Walt Disney Movies 1937-1967

Walt Disney (1901-1966)
Walt Disney (1901-1966)

Want to know the best Walt Disney movies?  How about the worst Walt Disney movies?  Curious about how much Walt Disney movies grossed at the box office?  Or which Walt Disney movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Walt Disney movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which one got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

A few years ago my favorite mother-in-law suggested that I do a movie page on all the live action Disney movies.  A quick check on IMDb showed a mind boggling amount of Disney movies…so I put that request off to the side.  Well fast forward the tape a few years…..I was at my local library and I found a book called The Disney Films by Leonard Maltin. In that book, Maltin looked at the movies made during Walt Disney’s tenure.  So following Maltin’s approach I have done an Ultimate Movie Rankings page on the 86 full length Walt Disney movies made from 1937-1967.  That should sort of satisfy my mother-in-law’s request.

His IMDb page shows 657 producing credits and 120 directing credits from 1921-1969. This page will rank 86 full length Walt Disney movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts and some of his documentaries were not included in the rankings.  After the massive Walt Disney movie table there is a section of Possibly Interesting Facts About Walt Disney.
Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews in 1964's Mary Poppins
Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews in 1964’s Mary Poppins

Walt Disney Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Walt Disney Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Sort/rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort by Walt Disney movies by star of the movie or by type of movie.
  • Sort Walt Disney movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Walt Disney movies by yearly adjusted domestic box office rank
  • Sort Walt Disney movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Walt Disney movie received.
  • Sort Walt Disney movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

Walt Disney Adjusted World Wide Box Office Grosses

Greer Garson and Fred MacMurray in The Happiest Millionaire (1967)...the last movie Walt Disney movie.
Greer Garson and Fred MacMurray in The Happiest Millionaire (1967)…the last movie Walt Disney movie.

Possibly Interesting Facts About Walt Disney

1.  Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois
 
2.  In 1928 Walt Disney released the animated short, Steamboat Willie.  This was the first appearance of Mickey Mouse.
 
3.  Walt Disney holds the record of winning the most Oscars® with 22 wins in competitive categories.  He holds the record for consecutive years to win an Oscar®.  He won an Oscar® every year from 1934-1940….that’s seven years.  He almost duplicated that record when he won an Oscar® every year between 1951-1956…that was ONLY six years.
 
4.  A crowded trophy case.  To go with his 22 Oscars® wins…Walt Disney also received four honorary Oscars® and three Golden Globe® awards.  Walt Disney was nominated for 59 Oscars® in many different categories.
 
5.  When Walt Disney would visit his animators at work…the animators would whisper the code “Man is in the forest” to let everybody know that Walt Disney was nearby.  This was of course a reference to the classic movie Bambi.
 
6.  When looking at the all time adjusted box office gross champs….Walt Disney was involved in 8 of the Top 50 movies of all time.  #10 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, #11 101 Dalmatians, #22 Fantasia, #25 Mary Poppins, #30 The Jungle Book, #31 Sleeping Beauty, #39 Pinocchio and #48 Bambi.  Those 8 movies have a combined adjusted domestic box office gross of $5.37 BILLION.
 
7. In 2013 Tom Hanks played Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks.  Hanks is actually a distant relative of Walt Disney.
 
8.  Walt Disney favorite Disney movies?Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi and Mary PoppinsThe song “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins was his favorite song.  He considered it to be a perfect summation of the spirit of his company, and why he created Walt Disney Pictures in the first place.
 
9. Walt Disney and his urban legends. The first Walt Disney urban legend is that he had his body cryogenically frozen. The second Walt Disney urban legend is that he was buried somewhere on the grounds of Disneyland.  Both urban legends are completely untrue….or maybe….
 
10.  While researching this Walt Disney page….I discovered two awesome websites on Disney films. 
 
Anybody wanting more detailed information on any movie listed in my table…..just follow this link….The Disney Films.  If you are interested in movie posters then this site is the one for you…Steve Lensman’s Disney Movie Posters. Check out Walt Disney‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
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24 thoughts on “Walt Disney Movies 1937-1967

  1. wonderful site. thank you so much for doing it. i probably have seen 75% of these movies growing up. i know we watched disneyland every sunday afternoon and i watched the mickey mouse club in the afternoons. my third grade class took a field trip to see “Peter Pan”. cinderella is my all time favorite cartoon, pollyanna is my favorite movie, 20 thousand leagues under the sea was really scary. i learned history form johnny tremain and davy crockett. the science movies was great and explained thing so much better that the textbooks.

    1. Hey mimi. Glad you checked out “your requested” page. When I started this page I thought I would have seen more of these movies…..but sadly my tally count is only 14…..if you have seen 75% of this movies…then your tally count stands around 64 or so. I have some major work to catch up.

      Very cool that your remember your third grade field trip to see Peter Pan. I can imagine how 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea would be scary back then. Glad you enjoyed the page….I will one day look at the Disney movies after Walt’s death….but I felt this was a great place to stop for right now.

  2. One of my favourites of this era would be the Roddy McDowall movie The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin. This one is funny, has a memorable hero and villain. I never understood why it did not take off more. I really enjoyed working my way through this Disney retrospective.

    1. Hey Wis2001…..I have not seen The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin….but based on your recommendation….I will have to check this one out. Thanks for the visit and the comment.

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