Oliver and Company. I really do not see any debate by my checklists. There are four debated films on this, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. It is time to see what actually makes an animated film from The Renaissance era.

Time to first focus on the previous and next age. Before The Renaissance is The Dark Age, which I further divide into low (pre 1977) and high (post 1977). The high dark age is an era marked with dark plots, often used nature as major villains, a lack of songs, were often made for adults, and I find they put heavy focus on character development. After this is what is called The Millennium Age, and I call it The Pixar Age. This was an era where everybody was trying to copy and chase Pixar (or Shrek). In this time most 2d films (like what Disney was making) were focusing on more adult audiences through characters trying to find a new niche and CG films trying to find them through comedy. It seems the basis of The Renaissance was focusing on children (and I maintain there is nothing wrong with that).

So looking at these four. Mouse has that bar scene and way more scary scenes than any of the other 4. In addition it has many references to much older Sherlock Holmes adaptations, which seem to be for the parents. Granted the main musical score screams "fun movie," and it is much more child focused than Disney's two previous films, The Fox and the Hound and The Black Cauldron. Meanwhile the three (especially the next) really made their source materials much more child safe. The biggest case is Oliver which basically just made the main characters pets.

You might be wondering why The Rescuers Down Under is not debated. That is actually very simple and reveals a flaw in this whole age business. Creators do not just decide we are in new age, and many films on the edges are hybrids or released in the wrong side of the line. The film is very much a product of The High Dark Age made a few years late. This happens all the time (The Jungle Book and The Road to El Dorado).

Next step is the parents. I have already wrote a post on this. To summarize the parents from this time frame (not just Disney) are typically loving and mean well, but they are incompetent and trust the villain. This fits for Oliver and Beast but not the other two. Granted Ariel's dad is a villain who just also loves his daughters.

One aspect that is not talked about much is what they adapted. You might have noticed Disney went 30 years without adapting a fairy tale (Sleeping Beauty until Mermaid), and that is evidence it should be the first film. Granted Pocahontas was turned into a fairy tale, and plenty of other films from this period made by Disney are not fairy tales.

Time for the biggest thing about this period, the big Broadway musical numbers. Mouse does not have them. Sure Rattigan has one, and there is a background bar song, but the film is not a musical but a film where 2 characters break into song in universe. The next three are musicals. Oliver did it first and put the most focus on the songs.

Now for a major fact, The Renaissance did not begin with Disney. It began with An American Tail (1986). It came out after Mouse. It is Tail that most creators were trying to copy, it was impossible for Mouse to do that. Even without this fact Mouse really fits in much better with The High Dark Age films with a few Renaissance elements as transition pieces. It is not like it happened over night as despite being a musical The Brave Little Toaster (1987) fits better with High Dark Age, and so does The Land Before Time.

I just do not see a debate here. This style was first done by Disney in Oliver and Company, and that means it started the period. I do not like the movie, but it started Disney on this path.

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