Oliver & Company, released in November 1988, was a smash success after the box office bombs of Disney's last few animated movies. The animated movies had done so poorly Disney was considering shuttering down the department in the mid '80s. After Oliver & Company was a success, the then-President of Disney announced due to its success, Disney would begin putting out animated features every year (as opposed to nearly the past 20 years, where animated films were rarely released). Yet, The Little Mermaid, released in October 1989, is usually credited with kicking off the Disney Renaissance because it was an even bigger hit, being one of the Top Ten films at the Box Office for 1989.

What say you? Which film kicked off the Disney Renaissance?

It's also based on critical reception as Disney likes to be seen as a symbol of quality when it comes to animation. When they release a bunch of movies that are successful AND have good critical reception then it's consider to be part of a good era.

For example Oliver and Company was a success as it made more money than Disney had spent making it. But reception wise it has an IMDB of 6.7/10 and a Rotten Tomatos score of 43%. At the Box office it made 74 million US Dollars. Little Mermaid has an IMDB score of 7.6/10 and a Rotten Tomatos score of 92% which why it has legendary status. And in terms of box office around 210 million US Dollars.

So to most people it was Little Mermaid that was the bigger success and help start the Renaissance.

Now there are inconsistencies. The Great Rescuers Down under did poorly in both sales and critic response, but it's part of the Renaissance. And Pocahontas did well sales wise, but not in terms of critical reception.

It's Little Mermaid, no question about it!

Pocahontas often gets a bad rap because most people view Toy Story as the signature Disney film of '95, even if not part of the traditional canon (though with Disney films going all-CG after the Princess and the Frog, it certainly feels like it). That said, Oliver & Company is the last film of Dark Age-Disney, as critical reception still gives it as being a sellout, thanks to all of the marketing, and that Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (another semi-Disney film) is the signature film of 1988.

The Little Mermaid truly began a new generation for Disney.

The Rescuers Down Under is more "post-Dark Age" than "Renaissance", with some of the improvements seen the previous film from the musical style to the better animation present, even if the writing is still lackluster.

That's not to say that this Renaissance was sudden though. The early '80s gave us the opening of Epcot, the launch of the Disney Channel, the live action hit Tron (there was even a video game based on it), the arrival of new features on home video, and The Fox and the Hound. 1985 gave us Disney's Gummi Bears, still the longest-running animated Disney TV show (five seasons), and although The Black Cauldron is another rather weak film, it seems to age well considering its mature tones, and the following year The Great Mouse Detective was a clear step-up, and then 1987 gave us another successful TV series, DuckTales. That was also the year that the Sing-Along Songs series and production for The Little Mermaid really got underway. Plus, the continued releases of classics onto video ensured that a new generation of children like myself were ready for something new after appreciating these classics, and it payed off with the Renaissance. If the 1970s was the Dark Age of Disney, the 1980s were the Gothic Age of Disney.

The real darkest period for Disney really only lasted about a decade, after the opening of the Magic Kingdom in 1971 until the release of The Fox and the Hound.

Since we are on the '80s board, here is a good, four-page article about the production of Disney in 1985, and as you can see, there was lots of action going on. As you can see there weren't too many animated features, but all of the studio's other divisions were what really making it thrive:
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-07-28/entertainment/ca-5352_1_team-disney/2

That's not to say that this Renaissance was sudden though. The early '80s gave us the opening of Epcot, the launch of the Disney Channel, the live action hit Tron (there was even a video game based on it), the arrival of new features on home video, and The Fox and the Hound. 1985 gave us Disney's Gummi Bears, still the longest-running animated Disney TV show (five seasons), and although The Black Cauldron is another rather weak film, it seems to age well considering its mature tones, and the following year The Great Mouse Detective was a clear step-up, and then 1987 gave us another successful TV series, DuckTales. That was also the year that the Sing-Along Songs series and production for The Little Mermaid really got underway. Plus, the continued releases of classics onto video ensured that a new generation of children like myself were ready for something new after appreciating these classics, and it payed off with the Renaissance. If the 1970s was the Dark Age of Disney, the 1980s were the Gothic Age of Disney.

The real darkest period for Disney really only lasted about a decade, after the opening of the Magic Kingdom in 1971 until the release of The Fox and the Hound.

Basically you view the 70s as the dark age of Disney, I agree!

Well... I think it's better off saying that The Little Mermaid was more definitive towards the start of the Disney Renaissance. I would say either The Great Mouse Detective, The Brave Little Toaster, and of course Oliver & Company. But The Little Mermaid made Disney so critically acclaimed during the very late 80s-90s.

In many ways, the transition into the Disney Renaissance was gradual throughout the 1980s. Every Disney film that decade contributed something to the development of the Renaissance:

* The Fox and the Hound (1981) - The first film to feature the newer generation of Disney writers.
* The Black Cauldron (1985) - The first Disney film with an end credit screen instead of opening titles, as well as the first Disney movie with CGI effects (used for the cauldron).
* The Great Mouse Detective (1986) - Essentially the movie that rekindled confidence in the Disney studio, garnering positive reviews and fairly successful box office returns (though it still lost to the similar An American Tail that year).
* Oliver & Company (1988) - The first Disney film since The Jungle Book to be a full-on musical, setting the stage for the Broadway format that would come to define the Renaissance. It was also the studio's biggest financial hit in several years, though it still lost to the Don Bluth movie that year (The Land Before Time, in this case).
* The Little Mermaid (1989) - The first official Disney Renaissance movie. It brought back the fairytale format, ditched the sketchy animation style that began with One Hundred and One Dalmatians for a more colorful and ambitious approach, earned rave reviews, introduced Disney's first true princess in three decades (not counting the oft forgotten Eilonwy), and slaughtered its Don Bluth-produced rival (All Dogs Go to Heaven), firmly establishing Disney once again as the supreme animation studio of the day.

To go even further, The Rescuers Down Under was the first Disney film to use digital ink, making it technically incredibly ahead of its time, while Beauty and the Beast was the film that confirmed that Disney's resurgence with The Little Mermaid's success was no fluke, earning a Best Picture nomination and performing even better than that film at the box office. Still, The Little Mermaid is pretty clearly the starting point of the Disney Renaissance, even with all of the factors that came about gradually.

There was a movie in 1988, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but it was only half a Disney film. So it doesn't count.

There was a movie in 1988, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but it was only half a Disney film. So it doesn't count.


It's also not part of the Disney animated canon. If you counted Roger Rabbit, then you'd also have to include stuff like The Brave Little Toaster, My Neighbor Tortoro, James and the Giant Peach, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Definitely Little Mermaid. I've not even seen Oliver & Company and I'm almost 40.

It's definitely The Little Mermaid, since its all around success basically served as the prototype for Disney's subsequent classics in the '90s. Its critical success dwarfed anything that Disney had had since probably The Jungle Book.

Oliver & Company and The Great Mouse Detective were both important in setting the studio back on the right path after the poor box-office performance of The Black Cauldron and the turbulent production of The Fox and the Hound. That and the fact that for the first time, Disney actually had serious competition in the late 1980s in the animated kids movie market. The success of An American Tail and The Land Before Time definitely forced Disney to redirect serious resources into making their movies as good as they once were.

It's Little Mermaid, no question about it!


I concur with you.