-out Chinese village is a tribute to Hayao Miyazaki’s “Kaze no tani no Naushika” (1984), in which an explorer/warrior finds the same doll in an abandoned village.
For some reason I always forget just how much I like Mulan in discussions like this. It really is an amazingly good movie, and surprisingly moving. The scene at the end, with the Emperor, always gets me a little misty.
So yeah, add Mulan to my list too. I always love watching it.
Which reminds me about my feeling that, for me anyway, the music of a Disney film makes a huge difference for me. Not the songs so much, because the songs of Disney rarely do much for me at all… but the score. When Disney uses their “for-hire” composers, such as Alan Menken, I generally dislike the score and the film is less moving. However, when Disney chooses to use veteran score composers from the field, I almost inevitably have a better estimation of the film. It may seem a strange theory, but it’s been proven time and time again for me, with Lion King (Hans Zimmer), Mulan (Jerry Goldsmith), Atlantis (James Newton Howard), and Tarzan (Mark Mancina). The music is a big part of why these movies work for me more than Disney’s other efforts.
Still, it must be said that the songs in Tarzan are among the best Disney’s ever done. Getting Phil Collins for those was genius. “Son of Man” is one of my all-time favorite movie songs.
I haven’t seen any recently (I sort of lost faith with Disney after Hunchback and Pocahantas), but I must say that Alladin kicked butt (Robin Williams at his best), and the only real flaw with The Lion King was that it was too short. I could have done with actually seeing Simba grow up, rather than just crossing a metaphorical bridge into adulthood.
I loved the Emperor’s New Groove too, I can watch the entire movie over and over, and it doesn’t get old. It is really funny, for both kid’s and adults, I like that Disney is being funny for all ages. I loved that they got Sting to write the song’s, check out “Theme Song Guy”, Ezma and Krunk.
I loved Mulan, I like how she is assertive and strong, especially for the time frame of the movie. The music is really good.
I liked the Toy Story movies, I loved Jessie.
The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Alladin are classic, but I like a female in the movie to not have to be rescued. But I still love watching these movies.
I’ll take The Iron Giant over ALL of them.
If we haven’t disqualified Pixar, then I have to say a Bug’s Life. I’ve seen it over 50 times, I’ll bet, and it still holds up. The artwork is incredible, as is the creativity in presenting a world from a bug’s-eye view.
I’ve only seen the Emperor’s New Groove once, but judging how much it made me snort I think it might end up being #2. Although Toy Story is the other contender.
I rather liked the one with the little mermaid in it. (What was its name again?)
Beauty and the Beast - from the very beginning “For who could ever learn to love a beast?” to the dance at the end, the movie is almost perfect. Seeing it again on IMAX reminded me how much, and yes, I won’t be an idiot again and fail to buy it when it comes out at Christmas.
Mulan - with the exception of the songs. I hated them. They weren’t that great, plus they were like bizarre montage music videos in the middle of the movie. Didn’t work at all. But the rest of the movie around them was wonderful.
The Little Mermaid - when it first came out, I thought I was too old to like animation and it proved me wrong. Plus Ursula is one of the best villans ever … “you poor unfortunate soul!”
The Lion King & then Aladdin but they’re very close.
Other things - the first 5 or so minutes of Hunchback (the opening song/animation) is wonderful, as is one of the other songs. The rest of it is really awful. I hated the music in Tarzan - it was horrid and just got worse every time (and didn’t care much for the storyline), but Tarzan himself was the best Disney “prince” in a very long time, and the animation was great (watching him slide around the trees). I still need to see Lilo & Stitch.
Beauty and the Beast comes to DVD in October.
My kids are too old now for me to have seen the very latest ones, but here are my favorites from the ones we did see.
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Aladdin - they let Robin Williams go, enough said. He should have gotten an Oscar for the genie!
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Little Mermaid. I can’t describe the impact of seeing Under the Sea after having seen crummy Disney movie after crummy Disney movie. They finally got it right!
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The Lion King
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Tarzan. I’m a big fan of the original books, and, while they didn’t quite match them, Disney did a far better job than I ever expected. My daughter, who likes this quite a bit, reports that the new straight to video Tarzan and Jane is awful.
I never much cared for Beauty and the Beast. Hercules is so far off of the myth (Hades being evil, him being the child of Zeus and Hera) that I was turned off. Mulan was fun, but just only. I’ve managed to avoid Pocahontas.
I think The Great Mouse Detective was pre-85, but I liked it quite a bit.
Monsters Inc. comes out on video and DVD on Tuesday the 17th. Go for it.
BTW, the short that comes with it “For The Birds” is hysterical.
Now then, as to the question:
In terms of combination of story, artwork, music and character development, hands down, IMHO, the award goes to Beauty and the Beast.
That being said:
The Lion King had a better story.
Fantasia 2000 had better music. But since that’s not a “movie movie” we’ll ignore it.
Aladdin and The Lion King had excellent characters in the Genie, Simba, Timon and Pumbaa.
Many of the other movies Emporer’s… and Lilo & Stitch in particular) were funnier.
But, for the whole package put together, B&B wins.
Zev Steinhardt
1986
A hero is measured by the villians he/she faces.
Problem with Beauty and the Beast is there’s no villian of note. I mean, yeah, there’s Gaston, but he’s a buffon. He’s never once threatening or menacing, and frankly, we all know he’s gonna end up in America, change his name to Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane is gonna kick the crap outta him. (they really borrowed the character design for Gaston)
That’s not the only measure of a movie of course, but I didn’t like snotty borgouis Belle
“There goes the baker with his tray, like always
The same old bread and rolls to sell
Every morning just the same
Since the morning that we came
To this poor provincial town”
Someone needs a swift kick in her bustle. The Beast wasn’t the only one who needed a lesson.
So BatB is low on my list.
My favs? In no particular order
Emperor’s New Groove: Yzma is smart (and powerful) and voiced by the incomparable Eartha Kitt (Yowza!). The character designs, the voicework, the bizarre visual gags, the witty dialogue, the funny, funny story…a stunning movie and major kudos to the director for having the guts to break out of the classic Disney style.
Aladdin: Again, Jafar is smart, evil, and cool. Aladdin is kinda a doofus, but Jasmine is hot, the music is good, Robin Williams has fun as the Genie and the plot, even if swiped from The Thief of Bagdad (down to the sidekick being named Apu) is strong.
Great Mouse Detective Rattigan is lots of fun, the story strong and the early use of computer animation (in the clock scene) is stunning.
Little Mermaid Again, Urusla is smart and tough, Ariel isn’t a snot like Belle, probably has the best songs, and a good solid plot.
And Pochahantas sucked on every level. Bad character design, bad acting. Bad animation, bad history, bad hyper-PC-ism run amok. Plus Russell Means (a psycho semi-terrorist (he has physically attacked old people in Denver at Colombus Day parades)) was invited to be in the movie. If it were toilet paper I wouldn’t wipe my butt with it. Since it’s film, I certainly won’t!
Fenris
'nother Mulan fan. Love the strong female character, intact family (how odd for a Disney movie), Asian style Disney animation. But really, its just cause when Li Shang takes off his shirt my heart goes pitter patter.
(My favorite thing about Hercules is that they chose Gospel as the musical style - don’t say Disney lacks a sense of humor!)
Let me say kind things about the misunderstood Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The only real problem with the film (besides Demi Moore) is that it is not a childrens film. The songs are terrific. (although making the hunchback a tenor is an odd choice) The judge’s song is really the best villian song. Yes, it is better than Poor Unfortunate Souls, which is comical and only slightly scary. The Judge song takes you to hell and back. Of course the ‘SANCTUARY!’ scene is is great cinematic moment no matter what hunchback film you are watching.
And of course the Belle cameo is priceless.
Fenris I think the lack of a clear cut villian in B&tB is a strength of the film. Gaston sort of goes lower and lower as he schemes to get the girl he wants. (though the reason he wants to marry her are without merit) Oh and IIRC Gaston didn’t quite make it to the US of A. The fact that he is not clearly evil and twirling his moustach gives the film a little complexity.
My favorites would be Little Mermaid and Beauty of the drawn films.
Then Monsters Inc and Toy Story of the computer films.
Zebra
amarinth what do you mean about the songs being music videos? Can you explain a bit more? Also, I’d forgotten about the intact-family aspect of Mulan! That is rare for Disney.
I haven’t seen Beauty and Beast a million times, like many other movies; probably just twice that I can recall. But I also found Belle to be a bit of a snot about her provencial town. Everything she sings in that opening song comes off as preachy.
Zebra, where is the Belle cameo in Hunchback? I’ve only seen it once and when I rented it for my children, I was appalled by the cruelty and violence in the opening scene (as presented for a children’s movie). I really like the “cameos” from previous movies. We have been watching Aladdin lately and “caught” Sebastian, complete with a bit of steel-drum music! LOL. I think Chip and Mrs. Potts are in there too.
Mulan and Toy Story are the only Disney movies with songs through which I don’t want to fast-forward. Even Toy Story 2 had that song by Joan Cusack’s (you know, whatsherface) character that I HATE.
If I recall correctly, A Bug’s Life was wonderfully song-free. I thought it was going to usher in a new era of song-free Disney flicks but, alas, it didn’t.
Disney (non-Pixar) doesn’t really do song-free cartoons.
The only two they did didn’t fare too well. The Black Cauldron only grossed $21m (but had a budget of $25m) (Source ) while Atlantis: The Lost Empire had a U.S. gross of $84m but a budget of $90m. (Source )
Zev Steinhardt
So Atlantis, on one hand, has no songs (good) but on the other, isn’t funny (bad)? Hmmmmm. Well since another poster spoiled the movie, I think I’ll just skip it.
I still could do without all the gosh darn singing, though.