5 Overlooked Disney Movies That Deserve More Attention

There are many great Disney movies out there with amazing characters, fun storylines and wonderful messages that don't get the attention they deserve. Here are five of them!

1. Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

This is the story of Milo Thatch, a cute and nerdy linguist who thinks he's discovered the location of the lost city of Atlantis. This leads to him guiding an expedition there, as he's the only one who can decipher the old Atlantean language. The crew on the journey is one of the best collections of characters in Disney history. It consists of a bunch of crazy, sassy, gross and weird people, all possessing their different ambitions and reasons for being on the team. They all have strong and prominent personalities, that are reflected in all the choices they make. I love when characters have clear personalities that add to the story, instead of being convenient filler-characters. This is a really fun movie, and the idea that there are still areas on this planet that we don't know and still need to explore is interesting. I also love that Milo gets to use his special interest here and is living his passion. Being a nerd is cool!

2. Meet the Robinsons (2007)

The movie starts with a baby being left at an orphanage, and as we follow his childhood we learn that his name is Lewis, and he loves inventing stuff. Unfortunately, his weird and sometimes dangerous contraptions keep scaring away potential adoptive parents. This causes him a lot of grief and stress, as he's reaching the age where adoption becomes less likely. He really wants a family, and starts trying to figure out how he can find his real mom, as he believes he will finally be happy if he can be with her. This leads him to invent the memory scanner, which will allow him to scan his memories and thus remember what his mom looks like, enabling him to find her. He takes the scanner to his school science fair, where he meets Wilbur Robinson, who claims to be a time-travelling cop from the future, and is looking for the Bowler Hat Guy, who stole a time machine from him. The fair is ruined after The Bowler Hat Guy messes with Lewis' invention, totally crushing his confidence. To convince Lewis that it's important he fixes the scanner, Wilbur takes him to the future. This takes him on a crazy adventure, involving among other things a T-rex, crazy family members, singing frogs and a house robot. I know this movie didn't do too well money-wise, and to be honest I wasn't exactly drawn in when I saw the posters for it. But when I finally did watch it, I instantly loved it and I'm always recommending it to people. The movie has such a great message. It's basically about how you can come from nothing, but through believing in yourself and working hard, you can achieve great things. The movie also features a Walt Disney quote throughout, which is a happy little Easter egg for us nerds.

3. The Sword in the Stone (1963)

This movie isn't unknown by any means, most people have heard about it, but whenever I mention it to people, they haven't actually seen it. That's really surprising to me, as this is one of the first Disney movies I remember seeing as a child. It's such a wholesome movie with funny characters, and the drawing style is beautiful. It's from Disney's budget-era when it comes to animation, but I absolutely adore the animation from the 60s. The movie is about what happened after the king of England dies leaving behind no rightful heir to the throne. As the country is at the brink of breaking into war, there magically appears a sword in a stone, with the inscription that whoever pulls the sword out of the stone is the rightful king of England. No one has the strength to do it, and the sword is forgotten about. Years later, an orphaned boy stumbles into the house of a wizard called Merlin and his hilariously sarcastic talking owl Archimedes. Merlin knows that Arthur has a big future ahead of him, so he starts focusing on giving him an education. At the same time, his guardian starts preparing him to become a squire, as that's a promising future for someone who otherwise would have nothing. Merlin's teaching methods are rather controversial, involving turning Arthur into different animals to learn about things such as physics and gravity. The movie contains lots of funny scenes as well as emotional ones, and it's definitely one that everyone should watch.

4. Oliver and Company (1988)

The movie starts on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Oliver, a cute ginger kitten, is sitting in a box full of free kittens for people to grab. For some strange reason, Oliver doesn't get chosen, and is left by himself in the big city with no life experience at all. Then he bumps into the dog Dodger, who definitely knows his way around. He helps Oliver steal some sausages from a hot-dog stand, before taking them all and leaving him with nothing. Oliver follows him home to the barge where Dodger lives with his owner Fagan and a bunch of other dogs. Fagan's a deep down good guy who unfortunately has messed up badly. He's borrowed money from the crazy loan shark Sykes, who's now threatening to kill him if he doesn't repay him within three days. The next day, Fagan puts his street savvy dogs to work, having them steal things he can pawn off for money. Oliver comes with them, and when the dogs attempt to steal a limo, he ends up in the arms of Jenny, the girl riding in it. She adopts Oliver and takes him back to her house, leaving the dogs thinking she kidnapped him. They go to her house and steal him back, which confuses Oliver, as he finally had what he wanted: a home. Fagan sees his new collar, and plans to trade Oliver back to what he believes are his new rich owners, for enough money to pay Sykes back. This movie is great, it has lots of fun moments, and the dogs all have their own crazy personalities. And the fact that it stars Billy Joel only makes it ten times more enjoyable.

5. Brother Bear (2003)

This movie is very close to my heart, it's such a beautiful story. The movie is about the three brothers Sitka, Kenai and Denahi living in an Inuit community. Their oldest brother Sitka is killed in an accident, for which Kenai blames a bear, leading to him going out to kill it, against Denahi's warnings. His actions anger the spirits, and to teach him a lesson they turn him into a bear. He's messed with the balance of the world, and taken a life where he shouldn't have. To become human again he needs to go to the mountain where the Northern lights touch the earth. Being a bear of course takes a lot of adjusting to, and he discovers a lot about the balance of life and nature. He's goes on to learn in the hardest of ways that the bear he killed had a family. Kenai meets Koda, a lost bear cub on the way to the salmon run. It's on the way to the mountain Kenai needs to visit, so they go together, and Koda teaches Kenai a lot about life as a bear. In the meantime, Denahi thinks Kenai was killed by the bear, and starts hunting Kenai, not knowing the bear is his own brother. Being chased by your brother who's trying to kill you is obviously quite traumatising for Kenai, and the journey to the mountain becomes a difficult one. This is a beautiful movie with amazing scenery, colours and lessons. It also includes some of the funniest supporting characters in Disney history, the moose brothers Rutt and Tuke. I honestly don't understand how this movie isn't talked about more, it's such a fun and exciting story, with a great and meaningful message.

Those were five Disney movies I find are often overlooked and don't get the attention they deserve. Have you seen them all?

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