52 Weeks, 53 Movies

If you can understand the subtle reference in the title of my blog you’ll notice I’m a huge animation fan.  I’m sure there are bigger fans out there, but I have a true passion for the medium.  I love animation not only as a form entertainment, but as a true form of art. Like all healthy, well-adjusted American children, this passion stems from the wonderful artist at the Walt Disney Company.  I love Disney.  Who honestly can say they don’t?  Despite the reputation as a greedy corporation, the Disney brand, films, and character represent what is good and wholesome with the world.  I admit that this may be a naive point of view, but I prefer to see the bright side of the world and these movies have helped fuel that world view for generations.  These are films that just put a dopey grin on my face.

While looking through my healthy collection of DVDs/Blu-Rays, I noticed that I haven’t paid the attention to my Disney Collection has well I should.  I mean, I bought the damn things to enjoy over and over again, not so that they could sit on the shelf to collect dust. And as 2013 came to a close I was looking for a lofty aspiration to strive for throughout 2014.  Since joining the 2018 American Olympic Curling Team is still a few years away, this seemed like the perfect time to set a goal to watch the films released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios banner, one a week, in the order of their release.  Simple ground rules is that it has to be an “official” WDAS release, not a DisneyToon Studios release, not an animated film released by Disney, but the 53 movies made by the Animation House Walt and Mickey built.  54 when Big Hero 6 comes out this winter.

Part 2 of this goal was to stir my stagnant creative juices by rejoining the blogging world and write about my thoughts and feelings as I re-watched these films as an adult.  I’ll be doing a sort of an unprofessional, uneducated mini-review, analysis, and opinion of films that brought so much joy and inspiration (see what I did there?) to myself and so many others.   As a child, I watched (and re-watched and re-watched and re-watched…..)  these colorful movies for their adventure, their heart, their characters and their comedy.  And now, I enjoy these films for their artistry, the talent displayed by the animators, their creativity, their imagination, their skillful storytelling, and the fact that I just enjoy the hell out of them.

You have may notice that it’s late July and I haven’t written more than a blurb on my Instagram account (Shameless Plug: Follow me, @Eric218) when I posted a picture as I watch each movie. It’s time that changed and I play some catch up.  I’ll no longer confine myself to the 2 or 3 sentences as a caption to a square picture.  It’s time I reopened my Moving Castle Blog and entered my personal Disney Vault to revisit 53 Disney Movies in 52 Weeks.