RESCUERS DOWN UNDER

1990

Rescuers Down Under is Disney's 29'th Animated Feature, and the first official sequel in Disney history.

The previous year, Disney animators had proven that they were up to something really special, with the production of Little Mermaid. Since then, they would go on to create some extremely beautiful movies for a whole decade. Even though Rescuers is not as popular as the rest of Disney's films from the 90's it still features some excellent pieces of animation with great characters and amazing views.

LITTLE MERMAID

1989

Little Mermaid is Disney's 28th animated feature film, and marks both the beginning of what is known as Disney's renaissance and the return to fairytale films by the studio. After Sleeping Beauty was released in 1959, Disney had left aside the princess world until Hans Christian Andersen's 1837 tale was adapted to create one of Disney's finest films.

As many other Disney movies in the past, Little Mermaid was originally planed to be animated years earlier, but was put on hold. Some delayed projects would have to wait a couple of years to get back on production, but in this case, the story was reworked almost 50 years after Walt Disney had planned to release it as a compilation of animated adaptations of various Andersen stories.

OLIVER AND COMPANY

1988

Oliver and Company is Disney's 27th animated feature. Inspired by Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist, but set in a contemporary environment, this movie is the starting point of what is known as Disney's Renaissance, and was really important for the studio. 

Following the success of Great Mouse Detective, the team working on Oliver and Company, including Glen Keane, Mark Henn and Ruben Aquino as Animation Directors,  had the pressure of producing a new hit to try to keep Disney's animated features alive. 

In a sense, the previous films from the decade where almost lost in a period of change, but this was a starting point for a new generation of films that would take over the next year with Little Mermaid. Oliver brings back great musical numbers (although they're not half as good as the songs that would come) which had been almost forgotten in the previous films, and every movie of the 90's except Rescuers Down Under would contain great songs.

GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE

1986

The Great Mouse Detective is Disney's 26th animated feature. Based on the series of books "The adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle  "Basil of Baker Street" by Eve Titus, the film follows the adventures of Basil and Dr. Dawson.

Black Cauldron was one of the biggest flops in the Studio's history, so with Great Mouse Detective, the new generation of animators was forced to prove themselves if they wanted to keep animated features alive. With great characters (probably the best villain from the 80's) and very funny references to Sherlock Holmes (even showing some scenes with Sherlock voiced by the original actor Basil Rathbone) the film was a much better effort than its predecessor.

BLACK CAULDRON

1985

The Black Cauldron is Disney's 25th animated feature, and the first one done entirely without any of the Nine Old Men as part of the animating team.

Based on the series of novels Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, the adaptation was thought of since 1971 when Walt bought the writes to the books. From that point, the story was adapted in many ways, with different characters, but production was never completed until almost a decade later, in 1980 the final production started with the final story.

FOX AND THE HOUND

1981

The Fox and the Hound is Disney's 24th animated feature film. Based on Daniel P. Mannix's novel, this movie was the most expensive production in Disney's history at that moment and definitely a huge turning point in Disney Animation's history.

By that time, only three of the Nine Old Men were still working at Disney. For Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Wolfgang Reitherman the Fox and the Hound would be their last feature. They knew beforehand that they would leave the studio for retirement before the production was even finished. So they worked on developing the characters' design and personalities and when it was time, they passed the baton to the new generation of animators at Disney.

THE RESCUERS

1977

The Rescuers is Walt Disney's 23rd animated feature, which was based on the series of books by Margery Sharp. The original idea of an adaptation of the series was placen in the early 60s, but it was until a decade later (after more of The Rescuers' books were published) that production started.

It marks the end of an era, as it is the last film directed by Wolfgang Rietherman, who had been head of the previous 6 Disney Animated features, and was also the last film on which Eric Larson worked on as Animation Director, and in which Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl and Frank Thomas worked on together.

But it is also the start of a new generation of animators that would later go on to make brilliant movies for Disney, such as Glen Keane, who we see for the first time in the credits.