View source for Disney Animated Canon

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The main animated films produced by the [[Disney]] studios.

In 1937, [[Walt Disney]] released the first feature-length animated film in the English-speaking world. (However, [[Older Than They Think|it wasn't]], [[Common Knowledge|as many claim]], the first feature-length animated film ''ever''. Foreign examples predating ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'' include Argentina's ''El Apóstol'' in 1917, Germany's ''[[The Adventures of Prince Achmed]]'' in 1926, and Egypt's ''Mich Mich Effendi'' in 1935.)

This category does not include [[Pixar]] productions, nor does it include every animated feature released by Disney (such as [[A Goofy Movie|those]] [[Recess: School's Out|created]] [[Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers|by]] DisneyToon Studios, [[Direct to Video]] Sequels, or animated films made under a different banner, such as ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]''). There don't seem to be any hard-and-fast rules as to which movies get to be part of the canon and which don't, but generally, the canon films are made by the Disney feature animation unit (live-action/animation hybrids like ''[[Mary Poppins]]'' tend not to count unless the animation is the bulk of the film). The Other Wiki has a [[wikipedia:List of Disney theatrical animated features|set of lists]] for both the canon and non-canon films.

See also [[Disney Princess]], ''[[Enchanted]]'' (a possible [[Affectionate Parody]] of Disney's own films), ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', a video game series which also seems to follow the rule of only using canonical characters from nearly all of these films ([[The Nightmare Before Christmas|and]] [[Pirates of the Caribbean|then]] [[Tron|so]][[Tron: Legacy|me!]]), or ''[[House of Mouse]]'' which represents almost every canonical movie (and then some!) with at least a cameo appearance. ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]]'' and ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]'' were both produced and released by Disney under its Touchstone Pictures banner (The latter's [[3D Movie|3D]] rereleases were under the Disney banner). Compare the works of former Disney animator [[Don Bluth]], as well as the [[Max Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels|two feature length]] [[Mr. Bug Goes to Town|animated films made by]] [[Fleischer Studios]]. For notable Disney staff, [[Noteworthy Disney Staff|go here]].

The films, in chronological order, are:
<!-- %% Song Of The South is not part of the Disney Animated Canon. Do not post it here. -->
# [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]] (1937)
# [[Pinocchio (Disney film)|Pinocchio]] (1940)
# [[Fantasia]]<ref name="anthology">Consists of several short films released as one feature.</ref> (1940)
# [[Dumbo]] (1941)
# [[Bambi (Disney film)|Bambi]] (1942)
# [[Saludos Amigos]]<ref name="anthology"/> (1943)
# [[The Three Caballeros]]<ref name="anthology"/> (1945)
# [[Make Mine Music]]<ref name="anthology"/> (1946)
# [[Fun and Fancy Free]]<ref name="anthology"/> (1947)
# [[Melody Time]]<ref name="anthology"/> (1948)
# [[The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad]]<ref name="anthology"/> (1949)
# [[Cinderella (Disney film)|Cinderella]] (1950)
# [[Alice in Wonderland (Disney film)|Alice in Wonderland]] (1951)
# [[Peter Pan (Disney film)|Peter Pan]] (1953)
# [[Lady and the Tramp]] (1955)
# [[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]] (1959)
# [[101 Dalmatians|One Hundred and One Dalmatians]] (1961)
# [[The Sword in the Stone]] (1963; last to be released while Walt was alive)
# [[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]] (1967; final film ''produced'' while Walt was alive)
# [[The Aristocats]] (1970; final film Walt personally greenlit)
# [[Robin Hood (Disney film)|Robin Hood]] (1973)
# [[The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh]]<ref name="anthology"/> (1977; Partially made while Walt was alive)
# [[The Rescuers (Disney film)|The Rescuers]] (1977)
# [[The Fox and the Hound (film)]] (1981)
# [[The Black Cauldron]] (1985)
# [[The Great Mouse Detective]] (1986)
# [[Oliver and Company]] (1988)
# [[The Little Mermaid]] (1989; The first film of the ''Disney Renaissance.'')
# [[The Rescuers Down Under]] (1990)
# [[Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)|Beauty and the Beast]] (1991; The only movie of the canon to be nominated for [[Academy Award|Best Picture]] so far)
# [[Aladdin (1992 Disney film)|Aladdin]] (1992)
# [[The Lion King]] (1994; Former highest grossing film of the canon.)
# [[Pocahontas]] (1995)
# [[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]] (1996)
# [[Hercules (1997 film)|Hercules]] (1997)
# [[Mulan]] (1998)
# [[Tarzan (Disney film)|Tarzan]] (1999, The last film of the ''Disney Renaissance.'')
# [[Fantasia|Fantasia 2000]]<ref name="anthology"/> (1999)
# [[Dinosaur]] (2000; First fully CGI movie done without [[Pixar]])
# [[The Emperor's New Groove]] (2000)
# [[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]] (2001)
# [[Lilo and Stitch (Disney film)]] (2002)
# [[Treasure Planet]] (2002)
# [[Brother Bear]] (2003)
# [[Home on the Range]] (2004; Planned as the last 2D animation, reversed in 2009)
# [[Chicken Little]] (2005)
# [[Meet the Robinsons]] (2007)
# [[Bolt]] (2008)
# [[The Princess and the Frog]] (2009; First 2D film after 2004)
# [[Tangled]] (2010) - Disney released a rather nifty [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gqg3-5srs4 video] to celebrate its milestone as the fifty mark.
# [[Winnie the Pooh (Disney film)|Winnie the Pooh]] (2011)
# [[Wreck-It Ralph]] (2012)
# [[Frozen (Disney film)|Frozen]] (2013, second highest grossing film of the canon)
# [[Big Hero 6 (Disney film)|Big Hero 6]] (2014)
# [[Zootopia]] (2016, third highest grossing film in the canon)
# [[Moana]] (2017)
# [[Ralph Breaks the Internet]] (2018)
# [[Frozen 2]] (2019, highest grossing film of the canon)
# [[Raya and the Last Dragon]] (2021)
# [[Encanto]] (2021)
# Strange World (scheduled to be premiered on November 23, 2022)

'''[[What Could Have Been|Cancelled films]]:'''
* [[The Wizard of Oz]] (the studio did some conceptual art for it shortly after ''Snow White'' but it was canceled in preproduction)
* Chanticleer (some ideas from development migrated into [[Don Bluth]]'s ''[[Rock-a-Doodle]]'')
* The Gremlins: (Questions of whether plane sabotaging creatures could be made sympathetic and development running late into the war leading to a cancellation due to possibly becoming dated)
* [[Don Quixote]] (just like [[Orson Welles|several]] [[Terry Gilliam|other]] attempts to adapt that story into a movie have been canceled)
* Fraidy Cat
* Wild Life (due to concerns about [[Darker and Edgier|more mature]] content)
* My Peoples (due to the closure of the Florida studio, which was the only one making the movie)
* Fantasia 2006 (due to shifting management; several shorts were completed and released separately)
* ''[[Mort]]'' (Disney couldn't get the adaptation rights, which were sold as one large package rather than individually)
* Sequels were also planned for films such as ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]'' and ''[[Bambi]]'' during earlier phases, though didn't get past early production stages (allegedly due to Walt not being a fan of sequels). Actual follow ups were made much later on, but are not part of the Disney canon.

{{tropenamer}}
* [[Disney Acid Sequence]]
* [[Disney Death]]
* [[Disney Dog Fight]]
* [[Disneyesque]]
* [[Disneyfication]]
* [[Disney Owns This Trope]]
* [[Disney School of Acting and Mime]]
* [[Disney Villain Death]]

By definition, none of Disney's films fit the trope [[All Animation Is Disney]], [[Captain Obvious|but they are still the]] [[Trope Namer]].

{{franchisetropes}}
* [[Animorphism]]
* [[Animated Musical]]: But then ''The Black Cauldron'' broke that trend, but was restored by ''The Little Mermaid'', but broken again by ''Tarzan'', but restored again by ''The Princess and the Frog''.
** Actually the trend was restored by ''Oliver and Company'', which preceded ''Mermaid'', and temporarily broken during the Renaissance by ''Rescuers Down Under''.
** [[Award Bait Song]]
** [[Crowd Song]]
** [[Disney Acid Sequence]]
** [["I Am" Song]]
** [["I Want" Song]]
** [[Sidekick Song]]
** [[Villain Song]]
* [[Animation Bump]] (generally in the musical numbers)
* [[Avoid the Dreaded G Rating]]: There are 8 films in the canon with a PG rating instead of a G: ''[[The Black Cauldron]]'', ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'', ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'', ''[[Treasure Planet]]'', ''[[Home on the Range]]'', ''[[Bolt]]'', ''[[Tangled]]'', ''[[Big Hero 6 (Disney film)|Big Hero 6]]''. With the exception of ''[[The Black Cauldron]]'', all of these films were released in the 2000s and 2010s—just around the time the PG rating became the de facto norm for animated films. Of course, in the case of numbers one through nineteen, the MPAA rating system didn't exist at the time of their initial release, so the G rating was only applied to them retroactively.
* [[Beauty Equals Goodness]]
* [[Big Bad]]: A different one for almost every film.
* [[Black and White Morality]]
** [[Black and Gray Morality]]: In its more mature films.
* [[Black Magic]]
* [[Brains Evil, Brawn Good]]: Especially in ''[[The Lion King]]'', ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' and ''[[The Emperor's New Groove]]'', but it might be apparent in other Disney movies too.
** Though it's averted in ''Atlantis'', ''Beauty and the Beast'', ''Meet The Robinsons'', and ''The Great Mouse Detective''.
* [[Cats Are Mean]]: Used, [[Subverted]] and [[Averted]].
* [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]
* [[Classic Villain]]
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Nearly all the films [[Mood Whiplash|waver between whimsical and hauntingly dramatic]], however, ''[[Pinocchio]]'' and ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' are frequently considered to have some of the grimmest story content in Disney's entire filmography.
** But the darkest is ''The Black Cauldron''.
** While ''Cauldron'' features animated skeletons and self-sacrifice, it doesn't quite touch on the darkness that was ''Hunchback''... which, as you remember, had an older man [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|lustfully sniff a young woman's hair and then singing about his uncontainable lust]].
** While ''Cauldron'' features animated skeletons and self-sacrifice and ''Hunchback'' an older man lustfully sniffing a young woman's hair and then singing about his uncontainable lust, both don't reach the darkness of ''Atlantis: The Lost Empire''... which replaces the songs, colors and [[Non-Human Sidekick]]s with action, explosions and many background characters dying.
* [[Deal with the Devil]]: How Ursula from ''The Little Mermaid'', Hades from ''Hercules'', and Dr. Facillier from ''The Princess and the Frog'' all work. Is it telling that all these share the same directors?
* [[Death by Cameo]]
* [[Denser and Wackier]]: The tone of the films constantly vary, the majority of films made in the 1960s and early 1970s use a much more offbeat and wacky tone than usual however, with less drama and more comedic and sympathetic villains. ''[[The Rescuers]]'' began the return to more darker and earnest story telling (albeit with Disney's usual whimsy).
* [[Empathy Pet]]
* [[Everything's Better with Princesses]]: [[Disney Princess|TEN of 'em!]] (but there are exceptions).
* [[Evil Is Hammy]]: with few exceptions
* [[Evil Laugh]]: Another thing many of the villains have in common.
* [[Evil Minions]]: Most of the Big Bads have at least one.
* [[Evil Sorcerer]]
* [[Fairy Companion]]
* [[Follow the Bouncing Ball]]: The "Sing Along Songs" series.
* [[Furry Confusion]]
** [[Carnivore Confusion]], especially.
* [[Genre Savvy]]: Oftentimes one of the sidekicks to the hero or the villain will cater to this, and there have even been some main protagonists as well.
* [[God Save Us From the Queen]]: A lot of Disney queens are often portrayed as villains, especially in [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|guess which film]]. Also, positive queens are either killed off early or shoved in the background.
** [[The High Queen]]: At the end of ''Atlantis: The Lost Empire''. Features the only princess that becomes a queen.
* [[The Good Guys Always Win]]: Except maybe in {{spoiler|the "Ichabod" half of ''[[The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad]]''.}}
** None of the villains in ''[[Pinocchio (Disney film)|Pinocchio]]'' [[Karma Houdini|are ever punished]]—Pinocchio just escapes from them. The loss of just one boy presumably not being significant, it can even be said that the Coachman won as far as his scheme went.
* [[Happily Ever After]]: Averted with both ''{{spoiler|The Fox and the Hound}}'' and ''{{spoiler|Pocahontas}}'', however.
* [[Held Gaze]]: Has been used in several of the romance-focused movies to imply the underlying [[UST]] of the characters. Notable films that use this trope are ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'', ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', and ''[[Tangled]]''.
* [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]]: Played with on several occasions such as in ''[[Bambi]]'', ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' or ''[[The Jungle Book (Disney film)|The Jungle Book]]''.
* [[Karmic Death]]: Happens to many if not most of the villains.
* [[Killed Off for Real]]: Many characters have been thought to be dead, but others are really killed.
** Villains killed: {{spoiler|The Evil Queen, Maleficent, possibly Madame Medusa, The Horned King, Ratigan, Sykes, Ursula, Percival McLeach, Gaston, Scar, Frollo, Shan-Yu, Clayton, The Carnotaurs, {{spoiler|Rourke}}, {{spoiler|Helga}}, Scroop, Dr. Facilier, Mother Gothel, King Candy {{spoiler|a.k.a. Turbo}}.}}
** Villains not killed (Karma Houdini villains in ''italics''): {{spoiler|''Honest John and Gideon'', ''Stromboli'', ''the Coachman'', Monstro, ''Chernabog'', ''Man'', The Wolf, Willie the Giant, Mr. Winky, ''The Headless Horseman'', ''Lady Tremaine'' (she got her karma in Cinderella III, though), ''Queen of Hearts'', Captain Hook, ''Si and Am'', Cruella, Madam Mim, Shere Khan (until the sequel came around), Edgar, Prince John, Jafar (again, until the sequel), Governor Ratcliffe, Hades, Yzma (is {{spoiler|[[Baleful Polymorph|stuck as a cat at the end]]}}, and possibly gets more karmic backlash in the sequel), Gantu, Alameda Slim, Bowler Hat Guy, The Backson, {{spoiler|Prince Hans}}, The Duke of Weselton, {{spoiler|Yokai/Professor Callaghan}}.}}
** Heroes and neutral characters really killed: {{spoiler|Bambi's mom, Willie the Whale, Slew Foot Sue, Cinderella's dad, Tod's mother, Bartholomew the mouse and Felicia the cat, Flotsam and Jetsam, Mufasa, Kocoum, Quasimodo's mother, Kerchak, Sitka, Tiana's father, {{spoiler|Ray the Firefly}}, King Agdar and Queen Idun, and {{spoiler|Tadashi Hamada}}.}}
* [[Knight of Cerebus]]: Though some may still be somewhat comedic, a lot of villains have a very menacing tone (especially in the earliest examples) and are responsible for a lot of [[Mood Whiplash]] away from Disney's usual whimsy. See [[Nightmare Fuel]] for their rather haunting effect on many audiences.
* [[Large Ham]]: Enough examples exist for [[Large Ham/Film/Disney Animated Canon|their own page]].
* [[Light Is Good]] and [[Dark Is Evil]]: Both tropes are played straight in most of the movies.
** [[Dark Is Not Evil|In]][[Light Is Not Good|verted]] in ''Beauty and the Beast'', ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'', and ''Tarzan'', however.
* [[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition]]: The "Black Diamond" Classics, the Masterpiece Collection, the Gold Collection, the Platinum Editions, and the Diamond Editions, all of these sets being released in a wide variety of home video formats, with VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and LaserDisc being the most popular. And of course, the Disney Vault that these all get shoved into if you don't buy them now!
** Special mention goes to the Masterpiece Collection, which included ''every'' VHS release at the time that was part of the Canon, including the stuff nobody remembers (like the compilation films) and the brand-new movies. From ''Tarzan'' on, they just put "Walt Disney Pictures Presents" on their cases.
* [[Love At First Sight]]
* [[Marry for Love]]
* [[Misplaced Wildlife]]
* [[Never a Self-Made Woman|Never A Self-Made Hero]]: Surprisingly often, the hero (of either gender) or heroes have a connection to a relative who is greatly revered (in most cases, a royal parent; but in other cases, [[Mulan|a war hero dad]] or [[Atlantis: The Lost Empire|a reknowned scientist grandfather]] will do just as well.
** Only a handful Disney movies subvert or avert this trope. In some examples, [[Pocahontas|John Smith]] (explorer), [[The Black Cauldron|Taran]] (pigkeeper/peasant) and all main characters of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' (soldier, son of a gypsy, gypsy performer) are self made heroes.
* [[Non-Human Sidekick]]: Most of the human main characters and/or their love interests have one, as do some human villains.
** And the ''animals''.
** Averted in ''Atlantis: The Lost Empire'', however.
* [[One-Winged Angel]]: Their use of this trope is only surpassed by [[Square Enix]].
* [[Parental Abandonment]]
** [[Disappeared Dad]]
** [[Missing Mom]]
* [[Period Piece]]: Most of the films in the canon take place at some time in the past. Only nine films (''[[Dumbo]]'', ''[[101 Dalmatians|One Hundred and One Dalmatians]]'', ''[[The Rescuers (Disney film)|The Rescuers]]'', ''[[Oliver and Company]]'', ''[[The Rescuers Down Under]]'', ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'', ''[[Chicken Little]]'', ''[[Meet the Robinsons]]'', and ''[[Bolt]]'') are set in [[The Present Day]] of when they were made. Well, ''[[Bambi]]'', ''[[The Lion King]]'', and ''[[Wreck-It Ralph]]'' could be set in the present, but there's no way to tell without seeing any human characters. ''[[Treasure Planet]]'' and part of ''[[Meet the Robinsons]]'' take place in the future instead.
* [[Plucky Comic Relief]]
* [[The Power of Friendship]]
* [[The Power of Love]]
* [[Public Domain Character]]
* [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]]: But there are a few exceptions.
* [[Running Gag]]: [[Recycled: the Series]], as well as importing (usually faster-paced) songs to serve as theme songs for the same.
* [[Scenery Porn]]
* [[Seven Deadly Sins]]: Some [[Big Bad|villains]]:
** Pride=[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Queen Grimhilde]] and [[Alice in Wonderland (Disney film)|Queen of Hearts]] (they're queens, or in the case of Queen Grimhilde, wants to be the most beautiful). Also [[Beauty and The Beast|Gaston]] (Wants to be the handsomest man in town)
** Envy=[[The Lion King|Scar]], [[Hercules (1997 film)|Hades]] and [[Aladdin (Disney film)|Jafar]] (want to be the king-the sultan)
** Greed=[[Robin Hood (Disney film)|Prince John]] (steals money from all people in Nottingham)
** Wrath=[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Maleficent]] (gets angry and sets a curse on Aurora [[Disproportionate Retribution|because she wasn't invited to the birth]])
** Gluttony=[[The Little Mermaid|Ursula]] (extremely overweight)
** Sloth=[[Cinderella (Disney film)|Lady Tremaine]] (puts Cinderella in charge and doesn't do anything)
** Lust=[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|Judge Claude Frollo]] (wants to love Esmeralda or she will burn at the stake)
* [[Stock Footage]] (see [https://web.archive.org/web/20100529054101/http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1906578 this video] for examples, with ''[[Robin Hood (Disney film)|Robin Hood]]'' being the worst offender).
* [[Storybook Opening]]: [[Trope Maker]].
* [[Talking Animal]]
* [[Training Montage]]: ''[[Mulan]]''
* [[Vile Villain, Saccharine Show]]{{context}}
** Even less so with its more mature films, however.
* [[What Could Have Been]]: Two books have been written on the subject, ''The Disney [[Stealth Pun|That]] [[Kingdom Hearts II|Never Was]]'' and ''Disney Lost and Found'' (focusing on My Peoples and Wild Life specifically alongside deleted segments from completed works.)
* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: There are things that anthropomorphic animals do in ''[[Oliver and Company]]'', ''[[Beauty and the Beast]]'' and ''[[The Lion King]]'' that Disney would ''never'' allow in human portrayal.
** [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?]]
* [[White Magic]]: ''[[Fantasia]]'', The Sorcerer's Apprentice"

{{reflist}}
{{Disney Animated Canon}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Disney]]
[[Category:The Golden Age of Animation]]
[[Category:Media]]
[[Category:The Millennium Age of Animation]]
[[Category:The Renaissance Age of Animation]]
[[Category:The Verse]]