Disneyology

Not planning to do anything with Don Bluth in the near future but never say never.

Somewhere Out There was the original Let it Go.

Man that song was everywhere growing up.

The Top Twenty Musical Sequences in Disney History



For my first Disney countdown I’ll be looking at the songs in Disney movies. When I was younger I used to hold the musical sequences in Disney movies were an example of why they were stupid, but having looked back at them I realize that they were actually integral to the studio’s success and more often than not when they turned away from them they would begin to decline. For this list I will be looking at some of their best musical sequences. Note that I said “musical sequence” and not “song.” Song quality will be a big part of my evaluation but the visual component matters too. Extra points will be given to musical sequences that actually advance the plot or establish character. This will be a fairly personal list of songs that very specifically strike my fancy and I’m not afraid to kill of some sacred cows.


20. “Honor to Us All” from Mulan


Singers: Beth Fowler, Marni Nixon and Lea Salonga

Songwriters: Matthew Wilder and David Zippel

The most famous song from Mulan (we’ll get to that later) lays out traditional masculine stereotypes while the second most famous song from Mulan (second most famous to me anyway) focuses in on the traditional female stereotype. Sung while Mulan is being dolled up into marriage material by older family members, the sequence serves to show what is expected of Mulan by the society and also why she doesn’t fit in that role. The song itself takes in a lot of Eastern influence while still being a traditional showtune with a very strong melody.



19. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King


Singers: Kristle Edwards, Joseph Williams, Sally Dworsky, Nathan Lane, and Ernie Sabella

Songwriters: Elton John and Tim Rice

“Can You Feel the Love Tonight” as sung by Elton John is an extremely famous Disney song which won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy while also being a major chart hit. Unfortunately that version of the song is only present during the film’s end credits, the version that’s actually performed in the movie is sung by various characters in the film and with different and more expository lyrics. The strength of the underlying song is still apparent though and the onscreen relationship montage between Simba and Nala that’s so well done that it kind of makes how rushed that relationship is still work.


18. “Why Should I Worry” from Oliver and Company


Singer: Billy Joel

Songwriters: Dan Hartman and Charlie Midnight

This one is kind of weird because it’s a very different kind of song than what Disney normally barters in. This isn’t a Broadway style showtune, it’s a top 40 ready pop song sung by a dude who was a superstar in music at the time. That is kind of surreal and the sound feels less like something that could plausibly recorded by someone on the street, so there’s less of a connect between visuals and audio. It’s also a pretty good example of this movie’s “attitude” problem. That having been said, the song is catchy, and the animation is fun, and it does do a pretty good job of establishing the character.



17. “Hellfire” from The Hunchback of Notre Damme


Singer: Tony Jay

Songwriters: Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz

Strictly as a song “Hellfire” is not necessarily a toe-tapper that I would want to listen to over and over again. Instead this song is being included here more for its function in the film and the general ballsyness of including something like this in a Disney movie at all. The song is an exploration of Frollo’s simultaneous hatred and lust for Esmerelda and how those two contradictory feelings collide within his repressed catholic mind. The scene uses fire and a metaphorical tribunal in Frollo’s head to really underscore this feeling and explain what the character’s motivations going forward are rooted in.


16. “Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog


Singer: Anika Noni Rose

Songwriter: Randy Newman

“Almost There” is clearly meant to be Tiana’s “I Wish” song, but its written for a very different kind of Disney protagonist who plans out and works to achieve her dreams rather than merely pondering and hoping for a miracle to make them happen. As such this is less a song about wishing and more a song about executing her dream of opening a restaurant. During the sequence the film transitions from its usual art style to a more stylized look based on the work of Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas and we see her conception of how she’ll manage this dream restaurant.

Lion King should be higher too.

Reading this thread has made it clear to me just how many Disney movies I haven't seen. One of these days I'll sit down and watch Mulan. One of these days.

I think Drac should watch all the live-action 90s Disney movies next. Mighty Ducks, Blank Check, Man of the House, Heavyweights, First Kid, The Big Green, my oh my that would make for quite the thread.

5. “Beauty and the Beast” from Beauty and the Beast


Singer: Angela Lansbury

Songwriters: Alan Menken and Howard Ashman

A pop version of this song, sung by Peabo Bryson and Celine Dion, became a legitimate hit when this movie came out, but the version in the actual movie is sung by “Murder She Wrote” herself Angela Lansbury as a teapot. The visuals of the sequence are also iconic with the two dancing in the ballroom and the yellow dress and the blue dress uniform. The CGI effects used in this scene haven’t aged perfectly but you do need to acknowledge that it would have looked really special when it came out.



4. “I Wanna Be Like You” from The Jungle Book


Singers: Louis Prima and Phil Harris

Songwriters: Robert and Richard Sherman

The Jungle Book was one of the first Disney movies to really engage in contemporary-ish pop culture and while it didn’t quite go so far as to include rock and roll (though it did try to get The Beatles to play the vultures) it did have a key scene revolve around a big band jazz number performed by a nightclub performer named Louis Prima. Voicing the “king of the swingers, the jungle V.I.P.” Prima really livens up the proceedings despite playing a somewhat villainous character. It’s such a jaunty piece that you don’t even mind how utterly stupid Baloo’s rescue plan is.



3. “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan


Singer: Donny Osmond

Songwriters: Matthew Wilder and David Zippel

If “Honor to Us All” was about what was expected of Mulan as a woman then “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” is about what was expected of her as a “man.” Sung by a drill sergeant of sorts, the song is the backing track to and a narration of an epic training montage in which Mulan and the other men in the brigade go from being clumsy fools to being competent soldiers and over the course of the song we witness Mulan find ways to match up with the men despite some physical disadvantages. Beyond that though it’s just a song that’s great at delivering a couple of these epic choruses and Donny Osmund of all people really sells it.



2. “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid


Singer: Jodi Benson

Songwriters: Alen Menken and Howard Ashman

The ultimate “I wish” song, “Part of Your World” is a solo number sung by Ariel in her cave of shipwrecked trinkets in which she reveals to the audience exactly what it is that motivates her in the movie and why. Arial’s desire to live on the surface is likely meant to be an allegory for the teenage desire to break away from whatever humdrum environment they grew up in and make something of themselves. Were this not a fantasy movie one could easily imagine a version of this about a girl from a small town who dreams of traveling to New York to work on Broadway. If there’s a problem with it it’s that it establishes that a lot of Ariel’s ideas about the surface are a bit naïve and the movie that follows never really addresses what happens when these naïve ideals run up against the truth about the surface’s many imperfections. Still, let’s focus on the positive. Jodi Benson sings the song in this interestingly old fashioned style. Notice that through the whole song she drops the Gs in words ending in “ing” almost giving it this old New York moxie and the asides about not knowing certain words like “feet” is another cute touch.



1. "A Whole New World" from Aladdin


Singers: Brad Kane and Lea Salonga

Songwriters: Alan Menken and Tim Rice

I’m not sure if there’s a whole lot to say about “A Whole New World” as I think its qualities are pretty obvious. The duet between these two characters as they ride a magic carpet around the world fits perfectly within the film’s theme of these characters feeling unfulfilled in their lives and the whole thing makes sense as a seduction of sorts as Aladdin is offering Jasmine pretty much the only thing you can offer to someone who already has everything: adventure. I think what makes it work is that Brad Kane and Lea Salonga prove to have a lot of chemistry together and their youthful exuberance does shine through on the track. What sets it apart from something like “Part of Your World” is probably its universality. Where that other song is ultimately kind of tied to the plot of the movie it’s from this one could apply to a lot of situations. It gets played at weddings, it gets played at graduations, it gets played in commercials for Disneyland, it can stand in for any leap into the unknown.

Nice list.

Not exactly, but I am doing the

Top 15 Disney Villains

15. Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke


From: Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Voiced By: James Garner

Probably not the most immediately obvious choices but I like Rourke for this list simply because he’s a bit different from the usual Disney villain. Rourke is closer to a common action movie antagonist, a mercenary who seems to be on our heroes side for much of the movie only to then change sides (in a twist that’s actually kind of surprising) and then try to screw him over. The guy seems a bit nastier than a lot of Disney villains and less cartoonish in his antagonism. You really truly get the impression that he’s willing to kill to get his way.

14. Percival McLeach

From: The Rescuers Down Under
Voiced by: George C. Scott

If there’s a character on this list who’s primarily here because of a really enjoyable voice performance it’s probably this one. McLeach is not a very deep villain, he just really wants to kill animals because he’s greedy and evil and his methods and actions do not really make a whole lot of sense, but George C. Scott really elevates him with his gleefully evil performance and gives the character a strange sort of gravitas along the way.

13. Yokai

From: Big Hero 6
Voiced by: James Cromwell

This guy really looks awesome. That black trench coat combined with that cook Kabuki mask is just the costume of a great supervillain and I would have been more than happy to see someone who looked like him as the heavy in a real superhero movie. I also like this guy’s powers and also ultimately like the reveal of who this guy was, but if I’m being honest he’s ultimately style over substance. In his masked villain form he doesn’t say a word and there really isn’t a whole lot to him in the long run, but man does he look cool.

12. Queen of Hearts

From: Alice in Wonderland
Voiced by: Verna Felton

The Queen of Hearts is certainly one of the more delightfully unhinged villains in Disney history and her zeal in removing heads is certainly entertaining and I like the way everyone in her court lives in constant fear of her. She would probably be higher on the list but she’s really not in the movie a whole lot and only really becomes an antagonist pretty late in the proceedings and even then mostly just seems like one more weird thing to deal with rather than a truly dangerous foe.

11. Professor Rattigan

From: The Great Mouse Detective
Voiced By: Vincent Price

This would be another villain who is largely defined by the celebrity voice actor they managed to bring in: in this case that was Vincent price. On his own Rattigan is a fun villain but one who kind of fits the description of a James Bond villain like Blofeld or something and a lot of his impact is slightly diminished by comedy. I do, however, like how he becomes increasingly ferel during the film’s climactic fight sequence on Big Ben.

With the live action Lion King probably aiming to look realistic, I wonder if they will still use Scar's darker fur, which to my understanding does not occur with real lions.

5. Ursula


From: The Little Mermaid

Voiced by: Pat Carroll



Certainly one of the more knowingly campy villains in Disney’s history, Ursula is a marine twist on the figure of the wicked witch. Making her a sort of mer-octopus was really clever and the human side of her is also… strange. The animators reportedly drew inspiration from Divine, the cross dresser from the John Waters movies, in designing her and this was an interesting choice to say the least.



4. Shere Khan


From: The Jungle Book

Voiced by: George Sanders



Shere Khan actually doesn’t really have all that much screen time in The Jungle Book. He’s one of those characters you hear a whole lot about and have built up in your head long before he shows up and then when he finally does appear the movie subverts your expectations but not making him the snarling heavy you’re expecting but more of an effete British aristocrat who is so confident in his place as the king of the jungle that he doesn’t need to show off his strength. Sanders really kills it in the recording booth and makes this guy really memorable as a result.



3. Jafar


From: Aladdin

Voiced by: Jonathan Freeman



Jafar seems to have been modeled after Maleficent what with his black getup, bird sidekick, and affinity for serpentine creatures (in his case cobras instead of dragons). He is, however, a more involved character than Maleficent, in part because he got as far as he did by gaining the sultan’s trust rather than hiding off in some far away castle cursing children. He’s a really well designed characters and the moments in the finale where he turns himself into a giant cobra and a genie respectively are really cool.



2. Queen/Witch


From: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Voiced by: Lucille La Verne



The original evil sorceress, and possibly the best. She’s certainly the best part of the film she’s in and in many ways we get two great villains for the price of one here. As an evil queen this lady is interesting in her icy demeanor and general vanity as well as her conversations with her mirror. As a witch she’s like the platonic ideal of what a wicked witch in a fairy tale is supposed to be like and she even predates the witch from the Wizard of Oz by two years.



1. Judge Claude Frollo


From: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Voiced by: Tony Jay



Not even close, and in many ways it’s almost unfair that this guy is even competing in the same race as the rest of these guys. Drawing from Victor Hugo’s original novel but adapting the character in a number of ways, this is easily Disney’s most complex villains in that he truly thinks he’s doing the right thing while behaving in ways that are plainly evil. Through the character Disney tackles the dangers of religious fanaticism as well as the psychology of someone who hates a woman because of his secret lust for her. That Disney managed of make a villain this deep is really something special.

Frollo is easily the best. Shere Khan would probably be in my top three. I like his regal demeanor and George Sanders' voice work is great.