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 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.
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Pinocchio
- Fantasia
- Dumbo
- Bamib
- Saludos Amigos
- The Three Caballeros
- Make Mine Music
- Fun and Fancy Free
- Melody Time
- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
- Cinderella
- Alice in Wonderland
- Peter Pan
- Lady and the Tramp
- Sleeping Beauty
- One Hundred and One Dalmatians
- The Sword in the Stone
- The Jungle Book
- The Aristocats
- Robin Hood
- The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh
- The Rescuers
- The Fox and the Hound
- The Black Cauldron
- The Mouse Detective
- Oliver & Company
- The Little Mermaid
- The Rescuers Down Under
- Beauty and the Beast
- Aladdin
- The Lion King
- Pocahontas
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Hercules
- Mulan
- Tarzan
- Fantasia 2000
- Dinosaur
- The Emperor’s New Groove
- Atlantis: The Lost Empire
- Lilo & Stitch
- Treasure Planet
- Brother Bear
- Home on the Range
- Chicken Little
- Meet the Robinsons
- Bolt
- The Princess and the Frog
- Tangled
- Winnie the Pooh
- Wreck-It Ralph
- Frozen
- Big Hero 6
- Zootopia
- Moana
