Evangeline Files

As the 27th Disney film, the idea for Oliver & Company was thought of after a story artist suggested that Disney do a version of Oliver Twist with dogs.  During a meeting where people from Disney discussed potential ideas for movies (like The Little Mermaid and Treasure Planet), it was decided that Oliver & Company was going to be much darker but thankfully they edited out most of the dark parts.  When Oliver & Company was released, it was a box office success, even outgrossing Don Bluth’s The Land Before Time, but it received mixed reviews from critics.  They praised the animation and music but thought the plot was too…

As the 26th Disney film, The Great Mouse Detective is definitely not quite as well known as other Disney films.  There were ideas to make a Sherlock Holmes movie with animals in it for quite some time but the project was put in limbo because of too many similarities to The Rescuers.  However, when The Black Cauldron was in production, The Great Mouse Detective was also put in production as a backup project since people were unsure of The Black Cauldron having success.  Then, when The Great Mouse Detective was released, it did much better than The Black Cauldron, gaining positive reviews from critics and doing really well box office…

As the 25th animated Disney film, The Black Cauldron is definitely the least known film of Disney’s Bronze Age.  It was also the first Disney movie to use CGI animation (or computer- generated imagery) and the first ever Disney movie to be rated PG.  When the film was released (after a complicated production process), it was not received well by critics as they thought the movie’s tone was too dark and the script was bad; and though the animation voice acting and score received praise, the film also did poorly financially, grossing 21 million but costing 44 million to make.  And to add insult to injury, it was outgrossed by…

As the 24th Disney film, The Fox and the Hound is not as well known by some Disney fans; it takes place in the rural southern United States and is based on a book that was written by an American author.  This movie came out in 1981 and went through a long production due to several people who were working on it resigning from Disney (including Don Bluth who created Don Bluth productions which ended up becoming Disney’s rival); the famous film director Tim Burton also worked on the film.  When the film was released, it did very well financially but got mixed reviews from critics.  While they praised the…

As the 23rd Disney film, The Rescuers is definitely not quite as known as other Disney movies.  Before Walt Disney’s death, he had plans to make the book into a movie but it was shelved due to his dislike of the project’s political overtones.  When the film was finally released in 1977, it received positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, even outgrossing Star Wars in France.  Two classic “old school” actors voice the movie’s main protagonists; the female lead is voiced by Eva Gabor and the male lead by Bob Newhart.  While I really enjoyed this movie, I didn’t like the book it was based on…

As the 22nd Disney film, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is definitely the most well-known movie of Disney’s Bronze Age.  This movie, the first ever Winnie the Pooh film, was originally split into three shorts but, in the 1970’s, Disney chose to put all three of the shorts together into a full-length animated film.  Sadly, I can’t find a lot of information about the production of the movie but I do know that, while the movie didn’t seem to do to great financially, it did receive critical acclaim from film critics, earning one of the very few 100% film ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.  While I own a copy…

As the 21st Disney film, Robin Hood has a bit of an unknown reputation with some Disney fans.  Plans for this film have gone back as far as the 1930s, when Walt Disney himself had the idea of adapting a folktale called “Reynard the Fox” into a movie but was unsure of the idea; and thus, the project was shelved on and off for many years after Disney’s death.  However, a writer at Disney suggested that they adapt Robin Hood into a film but Robin Hood himself would be a fox like Reynard and the rest of the characters would be anthropomorphic animals, which means animals who are made to…

As the 20th Disney animated film, The Aristocats marks the start of a new era for Disney.  Some Disney fans refer to it as Disney’s “Dark Age” but, since a lot of beloved films came out during this time period, most Disney lovers refer to it as The Bronze Age.  Despite a lot of the movies not doing as well either critically or financially, most of the films from this age are well-loved by Disney fans today.  The Aristocats was actually the last animated movie to be approved by Walt Disney before his death.  Even though it received positive reviews and was a box-office success as well, some people still…