Worthy of The 'Disney' Name

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2003)

NOTE: The following is the opinion of a very tired person at work. He has a horrible head cold and has been 'doped up' on Nyquil for three days now. Please keep all of these things in mind while reading this review.
I love Disney films. I always have. When I was a kid, my family used to go to every Disney film when it was released. I was in awe of the animation and the songs. Even now as I watch the Disney Classics over & over & over again with my daughters, I still think they are some of the best movies ever made...even after watching them five times in one day, like my daughters like to do at times.
But, sad to say, during the 1980's, Disney released some movies that I would not even try to call 'Classics'. Movies like 'Fox & The Hound', 'The Black Couldron' and 'The Great Mouse Detective' had some redeeming moments, and I still feel are decent movies, but they lacked most of the things I expected from a Disney movie.
Then there was 'Oliver & Company'. To be totally honest with you, the only reason I even saw 'Oliver & Company' is because Billy Joel's voice was in it. That's it! I still enjoyed it, but did it deserve to wear the Disney name? Not in my opinion.
Along comes one of the greatest years of my life...1989. I'm a Senior in High School, a 'Batman' movie had been released earlier that Summer and I happened to be playing Orin Scrivello, the Dentist in the school musical 'Little Shop of Horrors'.
We hear that Howard Ashman, the man who wrote the music for 'Little Shop of Horrors' wrote the songs for Disney's 'The Little Mermaid', so we decide to go see it for that reason alone.
When I left the movie theater on a cold winter night in December 1989, I realized that the Disney that I grew up loving was back in a big way. 'The Little Mermaid' had everything I have grown to love about Disney films. A princess, beautiful colors, singing and dancing animals and a really evil villain. I loved it!
'The Little Mermaid' is my favorite Disney film and ranked in my personal Top Ten of All-Time Movies. It was the beginning of a bunch of Classic Disney films that are worthy of wearing the Disney name.
FUN FACT: The song "Part of Your World" is very similar to the 'Little Shop of Horrors' song "Somewhere That's Green". When you see 'The Little Mermaid' with most of the cast from 'Little Shop', you catch things like this.