Originally Posted by Matt Millheiser

Of that list, I'd rank 'em as follows:

1. Hunchback of Notre Dame -- this is CLASSIC Disney, with breathtaking animation, a majestic score, a great story, and memorable songs. What keeps the film from being a five-star masterpiece is that the filmmakers refused to trust the source material or the situations they derived from them, and inserted some absolutely GOD-AWFUL comic relief. Those gargoyles are terrible; not funny, not interesting, not insightful, and incredibly annoying to the point of not only being a distraction, but a detriment. There are other flaws, but they are minor in comparison. I still love this movie and hold it up as superior animated entertainment. The "Hellfire", "Bells of Notre Dame", and "Topsy-Turvey Day" sequences are some of the best bits Disney has ever done.

2. Mulan -- a beautiful, moving, and often hilarious movie. The songs are OK-to-REALLY GOOD, the character animation and backgrounds are lush and impressive, and a lot of the humor is natural and integrated into the story, rather than being forced and uncomfortable. Eddie Murphy is 1000X better and funnier here than he ever was in the Shrek films.

3. Emperor's New Groove -- this movie is fucking HI-LARIOUS. Disney's riff on 1940s/1950s Warner Brothers shorts. Awesomeness.

4. Atlantis -- a highly underrated sci-fi/action/pulp charmer. A classic? No, but a really good movie nonetheless. If this were a live action big-budget action flick, it would be hailed as a visionary masterpiece. As a Disney animated feature, it gets held to a different standard. Too bad. It works.

5. Lilo & Stitch -- I'm just not quite as blown away by this one as most people are. Nonetheless, I still like it quite a bit. It has a quirk and vibe all its own, an original vision unlike much of what has been put out in animation, before or since.

6. Hercules -- this one probably contains more "fun" than a lot of Disney features of the decade, but doesn't add up to much in the end. I love the songs, the "Greek chorus", the Gerald Scarfe character designs, and James Woods's wonderful take on Hades. Not much else going on, but it's not without its charms. Good movie. Nothing great.

7. Pocahontas -- phenomenal animation, great score, uninspired songs, and a preachy, Politically-Correct storyline that is so careful to be "respectful" that it chokes the narrative flat. I like watching it now and then, because there is much to appreciate in it, but it's not a favorite by any stretch.

8. Tarzan -- Did NOT like this one. Yeah, great animation, no question about it. Everything else fell flat. Rosie O'Donnell's hip-talking ape buddy? The "Smash The Camp" sequence? Blerg. The opening sequence is, admittedly, quite awesome. They should have ended the movie right afterwards.

9. Treasure Planet -- Great animation. Unengaging story. Horrible songs. Overlong, overstuffed, and mostly quite dull, actually... which is odd, giving how much is happening and how opulent the visuals are.

Haven't seen Brother Bear or Home On The Range. I don't think I'm missing much...

Originally Posted by Matt Millheiser

"Steady As The Beating Drum" and "Savages" were kinda OK, but the rest were just... odd. "Once Around The Riverbend" was particularly oversung, overly busy, and just overall really grating. But as always, YMMV...

There were, but the film wasn't a musical. The guy from (IIRC) The Goo Goo Dolls wrote a bunch of pop songs that were featured in the film but not sung by any characters or integrated into the storyline. They were pretty damn bad, too.

Originally Posted by Giles

but I loved 'The Colours of the Wind'

as for Treasure Planets songs, I guess the 'songs' were memorable for that reason, (i.e, they weren't sung by any of the actual characters). On a sidenote, Don Bluth's Titan A.E had a great ancilary score with Electrasy's 'Cosmic Castaway' being the standout song.

Originally Posted by Matt Millheiser

Ya know, Titan AE wasn't perfect but I enjoyed it a heck of a lot more than Treasure Planet. Even though I haven't watched the film probably since 2000 or so, I still remember that "Cosmic Castaway" tune, much moreso than anything from Treasure Planet. I guess that says something.

Feature-length, action-oriented animated sci-fi is a hard sell, I'd imagine. Atlantis, Titan AE, and Treasure Planet all under-performed. If you combine their grosses, I don't think they even outgross what "Lilo & Stitch" did, although I could be wrong. WALL-E may be the exception that proves the rule, since it really isn't "action" oriented.

Apropos of nothing, but you know what I'd like to see Pixar do? An animated film that apes the conventions of 1930s/40s Technicolor storybook films, like Flynn's "Adventures of Robin Hood", Lancaster's "The Crimson Pirate", or "Ivanhoe", or whatever. Everytime I watch a "Shrek" movie -- which is rare, because other than the first, I'm not a fan -- they feature such fantastic fantasy animation and imagination, with castles, knights, wizards, archers, kings, princesses, monsters, all the trappings... then they piss it away on silly, smarmy, self-aware pop-culture jokes. So much potential, too.

Originally Posted by Matt Millheiser

3. Emperor's New Groove -- this movie is fucking HI-LARIOUS. Disney's riff on 1940s/1950s Warner Brothers shorts. Awesomeness.