Phoenix Suns: Which Disney animated film best represents the franchise?
By Ryan Bawek
The Phoenix Suns’ Disney movie comparison runner up was a close one.
After some research and searching for parallels, I narrowed my Disney animated film search down to two movies: Aladdin and The Princess and the Frog.
Aladdin came out in 1992, right when the Suns acquired Charles Barkley and became serious title contenders. Jordan was kind of like Jafar and Aladdin was Barkley trying to break through to the kingdom or Jasmine’s heart, Jasmine is the NBA title in this scenario.
The idea of Jafar and the Sultan representing the NBA keeping the Suns down, especially with the Suns-Spurs series in 2007, and generally all of the purple tones in the film made me think of the Suns.
The Suns have never had a genie (that is more of a Lakers thing) to grant them wishes though and the film was a huge success and won multiple awards.
It is also one of the films that sparked Disney’s revival and dominance after a rough decade in the 1980s.
That combined with the fact that it is one of the most revered and popular films in Disney history, made it feel like an inauthentic portrayal of the Phoenix Suns franchise.
I decided to go with The Princess and the Frog.