Thoughts on the AFI Top 10 Animated Films

(Written in response to “AFI Strikes Again” by Dan Marfield.)
AFI Strikes Again
AFI List
Nominee List

I think it’s worth noting that since this is an AFI list, only films produced in the US are considered. Apologies to those that think the US is the only country capable of animation, but without including the rest of the planet the list boils down to AFI’s nine favorite Disney movies (including Pixar) and Shrek. To a competent cinema fan, that last sentence should suggest the relative weakness of the list. But the fun of list making is working within certain specificities and seeing how things turn out.

Some movies that would seem like locks, at least for the nominee list, were snubbed for one reason or another. There’s a need to acknowledge movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit that mix live-action and animation; Mary Poppins and Song of the South come to mind, but I understand their exclusion. Also, it may appear that stop-motion is woefully underrepresented. In fact, The Nightmare Before Christmas was the only stop-motion film to even make the nominee list. But there really isn't a large enough pool to choose from for these films. Other than Nightmare… there is really only Chicken Run and James and the Giant Peach, neither of which would probably make anyone's top ten. And those numerous Christmas specials that you’re thinking of were made for TV, so the Land of Misfit Toys won’t be showing up here.

How movies the likes of Monster House and Shrek make even the nominee list is beyond me, especially considering some very obvious exclusions. Here are some films that didn’t even get nominated:
Gulliver’s Travels – The second fully animated feature ever and my first VHS tape.
A Boy Named Charlie Brown – Made for TV, but its runtime of 86 minutes makes it feature length. Also, give it some dap for being a film based on a comic strip.
The Fox and The Hound
Any Warner cartoon features (Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales, Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters, Daffy Duck’s Fantastic Island) – Yes, they were a collection of animated shorts, but they had animated bridging sequences to connect everything in one continuous film. If Fantasia counts, these should, too.
The Last Unicorn – It has beautiful art and surprisingly adult themes. Its largest detraction, or selling point, is the soundtrack produced by the band America.

Clearly Disney is going to dominate the list. That fact is well understood. But I can’t stomach Snow White…, Bambi, and Pinocchio all together at the top. They span the years 1937 – 1942, and that’s too much of a concentration for my tastes. Pick one to represent the era, or at least spread them out. The same could be said for the early ‘90s Disney renaissance. From 1989 to 1992 we got, in order and once per year, The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. There wasn’t an animated feature in 1993, but we can include The Lion King in 1994.

Then there is the middle era for Disney. This one is harder to define as it runs an impressive 31 years from 1950 to 1981. Only 13 features were released during this span, making the typical wait about two and a half years between. Not terribly concentrated, but anyone will be hard-pressed to argue against the bulk of the Disney classics; (chronologically) Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Robin Hood, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Rescuers, and The Fox and the Hound. That is practically a Top 13 right there.

After 1994 the computer animated feature really took over, starting of course with Toy Story. Only a handful of quality cell-animated features were made in the last 15 years; The Iron Giant being the best of that lot. Otherwise we have to consider the likes of the eight released Pixar films and products from DreamWorks and Warner Studios. Nothing outstanding and too early for anything recently made to be considered an “all-time” sort of film.

So, without further ado, my Top 10 Animated Features
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
2. Beauty and the Beast
3. The Lion King
4. Sleeping Beauty
5. Pinocchio
6. The Iron Giant
7. Gulliver’s Travels
8. Toy Story
9. Cinderella
10. Finding Nemo

Honorable Mention:
The Little Mermaid
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Last Unicorn