LaGremlin and the Chronological Animated Disney Canon

In which your humble heroine watches (almost) every animated Disney film there ever was in (rough) order and writes about it. Click on the links below when I add the dates.

The Golden Age - (1/12/08) The big ones. "Snow White", "Pinocchio", "Fantasia" and everything up to World War Two.

The "Anthology Pictures" - (1/24/08) Or, "crap, we have to recoup our financial losses so slap something together!"

The Silver Age - (2/2/08) The studio gets back on its feet with an impressive string of hits starting with "Cinderella", "Alice In Wonderland", and "Peter Pan".

The Dark Age - (2/15/08) After Walt fell ill and died, the studio floundered for decades. Are there any hidden treasures in this long string of flops?

The Bronze Age - (2/27/08) A rabbit and a mermaid herald an unprecedented run of well-loved hits out of the park. Which, sadly, didn't last forever...

The Dork Age - (3/6/08) Or WAS it?!? (Well, they did make a movie about cows, so...)

The Happiest FAQ List on Earth

Q: "Why are you doing this?"
A: Why not?
Well, if you want some more substantial reasons, I'm going to Walt Disney World for my thirtieth birthday this year so I thought this would be a fun way to hype myself up for it; plus my Netflix queue looked sad after '125 Movies in a Netflix Queue' and I wanted to fill it up again.

Q: "Are you really going to watch every single animated Disney movie ever?"
A: Well, Netflix does not have every single Disney film available, though they do have most of them. I own some of the missing movies on video. As the local video store is gradually transforming into a video game store, I will have to rely on inter-library loan for the rest. That's not a bad thing at all, it just means that some of the movies won't technically be watched in order.
There are only a few movies I've had no luck with. One of them is "The Reluctant Dragon", another is "So Dear to My Heart", and most people don't count either films as part of the Canon anyway. I have no clue what "So Dear to My Heart" is, but I have seen "The Reluctant Dragon" before. Honestly, nothing in the movie, which is meant to be a behind-the-scenes look at the Disney studio, is half as entertaining as knowing what was going on behind the scenes. The movie just so happened to be made during a very messy studio strike, so the smiling artists joking in the halls were a bit of a stretch of the truth.
And then there's "The Song of the South" which... on second thought, let's not go there.

Q: "You've got too much time on your hands."
A: Right. For the life of me, I don't understand this kind of comment. I'm an artist, and I eventually want a career in animation, so for me this kind of thing is research if not outright work. Also, they aren't very long movies, people.

Q: "Are you, like, nine or something? Cause cartoons are for babies."
A: I really shouldn't dignify this one with a reaction. I'm curious though; does this mean I can sit your two-year-old in front of "Akira"?

Q: "Wait a minute, LaGremlin. You're a vocal Looney Tunes fan girl. Isn't this like fraternizing with the enemy?"
A: I've gotten questions like this involving Don Bluth and Hiyao Miyazaki too. If this project goes well, then they are next. :)
And it isn't like you can't be a fan of Looney Tunes and Disney. Plenty of those strange creatures we call not-animation-geeks do it.
(That said, Bugs Bunny is my hero and Mickey is a weenie.)

Q: "What kinds of 'research' did you do for this project?"
A: Good old Wikipedia was excellent for "one-stop shopping". Bob Thomas' Disney's Art of Animation was very useful as well. I've also been reading skimming through Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas' seminal The Illusion of Life. It's a doorstopper (and I take issue with their conviction that only Disney produced believable character animation; if so, why do I cry at the end of "What's Opera Doc"?) But it's a fascinating doorstopper.
As far as other Disney links, Jim Hill Media is usually a fun blog as is The Disney Blog. And then there's Mice Age, which covers every aspect of Disney you can imagine and a few you can't. I also have to give mad old-school Epcot props to Walt Dated World. Expect to spend an afternoon here.

Q: "Hey, wait, what about 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'?"
A: (Long, long, awkward pause…)
Oh! Son of a (censored)!!!