Movies to watch before your Walt Disney World trip

Walt Disney World vacation, Disney movies, movies to prepare for Walt Disney World,
Several months before our trip to Walt Disney World, we started watching Disney movies that we needed to see to help with our trip.  Michael had actually been watching some of these movies for years.  We also brought a good majority of these movies with us since we were driving down (Driving to Walt Disney World).

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The main reason for watching these movies before your trip is so that you will understand the rides and the characters in the parks.  I've broken it down below of what movies should be watched and why.

This list has been update as of end of May 2017. 


The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Pirates of the Caribbean
The Swiss Family Robinson
Song of the South (if you're lucky to find it)
Tom Sawyer
The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh
Peter Pan
Toy Story
The Lion King
Finding Nemo
Finding Dory (Turtle Talk with Crush has included Dory in the show)
A Bug's Life
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The Muppet Movie
Indiana Jones
Star Wars
Alice in Wonderland
Lilo & Stitch (Stitch's attraction is only open during certain seasons, but you can meet Lilo and Stitch at their character meal.  I think I heard Stitch might be coming back to parks for meet ups.)  

Character Meetings

Sleeping Beauty
Mary Poppins
The Jungle Book
The Princess and the Frog
Big Hero 6
Inside Out
Moana (Said to be coming to Magic Kingdom soon)
Guardians of the Galaxy (Currently at Walt Disney: One Man's Dream in Hollywood Studios)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Jake and the Neverland Pirates
Sofia the First
Elena of Avalor

Other Reasons

The night time show at Hollywood Studios, Fantasmic, has a little bit of the movie in it.

The Incredibles
Mr. and Mrs. Incredible host a dance party in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom.

You'll also want to know about Phineas and Ferb, all the main Disney Junior characters not already listed, and of course Mickey and friends.  If you have kids, you already know all about them!

So if you've got a Walt Disney World trip scheduled, why not make it a movie night and watch one of these movies before hand.  Better yet, use these movies as an awesome countdown to your trip!  Can you think of any other movies to watch before going that I've missed?  Since we went at Christmas time, we also included some Christmas Disney movies to our list.




  1. Disney world is fun place. We love all there movies too.

  2. HI, I've been thinking of doing the same for our upcoming trip -- several classics I've been able to check out from our local library, Netflix had a few others, but am scratching my head on where to find the rest without paying an arm and leg. Any suggestions on that?

    1. You could see if there are any of your friends that might have the movies you're looking for or check out any consignment sales/stores? If you're just looking for DVDs, sometimes you can get some good deals at Best Buy, Walmart, or Target. I'm such a Disney fan, that I'm always buying the movies when they are released or when I see them on sale. Enjoy your trip! Hope this list was helpful.