A Complete List of Disney Animated Movies

 So, you want to know or watch every Disney animated movie ever? Disney Darling Blog has a comprehensive list of Disney movies, broken. down by the studio from which the films were produced.  

Disney Animation Studios

When most people think of "Disney movies", they are probably referring to Disney Animation Studios films. These movies were made from Disney's official animation studio and theatrically released. 

At the time of writing, Disney Animation Studios (DAS) has released 61 movies. In this list, these movies are broken down by era.

The Golden Era starts off with the massively successful Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The movies in this era were critically acclaimed and helped establish Walt Disney as a serious filmmaker. 

During WWII, the Disney movie studio struggled. To save money, many films were made up of a compilation of cartoon shorts. This era is referred to the Package Era, or sometimes the Wartime Era. 

With the war over, Disney could finally return to full-length pictures of fairytales. The movies in the Silver Era were almost as successful as the ones in the Golden Era, and helped bring excitement back to the Disney name. 

Unfortunately, the studio would hit another slump after Walt passed away. These films did not do well. Movies of the Bronze Era stray away from musical fairytales that Disney's audience is familiar with. Of course, some of these films have a small cult following.  This era is usually referred to as the Dark Ages, but some people prefer to call it the Bronze Era to be more polite. 

The Bronze Era did not bring success to the Disney Animation Studios, and they were in desperate need of a miracle. So, they decided to return to musical fairytales like Walt used to make. The Little Mermaid made a splash in theaters in 1989, and kicked off the Renaissance Era. This time period is known as the Renaissance Era because these films were just as popular as the ones from the Golden and Silver Eras. You could even make the argument that these films have made more of a mark than the ones from the Golden or Silver era. 

In the 2000s, Disney once again took a turn away from traditional musical fairytales and became much more experimental from the way the movies were animated to the stories themselves. These movies are often branded as "weird" to classic Disney movie fans, but those who grew up with these movies adore them. 

With every down, there is an up. The Experimental Era was disastrous for Disney, to the point higher ups considered closing down the Animation Studios for good. Disney went back to what they do best - musical fairytales. The traditionally animated Princess and the Frog saw moderate success, and the CG-animated Tangled saw even greater popularity. From then on, DAS hit a groove of hit movies. These movies are known as the Revival Era.

So, which era are we in now? Time will tell. Some say we are still in the Revival Era, but I don't think this is quite right. DAS movie eras tend to last only 10-15 years, so we are long overdue for a new era. Plus, The movies since Wreck-It Ralph II and Frozen II seem very different from their predecessors in the Revival Era. What do you think this Era should be called?

 

The Golden Era

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937
• Pinocchio, 1940
• Fantasia, 1940
• Dumbo, 1941
• Bambi, 1942

The Package Era

• Saludos Amigos, 1943
• The Three Caballeros, 1945
• Make Mine Music, 1946
• Fun and Fancy Free, 1947
• Melody Time, 1948
• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, 1949

The Silver Era

• Cinderella, 1950
• Alice in Wonderland, 1951
• Peter Pan, 1952
• Lady and the Tamp, 1955
• Sleeping Beauty, 1959
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians, 1961
• The Sword and the Stone, 1963
• The Jungle Book, 1967

The Bronze Era

• The Aristocats, 1970
• Robin Hood, 1973
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, 1977
• The Rescuers, 1977
• The Fox and the Hound, 1981
• The Black Cauldron, 1985
• The Great Mouse Detective, 1986
• Oliver & Company, 1986

The Renaissance

• The Little Mermaid, 1989
• The Rescuers Down Under, 1990
• Beauty and the Beast, 1991
• Aladdin, 1992
• The Lion King, 1994
• Pocahontas, 1995
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1996
• Hercules, 1997
• Mulan, 1998
• Tarzan, 1999

The Experimental Era

• Fantasia 2000, 1999
• Dinosaur, 2000
• The Emperor's New Groove, 2000
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire, 2001
• Lilo & Stitch, 2002
• Treasure Planet, 2002
• Brother Bear, 2003
• Home on the Range, 2004
• Chicken Little, 2005
• Meet the Robinson, 2007
• Bolt, 2008

The Revival Era

• The Princess and the Frog, 2009
• Tangled, 2010
• Winnie the Pooh, 2011
• Wreck-it Ralph, 2012
• Frozen, 2013
• Big Hero 6, 2014
• Zootopia, 2016
• Moana, 2016

The Current Era

• Ralph Breaks the Internet, 2018
• Frozen II, 2019
• Raya and the Last Dragon, 2021
• Encanto, 2021
• Strange World, 2022
• Wish, 2023

Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar may be under the Disney umbrella, but they are a separate studio from Disney Animation Studios. In fact, Pixar was its own entity when it released its first picture, Toy Story, in 1995. Toy Story was distributed by Disney, and Disney eventually purchased Pixar Studios in 2006. So far, Pixar has released 26 films.  

• Toy Story, 1995
• A Bug's Life, 1998
• Toy Story 2, 1999
• Monsters, Inc., 2001
• Finding Nemo, 2003
• The Incredibles, 2004
• Cars, 2006
• Ratatouille, 2007
• WALL-E, 2008
• Up, 2009
• Toy Story 3, 2010
• Cars 2, 2011
• Brave, 2012
• Monsters University, 2013
• Inside Out, 2015
• The Good Dinosaur, 2015
• Finding Dory, 2016
• Cars 3, 2017
• Coco, 2012
• Incredibles 2, 2018
• Toy Story 4, 2019
• Onward, 2020
• Soul, 2020
• Luca, 2021
• Turning Red, 2022
• Lightyear, 2022
• Elemental, 2023

Disneytoon Studios

Wait, what about all those weird straight-to-VHS/DVD sequels that Disney made? These were made by a completely different studio! A couple of these movies were theatrical releases, but most of them were direct-to-video. Nevertheless, die-hard  fans feel no Disney Movie List is complete without these movies:

• DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Map, 1990
• The Return of Jafar (Aladdin 2), 1994
• A Goofy Movie, 1995
• Aladdin and the King of Thieves (Aladdin 3), 1996
• Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin, 1997
• Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas: 1997
• Belle's Magical World, 1998
• Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World, 1998
• The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, 1998
• Seasons of Giving (Winnie the Pooh), 1999
• An Extremely Goofy Movie, 2000
• The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea: 2000
• Return to Never Land: 2002
• Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, 2002
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, 2002
• A Very Merry Pooh Year, 2002
• 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure, 2003
• The Jungle Book 2, 2003
• Piglet's Big Movie, 2003
• Atlantis: Milo's Return, 2003
• The Lion King 1 1/2, 2004
• Springtime with Roo, 2004
• Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, 2004
• Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, 2004
• Mulan II, 2005
• Pooh's Heffalump Movie, 2005
• Tarzan II, 2005
• Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, 2005
• Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie, 2005
• Kronk's New Groove, 2005
• Bambi II, 2006
• Brother Bear 2, 2006
• The Fox and the Hound 2, 2006
• Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, 2007
• Disney Princesses Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams, 2007
• The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, 2008
• Tinker Bell, 2008
• Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, 2009
• Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, 2010
• Secret of the Wings, 2012
• Planes, 2013
• The Pirate Fairy, 2014
• Planes: Fire & Rescue
• Tinker Belle and the Legend of the NeverBeast, 2015

Disney Live Action/Animated Hybrid Films

 Did you know that Walt Disney started his film career making half live action, half animated shorts? This technique can be found in iconic Disney films throughout history, including Mary Poppins and Enchanted. These movies may not be logistically considered animated films by some, but they do contain animated scenes and characters, so we included them on this list for completionism's sake. 

• The Reluctant Dragon, 1941
• Song of the South, 1946
• So Dear to My Heart, 1948
• Mary Poppins, 1964
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks, 1971
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 1988
• Enchanted, 2007
• Disenchanted, 2022