The foundation of the Walt Disney company media conglomerate is animation. Without Walt Disney’s vision and the introduction of a whistling mouse in 1928, the media landscape would look very different.

While Disney always said that we can never forget that it all began with a mouse, you could also say that the company would never be alive were it not for seven dwarfs. As early as 1934, Disney began working on what Hollywood would call “Disney’s Folly,” developing what would become Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was finally released in 1937 as the first American-made animated feature and was a smash hit. If it was a flop, we wouldn’t be talking about Disney 77 years later.

Since 1937, the Disney Animation Studios feature unit has produced 53 movies over those years. There were many dark periods, but we are in the middle of another bright period for the studio. Thanks to Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph and - especially - Frozen, the Disney Company believes in Animation again.

On Monday, the studio announced Moana, from Aladdin team Ron Clements and John Musker. The movie will not be out until 2016. With that in mind, plus the fact that Big Hero 6 is due out in a matter of days, now is the perfect time to look at the Top 10 Disney Animation Studios Feature Films.

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Cinderella, 1950

Cinderella came at the end of the studio’s first dark period, during World War II and through the rest of the 1940s. The studio realized that it could not continue producing lame package features, although the last one - The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - was actually pretty good. So, they returned to fairy tales, something Disney and his team often did when it looked like everything was dark.

While Cinderella was a huge success in 1950, it hasn’t aged quite as well as other Disney fairy tales. The animation is still as simple as what we see in the package features, but the music is what really lifts it. From “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” to “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes,” Cinderella features a wonderful score that keeps it alive today.

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Mulan, 1998

Flashing forward a few decades and we come to another darker period for the studio. Mulan came in the years after the Jeffrey Katzenberg-led Disney Renaissance of the early 1990s. Suddenly, the movies weren’t big successes and the stories weren’t as great. But the stylization and animation was reaching new heights, particularly in Mulan. Based on a Chinese legend, audiences were presented with a strong-willed female character who would stop at nothing to protect her family.

The film does get a bit bogged down by Eddie Murphy’s anachronistic humor, but the animation is some of the best from the studio in the late ‘90s. And check out that incredible Jerry Goldsmith score.

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The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh, 1977

Although Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh is a compilation of three shorts that had already been released as early as 1966, together, the film is one of the most charming in the Disney canon. A.A. Milne’s stories were perfect for Disney and Pooh’s adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood are still poignant today. Everyone wants to relive the best memories of their childhood and this will help.

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Wreck-It Ralph, 2012

While I had hoped that 2009’s The Princess and the Frog would convince the studio to make more 2D animated films, it wasn’t a huge hit. They went back to CG animation for Tangled, which was huge. But my favorite of the recent hits is easily Wreck-It Ralph. This movie is a total blast, with a great voice cast to boot.

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The Great Mouse Detective, 1986

This is a really personal choice. I have always loved this movie. The 1980s were hard for Disney thanks to The Black Cauldron disaster, but it gave us The Great Mouse Detective, so it wasn’t all bad.

Detective is a really unique film in the Disney canon. There really isn’t much else like it. There’s nothing romantic about it, but that climactic Big Ben scene is just chilling. While Cauldron did feature light use of CGI, the Big Ben scene was the first time Disney really played with computer tools.

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One Hundred And One Dalmatians, 1961

You might like The Jungle Book, but One Hundred and One Dalmatians is by far my favorite Disney animated film from the ‘60s. I just love that kinetic, sketchy style of animation that dominated the studio’s films through The Fox and the Hound and this is where it all began. Cruella De Vil also remains one of the best Disney villains of all time.

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937

Yes, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs hasn’t aged as well. It still looks like a really long Silly Symphony short at some points, with the animation not as refined all the way through. But still, it is a colorful, dark masterpiece. Seriously, do you realize how dark this movie gets?

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Beauty and the Beast, 1991

Of the Renaissance movies, Beauty and the Beast is the one I watch repeatedly and say, “Yeah, Walt would have made this.” It’s dangerous for the filmmakers to think that way, but you can just feel how special the first ever animated film nominated for the Best Picture Oscar really is. The music, the sweeping animation and that story... everything about it is Disney.

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Pinocchio, 1940

Every film Disney made from 1937 through 1942, ending with Bambi, is an absolute classic. These are the movies I grew up idolizing and had, at one point, convinced me that I wanted to be an animator. But Pinocchio has always stuck out as the most unique story Disney ever took on. It is the darkest movie Disney ever made and probably the most finely-detailed. Look at how Monstro is animated or how a wooden puppet moves.

Plus, it gave us “When You Wish Upon A Star.” How can you beat that?

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Dumbo, 1941

Sixty-four minutes. That’s all it takes to tell the most perfect, simple and emotional story ever brought to the screen. Dumbo is a class in storytelling, proving that you can give an audience everything in barely over an hour. Yes, the animation is simple, but it fits the simple story of an elephant who could fly and overcome bullying. I can’t think of a better message from a Disney movie. Sure, ice princess can sing about letting go, a street rat can be the diamond in the rough and a little prince can save his land from starvation, but Dumbo teaches us that we just have to believe in our own abilities and what makes us unique.

Oh, and that there’s nothing like a mother’s love. Just watch “Baby Mine” without tearing up. I dare you to try.

Yes, there’s a lot more missing here. The Lion King is great and I’d love to have a spot for Bambi. There’s the stylized masterpieces Sleeping Beauty and Fantasia, as well as the underrated gem The Rescuers. Lilo & Stitch is also an oddball favorite.