Underrated Disney movies

[Magenta Panther]

AristoCats: other than really Marie being very popular the great movie itself is overlooked.
Robin Hood: The songs are cute and I love the twist on how the animals tell the story.
Brave: Merida is a fantastic princess type and the music in this movie is magnificent.
The Emperor's New Groove: This movie is really funny and has a great story and a great bunch of characters.

I agree about Robin Hood. It really was a great idea to give animals the traditional roles. I only wish the villains had been more menacing. Their ineptitude made Robin's job as hero a little too easy. Interestingly, Sir Hiss was originally supposed to be pretty dark, sly and dangerous, but later got turned into a fop. I'd love to see a 2D animated sequel to this that included Sir Guy of Gisbourne, another villain from the original stories, and make him truly threatening. And perhaps Robin Hood could find a home somewhere in Animal Kingdom? (I can hear the outcries now. Feh on you. Fictional animals were supposed to be a part of AK from the beginning. Whether those fictional animals are Simba or Nick Wilde or Robin Hood doesn't matter a penny to me. Just get them in there. Otherwise AK IS nothing but a glorified zoo, and certainly not the best one on the planet).

EDITED TO ADD: But of course I'd prefer fictional animals like dragons and unicorns, as was originally intended. But yeah, how likely is that to happen with IP-obsessed Chapek in charge?

 

[ppet]

Robinhood, I've loved that movie since childhood
Meet the Robinsons
Emperors New Groove, My kids introduced me to it, don't know how I missed it.
Atlantis,

 

[Brer Panther]

I'd love to see a 2D animated sequel to this that included Sir Guy of Gisbourne, another villain from the original stories, and make him truly threatening.

What kind of animal would you make him?

 

[Magenta Panther]

What kind of animal would you make him?

That's a good question. In the original Robin Hood stories, Sir Guy wore a cloak make out of a horse's hide - the hood even had the horse's ears on it. So a horse would be the obvious choice, I suppose, although anthropomorphizing a horse is problematic (aside from extreme stylization a la Horace Horsecollar)...if that wouldn't work out, then a cat is my choice. A black cat, fully as cunning and limber as Robin Hood himself. That would be interesting IMO...

 

[Brer Panther]

although anthropomorphizing a horse is problematic (aside from extreme stylization a la Horace Horsecollar)

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, how is anthromorphizing a horse problematic?

 

[Magenta Panther]

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, how is anthromorphizing a horse problematic?

Well, the appeal of the way Disney handled the animal characters in Robin Hood is that they resembled real animals - compare the Church Mice to Mickey, for instance. And the animals that were used had limbs that bent the way human limbs do - a paw or a wing can easily become a hand, etc.

But with a horse, you have the Hoof Problem - how to you make a hand out of that, and if you don't, how does the horse pick things up and point, etc.? Plus a horse's front legs have the wrist in the middle of the limb, instead of at the end near the hoof. And so on. Maybe you could get around the fore-hoof problem by having the character wear gloves, but that's still going to make the audience think "that's not right - a horse has no fingers", etc.

Of course some non-Disney animators just ignored the issues and did their own thing, as per this:

That kind of thing is okay for Hanna-Barbera, but I don't think Disney, with its famous penchant for creating animal characters that are as close to real-life as possible, can get away with it. IMHO.