Founded in 1923 by Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios is the oldest-running animation company in the world, celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. It’s almost impossible to think of animation without the films the company has produced, including early classics like Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs to the Disney Renaissance, which featured family favourites such as Beauty & the Beast or The Lion King. Over the decades the studio has pushed the boundaries of both storytelling and animation technology – which it continues to do so to this day.
Many products are helping to celebrate this incredible milestone and Disney Animated by Prospero Hall from Funko Games is one of them. Featuring iconic Disney animated films spanning across different decades, it is a co-operative game where players race to finish their films before the looming deadline. Plus, the evil villains know how the stories end and are out to thwart you!
Kat: Just upon opening the box, Disney Animated oozes nostalgia and classic Disney charm. This is a cooperative game, meaning that players work together and communicate to try and beat the game itself. This is a mechanic that Funko Games are setting a very high standard for, already having produced incredible co-ops in E.T. Light Years from Home and Indiana Jones: Sands of Adventure. With that in mind, how does this game stand out?
Disney Animated has a very strong theme, which makes it special to set up and play. In the centre of the gaming area is the Animation Studio, which features the Animation Card deck, paint supply, and the villains watching your progress. Each player then receives their own film board, with background tiles and plastic film cells which they have to build to finish their chosen film. Each film cell, card, and token are so thoughtfully designed. The Animation Cards have a sketchy quality, as if they were quickly scribbled down by an animator on a deadline. The film cells look plucked from the movie screen, vibrantly coloured, and classically outlined. Then the tokens are unique to each film, whether that’s the Genie to help Aladdin, or Krunchie Kibble for 101 Dalmatians. Mark, do you want to describe the mechanic and how well everything works together?
Mark: You can’t help but just sit in awe at the production quality. The wooden tokens, transparent character cards, and styles that represent each era, are just perfect. I was already in awe of the game and then I read the rules. As Kat has said, Funko Games are well known for their cooperative games, yet the mechanics here are very refreshing. Players take it in turns to do one of five actions that are on the Animation Studio in an order. The higher up the order track, the more powerful the action. Once you choose the card it drops back to the first place, pushing other cards up higher to make them more powerful. It means players have to not only think of their own animations, but what they are leaving for their other team members to use.
It’s a wonderful mechanic and I was instantly reminded of last year’s hot release – Ark Nova. The mechanic is the same, yet this is the first time I know of it being used in a cooperative setting and my gosh does it work well. It really makes players think and encourages communication with them. If that wasn’t enough, at the end of each round, the villains get to take a shot at the players, removing vital resources they may need. This is called Calamity and there are different Calamity Card decks for each villain. Ignore it at your peril, and of course, like any film production the deadline token moves up the track until it reaches the number 13… plenty of time to complete films, right Kat?
Kat: You would think so, after all 13 turns can’t be unlucky, right? We started this game taking turns playing the actions – Ink & Paint, Background, Sound, Animation, Magic – and calmly working our way to completing our films. And then we realised that we probably should have collaborated a bit more! Ensuring that the Calamity Cards don’t come to fruition can result in discarding essential paint resources or Animation Cards. After completing your film you still have to add the villain, removing them from the game, but this takes a very certain combination of resources or actions. And if you can’t remove all the Calamity Cards then the villain effect pushes the deadline on even faster!
We certainly wouldn’t be hired by Disney after playing this game! We very much lost, though I am pleased to say that I completed my film of 101 Dalmatians. You need to complete all of them to win, depending on the number of players, and we had a triumvirate. What this loss highlights though is the nuances to the gameplay, how you need to strategise with the other players, and know in advance what you need to add your villain to a film. It has tons of replay ability, especially as each film has unique character and villain abilities. We used Aladdin, 101 Dalmatians, and Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs.
Inside the box is also Fantasia and Alice in Wonderland. It’s a lovely range that’s sure to appeal to Disney fans of all ages. There’s also a tantalising Volume 1 on the box, which hopefully implies more Disney films will be added as either other core boxes or expansion packs. I know I would love to see The Lion King or Beauty & the Beast incorporated! Which films would you like to see Mark?
Mark: Oh, The Lion King would be at the top of my list too! Perhaps Winnie the Pooh with honey tokens! And yes, that tantalising Volume 1 suggests that this game is ripe for expansion with other films. The thing that really impressed me with the game as an actual physical product, was the care to have things organised in the box. There are mini boxes inside the game to sort the different films into, so you can take that box and villain without having to wade through lots of different cards and tokens. They all beautifully fit inside the core box, really keeping that high expectation that Disney, themselves have. Even the year of the film is displayed on the spine of each. It also means set up for the game is much easier, so it’ll be easier to play more and more. If Funko Games continues with this theme, with two or three expansions, then the internal game boxes will look like a work of art by themselves!
To go back to our loss, I always think it’s easy to finish a co-op and think ‘oh, that was easy’. As a Disney game, there is that assumption ‘oh this is a family game’, so it won’t take much strategy or thinking to win. I mean 13 turns (well unless the Calamity hits), is plenty of time but the final aim, to defeat the villain, adds a very hard goal to hit. My son came away saying he thought losing was actually a really good sign; I tend to agree. The theme is something to draw everyone in the family, and just composing the films is exciting. To actually win, you need more thought, more care and more co-operation between players. With so much already in the box and the possible clue of yet more expansions, this is a game with almost endless replay ability. Which brings us to perhaps our only concern with the game and using it again and again…
Kat: We noticed that the background tiles for the films, which fit into individual player boards, are a very tight fit. Even tighter than a jigsaw puzzle. After playing multiple times there is a chance that some of these tiles could warp around the edges or just wear down. During our first playthrough we couldn’t even get the tiles into the player board without pushing down really firmly. It’s not a major problem, but it definitely will wear down over multiple playthroughs, scuffing up the tiles and probably the interior edge of the player board.
For a game with so many components though, that’s our only complaint. Everything is of such a high quality, and extremely good value at £30.00 ($34.99), that there is a timeless feel to Disney Animated, much like Disney films themselves. With such a gorgeous theme and relatively unique mechanic, this is a game that Disney fans will love to play with family and friends. It’s deep, but easy to teach and quick to learn, with plenty of references across the player boards and villain cards. So many games can just have the Disney logo slapped on the box, but this is a Disney game where the theme is everything, permeating every part of the gameplay, and it celebrates the 100th anniversary of the studios in a way that recognises the work of the animators and creators who have made these beloved films.
