Doug: Everybody, Doug Walker here. First of all, I'm so sorry I don't have a Nostalgia Critic this week. I hate missing deadlines, but...I'm kind of in Finland, and it's 3am right now, as you can clearly see. (Looks out the window and reveals that it looks like it's daytime) Just look at that obvious 3am... (Chuckles) sunlight. (Sits back down) This is during the time of the year where, like, the sun never goes down or just goes down a little, so, uh, I can't sleep. (Chuckles) Because Finland can't invest in thicker curtains. That's closed, that's fully closed. But, what am I bitching about? I'm in Finland, goddamn it, it's amazing. But, uh, since I can't sleep, I've decided to film something to get to you guys. Uh, and I decided I'm gonna do my Top 10 Favorite Disney Films. Uh, and this isn't just animated or live-action, just all together, all together, Top 10 Favorite Disney Films. As a lot of you know, I love Disney, I love what they put out, I love the movies, and they leave a big impact on my childhood, as well as my adulthood, and absolutely love them. And, uh, I've never officially said what my Top 10 favorite ones are, so this is gonna be a countdown of exactly that. For anyone saying, "Why isn't it a Top 11?", do you see a Nostalgia Critic outfit on me, okay, okay? Uh, so, yeah, this is just gonna be a Top 10 Favorite Disney Films. So let's get started.
(The title is shown on a black background. That will serve as the countdown's interlude. Also, every time a pick is announced, an image of the pick will be shown)
#10
Doug (vo): Number 10: Flight of the Navigator.
Doug: This is actually one of the first films I saw in theatres, so that alone gets, you know, a lot of nostalgia going. But it isn't just that. This is a film where...it's a great concept, first of all. That a kid can go in and can control a spaceship and has an alien friend. It's just a fun idea.
#9
Doug (vo): Number 9: Lilo and Stitch. A lot of you might be thinking...
Doug: "Wait a minute. I saw your Disneycember. I thought you had problems with it." I do, technically, but the...man, the stuff that's good is just so good. Uh, I love movies that can so well capture childhood, and they can capture the strangeness of being a child, and the honesty of being a child, not that children always tell the truth. But they don't really sugarcoat it, they address the harder stuff of being a kid, they address the strange stuff of being a kid, they remember the imagination and how it's, you know, not fully connected to logic yet, so it just goes to these weird goofy places. And, man, is Lilo just a perfect representation of that. I just see this kid, and she is so weird, she is so odd, and she has these weird reasons for doing things, but she is just so real that way. And, on top of that, they make her a little bit more of an outsider, so even if you're watching this and don't remember that age where you did do this weird stuff, well, she's kind of seen as a weirdo anyway. Uh, so it has that going for it.
#8
Doug (vo): Number 8: Alice in Wonderland. And this is...
Doug: It's Alice in Wonderland. If you like the story, if you like trippy stuff, if you like surrealism, if you like going through a fantasy world, if you like all that stuff, if you like kind of dark but kind of whimsical, this...it's Alice in Wonderland. It's, like, the one that started it for so many people.
#7
Doug (vo): Number 7:
Doug: Okay, so I came to a crossroads with this one, because I literally just now forgot one of the films I wanted to put on there, and I'm like, "Crap!" And this is probably where I would put it. So, maybe you can kind of consider this, like, a Top 11 if you want. I'm just gonna sort of mesh them into one spot here, the #7 spot. Those two movies are...
Doug (vo): Up and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Doug: Up, very clearly, I mean, outside of the first 10, 20 minutes, which is brilliant, but the rest of the film, I think is so wonderful and so imaginative and so likeable, and, just...I don't know.
#6
Doug (vo): Number 6: Frozen. Yeah, you're all gonna...
Doug: ...throw shit at me, I know. The backlash for this is not the least bit surprising. This movie has been overplayed to death, and it is everywhere. But I'm not gonna pretend like something's not good when I think it is good. It's good! It's a good, good movie! (Laughs) I mean, it is so well done. And it really brought Disney back, you know, taking Pixar out of the equation. It's really brought Disney back. And now we're getting really good Disney films again, you know. Wreck-It Ralph is another great example, just, you know, Disney really getting its game back, and this is just like the crowning achievement. And, I don't know. Think of all the highest-grossing, you know, animated films out there, you know. Or Disney films, I should say, you know. Is Frozen really that bad to be #1? Um, but I totally understand it.
#5
Doug (vo): Number 5: Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
Doug: So a lot of you know, I think, in my Disneycember, this or Mary Poppins, I was born in Italy, and we didn't have that many movies to watch, not that many were in English. So one of them was Bedknobs and Broomsticks, so we watched this movie a lot. Uh, but outside of that, even watching it over and over again, again...you got this idea. It's a fun idea. This idea that these three kids discover this witch, and this witch is going to this...not really going to a school, but kind of the lessons are mailed to her, and she's learning more and more, and then she has to go and find this teacher who, you find out, was doing this as a scam, didn't actually believe in this stuff at all, which should be really funny nowadays the more I think about it, with all like the New Age stuff and everything. You could actually really have fun with this. Uh, but, he goes and is shocked that it actually works for her, and he sees this opportunity and tries to make a quick buck off of it. And you see all the different worlds and adventures they go on. Um...but the reason it works, again, is not only all of the effort put in, it's that these songs are amazing, and the effects are amazing, and the animation, when there's animation, is amazing. But most of all, the performances are amazing, by Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson, I think that's how you say his name.
#4
Doug (vo): Number 4: Beauty and the Beast. When I think of...
Doug: ...like, a fairy tale, when I think of a Disney fairy tale, when I think of the look, when I think of the feel, when I think of the storytelling, when I think of the music, this is it. This is, like, the fairy tale done just perfect. Uh, it came at a time when Disney was trying to sort of get back in the game, and it had a good hit with Little Mermaid, and they were trying to get these movies out, but yearly, which at the time, just seemed impossible. And they put out this film that was just adored by, like, everyone, the first animated film to get nominated for Best Picture. And, uh, I think of, like, this New York screening or something like that. There's like a standing ovation. People just went nuts for this film, and a lot of people nowadays might be saying, "Wha...? Standing ovation, really?" But there was not this amount of effort and love put into an animated film that came across so well. You know, that passion, that love, and that entertainment, and that music just hit everybody just perfectly. And even though other films like Aladdin and Lion King are bigger hits, and you could argue, you know, are a little bit more mainstream and doing sort of more of the adult jokes and, you know, trying to throw in, like, you know, more of the "killing the family members" and stuff, I mean, that's obviously gonna get some reactions and people going, "Oh, man!", but...what the hell was that? "Long live Mufasa!" But, this was the first film that really said, "You know what? We can make this, like, an experience, we can make this, like, a Broadway experience, and we can do more than a Broadway experience, 'cause we can...we have animation. Broadway, you have restrictions. Animation, we can do anything we want. And we can get the camera in there, and we can swirl around, and we can get these cool angles, and when they're dancing in a ballroom, we can start at the top of a chandiler and whoosh down, you see them dancing. It's just so flowing and so elagant." But on top of that, you have this wonderful story that's just a wonderful telling of, uh, Beauty and the Beast.
#3
Doug (vo): Number 3: Inside Out. Okay, I had to...
Doug: ...really sit on this for a bit, because as I'm saying this, it's still technically in theatres. I really had to ask myself, "Do I want to put it this high? Do I really?" And I just kept thinking, "Yeah. Yeah, I do". This is a film that, it makes me feel like a kid again, but it makes me appreciate that I'm an adult, 'cause I can see the great things that they're doing. Uh, this is such an awakening film, I think, for so many kids, especially now.
#2
Doug (vo): Number 2: Mary Poppins. Yeah, had to.
Doug: It's Mary Poppins, man, it's Mary Poppins. It's just, it's a rush! It's an experience. I can't believe even at 33, I'm saying Mary Poppins is, like, my second-favorite Disney film of all time. It feels weird, but it feels so right.
#1
Doug (vo): And my Number 1 Favorite Disney Film is...Fantasia. All right, so remember what I was talking about before...
Doug: ...with a lot of the films that I've listed here about sort of that...the...awareness of, uh, of senses and feelings and emotions and stuff like that, but couldn't quite comprehend it, because you were such a young age? Fantasia is just the embodiment of that.