Before ‘Moana’: What Was the First Disney Movie?

Before ‘Moana’: What Was the First Disney Movie?

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Moana cast, Moana stars, Dwayne Johnson Moana, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Auli'i Cravalho

Songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda and Moana actors Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson. (Getty)

Now that Moana is in theaters, it’s the perfect time to take a look at Disney history. The studio has produced hundreds of movies since Walt Disney first moved to California in 1923. However, Moana is just the 56th film from the Walt Disney Animation Studios unit. It all started with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was released in 1937. Below, you’ll find the full list of Disney Animation Studios films, as well as links to the ones available to stream on Netflix.

Snow White – A Smile and a SongAren't the classics beautiful? ;;)2007-04-14T12:08:31.000Z

Snow White was the first complete animated film produced in the U.S. and was a big hit for Disney. If it wasn’t, it’s likely that we wouldn’t be talking about Disney at all today. Even though the Mickey Mouse shorts and Silly Symphonies were already hits, Walt Disney knew that he couldn’t grow as an artist if he was stuck producing short films forever. He poured everything he had into the film, which had an final estimated budget of $1.48 million. Amazingly, the film has grossed $418.2 million in its lifetime.

After Snow White, the Disney Animation team didn’t release another full-length feature until Pinocchio in February 1940. It was followed by Fantasia in November 1940. Although those films are now considered among Disney’s best, they were financial disasters at the time as World War II cut off the European market. Disney didn’t have another hit until Dumbo came out in October 1941.

Although Disney began to diversify with live-action films in the mid-1940s, the feature animation unit has always remained the studio’s backbone. It is now in another Renaissance period, which began with 2010’s Tangled and reached new heights with the instant success of Frozen. Moana, which runs 103 minutes, is the studio’s latest hit and comes just months after the release of Zootopia.

Here’s the complete list of all the movies in the Disney Animation Studios canon. You can click on some of them to see them on Netflix.

  1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
  2. Pinocchio
  3. Fantasia
  4. Dumbo
  5. Bamib
  6. Saludos Amigos
  7. The Three Caballeros
  8. Make Mine Music
  9. Fun and Fancy Free
  10. Melody Time
  11. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
  12. Cinderella
  13. Alice in Wonderland
  14. Peter Pan
  15. Lady and the Tramp
  16. Sleeping Beauty
  17. One Hundred and One Dalmatians
  18. The Sword in the Stone
  19. The Jungle Book
  20. The Aristocats
  21. Robin Hood
  22. The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh
  23. The Rescuers
  24. The Fox and the Hound
  25. The Black Cauldron
  26. The Mouse Detective
  27. Oliver & Company
  28. The Little Mermaid
  29. The Rescuers Down Under
  30. Beauty and the Beast
  31. Aladdin
  32. The Lion King
  33. Pocahontas
  34. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  35. Hercules
  36. Mulan
  37. Tarzan
  38. Fantasia 2000
  39. Dinosaur
  40. The Emperor’s New Groove
  41. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
  42. Lilo & Stitch
  43. Treasure Planet
  44. Brother Bear
  45. Home on the Range
  46. Chicken Little
  47. Meet the Robinsons
  48. Bolt
  49. The Princess and the Frog
  50. Tangled
  51. Winnie the Pooh
  52. Wreck-It Ralph
  53. Frozen
  54. Big Hero 6
  55. Zootopia
  56. Moana

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