Top 5 Movies & Characters

Hello There!!

You are cursed with a post from me today! This one is a fun little challenge entry to a challenge hosted by Elsie. The challenge is to make a post about our top five Disney Characters or Movies but I decided to do both because why not? I’m in the mood to write (for fun) and I might as well. (I am also procrastinating on a paper so…). Anyway, let’s go!!

Top 5 Movies

My list of movies s for all Disney properties including Touchstone Pictures (my bonus list). Narrowing down so much content into only five is incredibly difficult for me so I added a couple bonus movies to the list, but for the most part, my list is out of any particular order and is just here for fun.

Beauty and the Beast

This movie weirdly has one of the most interesting love stories. I absolutely hate love triangles but the purpose of the story makes it fairly clear that this isn’t exactly a love triangle. The characters only fight at the end because one of them essentially wants to own Belle and Belle, reasonably, doesn’t want to be owned by him while the other person is protecting her basic right of independence if she so wishes. Sure, he’s love it if she liked him so he didn’t have to be a beast and so the household could turn back, but he does ultimately leave it up to her. The whole movie is the closest Disney movies really come to the idea of “Friends to Lovers” which is, in my mind, the best romance trope (I’m not a huge fan of romance but these stories are good imo). All of Beauty and the Beast is animated beautifully and the cells are just beautiful.

The Great Mouse Detective

People who know me tend to be aware of my love of detective stories and what better detective story than the silliness of Basil of Baker Street. My knowledge of Sherlock Holmes lore is significantly above average and my obsession with it caused me to also love The Great Mouse Detective an inordinate amount. The story of Basil vs Ratigan is well executed and has a solid mix of action, humor, mystery, and interesting plot. Without spoiling the movie for those who have not seen it, this movie is brilliantly done with the references to different versions of Sherlock Holmes and an interesting set of characters, each with their own interesting set of relationships to one another. The story is not a romance which is also compelling to me.

Onward

I love this movie so much! Onward is like Frozen but for nerdy D&D players and without unnecessary breaks for songs (so for nerdy D&D players who are scared of theater kids). This movie resonates so much with me because of themes that are a little too dark to get into in this kind of post. Anyway, I resonate a lot with Ian in of experience and I also have an inner me who’s a lot like Barley. The story arc of the movie and the twists and turns feel perfect for the story that it’s telling and I cry every single time. The style and character designs are brilliant and it’s one of the two Pixar movies that I actually like. Onward managed to beat Brave for me simply because of how much I adore Barley, Corey, Laurel, and all three ing characters to Ian. this movie is just a favorite of mine.

Phineas and Ferb Across the 2nd Dimension

No top 5 list of mine is complete without some amount of Phineas and Ferb. This movie is incredible. It feels just like one of their episodes but so much grander and so much fun. Some of my favorite overall songs from Phineas and Ferb come from this movie (Brand New Best Friend, Everything’s Better with Perry, etc). This movie has some of the best jokes, punchlines, and plots of all the Phineas and Ferb specials and episodes and takes a twist that doesn’t take away from the formula. The whole movie is done incredibly well and I am able to enjoy it every single time I rewatch. I can say so much more but the “i would have two nickels (which isn’t a lot…)” joke is from here and

Muppets Christmas Carol

I love the Muppets and weirdly my favorite is Muppet Christmas Carol. I don’t know how to explain why but Kermit taking such a genuinely small role relative to everyone else is just brilliant to me. I love, as always, the way that The Muppets manage to incorporate human actors and Muppets into the same universe, making fun, in some ways, of both. The jokes from this movie are beyond compare and honestly, even though the songs aren’t as memorable as some from other Muppet movies (or shows), this one still wins my heart. I didn’t even watch it that much around the holidays as a kid, this movie is just really funny to me.

BONUS:

Dead Poets Society

Mary Poppins

Hercules

Top 5 Characters

This list, keeping to the spirit of the first part of this, will be focused on movie characters rather than show characters. For the sake of this, I’m also removing Phineas and Ferb characters from my list of options. Meaning that my list boils down to…

The Beast

The beast is an easy choice for me honestly. He’s just me of my favorite all time characters because even though he does kidnap someone (two people?) he’s still just a silly little guy. I know that is horrible logic, but hear me out. The Beast had potentially the worst luck when he was a literal child doing what he was raised to do. It’s not his fault that he was kind of awful to the witch because it’s all he was ever taught and it seems like the household staff (who were watching him) never really taught him any better. He was a child and cursing him for almost the same amount of time he had been alive isn’t going to help him that much. He wanted people to keep away because he didn’t want what was evidently a reasonable fear (his death at the hands of the town) to happen because despite everything, he wanted to just be alive even if he was kind of miserable. He just wants to read his books, stay in, and he doesn’t trust people that come to his door for pretty good reason. When Belle came, it wasn’t even his idea to have her fall in love with him.

Gonzo

Gonzo is amazing and I don’t even know how to begin. He has recently become one of my favorite characters ever because of how completely crazy and insane he is while also still having a kind heart and a moderately acceptable moral com. Gonzo is happy being a care free silly guy. He plays by a rule book that he made himself and it always involves respecting those around him and still living his best life. Gonzo has so much personality in every piece of Muppet media and his role in Muppet Christmas Carol is just so much fun. Gonzo’s just a comfort character for me at this point.

Corey

Corey the Manticore from Onward is not exactly a character that I anticipated having on this list, but when I was thinking about it and thinking about movies that I wanted to talk about Corey’s existence came to mind. She’s this brave strong warrior of a woman who is also simultaneously one of the most socially awkward, silly, considerate, and nice people in the whole movie. She cares so much about helping Laurel find her kids safely and also do what she can to help everyone in general. She used to be a nightly warrior and is now waiting tables in a silly gimmicky restaurant. Corey has levels of complexity to her character that I absolutely love, but even aside from that, I really just want to hug her because I think the would have to give the absolute best hugs in the universe.

Shang

My favorite(?) fictional bisexual mess. I love Shang’s basic inability to say the right thing. He has a really good character arc across the movie and he’s just a really interesting character. He’s thrown into a role that he is overqualified for simply because of pure nonsense. He has the best song (maybe second best) song in the whole movie and grows to accept that the idea that he learned of the world was fundamentally flawed. When he learned it, he corrected for it and it was just a really good character progression in my opinion. He developed into someone able to respect people for things beyond just their utility in any ways and that is a great way for a movie to develop a character, especially someone that’s not even a main character.

Leia

I cannot do a list like this without gushing about princess Leia. For these purposes, let’s not talk too much about the sequels because… Anyway, Leia is a wonderful character and an amazing leader. She is all for resistance and standing up for what she believes and knows to be wrong, be it in politics (in universe) or as a general of a Rebellion against the evil empire. There’s a lot that I could say about that theme but to stick with her as a character, she’s headstrong and she is never afraid to take action when it needs to be taken. She is a skilled strategist and is incredible under pressure. Leia’s entire character was so different from what is usual and while I don’t love the romance plots that they have for her, she’s still absolutely the one in charge of what’s going on because nobody, man, woman, droid, creature, etc. can make her really doubt her mission.

BONUS:

Luisa

Amelia

Merida

Mr Keating

Conclusion

There is a dedicated post about Dead Poet’s Society coming soon. Most of these movies and characters will have more posts from me on them in the near future because hyperfixation things, but rest assured that any other the things in my bonus section will be getting more content. Even the things I’ve talked about in the post will also be getting more content from me soon. I have so many things to say and not enough time to say them. So until next time, have a nice day/night/whatever!!

#Disney5Fav

#CurratorReview

credit :: all images are official