Movies to Watch Before Trip

[MamaBearJohnson]

I'm wanting to put together a list of movies featured in the parks to do weekly family movie nights leading up to our trip. There's way too many Disney movies to do them all, so just the ones that the kids (7 and 5) need to see to get the full Disney experience. Suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[MirrorMirror]

I love this idea! I would include Cinderella and Toy Story.

 

[kbonner]

Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, Peter Pan, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Toy Story, Finding Nemo

 

[MandiC]

http://www.amazon.com/Saludos-Amigo...fkmr0&keywords=donald+duck+los+caberaros+tres
Three Cabelleros the mexico ride in epcot is themed after it, might be cool to see it. It's on my wish list to get before our next trip.

A lot depends on if they are boys/girls and what rides you plan on going on. I'd look at the rides and see your 'must-do' rides and which movies they might correspond with.
The basics would probably be
Finding Nemo
All the princess movies
Toy Story
Peter Pan
Lady and the Tramp
Meet the Robinsons might be neat to understand the Swiss Family Treehouse in MK

 

[PrincessKimmy]

Monsters inc and lilo and stitch!

They both have rides/attractions in MK.

I hadnt seen either movie before hand, so I didnt fully understand the connections in stitches great escape or monsters inc laugh floor (I.e why they were collecting laugh energy instead of scream energy)

 

[SpringSprite]

I would include Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, too

 

[Ravenne]

We recently re-watched Little Mermaid (since we're staying at AOA) and Snow White for 7DMT.

 

[DSNY4ever]

What hotel are you staying at? Do you have boys or girls (or both)? Do you plan to visit every park? Are you doing any character meals or eating at Be Our Guest? Sometimes these things make a difference based on what you will come across most and the attractions your children will be doing most.

We stayed at AoA and AKL on our last trip and did character meals at Crystal Palace and Tusker House (and Be our Guest) and visited each park at least once (we have one son...not into princesses at all, but we tried with those movies anyway). We tried to squeeze in before the trip-

Beauty and Beast
Toy Story
The Lion King
The Little Mermaid
Cars
Monster's Inc. (just cause we knew we'd do the meet and greet)
UP (we dressed up as them for the Halloween party, and met them in the AK)
Aladdin
Finding Nemo
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (the library had great Pooh books too, to read before bed).

Those were just a few, have fun!

 

[Shrimp332]

This is great because we have started watching movies for our upcoming trip and always looking for more... I just have trouble finding some that have gone into the Disney Vault... Any suggestion on where to find them or rent them that isn't to expensive?

 

[baldy6060]

Though the Swiss Family Treehouse isn't my favorite attraction I had a new appreciation for it when we walked through it shortly after watching the movie (which is a really good flick).

 

[nighttowll]

Here's a list of movies with attractions for each park. I didn't include Meet & Greets or Character Meals, only rides and shows. I wrote watch beside the ones that seemed to help explain an attraction better.

You will probably find your kids have already seen a number of these movies to begin with, and as others have stated, if you don't plan on experiencing a particular attraction, no point watching the movie.

Also, some of the attractions pretty much just retell the story, so not sure if you would want to watch those before going or not. Some of the rides also stand fine alone with no knowledge of the movies, like Dumbo, Aladdin's Carpets, the Tea-Cups, and the Nemo ride at Epcot, so totally up to you if it is important to you to understand those movie references or not. It's still fun to spin around or look at the aquarium either way.

Magic Kingdom:
Toy Story
Dumbo
Beauty and the Beast (attraction reenacts movie)
Haunted Mansion - watch, unless they scare easy, it is a comedy
Alice and Wonderland
Aladdin
Winnie the Pooh (attraction reenacts movie)
Monsters Inc. - watch
Peter Pan
Pirates of the Caribbean - watch, except OP's kids probably a little too young
Snow White
Song of the South - watch, makes the ride make more sense to at least watch the tar baby cartoon part, but good luck finding the banned movie
Country Bears
Lilo & Stitch
Swiss Family Robinson - watch
Tom Sawyer - watch
Little Mermaid (attraction reenacts movie)

Epcot:
Phineas & Ferb tv show - watch
The Three Caballeros
Finding Nemo

Hollywood Studios:
Honey I Shrunk the Kids - watch
Pirates of the Caribbean
Any Muppet movie - watch
Star Wars - watch
Toy Story - watch
Tower of Terror - watch, unless scare easy, was a Disney channel made for TV movie so pretty tame, but still some intense scenes
American Idol tv show (attraction reenacts movie)
Beauty and the Beast (attraction reenacts movie)
Little Mermaid (attraction reenacts movie)
Indiana Jones - watch
Cars / Planes

Animal Kingdom:
A Bugs Life - watch
Lion King (attraction reenacts movie)
Finding Nemo (attraction reenacts movie)
Land Before Time (not Disney but worth it for all the dino tie ins, especially at the ages listed)
Up - watch if plan on doing wilderness badges, makes more sense


Movies/ characters with some type of reference that tend to repeat throughout more than one park are:
Finding Nemo
Lion King
Pirates of the Caribbean
Aladdin
Beauty and the Beast
Little Mermaid
Toy Story
Snow White
Winnie the Pooh

And of course Mickey and his friends are everywhere.

* no promises I didn't forget something.

 

[nighttowll]

Double post.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

I have a Pinterest board with info on Cultural Literacy/History at Disneyland - I'm not sure which things are also at WDW though.

 

[itsjustryan]

This is great because we have started watching movies for our upcoming trip and always looking for more... I just have trouble finding some that have gone into the Disney Vault... Any suggestion on where to find them or rent them that isn't to expensive?

Check your local library. Ours has them all and they "rent" them for free. It is a great way to see the ones that have been locked away.