The top 20 best films to (re)discover on Disney+
Uncle Walt’s hidden gems.
The ideal selection to keep your little ones busy during a rainy vacation! We have selected for you the treasures that Disney Plus, the American giant’s streaming platform, holds. A guaranteed top without Marvel or Star Wars, which focuses on films less famous than the great Disney classics. They nonetheless deserve your attention.
20. A ladybug love (Robert Stevenson, 1968)
Long before John Carpenter’s nasty Christine, the nice Choupette is the first big screen car with a soul. Its curves mean that we immediately give it the Good Lord without confession. With its mechanical special effects and its joyfully zany storyline, this fast-paced comedy is a fine example of the “Disney” spirit. His scenario was one of the last validated by Walt himselfbefore dying.
19. The Boys – The Story of the Sherman Brothers (Gregory V. & Jeff Sherman, 2009)
That they enchanted us at the cinema (The Jungle Book, Merlin the Enchanter…) or broke my head every time I visited Disneyland (It’s a small world, it’s them!), the songs of Richard and Robert Sherman are known throughout the world. This fascinating documentary tells – far from the expected hagiography – these composers, both in their creative process and their intimacy. Because the two brothers hated each other! It was even to put an end to thirty years of family estrangement that two of their respective sons made this film.
18. Darby O’Gill and the Leprechauns (Robert Stevenson, 1959)
When Irish folklore meets the playful magic of Disney! This is how to summarize this little gem of a comedy where a cleverly orchestrated mix of humor, action and inventive special effects gives depth to the adventures of a gamekeeper saved by elves after his fall into a well. Passionate about the works of Herminie Templeton Kavanagh, Walt Disney developed for ten years this project rich in delicious moments like Sean Connery singing a song, three years before becoming 007. A delight, we tell you.
17. The incredible journey (Duwayne Dunham, 1993)
A few months after the release of Visitors, Jean Reno, Valérie Lemercier and Christian Clavier come together to voice Shadow, Sassy and Chance, a golden retriever, a Himalayan cat and a bulldog, who undertake a long journey through the Rocky Mountains to find their home and their masters. A remake of a 1963 classic, this version lets its long-haired heroes talk. The ultimate family adventure.
16. The History of Pixar (Leslie Iwerks, 2007)
Directed by a member of the Disney royal house (his dad operated the camera on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, his grandpa animated Mickey Mouse), The Story of Pixar tells everything there is to know about early days of rebellious geniuses who will threaten the animation giant, before being conquered by the Empire in 2006. The official story, of course. But even if it is official, it is no less beautiful.
15. Pollen (Louie Schwartzberg, 2011)
Based in France, the Disney Nature subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios has been developing films for a decade to educate young people about the fauna and flora that surround them. Here, Mélanie Laurent (and Meryl Streep in original version) tells the love story between flowers and pollinators, these bees, butterflies, birds or bats, which maintain biodiversity. A documentary as beautiful as it is necessary.
14. The black hole (by Gary Nelson, 1979)
Attempt by the American studio to produce an astonishing mix between typical adult SF Star Trek and a disaster film led by a cast of hotheads (Anthony Perkins, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Forster), The black hole was, without much surprise, a flop in theaters. It’s a shame: this madness of hard science and Judeo-Christian mythology today gives off a very strange and fascinating aura.
13. Chasing tomorrow (Brad Bird, 2015)
After successfully passing the blockbuster milestone in live action thanks to Mission : Impossible – Ghost protocolthe director of Incredibles is entrusted with this enormous production, a pure product of the Walt Disney Company. At the base of Tomorrowland (in original version), there is the idea of adapting the world of Disneyland park to the screen. Taking the attraction “It’s a small world” as a starting point, Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof design an adventure brimming with optimism, with limitless imagination, led by a George Clooney in great shape.
12. The Adventures of Rocketeer (Joe Johnston, 1991)
The failure of these Rocketeer Adventures nipped the planned trilogy in the bud. In 1991, the public, not yet stuffed with superheroes, barely watched the prowess of this stuntman equipped with a mini-rocket capable of sending him into the air and saving lives. Behind the camera, a friend of Spielberg and Lucas, the same one who had shrunk the kids two years earlier. The vintage aesthetic of the whole and the presence of Jennifer Connelly ensure it will last forever.
11. The little champions (Stephen Herek, 1992)
A phenomenon of the 1990s, the saga of little hockey players who overturn mountains began with this film, directed by Emilio Estevez. Charlie Sheen’s brother plays this lawyer forced to coach a team of budding losers (in which we meet Joshua Jackson’s face). A total feel-good movie, which will spawn two sequels, a TV series and even a real professional hockey team, since Disney will subsequently create its own NHL franchise: the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
10. The Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton, 1947)
George Seaton? A shadow soldier of the big studios, the man would have participated – without being credited – in the writing of Magician of Oz. This Miracle which is a miracle is his fourth feature as director. He received a well-deserved Oscar for the script. Christmas comedy as indestructible as Life is beautiful by Frank Capra, we learn, among other things, that Santa Claus really exists. Damn!
9. The Toad and the Schoolmaster (Clyde Geronimi, James Algar & Jack Kinney, 1949)
My first, The frog pond, features an amphibian… passionate about cars. My second, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, adapts the Irving Washington classic, half a century before Tim Burton. And my whole thing represents the end of an era at Disney: that of “package” films made up of two medium-length films. A final fireworks display of great beauty thanks to the artistic direction of Mary Blair, a fan of bright colors which will illuminate immediately Cinderella. But also to the voices of Roger Carel, Francis Lax and Co. in the French version. A feast for the ears as well as the eyes.
8. The Witch’s Apprentice (Robert Stevenson, 1971)
Same director, same idea of mixing live action, animation and musical comedy. Any resemblance between The Witch’s Apprentice And Mary Poppins is all the less fortuitous since Disney had purchased the rights to the works of Mary Norton – of which The Witch’s Apprentice is drawn – at the heart of the production concerns of Mary Poppins. With even the idea of reusing certain canned scenes for Mary Poppins, in case its filming is interrupted. These adventures of a witch (Angela Lansbury), three children and a crook, saviors of England, suffered in theaters despite their perfect marriage of fantasy and burlesque.
7. Taram and the Magic Cauldron (Ted Berman & Richard Rich, 1985)
Darker, more serious, more complex than the standard Disney animated production, Taram and the Magic Cauldron is one of the studio’s worst theatrical failures. If you too were traumatized when you were little by this tale of dark fantasy Celtic – part of the early work of animator Tim Burton – there is no reason to spare your kids. This is also the transition of generations.
6. Aliens of the deep (James Cameron & Steven Quale, 2005)
Failing to send cameras thousands of kilometers from Earth to see what is happening there, James Cameron and his friend Steven Quale went underwater to look for Aliens. In the abyss, no one hears them scream, not even these creatures who existed until now in suspicion. This 47-minute short documentary film, presented at the time in IMAX 3D, proves – if proof were needed – that for Cameron limits only exist to be pushed back.
5. Blackbeard’s ghost (Robert Stevenson, 1968)
This Blackbeard’s Ghost dates from 1968. It could be the ancestor of the fantasy comedies of the 80s type The Goonies or Gremlins. Here, the discovery of a dusty object with almost magical properties will throw a very discreet hero into an extraordinary adventure. And now the legendary pirate Blackbeard arrives in a small American town, in the guise of the no less legendary Peter Ustinov. By the director of Mary Poppinsdefinitely a favorite of this top!
4. Free solo (Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin, 2018)
Mountaineer Alex Honnold attempts the “free solo” ascent (without rope or equipment) of El Capitan, a 900-meter vertical rock formation in Yosemite Park, in the United States. Free Solo is a spectacular technical tour de force that twists the gut while scanning Alex’s brain, incapable of producing the sensation of fear. Oscar for best documentary 2019, this crazy film did not steal its statuette.
3. Bernard and Bianca in the land of kangaroos (Hendel Butoy & Mike Gabriel, 1990)
Thirteen years after the first film, Disney offers a thrilling sequel to the two mice of the “SOS Society”, imagined by writer Margery Sharp. This adventure, perhaps even more exciting than the first, takes us to Australia with numerous nods to the 7th art, notably to Indiana Jones. The studio’s 29th animated classic is an undeniable success.
2. The spy with velvet paws (Robert Stevenson, 1965)
Veteran Robert Stevenson (King Solomon’s Mines, Jane Eyre, Captain Grant’s Children...) ended up at Disney as a competent site manager. The proof once again with this charming little film where the FBI uses a Siamese cat to flush out bank robbers. A very fun pocket thriller with fantastic cat actors: enjoy it, if Disney remakes it in the coming years, they will be digital.
1. Frankenweenie (Tim Burton, 2012)
It is a key work in Tim Burton’s turbulent relationship with the big-eared firm that hired him in 1979, thanks to his graduation film. The Holy Grail at 21. But he quickly becomes disillusioned with the constraints required for the creation of in-house cartoons. So, to relieve boredom, he makes his own courts. First Vincent. Then Frankenweenie, a canine version of Frankenstein where a kid tries to resuscitate his dog hit by a car. Magic, madness, poetry. This Burton grabs your heart and never lets you go. It will be his farewell letter to Disney (which he left after the studio refused to put his short in the preview for the reissue of Pinocchio) and his entry ticket to Warner. But the story does not end there. Two years after reconnecting with Disney thanks to Alice in Wonderland, Burton will follow through on his dream that was once nipped in the bud due to lack of funds: making Frankenweenie a feature film. A stop-motion summit where the filmmaker persists and signs: the adult never killed the child within him. With the added bonus of the voice of Winona Ryder. A flawless one.
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