FanGirl Fridays!

It's Friday so that means I geek out and talk about things important pop culture wise in my life. This time, it's Disney Animated Movies (including Pixar).

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Ever since I was little I have always loved Disney movies and to this day I still watch them when they come on ABC Family. I also go out of my way to find them on either Amazon or Netflix, so it's safe to say that I'm a fan (or a fangirl, perhaps). To bring the point home, I've seen 43 out of the 53 Disney Animated Features and 10 out of 14 Pixar Movies (I don't care for Cars at all). I can honestly say that I have re-watched a decent portion of those movies in the last few years.

The first movie I remember seeing in theaters was Toy Story (1995!), which I absolutely loved. One of the best moments for me came later when I was watching Toy Story 3 for the first time and was able to relive my childhood through some of my favorite childhood characters. I think that Disney is probably the reason for my love of  musicals due to all of the interludes during the movies. I even loved the movies made during the down period of Disney which occurred in the 80's after The Black Cauldron (ok, this was a failure box office wise)  and also included movies like the Rescuer's Down Under, Oliver & Company. As a kid I didn't know any of that stuff and watched what ever VHS' I could find multiple times over (90s kid alert!). The reason why it was a bad time was because things like The Land Before Time (another fave) were getting released around the same time and blowing the competition out of the water. Honestly, I can say I have a ton of favorites from Mulan to The Great Mouse Detective to The Lion King and Finding Nemo.

Some say that animated movies are for kids and I definitely don't think that's true. They cover many powerful topics like death, forgiveness, friendship, love and being/loving yourself to name a few. They're movies that everyone can enjoy because they understand different things about them depending on age and experiences. Like Frozen for example, some little kids may have just been hooked with Olaf the snowman but beyond that is an amazing story about two sisters coming together. Not to mention that romantic love takes a sideline in this story instead of being the primary motivation/endgame of the character (see: every Disney Princess prior to Mulan). There's just so many lines and characters and songs that always can bring a smile to my face. There's a point towards the end of "A Bug's Life" (or maybe it's the bloopers) where one of the grasshoppers gets so scared he sheds his skin completely. I can't even remember how many times I re-wound the tape to watch this hilarious scene. The best thing about Disney/Pixar is that there is always a movie to fit your mood. I could seriously go on forever but I'm sure I will do a Favorite Things list andlater down the line, a re-watch of every single movie which I would absolutely love to do.