The 8 Most Fun Disney Movies of All Time, Ranked

There is a very specific kind of Disney movie night where nobody is pretending to be sophisticated. You want the line everybody knows before the character says it. You want a villain with theatrical commitment, a sidekick behaving like a complete maniac, a song that turns the living room into a concert, or an action sequence so shamelessly entertaining that adulthood briefly loses jurisdiction. “Fun” is not a lesser compliment here. Getting millions of people to feel that loose and happy is one of the hardest things movies do. That also means this ranking has nothing to do with behaving respectable around the canon. Sadness is welcome. Great storytelling is essential. But every movie here has an extra charge that makes rewatches feel social even when you are alone. You remember the jokes, the entrances, the ridiculous decisions, and the exact moment somebody else in the room is about to lose it. This is Disney at maximum voltage. Let’s get started. 8 'The Princess Diaries' (2001) Image via Buena Vista Pictures Distribution Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) has enough trouble surviving high school before her grandmother casually informs her that she is heir to the throne of Genovia. The Princess Diaries then subjects this painfully awkward San Francisco teenager to royal etiquette, diplomatic expectations, makeover chaos, and one of cinema’s most aggressive hairbrush interventions. Mia breaking the brush in her hair and staring at it like she has discovered a new species remains exactly the level of embarrassment this movie understands. The pleasure comes from watching ordinary teenage disasters collide with fairy-tale responsibility. She trips, panics, accidentally sets things on fire, gets humiliated at the beach, and slowly learns that becoming a princess cannot simply mean becoming less like herself. Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews)’s lessons give the movie structure, while Joe (Héctor Elizondo) quietly supplies some of its sweetest moments. The film also introduced a generation to the phrase “shut up” as an expression of complete astonishment. It is glossy wish fulfillment with enough clumsiness underneath to keep the fantasy lovable. 7 'Lilo & Stitch' (2002) Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures An illegal genetic experiment crash-lands in Hawaii, gets mistaken for a very strange dog, and is adopted by a little girl whose first instinct is essentially, yes, this blue creature destroying my house belongs here. That is the beautiful chaos of Lilo & Stitch. Stitch (Chris Sanders) arrives programmed for destruction. Lilo Pelekai (Daveigh Chase) is already lonely, angry, imaginative, and operating on a social frequency the other children around her do not understand. Putting them together feels less like responsible pet ownership than fate having a sense of humor. The movie is loaded with wonderfully specific weirdness. Lilo feeds Pudge the fish a peanut-butter sandwich because she believes he controls the weather. Stitch builds San Francisco out of books and immediately destroys it. Cobra Bubbles (Ving Rhames) looks like he should be terminating somebody from the future and is somehow a social worker. Underneath all of that, Nani Pelekai (Tia Carrere) is desperately trying to keep her family together. “Ohana” became the quote everybody remembers, but the movie earns it through two damaged little creatures slowly deciding that abandonment does not have to be permanent. 6 'The Emperor's New Groove' (2000) Image via Walt Disney Animation Kuzco (David Spade) begins The Emperor's New Groove as the kind of emperor who summons an elderly man just to demonstrate how his summer home will demolish the man’s village. Then Yzma (Eartha Kitt)’s assassination attempt accidentally turns him into a llama, and suddenly imperial authority means very little when you are arguing with a peasant while walking through a jungle on four legs. Disney has made funnier individual scenes, but very few of its movies sustain this level of comic velocity. Kronk (Patrick Warburton) discussing morality with tiny shoulder versions of himself, Yzma somehow reaching the laboratory before everyone else, the lever that absolutely should not release an alligator, and Kuzco stopping the movie to complain about the narrative all feel like they escaped from a cartoon operating at dangerous speed. Pacha (John Goodman) gives the story enough warmth to prevent the sarcasm from becoming exhausting. And Eartha Kitt shouting about spinach puffs is simply part of the cultural record now. This movie is eighty minutes of people committing to the bit with their entire souls. 5 'Aladdin' (1992) Image via Disney The new Aladdin was good. This one is the OG still. The Cave of Wonders gives Aladdin (Scott Weinger) one instruction. Touch nothing except the lamp. Abu (Frank Welker) sees one enormous ruby and immediately ruins everybody’s afternoon. Aladdin has barely started and already understands the assignment. Agrabah moves with the energy of a stage show that keeps discovering new doors backstage. Aladdin parkours through the marketplace, Carpet behaves like a silent comedian, Iago (Gilbert Gottfried) spends half the movie one insult away from cardiac arrest, and Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) somehow turns being tall and judgmental into a complete personality. Then Genie (Robin Williams) comes out of the lamp and the movie essentially removes the speed limit. “Friend Like Me” throws impersonations, transformations, choreography, and visual gags at the screen faster than most movies can introduce characters. “A Whole New World” later proves it can slow down without losing the magic. Disney had plenty of musical classics before this. Few feel this eager to entertain you every single minute. 4 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' (2003) Image via Walt Disney Pictures Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp)’s first entrance tells you everything. He stands majestically atop the mast of a sinking boat, glides toward the dock as if arriving in triumph, then steps onto land at the exact second the vessel disappears beneath him. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl takes that joke and turns it into an entire adventure philosophy. Look cool. Improvise wildly. Hope nobody notices how close everything came to disaster. The cursed Aztec gold gives the movie proper supernatural menace, especially when moonlight strips Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush)’s crew down to walking skeletons, but the sheer fun comes from how many personalities are bouncing around the same quest. Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) refuses to behave like cargo. Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) is deadly sincere about everything. Barbossa savors every pirate syllable. Jack appears to be making nonsense decisions until several of them turn out to be frighteningly calculated. The sword fight in the blacksmith shop, the Isla de Muerta reveal, and the endless arguments over the Pirate Code still play beautifully. Disney built a theme-park adaptation and somehow got a swashbuckling classic out of it. 3 'The Incredibles' (2004) Image via Pixar Animation Studios Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson) used to stop trains and punch criminals. Now he sits under fluorescent lights denying insurance claims while his boss complains that he keeps helping customers. The Incredibles understands exactly how funny it is to trap a superhero inside middle management, then gets even better once Bob secretly starts squeezing himself back into the old suit. Every member of the Parr family brings a different flavor of chaos. Dash Parr (Spencer Fox) treats water like a racetrack. Violet Parr (Sarah Vowell) wants invisibility long before she learns how to control it. Helen Parr (Holly Hunter) can turn family discipline into tactical command without changing tone. Jack-Jack Parr (Eli Fucile) spends most of the movie appearing harmless before the babysitter discovers the universe has other plans. Syndrome (Jason Lee) is equally memorable because his supervillain identity grows from wounded fandom and a terrifying amount of engineering money. The dinner-table arguments and “Where is my super suit?” are as replayable as the island action. It is a family comedy where the family can also launch each other at enemy aircraft. 2 'The Lion King' (1994) Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures The Lion King is the undisputed king of Disney movies and I’d perhaps have put it at the top if this was a kids-only list, just because of its sheer impact on kids. There is a point in The Lion King where Simba (Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Matthew Broderick), Timon (Nathan Lane), and Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella) eat grubs in the jungle and sing themselves into adulthood. That should be tonal madness considering where Simba has come from. The movie can move from Shakespearean family tragedy to a meerkat wearing a grass skirt as hula bait without tearing itself apart. Scar (Jeremy Irons) has the best villain theatrics in the Pride Lands, Rafiki (Robert Guillaume) treats spiritual guidance like slapstick, and Zazu (Rowan Atkinson) survives years of royal nonsense through sheer professional irritation. “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” explodes with color. “Hakuna Matata” became a philosophy people still put on T-shirts. Then “Be Prepared” turns a hyena army into a fascist musical number that goes ridiculously hard for a family film. The fun never cheapens Simba’s grief. It gives him a world worth returning to, which is why the final climb up Pride Rock still feels enormous. 1 'Toy Story' (1995) Image via Pixar Animation Studios A child leaves the room and every toy instantly becomes a coworker with opinions. That premise alone could have carried Toy Story. Pixar then added a cowboy experiencing an existential crisis because a shiny spaceman arrived and did not realize he was a toy. Woody (Tom Hanks)’s jealousy is wonderfully petty. Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) sincerely believes the cardboard spaceship package around him is an actual spacecraft. Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) has the temperament of somebody permanently stuck in airport security. Rex (Wallace Shawn) is a tyrannosaurus worried that he is insufficiently intimidating. Then there’s Sid Phillips (Erik von Detten) whose house turns childhood play into miniature body horror before those supposedly monstrous mutant toys reveal themselves as allies. The Pizza Planet trip, the claw-worshipping aliens, Buzz discovering the television commercial, and the rocket-assisted chase after the moving truck keep escalating with almost ridiculous efficiency. Toy Story changed animation technologically, but that is not why it sits here. It still feels like somebody opened the bedroom door at exactly the right second and finally caught the toys living without us. Toy Story Release Date November 19, 1995 Runtime 81 minutes Cast Tim Allen Buzz Lightyear (voice)