The 10 Best Disney Movies Before 1990

Released in 1988 and directed by George Scribner, Oliver & Company was a cool and hip (well cool and hip by 80s standards) retelling of the Oliver Twist story. With a voice cast that included the likes of Blossom’s Joey “Whoa” Lawrence and music legend, Billy Joel, Oliver & Company is about as 80s as you can get in regards to the way it looks and that is cool.

Instead of a gang of kids, we have a gang of dogs that take in the orange cat Oliver as one of their own. It is a fun movie that has a lot of heart and it also rocks with a great soundtrack. Plus, this came out at a time when Disney and McDonalds were good buddies so we got an awesome Happy Meal promotion for this movie.

Dutchess and her kittens live a life of luxury with their diva opera owner and they are the sole heirs to her fortune! This does not sit well with her helper Edgar and he plots to get rid of the cats.

We have a real opposites attract thing here (no, not the Paula Abdul song, although that did star a cat) as the upper-class Dutchess meets and falls for the street cat, Thomas O’Malley and he helps them get around the streets of Paris, and shows them what it is really like to be a cat!

Next up we have The Great Mouse Detective which was released in 1986 and this is the first movie on this list that I did actually see in the theatre. This is a take on the classic Sherlock Holmes story. A young mouse sees her father be kidnapped by a very creepy looking bat with a peg leg! She soon meets Mr. Dawson who takes her to Basil, The Great Mouse Detective, and the three of them set off on an adventure to find her father and put a stop to the criminal mastermind that is Ratigan.

This is a really fun movie, it has a lot of action and it came at a time when you could argue that Disney was perhaps trying to go a little bit darker with their movies! While it is not one of the more prominent Disney classics, The Great Mouse Detective does have a real cult following where kids who grew up with it really do love it.

Ok, so two confessions here about 1977’s Pete’s Dragon that was brought to us by Don Chaffey. First of all, I saw this as a kid in the 80s on a pirate VHS tape. I trust you will not call the cops or rat me out to Bob Iger. Secondly, while I love this and it is a fond memory from my childhood, I feel the 2016 reimagining by David Lowery is better!

Look, Pete’s Dragon is an iconic movie and even if you have never seen it, if you see a picture of Elliot and his big smile, you know instantly what the movie is, even if you do not know that his name is Elliot. The charming story of a kid called Pete who meets a dragon that no one believes is real is such a charming tale. The animation of Pete still holds up to this day and you have to give the actors a ton of credit for the way they make you believe that they are actually interacting with Elliot.

The Rescuers was the very first movie I saw on a laserdisc! This is one of those movies that has never gotten old for me. The Rescuers was released back in 1977 and this is a kind of crime caper, perhaps even a James Bond-style story. A little girl called Penny has been abducted and the evil Medusa is going to use her to get the world’s largest diamond, The Devil’s Eye! The Rescue Aid Society, which is like a CIA/MI5/FBI organization run by animals, sends one of their top agents – Bianca – on the case, and she is joined by the janitor, Bernard!

They are a great pairing, but my favorite character in this movie has always been Evinrude, who is a little dragonfly. He is awesome! This has danger and excitement and it also has a few laughs as well. It is a movie that I think even today’s kids will have a lot of fun with. It is even one of the few Disney movies that got a theatrical sequel, The Rescuers Down Under in 1990.

Some of you may be wondering why Lady and the Tramp is on a list of the best Disney movies that are from 1970 to 1989 as it was originally released in 1955. However, Lady and the Tramp really caught on during its theatrical re-releases, the first of which was in 1963.

However, it was also released again in 1972, 1980, and 1986 which was when I saw it in the theatre as a kid. Like The Aristocats, Lady and the Tramp shows that opposites attract. Lady, a well to do upper class dog finds herself captured by the dog pound! She is saved by Tramp, who takes her under his wing and shows her what it is really like to be a dog. While most people think of the spaghetti and meatballs scene. My favorite part of Lady and the Tramp has always been Beaver. Hence why the live action remake Disney made in 2019 was not for me – they took out Beaver! I demand Disney make a live-action Lady and the Tramp Beaver Cut and put him in the movie!

Much has been said about the way 1971’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks was butchered in the editing room. As a kid, I knew nothing of this and just loved this movie. It was brought to us by Robert Stevenson and it has a great cast with Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson leading the charge. The kids in this movie are great too!

Set during World War II, Miss Price is training to become a witch when she is forced to take in some children from London who are trying to escape the war. A spell or two later, Miss Price, the kids, and her magic teacher, Mr. Browne, end up on a wild adventure where they use a magical bedknob that turns the bed into a means of transport! This is a movie that mixes animation with live action and it does it so well. The football scene was something that I loved as a kid and I still think it is fun to this day. Plus, we get to see Angela Lansbury fight Nazis as the movie reaches its climax! How many other Disney movies can say that they end with a fight between a witch and Nazis!

Some raised eyebrows over The Black Cauldron being so high on my list I am sure! However, The Black Cauldron was the very first movie that I saw in a theatre all the way back in 1985 and it started a lifelong love of going to the movies.

This is a dark fantasy movie where a young boy called Taran needs to save the world from the evil Horned King. There is a magical pig called Hen Wen, a bard called Fflewddur Fflam, a princess, and a furry dude called Gurgi to give it a bit of that Disney charm. This is so unlike your traditional Disney movie. It is dark and I would bet that some scenes are quite scary for younger children. I think that this is a thrilling dark fantasy movie and the animation still holds up to this day.

On a personal note, the cereal company Kellogg’s did a promotion in the UK where you would get a Black Cauldron figure in each box of cereal and you could cut out a playset from the box. I do wish I could find those on eBay!

I will be honest here, for me personally The Black Cauldron should be number one, but taking my nostalgia and bias out of the situation, The Little Mermaid has to be regarded as the best Disney movie before 1990. This came at the exact right time for Disney. Released in 1989, written and directed by the team of John Musker and Roger Clements, The Little Mermaid is the movie that changed Disney’s fortunes.

They were not close to having Mickey Mouse close the doors or anything like that, but they had been looking for a big hit for most of the 80s. The Little Mermaid came out and was a massive – and I mean massive – hit! It truly did change things at Disney, and while the 90s still had a few less-than-huge box office hits, the likes of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King blew up the box office in the 90s and had The Little Mermaid to thank for the way a whole new generation thought of Disney. Plus, to be fair, The Little Mermaid is a damn fine movie with some really catchy songs!