The official Disney Animated Features canon fast approaches fifty films, spanning the decades all the way back to the late 1930s. While some are undeniably better than others (who really needs The Aristocats and how many people do you know who have seen or even heard of Saludos Amigos), many of them are undeniable classics likely to live forever.  Here are the ten finest.

#10: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White goes down in history as the one that started it all, so its place on lists like these is all but secured. But even if this had just been one somewhere in the middle, it would stand out as a worthy entry in the canon. I’ve no objective way to judge this, but with its catchy songs, charming characters and moments of genuine emotion, I’d bet Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs dazzles today every bit as much as it did when first released.

#9: Alice in Wonderland

It’s only fitting that one of the greatest children’s books of all time should have led to one of the greatest children’s movies of all time. That’s Disney standby Sterling Holloway (best known, arguably, as Winnie the Pooh) as the Cheshire Cat!

#8: Peter Pan

I have a special affinity for the Peter Pan story in all its manifestations. I’ve devoted virtually my entire life to the avoidance of adulthood at all costs. That’s why I complain about things on a website instead of paying back my student loans. So, Peter Pan.

#7: Cinderella

The much beloved Cinderella is the movie that saved Disney animation. Just as they had done with Snow White, the studio essentially banked everything on this one feature. Luckily for them, and for animation fans the world over, the gamble payed off big time. Even today, Cinderella remains many people’s favorite Disney animated feature. You’ll hear a lot of love for Gus the mouse, but for my money you can’t beat Lucifer the cat.

#6: Dumbo

A flying elephant? Definitely great. A drunk elephant? Definitely greater. A running time of only 64 minutes? Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!

#5: Sleeping Beauty

Holy nut, look at those backgrounds! Sleeping Beauty is the Citizen Kane of Disney movies, in the sense that all the backgrounds have crazy depth, plus there’s that scene in Citizen Kane where Joseph Cotten fights a dragon. Nice work, background designer Eyvind Earle! Also, I love Tchaikovsky more than just about any other composer, so the film’s using the music from his Sleeping Beauty ballet suits me just fine.

#4: The Little Mermaid

I’ve mentioned before that The Little Mermaid has moments so powerfully moving that even I am helpless to resist weeping. This could be because the movie is great, or it could be because I am a blubbering crybaby who starts bawling no matter what he watches, including soup commercials. I’d prefer to think it’s the former. (It’s both.) And dig that Academy Award winning music, courtesy of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Wonderful stuff.

#3: Pinocchio

The initial, classic period of Disney animation didn’t get much better than this (foreshadowing: it only got better than this one time!). Aside from everything just being gorgeous, there are moments of fun, of pathos, of fright, of everything. The phrase “this movie has it all” couldn’t be more applicable. The fact that “When You Wish Upon a Star” has become a standard, beyond the children and Disney enthusiasts who might be expected to remember the words, ought to tell you something, too.

#2: Beauty and the Beast

This “tale as old as time” became the only animated feature to be nominated for Best Picture, and though the movie it lost to, The Silence of the Lambs, is a great one, I think Beauty and the Beast should have taken the statue. Words can’t begin to describe how fabulous this movie is. It’s got a strong heroine, imaginative characters at every turn, a stellar voice cast (I loves me some Angela Lansbury), music from the Menken/Ashman team and the most beautiful animation since Sleeping Beauty more than thirty years before. Sure, it has the same problem inherent in any version of the Beauty and the Beast story—just keep staying with the violent, psychologically abusive, controlling partner and one day he will turn by magic into your Prince Charming—but it’s magical enough to make you not give a shit about that at all. Anyone stuck on that when watching this movie has SERIOUS GROUCHY PROBLEMS.

#1: Fantasia

Was there any doubt? I’m on record about forty billion times as saying that Fantasia is my favorite Disney movie and that, in addition, it is just about the greatest thing mankind has ever achieved with the possible exception of Reddi-Whip. Breathtaking animation. Music culled from the best ever composed. The introduction of the Mickey Mouse design we know today. Those hopping mushrooms. Hippopotamuses in tutus. A guy named Deems! What more could you possibly want in a movie?

If You Hated This, You Will Also Totally Hate:

• Fun and Fancy Free
• Mickey’s Christmas Carol
• An Animated Discussion — Part Two
• Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas
• Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale