Disney: Revival Era vs Renaissance Era

[Alolan_Apples]

Walt Disney Animation Studios (or the Disney Canon) has been releasing pretty good movies this past decade. People consider this to be another golden age. But they also had another time they were at their best - the 1990?s.

Of the two golden eras, which one do think is shinier? The Revival Era, or the Renaissance Era?

Revival Era Disney Movies:

• Princess and the Frog
• Tangled
• Winnie the Pooh
• Wreck-It-Ralph
• Frozen
• Big Hero 6
• Zootopia
• Moana

Disney Renaissance Movies:

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

My Take:

I personally think that Disney did better during the Disney Renaissance than the Revival Era. Even the second half of the Disney Renaissance (when they started going downhill again) was still better than the Revival Era at its best. Although the Revival Era Disney movies are all better than their Pixar counterparts (except for Tangled since Toy Story 3 was that good) and other CGI animated movies released during the same time, they can?t meet the expectations of the era of animated musicals. The 90?s animated movies had better plots, better songs, and better animation (since CGI is not too cartoony).

 

[cornimer]

I feel like this might be an unpopular opinion but while I think the renaissance era films will always be the classics, I actually prefer watching the revival era ones. To be fair though, I haven't seen most of the renaissance ones in a long time so I don't remember most of them very well.

I do like the old animation style better, but in terms of stories, I prefer the newer ones.

 

[Raayzx]

Revival era ones are good compared to the old ones BECAUSE the graphics, the modern touch.. Other things.. Lol but Renaissance era will always be classics and nostalgic but nowadays I prefer the new ones.

 

[Stalfos]

Renaissance era easily. The modern stuff just looks so bland and ugly, soulless and plastic.

 

[Halloqueen]

I'm not fond of Disney for a few reasons and don't share the affection for their work that most people seem to. As such, I don't tend to go out of my way to bother watching most of their stuff and those things that I have watched have pretty much just been because I was in the situation to do so, like if I was really young and a parent/relative/babysitter put a movie on for me to watch, or when I was in school if they ever put a movie on.

Growing up in the 90s, I was actually exposed to the Renaissance movies. I've actually seen all of them except for The Rescuers Down Under. My favorite bit of anything they released from that era is the song Hellfire from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Meanwhile, the only things from the Revival Era I've seen have been Frozen, Princess and the Frog, and Moana. Because of my aforementioned issues with Disney, I had no interest in watching stuff they were putting out. I saw Princess and the Frog and Frozen because a family member got them as gifts and we watched them together. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the song Friends on the Other Side from Princess and the Frog, that was nice. Likewise, I saw Moana because my best friend and her boyfriend came to visit while I was dealing with some personal issues and needed company, and we all went to see it at the theater together as part of the effort to help me feel better. The visit worked, and it's probably the only Disney movie I really have a soft spot for because of the circumstances under which I viewed it.

Despite what I just said about Moana being the one I like the most for my own reasons, I have to give the vote to the Renaissance movies since, again, I actually saw all but one of them throughout my youth.

 

[Midoriya]

I’m not much of a Disney fan, however, the few ones I do like are from the Revival Era.

 

[Bcat]

Renaissance hands down. FIGHT ME

 

[-Blue-]

I didn't even know they had names or eras lol. The newer ones are usually 3d and I get it, that's because it's easier to do. But there's just something about seeing all the amazing and painstaking detail they put into the 2d animations. I never did get around to seeing Princess and the Frog, which when it was coming out everyone was ecstatic about it being the first 2d animation from Disney in a long time. I should watch it and see how well it holds up to the others like Mulan, Hunchback, and Lion King.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

I didn't even know they had names or eras lol. The newer ones are usually 3d and I get it, that's because it's easier to do. But there's just something about seeing all the amazing and painstaking detail they put into the 2d animations. I never did get around to seeing Princess and the Frog, which when it was coming out everyone was ecstatic about it being the first 2d animation from Disney in a long time. I should watch it and see how well it holds up to the others like Mulan, Hunchback, and Lion King.

The eras are fanon and not official, but fans have based the eras on when WDAS was doing good or bad. More specifically, when Walt Disney died, when Disney made low-budget packaged films, when they made the animated musicals, and when they revived the animated musicals.

 

[Dormire]

Disney Renaissance wins hands down.

 

[LambdaDelta]

bring back 2d animated films and maybe I'll care about the revival era

 

[nintendofan85]

Definitely Renaissance.

 

[Sweetley]

Not a fan of Disney, but I prefer Renaissance.

 

[KeatAlex]

The Hunchback of Notre Dame still slays me! The art, the music, the villain!

 

[Snek]

Disney Renaissance

There really is no comparison. I know its been years since the last reply to this topic, but with the new film Wish, the Disney Renaissance films just have more passion and soul behind them. I don't know why Disney thinks its a better idea to make live-action remakes than new animation. It makes them look lazy and not creative. Not that it takes any effort for them. I already believe that modern Disney has no imagination or creativity. The so-called "revival" era seems more of a brief resurgence than an actual revival. The only modern Disney films I like are Coco and Finding Nemo, or maybe even Luca, and all of them are Pixar films. Flagship Disney really has fallen in my opinion but the classics will always be classics and I'll always keep the fond memories I had with them. Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan, The Lion King. These were all great films I could watch over and over again.

 

[LittleMissPanda]

I'll always be in favor of the Disney Renaissance era of movies, that was when Disney was peak imo, but I genuinely enjoyed some of their modern new era movies like Zootopia, The Princess and The Frog, Tangled, even Coco and Luca had me feeling like I just watched something really good. And if the first
Wreck-it Ralph movie counts as revival era, then yes, I thought that movie was great.

When I think Disney, I immediately think of The Lion King, Mulan, Hercules and Tarzan. They're just....so good, it's almost too good to be true that they exist. Then you have the real old timey classics, with my personal favorite being Bambi, and my favorite 80's movie is The Fox and The Hound (so, so good )

Better writing, poignant stories and actual good and catchy songs and scores. That's the Disney Renaissance era. I actually care about these characters and no matter how many times I watch Tarzan or The Lion King, I just feel so warm and happy afterwards.

Disney's just not the same anymore, and I don't think they'll ever return to form. Their thing right now is "let's remake everything and see how much we can get away with it" I think the Mulan, Lion King and Pinocchio remakes are the worst offenders. And with the Moana remake and second Lion King movie "Mufasa" on the way, Disney truly believes they are giving the people what they want

 

[Drawdler]

I dunno why I felt the need to return to this topic but I remembered seeing it up months ago and I guess it kept hanging on my mind.

I’m in a weird spot where I think the renaissance is much better but I’m way more attached to the revival era films. This is assuming it’s just animated of course, but while those renaissance movies are so much better and you can say so much interesting stuff about them, I’m not as attached. I feel like I can say so much more about the revival films. The Lion King is definitely my favorite Disney movie (I don’t count Pixar here) and I have a soft spot for Hercules but out of the renaissance that’s all I feel strongly toward.

Meanwhile with the revival movies I think I just remember so much context around them coming out. As well as that Wreck-It Ralph is still one of my favorite Disney movies, and I think Encanto is either the end of that revival era or part of the current streaming/stagnation era, but that is also one of Disney’s best movies. It’s like how Lilo and Stitch came out during their crappy era in the 00’s and that film is amazing. Those two films are anomalies in their quality (and I don’t even think most of their output in the 00’s is as bad as people say, but the 2020’s output has been embarassingly lame other than Encanto).

Then again I think PaTF isn’t part of the revival at all, it’s a weird blip hail Mary last attempt at 2D animation during their 00’s era which was actually fairly experimental in terms of where they wanted to refocus the brand. For me Tangled starts the revival era as everything since then has had a lot of similarities in tone.

I think I just have a soft spot for more flawed media in general, unless something is truly outstanding I usually have more fun criticising flawed media than competent more standardised media. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the renaissance movies are boring and there are scenes in them I feel strongly about, but I guess the movies overall don’t interest me in the same way due to personal experience. I think a lot of them are a bit overrated anyway but iunno. This is better for them as films but I guess they’re so timeless it makes it less interesting for me to pick them apart. I kind of like some immersion in the era when I watch a film I suppose, it explains my favorite movie of all time being what it is as well.

The renaissance films are more consistently good and the revival era had plenty of misfires with a few gems, the gems I’m thinking of are of course Encanto, WiR, Moana, to a lesser degree Tangled and Zootopia (though the latter is carried by world design more than anything I think) and the rest, without my meta interest and urge to nitpick I could just toss them away and not care about the films themselves at all. Personal experience means a lot. The renaissance is definitely better but it’s too fun to dunk on some of the new films. Maybe I’m in this phase to cope with life issues rn.