Disney Films You Overlooked or Misjudged But Later Enjoyed

[Silver]

Among the many threads for Disney films. I don't believe I've ever come across this subject.

I think most of us, if not all of us have done this at some point. A film that doesn't really catch our attention or wasn't impressive on the first viewing. As an undisclosed amount of time passes. We feel the need to give it a chance or another shot just to test out our feelings long term. Then the most astonishing thing happens. You liked the film!
Could even end up adoring it.

Here are two expamples in my case. I never enjoyed The Hunchback of Notre Dame when I was younger. Far too dark and depressing for me. I wanted to smile with a lighter atmosphere type of film. As I grew and matured. I begun to apprciate how bold the film-makers were and the twist they gave to the classic Victor Hugo novel. Now I'm madly in love with it!

I had every intension of avoiding Wreck-It-Ralph. My instincts based on the trailer said "save it for rental". It was giving me this overly cheesey comedy vibe. I was dead wrong! There's a surprising amout of emotional vulnerability in this film. I wish I had gone to view it in the theatre. My gut feeling was incorrect. It's a great film.

So how about everybody else. What Disney/Pixar film surprised you? Whether it be with time passing or just happening upon it on television and thoroughly enjoyed it after meaning to avoid it.

[Butterscotch]

For whatever reason, I remember not being particularly excited about Ratatouille. It didn't look bad, just kinda meh. I ended up really enjoying it though.

I also remember my very early impression of Hercules from the first trailers was not very good. I initially didn't like the art style. It grew on me really quickly, though and it's one of my favorite Disney movies.

My opinion on Cinderella changed earlier this year. For a long time I had thought of Cinderella herself as being very passive and boring, but she had more backbone than I remembered.

[jupiter23]

There are probably others that I could name here, but right now the one at the forefront would be Enchanted.

When I first saw it, I rented it from one of the few remaining Blockbuster Videos still in existence at the time and watched it mostly out of curiosity. During the first ten minutes right after Giselle falls onto Edward's horse and they're riding off into the sunset, I remember thinking through my hysterical laughter at that scene that this movie was going to be completely cliche and forgettable. And then the rest of the movie happened and started turning all of the tropes on their collective heads. And now it's one of my favorites.

It was almost the same story with Tangled. I rented a copy and brought it home just to see what all the fuss was about, except that the movie started surprising me from the get-go. And also Eugene was in it. And the movie held my attention straight to the end, even though the "happily ever after" was fully expected by that point. And also Eugene was wearing black at the end and he looks so very hot in black and stop looking at me like that....

[icyheart16]

For me, it would have to be Cinderella and Pinnochio. I always thought Pinnochio was weird and strangely dark/odd. It bothered me growing up. And like Butters, I thought Cinderella was boring.

[Shenzi]

Hunchback of Notre Dame.
I seem to recall seeing it in the theater with my father of all people whom pretty much never saw children's films for my sake. A detail that is sharp is some kind of construction in progress in a portion of the theater. Honestly I'm not sure I buy this memory completely but I do know that I didn't like the film after my first viewing.
Years later when spending a particular night at my best friend's house, we were able to pick out a few titles from the video rental place (oh the nostalgia, a species sadly extinct around here now) and had agreed on giving HOND another try. She hadn't initially liked it either but after that viewing it was a favorite of both of ours ever since.

There are several films I'd dismissed as stupid based on their trailers but had been pleasantly surprised by how wonderful they ended up being. To name a couple which were significant:
Wreck It Ralph:
To me the trailer had read as targeting an arcade game fan audience and what little of the plot that had been revealed didn't seem like much. So when the film ended up being very in depth, well designed and developed with creative characters I was most pleasantly surprised.

Meet the Robinsons:
The trailer for this film said horribly idiotic humor to me to the point where it felt more Dreamworks than Disney. I do enjoy Dreamworks pictures as well but find them more capable of the type of humor I'd seen in this trailer than Disney. None of the emotional and creative story it actually had was suggested. The scene where Louis tells the Robinsons something along the lines of
"If I had a family I'd want them to be just like you.", I'm pretty sure made me cry.
I'd really like to watch that film again in fact, it's been ages.

[Briar Rose's Dark Knight]

I have two. The first would be Lilo and Stitch. It's not that I hated the film the first time, but it just underwhelmed me. I didn't see why people were so in love with Stitch. A few years later I watched it again and saw it though a very different light. This time I saw the importance of the friendship between Lilo and Stitch and how they helped each other adjust to some major challenges in their lives.

The second is, believe it or not, Frozen. I'm very glad that I saw the film in its first week of release before the hype machine went insane. I didn't dislike Frozen. But at the same time I felt like the only 2 great songs were Let It Go and In Summer. The rest of the music left me unimpressed. It was a decent enough film, but not the next great Disney animated musical. But things began to change after I read a blog post talking about the powerful bond of the sisters in the story. As a guy, I probably don't fully understand that bond, but that post had me seeing the story in a new light. If I really wanted to, I could nitpick Frozen to pieces (I could also do the same with Sleeping Beauty if I thought about it). While my mother had yet to see the film, she discovered Let It Go and became obsessed with it. Knowing I had seen the film (she is mostly responsible for my love of Disney animation), she talked with me about why she loved the song. And again I saw the film in a new light.

I have now seen the film 3 times. I enjoyed it much more the second time around. While it may never make my Disney top 10 list, I'm beginning to see it in the same class as The Little Mermaid (which is in my top 15).

[Shenzi]

Briar, you've given me an interesting thought. You mentioned having seen Frozen right away when it was released, I was the exact opposite because everyone I know saw it without me. The fact that I ended up having to see Frozen late in the hype to the point where I felt like the last person on earth to have seen it I might have had too high expectations for it. I'm not gonna say I was let down however as I still enjoyed it, I even own the blu-ray combo pack but the hype had made me expect more from it than I feel it delivered.

I feel I should give Dumbo a mention since I am back here. It's a film I'd never given much thought too and had avoided having written off as horribly tragic with the separation of the mother and child as well as the child cruelty. That's not going to change regardless of what I'm about to say. It came on ABCFamily one night not too long ago and I ended up watching it all the way through and totally fell in love with the relationship between Dumbo and Timothy. I'd actually never realized that the title character never spoke in the film but regardless still came across so powerfully. The song Baby Mine had instantly become a favorite.

[Briar Rose's Dark Knight]

Word of mouth can either be a movie's best friend or its worst enemy. Had I seen Frozen after it became the phenomenon that it did, I don't think the film could have possibly lived up to the hype. As much as I have learned to judge a movie by its own merits and not the hype, reviews, et all from others, it becomes very difficult to do that in an era of social media.

I will note here that if I outright disliked a movie on first viewing, I won't spend the time to give it a second viewing.

[drpepper]

Hunchback of Notre Dame: I never remember liking it as a kid (although I do remember loving the goat). I watched it a few years ago and I kind of liked it (although it is still hardly my favorite). I think it was over my head as a kid.

[Shenzi]

Oct 1, 2014 23:15:29 GMT -5 Briar Rose's Dark Knight said:

Word of mouth can either be a movie's best friend or its worst enemy. Had I seen Frozen after it became the phenomenon that it did, I don't think the film could have possibly lived up to the hype. As much as I have learned to judge a movie by its own merits and not the hype, reviews, et all from others, it becomes very difficult to do that in an era of social media.

I will note here that if I outright disliked a movie on first viewing, I won't spend the time to give it a second viewing.

Take it from someone with experience second viewings can make a huge difference no matter how much you disliked it the first time.