Disney Animated by Funko Games was a 2023 Toy of the Year finalist for best board game.

We had the opportunity to play this masterpiece at the Funko Games booth at Gen Con this summer. It is a love letter to Disney Animation fans and the perfect way to commemorate and celebrate the 100 Years of Wonder at home.

Work together like the team at the famous Walt Disney Animation Studios to create movie magic! Produce five classic Disney films using detailed background art, vibrant paint colors, and lively sound to bring cherished stories to life on the screen. But watch out! The infamous Villains of your featured films will rush your deadlines and create all the calamity they can. As a team, you’ll use the strengths of the Animation Studio – Heart, Focus, Inspiration, Grit, and Teamwork – to vanquish the Villains and finish your films in time!

Funko Games sent me a copy to showcase on the blog for this review.

Packaging

The Walt Disney Company celebrates it’s 100th anniversary this year. The Disney 100 platinum holographic sticker that adorns many of the celebration products can be found at the bottom right of the front of the box.

The current official Walt Disney Animation Studios logo can be found on all sides of the box, but one of the sides has a classic black and white photo of the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California.

Volume 1 of Disney Animated by Funko Games includes the following movie themes: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Fantasia (1940), Alice in Wonderland (1951), 101 Dalmatians (1961), and Aladdin (1992). I love that volume 1 is pointed out on the box because this is definitely a game that can grow and become even more fun with expansion packs to include more classic Disney animated films. This is a great selection of Disney classic films with an addition of the modern fan favorite, Aladdin.

No detail is left behind, as the inside of the box is themed with items that you may have seen on animators desks in the early years.

The following quote is printed on the back of the game board and is the first thing that you see when you open the box and remove the instructions:

“Whatever we accomplish belongs to our entire group, a tribute to our combined efforts.” – Walt Disney

This is a great Walt Disney quote and very appropriate to this board games as it is a cooperative game where you will have to work as a team to complete your Disney animated movies on time. The game is for 2-4 players with the recommended age of 10+. The game lasts around 20 minutes per animator player.

Official Game Overview: Work together like the famous team at Walt Disney Animated Studios to produce classic Disney films before the deadline. But the infamous Villains of the stories don’t want you to finish – because they know how the stories end. The calamity they cause will slow down the production and move you closer to your looking deadline.

To animate your film, you must complete your background, place your three characters, and finally, end the Villains’ evil ways by putting them into the movie. If all of the players finish animating their films before the deadline, you all win!

The Disney Villains that players will face include the Evil Queen, Chernabog, Queen of Hearts, Cruella De Vil, and Jafar.

Action tiles of animation, background, ink and paint, sound, and magic help the animators to work on their respective films. The wooden sound tokens all are uniquely designed to match their films.

Below are pictures of what the different movie cards look like completed with the background and transparent cel cards layered on top of the background. This is your ultimate goal with your fellow co-op animators to try and complete your movie before the deadline.

As a Disney animation fan my whole life, it was a great thrill to strategize with my kids to work together to complete our classic Disney animated films, stop the Disney Villains from delaying the movie, and release our movies to the fans on time.

The Funko Games designers really did a fantastic job with the details to make this the ultimate themed game for Disney animation fans. The Disney magic is there. Included in the packaging are small individual boxes that fold up to look like books that will conveniently hold the background pieces, cels, and tokens for each movie.

Where to Buy?

Funko Games: Disney Animated can be purchased on Amazon or Funko Games’ website.

Order: Funko Games: Disney Animated (Amazon)

*By purchasing from Amazon.com through the links above you are supporting DuckTalks at no additional cost to yourself!

Final Thoughts

This is the game of Disney fans’ dreams. Funko Games: Disney Animated was my favorite board game for 2023 and definitely a highlight of my 2023 Gen Con experience for it’s imaginative gameplay and creative attention to detail for the Disney animator theme. I hope Funko Games releases expansion pack volumes for this game to showcase event more magical Disney classic films. All Disney fans need to have this on their holiday wish list this year. Thank you Funko Games for allowing us to live our Disney animator dreams.