I’m flabbergasted at all the “meh”-ness towards Sleeping Beauty. Beautiful musical score and female vocals? Check. Lush, vivid backdrops? Check. The bad-assiest villainness ever? Check. Wow, just wow.
FTR, the Black Cauldron and the Sword in the Stone are my next two favorites. I’m such a rebel, yeah. 
Gah. Sorry–they all blend together after a bit…
Ok, the singing mice are cute as hell. But that godmother-I wanted to punch her! And the stepsisters were lame, lame, lame. Why not make them pretty, but evil, instead of freakish looking?
I prefer SB. And Beauty and the Beast, except for its weird “the love of a good woman will sooth any savage beast” meme. The less said about LM the better. I loved Jungle Book (although it gave me my fear of snakes as a child). The less said about Hunchback the better, too. UGH.
I just came to say that SB is my favorite Disney movie… 
Home on the Range. Not bad, but basically undistinguished (Brother Bear, OTOH, was quite good). Not a good way for Disney classic animation to go out.
I do agree that Sleeping Beauty is very weak, but there were worse. The Fox and the Hound was sappy and dull, and The Black Cauldron was a mess.
Never seen Sleeping Beauty, but I’ve got to give the “weakest movie” title to Robin Hood. Completely forgettable characters, plot, everything. I remember being really disappointed as a kid because I had thought it’d be awesome. Sword in the Stone was a close second; Disney movies that were solely about humans never held much interest for me. Cinderella was kind of cool in a retro way. I didn’t like Hunchback of Notre Dame either as a young one, but some of the scenes are actually pretty awesome. Here’s a youtube video for one of the songs (called Hellfire); very creepy and cool.
I remember liking The Sword in the Stone and Sleeping Beauty as a kid. I liked The Hunchback of Notre Dame too, but that was before I read the book. Hellfire was pretty awesome though and Frollo is one of the most evil Disney villains in my opinion.
My least favorites are Lady and the Tramp, Aristocats, and The Fox and the Hound. I’ve never actually watched Cinderella come to think of it.
Was Robin Hood the one with the fox and the lisping snake?
This is interesting. I actually think all the worst Disney movies are from the post-Walt period.
Well, except Treasure Planet. Blargh.
Are we still in the Eisner period?
Michael Eisner left Disney several years ago (almost by force). It’s now, effectively, the John Lasseter period.
Holy moly that’s an insane filmography!
I foresee a new golden age for Disney.
To be fair, most of those are short films he oversaw in a producer role at Pixar. But as a director, he’s won three Academy Awards and overseen some of Pixar’s finest, so Lasseter is indeed a good fellow to be running Disney’s animation department.
I read on IMDB (or maybe WP), that other than Dumbo, who can’t speak, Sleeping Beauty has the least lines of any title character in a Disney film. All of her lines occur in something like a 20 minute section in the middle of the movie. She never has another line after she the 38 (or 39?) minute mark – even after she wakes up.
I love Prince Phillip. He actually seems to have a personality!! Most of the princes now do, but back in those older movies, they never did. (Heck, he’s even got a name! The princes from Cinderella and Snow White don’t even get that.)
Yup, that was the one.
Home on the Range.
Most famous for being the first movie we took our daughter to. She was 2 years old and absolutely enraptured.
Weakest Disney?
Phht
Even if you meant “weakest in his lifetime” it’s not close to the worst. Try watvching The Reluctant Dragon sometime. It was during the war, and they didn’t have many resources, and they needed the money. Big parts that ought to be animated weren’t even animated.
Sleeping Beauty has many redeeming qualities. It’s the first one done in that modern “Bill Peet” style.
“Poor music” – you realize that you’re talking about Tachaikovsky? They even did a special Disney TV show about the man when they released this movie.
But mainly I like it because it’s the first Disney movie I ever saw.
Maleficent is certainly one of the most impressive villains, especially to the target audience of 3-6 year olds. And Prince Philip is head & shoulders above the other princes - he escapes from the dungeon, fights off the orcs, and kills a dragon. Sure, he had help from the fairies, but he still had to do the heavy lifting. What does Snow White’s Prince Charming do? - kiss a dead chick. What does Cinderella’s prince do? - mope around, dance with a hot chick, then lets her run off. I bet when Prince Philip became king, he conquered their countries within a year and made Snow White & Cinderella his concubines.
Me too, me too! You’re not alone. 
I adored Sleeping Beauty (I had it on Beta! :D). The animation was gorgeous, the music was fantastic and the imagery was awesome (lush colors contrasted with striking dark evil). Plus, Maleficent is the most badass awesome villainess (or villain), IMO.
Here’s a complete list of all Disney Films. How many have you forgotten?
The fairies do bug me a lot in SB.
But I love the animation. It took a while for it to grow on me but I love it now. I don’t have a blu-ray play but I’ll probably buy the disk so I’ll have it.
Charming isn’t a name?
And I can’t believe people hate on Robin Hood. Roger Miller songs! I suppose, however, that those were the faces that launched a thousand furries.
My brother’s favourite movie for a time was Robin Hood, and as a result I’ve seen it about a million times. I feel so bad for it that there’s no love for it in this thread!
Although, as the Hamster Dance song is just a sped-up portion of the song from the opening credits (from 1:36 to 1:52), the years 1999-2001 might have a legitimate beef with the movie.