Disney Animated Canon



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, it wasn't, as many claim, the first feature-length animated film ever. Foreign examples predating 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 those created 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 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 (and then some!), 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 rereleases were under the Disney banner). Compare the works of former Disney animator Don Bluth, as well as the two feature length animated films made by Fleischer Studios. For notable Disney staff, go here.

The films, in chronological order, are:


 * 1) Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
 * 2) Pinocchio (1940)
 * 3) Fantasia (1940)
 * 4) Dumbo (1941)
 * 5) Bambi (1942)
 * 6) Saludos Amigos (1943)
 * 7) The Three Caballeros (1945)
 * 8) Make Mine Music (1946)
 * 9) Fun and Fancy Free (1947)
 * 10) Melody Time (1948)
 * 11) The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
 * 12) Cinderella (1950)
 * 13) Alice in Wonderland (1951)
 * 14) Peter Pan (1953)
 * 15) Lady and the Tramp (1955)
 * 16) Sleeping Beauty (1959)
 * 17) One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
 * 18) The Sword in the Stone (1963; last to be released while Walt was alive)
 * 19) The Jungle Book (1967; final film produced while Walt was alive)
 * 20) The Aristocats (1970; final film Walt personally greenlit)
 * 21) Robin Hood (1973)
 * 22) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977; Partially made while Walt was alive)
 * 23) The Rescuers (1977)
 * 24) The Fox and the Hound (film) (1981)
 * 25) The Black Cauldron (1985)
 * 26) The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
 * 27) Oliver and Company (1988)
 * 28) The Little Mermaid (1989; The first film of the Disney Renaissance.)
 * 29) The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
 * 30) Beauty and the Beast (1991; The only movie of the canon to be nominated for Best Picture so far)
 * 31) Aladdin (1992)
 * 32) The Lion King (1994; Former highest grossing film of the canon.)
 * 33) Pocahontas (1995)
 * 34) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
 * 35) Hercules (1997)
 * 36) Mulan (1998)
 * 37) Tarzan (1999, The last film of the Disney Renaissance.)
 * 38) Fantasia 2000 (1999)
 * 39) Dinosaur (2000; First fully CGI movie done without Pixar)
 * 40) The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
 * 41) Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
 * 42) Lilo and Stitch (Disney film) (2002)
 * 43) Treasure Planet (2002)
 * 44) Brother Bear (2003)
 * 45) Home on the Range (2004; Planned as the last 2D animation, reversed in 2009)
 * 46) Chicken Little (2005)
 * 47) Meet the Robinsons (2007)
 * 48) Bolt (2008)
 * 49) The Princess and the Frog (2009; First 2D film after 2004)
 * 50) Tangled (2010) - Disney released a rather nifty video to celebrate its milestone as the fifty mark.
 * 51) Winnie the Pooh (2011)
 * 52) Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
 * 53) Frozen (2013, highest grossing film of the canon)
 * 54) Big Hero 6 (2014)

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 several other attempts to adapt that story into a movie have been canceled)
 * Fraidy Cat
 * Wild Life (due to concerns about 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 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.


 * 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, but they are still the Trope Namer.


 * 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. 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 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 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 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 Sidekicks 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: 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 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
 * None of the villains in Pinocchio 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 ' and ', 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, and Tangled.
 * Humans Are Bastards: Played with on several occasions such as in Bambi, The Little Mermaid or 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:
 * Villains not killed (Karma Houdini villains in italics):
 * Heroes and neutral characters really killed:
 * 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.
 * Light Is Good and Dark Is Evil: Both tropes are played straight in most of the movies.
 * Inverted 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 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, a war hero dad or a reknowned scientist grandfather will do just as well.
 * Only a handful Disney movies subvert or avert this trope. In some examples, John Smith (explorer), 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, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 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 and The Lion King 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 villains:
 * Pride=Queen Grimhilde and Queen of Hearts (they're queens, or in the case of Queen Grimhilde, wants to be the most beautiful). Also Gaston (Wants to be the handsomest man in town)
 * Envy=Scar, Hades and Jafar (want to be the king-the sultan)
 * Greed=Prince John (steals money from all people in Nottingham)
 * Wrath=Maleficent (gets angry and sets a curse on Aurora because she wasn't invited to the birth)
 * Gluttony=Ursula (extremely overweight)
 * Sloth=Lady Tremaine (puts Cinderella in charge and doesn't do anything)
 * Lust=Judge Claude Frollo (wants to love Esmeralda or she will burn at the stake)
 * Stock Footage (see this video for examples, with Robin Hood being the worst offender).
 * Storybook Opening: Trope Maker.
 * Talking Animal
 * Training Montage
 * Vile Villain Saccharine Show
 * Even less so with its more mature films, however.
 * What Could Have Been: Two books have been written on the subject, The Disney That 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