The Disney Movie That Was Big the Year You Were Born

The story of a man cub sporting inexplicable red underwear gave us two vintage party jams: bubbly bear Baloo's "Bare Necessities" and scary monkey King Louie's "I Wan'na Be Like You." The movie also marked both the end of an era and a new beginning, as Walt Disney himself died of complications from lung cancer during production. The Jungle Book was the final animated film he supervised.

Anyone who's ever driven a Volkswagen Beetle—or any vehicle, really — should have a special fondness for this classic about a sentient car named Herbie who happens to be real good at driving real fast. Decades before Lightning McQueen blew the minds of kids everywhere with tricks and flash in Cars, Herbie was the humble little car that could.

Screen legend Kurt Russell—who you know now as Chris Pratt's dad in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2—starred in this comedy as a college kid who gets shocked by a computer and absorbs its super smarts into his brain. Tempting as it may sound, do not try that at home.

Long before the internet fell in love with memes personifying cats, Disney made everybody want to be one (oh, a rinky tinky tinky!). The story of a Parisian alley outsider who got in good with the fancy felines was catnip for audiences.

The 1964 smash Mary Poppins may be the most enduring of Disney's live-action/animated hybrid films, but Bedknobs and Broomsticks certainly has its supporters. Angela Lansbury, who two decades later would voice Mrs. Potts in a little movie called Beauty and the Beast, starred as a kindly witch in training. A magical, transporting bed takes her and three children on an adventure that ends with—you guessed it—an epic showdown with the Nazis.

Kurt Russell returned for this sequel to The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. But this time, instead of turning into a human computer, he turns invisible. Some people have all the fun.

If as a child you found yourself strangely attracted to the fox at the center of Disney's animal-centric retelling of the folk tale, you are not alone. That silky British voice—c'mon! Many attempts have been made to capture the spirit of the outlaw hero who stole from the rich to give to the poor, but none have endured quite like this alluring Disney take.

Everyone's favorite car with a mind of its own returned six years after The Love Bug scored big. The sequel skipped the rehash of a race plot, opting instead for Herbie to play hero to an elderly woman being pushed out of her home by an evil real estate developer. If you don't find that impressive…pray tell, what has your Toyota Camry done for you lately?

Kim Richards, best known now as a Real Housewives of Beverly Hills trainwreck, starred as one of two orphans with special powers chased down by an evil millionaire—who, no, was not named Lisa Vanderpump.

Nearly 30 years before Lindsay Lohan switched bodies with Jamie Lee Curtis, Jodie Foster did it with her costar Barbara Harris in the original film. While this version is by all means lovely, I regret to inform you that it does not include a punk rock band called Pink Slip.

The willy-nilly, silly old bear first began appearing in featurettes in the '60s, but it wasn't until 1977 that Disney finally gave Pooh his own movie. The anthology film combined three previously released shorts with new material.

A sequel to 1975's Escape to Witch Mountain, this film features two alien teens returning from Witch Mountain to face off with villains in Los Angeles. The franchise would go on to receive a TV sequel in 1982, as well as a theatrical reboot in 2009 starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

In the 1975 western comedy The Apple Dumpling Gang, three orphans strike it rich during the California Gold Rush, grabbing the attention of two holdup men played by Tim Conway and Don Knotts (Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show). The two bumbling baddies turn good by the end of the first movie, but their continued mishaps take center stage in the sequel.

Herbie returned for a third go-round in 1977 entitled Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, and the original film franchise came to a conclusion with this adventure in which Herbie heads to South America for some car-azy (sorry) hijinks. Herbie would go on to get a short-lived TV show in 1982, a TV movie remake in 1997, and a theatrical reboot in 2005 starring national treasure Lindsay Lohan.

The sweet story of Tod and Copper was essentially Romeo and Juliet with more fur. It's a real tear-jerker that doesn't pull its punches, giving us one of the most melancholy endings in the Disney animated canon.

Jeff Bridges starred in this sci-fi classic about a computer programmer who gets zapped inside of one. ("Computer fans may very well love it," the New York Times hilariously supposed in its review.) Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund joined Bridges for a follow-up in 2010, Tron: Legacy, and a new roller coaster based on the IP is coming soon to Disney World.

Okay, so this one wasn't exactly a full movie, but its home release made it feel like one. The Disney-fied version of Charles Dickens's novel was put out as a sort of double feature alongside a theatrical re-release of 1977's The Rescuers. It's longer than a typical short at 26 minutes, and to many, an annual viewing is a holiday staple.

Look, the '80s were a rough time for the House of Mouse—there's an entire documentary about it called Waking Sleeping Beauty. The struggle to create good movies that made money was real, and it's no better exemplified than in 1984, the rare year that the studio didn't release a single new film under the Disney banner. Back then, though, theatrical re-releases of the animated hits were standard, and this one performed fairly well. Man-eating whales are timeless!

Remember one slide ago when it felt like we had hit rock bottom? Welcome to 1985, the year Disney decided it'd be a good idea to make a terrifying animated fantasy film that, if watched once, will give you nightmares for the rest of your life.

Sherlock Holmes wishes he were as clever as Basil of Baker Street, the rodent sleuth who investigates the disappearance of a toy-maker. Adventure abounds as Basil tracks down the culprit to be Ratigan—one of Disney's most underrated villains—who's planning to kill the mouse queen of England.