Disney is one of the biggest companies in the world and it is celebrating a major birthday this year. The Walt Disney Company is 100 years old this October and it feels only right to take a look back at some of the iconic films they have graced us with over the past century.
Snow White (1937)
Snow White is the first animated feature film that was created by the Disney company. People initially had doubts about this kind of film and how it would perform with the public. However, Snow White earned over $8 million worldwide which, in today’s currency, is hundreds of millions of dollars.
The film held the record as the highest grossing film with sound for quite some time.
Snow White, which was based on a story by the Brothers Grimm, was re-released in cinemas eight times, before its home video release in the 1990s. This historic film was awarded a special Academy Award two years after its release. The award consisted of one regular-sized Oscar award and seven dwarf-sized Oscars.
Cinderella (1950)
Cinderella is one of the original Disney princesses; a group which is ever-growing. This is a narrative that has been retold a multitude of times throughout the years, with the Academy Award nominated song Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo being a staple of the narrative.
This film was released with the political background of wartime, which meant that Disney had to pull together additional funding itself to create a full, feature-length film that only told one story.
Amazingly, this film was a massive success, giving Disney their most successful release since Bambi in 1942. Like Snow White, Cinderella was re-released in cinemas five times before being made into a home video.
Lion King (1994)
Fast-forward four decades and the animated game is so vastly different to what it was in Snow White. The Lion King saw intricate sequences and characters created in an African desert. This film was another homerun for Disney.
Aside from the animation in this film, the soundtrack is still one of the most recognisable and loved soundtracks going. Tim Rice and Elton John’s song Can You Feel The Love won an Oscar for Best Song and Hans Zimmer walked away with Best Original Score.
The Lion King was the highest-grossing film of 1994 bringing in $763 million worldwide. It was also the highest-grossing animated film ever, until 2003 when Finding Nemo overtook it.
Princess Diaries (2001)
Disney has not just produced animated films throughout the years. One of their successful live action films comes in the form of the Princess Diaries. With a third film said to be in the works, this is still one of Disney fans’ most beloved films.
With an all-star cast in Dame Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway and Héctor Elizondo, it is no surprise that audiences took to this film so well.
It tells the story of a shy young girl whose grandma turns up and happens to be the queen of a European country. Mia Thermopolis (Hathaway) is next in line for the throne and is thrust into a world of fortune and fame.
Frozen (2013)
In 2013, it seemed there was no room for another homerun Disney princess film, but yet again, Disney pulled it out of the bag. Frozen is currently the third highest-grossing film with over $1.2 billion, only third to Frozen 2 and The Lion King remake.
Let It Go, sung by Idina Menzel became an overnight sensation and won an Academy Award for Best Song. We still see children (and adults) singing the catchy tune now.
