The Magical World Of Disney #344: Top 100 Disney Movies, Part 14

74. Cool Runnings (1993)

Cool Runnings is a 1993 American sports comedy film directed by Jon Turteltaub from a screenplay by Lynn Siefert, Tommy Swerdlow, and Michael Goldberg, and a story by Siefert and Michael Ritchie. It is loosely based on the debut of the Jamaican national bobsleigh team at the 1988 Winter Olympics, and stars John Candy, Leon Robinson, Doug E. Doug, Rawle D. Lewis, and Malik Yoba. In the film, former Olympian Irving Blitzer (Candy) coaches a novice four-man bobsleigh team from Jamaica, led by sprinter Derice Bannock (Robinson).

Originally envisaged as a sports drama, Jeremiah S. Chechik and Brian Gibson were attached to direct before dropping out, causing Turteltaub to be hired. Robinson was cast in 1989, followed by Doug and Yoba a year later. Lewis, who had little acting experience prior to the film and was first sought as a dialect coach, joined in November 1992. Principal photography began in February 1993 and lasted until that March, with filming locations including Kingston, Discovery Bay, and Calgary. Cool Runnings is Candy’s final film released in his lifetime, while its score was composed by Hans Zimmer.

Cool Runnings was theatrically released in the United States on October 1, 1993, by Buena Vista Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for its humor, tone, and cast performances. The film grossed $154.9 million worldwide and its theme song, “I Can See Clearly Now” by Jimmy Cliff, reached number 18 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

A fun sports comedy based off one of the most unbelievable true stories in Olympics history with a solid cast led by John Candy.

73. A Bug’s Life (1998)

A Bug’s Life is a 1998 American 3D computer-animated comedy adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Stanton, the film involves a misfit ant, Flik, that is looking for “tough warriors” to save his colony from greedy grasshoppers, only to recruit a group of bugs that turn out to be an inept circus troupe. Randy Newman composed the music for the film, which stars the voices of Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Hayden Panettiere, Phyllis Diller, Richard Kind, David Hyde Pierce, Joe Ranft, Denis Leary, John Ratzenberger, Jonathan Harris, Madeline Kahn, Bonnie Hunt, Mike McShane and Brad Garrett.

The film is inspired by Aesop’s fable The Ant and the Grasshopper. Production began shortly after the release of Toy Story in 1995. The screenplay was penned by Stanton and comedy writers Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw. The ants in the film were redesigned to be more appealing, and Pixar’s animation unit employed new technical innovations in computer animation. During production, the filmmakers became embroiled in a public feud with DreamWorks Animation due to their similar film, Antz, which was released the same year.

The film was released to theaters on November 25, 1998, and was a box office success, surpassing competition, and grossing $363 million in receipts. It received positive reviews from film critics, who commended the storyline and animation, while others criticized it by comparing it to Antz. The film has been released multiple times on home video.

A Bug’s Life is a solid movie, it’s a fun and enjoyable movie, the animation is really nice, the characters are fun to watch, the voice acting is really good, but the story, it’s very predictable. We get those lazy clichés such as the liars revealed among many other things and it really doesn’t do anything new or creative with it. Plus, when you really look at some of the CG animation again on A Bug’s Life, it doesn’t really hold up, specifically the rain, it looks really fake by today’s standards, even the bird in this movie looks a little too fake compared to what Pixar has done today.

#100 & #99

#98 & #97

#96 & #95

#94 & #93

#92 & #91

#90 & #89

#88 & #87

#86 & #85

#84 & #83

#82 & #81

#80 & #79

#78 & #77

#76 & #75

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