Nerd Pride Radio

Before Disney started defeating itself with Pixar films.

The Disney Renaissance is the era from 1989 to 1999 during which Walt Disney Feature Animation (renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2006) experienced a creative resurgence in producing successful animated films based on well-known stories, which restored public and critical interest in The Walt Disney Company as a whole.

The Little Mermaid (1989)
The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
Beauty & the Beast (1991)
Aladdin (1992)
The Lion King (1993)
Pocahontas (1994)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Hercules (1997)
Mulan (1998)
Tarzan (1999)

1) The Lion King (1993)
2) Aladdin (1992)
3) Beauty & the Beast (1991)
4) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
5) The Little Mermaid (1989)
6) Hercules (1997)
7) Mulan (1998)
8) Tarzan (1999)
9) Pocahontas (1994)
10) The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

Beauty and the Beast
Mulan
Aladdin
The Little Mermaid
Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Rescuers Down Under
The Lion King
Hercules
Pocahontas
Tarzan

My daughter has been running around singing the Hamilton and Lion King musical soundtracks she recently downloaded, so though her singing is nice, the LK is suffering some from this exposure. But it also bugs me. The women, the warthog, the daddy in the stars, etc. Don't get me wrong, I personally identify with the warthog.

Beauty & the Beast (1991)
Aladdin (1992)
The Little Mermaid (1989)
The Lion King (1993)
Mulan (1998)
Tarzan (1999)
Pocahontas (1994)
Hercules (1997)
The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

I love most of these movies. Little Mermaid really started the renaissance and has a special place. I enjoyed Rescuers, but it wasn't quite the same animation or quality of story as some of the others, perhaps a reflection of trying to being early in the era and trying an original story vs. adapting a classic story (at least I believe it's original, but I could be wrong). And it may have just been my life situation at the time, but towards the middle/end of the era ('94-'96), but I just didn't get as into those as much as the earlier ones. My first kid wasn't born until the end of '96, so we were just seeing the movies because they interested us (my wife and I) instead of seeing them through kids' eyes, so the earlier part of the era was new and interesting, while the later part of the era (from our perspective) began to get formulaic and just seemed to be cashing in. But once the kids were a couple years old, it started to have good entertainment value for the kids, so things changed for us again.