Flashback Friday: Favorite Disney Movies

I am obsessed with Disney movies. I always have been and probably always will be. Just to be clear, when I say Disney movies, I am referring to my childhood movies. Those movies that occupied my Saturdays, whose soundtracks I know every word to and whose characters I wish were real (because I am referring to strictly animated movies). These are what I consider to be Disney "classics", but obviously this is just my opinion.

I plan to incorporate these movies into my future kid(s)' life. I think these are much healthier than the majority of the movies or cartoons on TV today. Granted, there are those little secret "surprise" moments in some of the movies (like the penis in the Little Mermaid castle, when Aladdin says "teenagers take off your clothes" and the dust spelling out SEX in Lion King, others found here), but I don't think kids really pick that stuff up until way later on in life (adolescence). I mean, think about the movie Grease. Such a great movie and musical, we used to sing those songs in middle school choir.....but once you watch that movie as an adult, you realize--holy sexual innuendos--the whole movie is about sex and they are all in high school! Anyway back to Disney movies. So obviously Disney is still making movies, and some of them I really like....but nothing will ever live up to my all-time favorites.

So without further ado, my all time, hands down, #1 favorite movie, ever, ever, EVER is:

(Picture from Isla Negra, Chile in August 2006. I have waited my whole life to take a picture like this!)

Any guesses?

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Yes! The Little Mermaid!!!!!!

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And this tops all movies, not just Disney movies.

Aladdin is my number 2 favorite Disney movie (it doesn't trump all other movies like Ariel though).

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Then among my other favorite classics are:

No. 3--Beauty & the Beast

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No. 4--Lion King

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No. 5--Cinderella

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No. 6--Jungle Book

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No. 7--Snow White

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There are a few movies that I know I saw and I'm pretty sure we owned them too, but they were not among my favorites to watch repeatedly:

• Bambi (I am just stuck remembering this as a sad movie, one that made me and others cry and I think that is seriously why I never watched it a lot. I don't even remember the "lesson to be learned" from Bambi, I was just struck by the sadness.....although I did have a "Bambi" of my own, a motherless fawn for 24 hours back when I was little.)
• Pinocchio (I remember that we played some sort of Disney game that dealt with Pinocchio when I was little but I don't remember what it was!)
• The Fox & the Hound (Ditto the sad movies.)
• Sleeping Beauty (I don't think we owned this movie when I was a kid.)
• Lady & the Tramp

Getting up to speed with the more modern Disney movies (all still animated), I have to say that I really enjoyed Monsters, Inc. and Ratatouille. I've seen Monsters, Inc. several times and Ratatouille only once....but that will change because I thought that movie was awesome!!!!!

My sister, who was born in 1990, definitely had different favorite Disney movies than I did. I remember her loving 101 Dalmatians, The Rescuers Down Under, and possibly The Aristocats. She also did like Snow White, Beauty & the Beast and Lion King.

One of the other things I really like about the more old-school Disney movies are the lessons that they teach. For example, Pinocchio has lessons about lying, The Little Mermaid about dreaming and going after your dream, Beauty & the Beast about how there is more to a person than just looks. These are definitely things I want to teach my future offspring and I like the way the Disney movies teach them.

Now it's your turn: what is your favorite Disney movie?

(For a list of the top 100 Disney movies, click here.)