Disney Film Music Series

Welcome to this first blog on my series about the music in Disney films! This first entry will focus on the main purpose of the series as well as the direction I want to go in with them.

The idea for me to do this series stems from a desire to carry on some form of academic writing following my music degree without the pressure of a deadline or an academic having to read through it and end up getting some form of grade! I just wanted to carry on some form of writing project after enjoying the writing of my dissertation, but in a more informal way that I could enjoy at a casual pace.

During my time at University I developed a love for film music, particularly researching the theory of it and writing long-form discussions about its different elements. I have also had a lifelong admiration for Disney animated films. I feel particularly fortunate to have been born at a good time to be a kid for Disney films with the 1990’s Disney ‘renascence’ already being in full swing by the time I was old enough to enjoy the films. The most notable of these films for me included The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994) and Hercules (1997) but I was also fortunate to have been introduced to a number of other ‘classics’ such as Pinocchio (1940) and The Jungle Book (1967).

There were of course other films created by Disney in which the music is of great significance such as Mary Poppins (1964) which I also grew up watching, and also animated films from other studios such as Prince of Egypt (1998) and pretty much every film produced by Pixar. However, for this series I decided to specifically focus in on Disney’s ‘classic’ animated film series, starting from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and ending with their most recent production Frozen (2013). This is because of the long-running nature of the film series and how much the style of both the music and film-making has changed and developed over the 77 years the studio has been releasing major animated feature films.

The films discussed won’t be done so in any particular order but I will only be writing about those I have seen so far (for obvious reasons). The following list is of those films that my wife and I either own or have seen:

• *Pinocchio
• *Fantasia
• *Dumbo
• *Bambi
• Cinderella
• Alice in Wonderland
• *Peter Pan
• *Lady and the Tramp
• Sleeping Beauty
• *One Hundred and One Dalmatians
• The Sword in the Stone
• The Aristocats
• *Robin Hood
• The Jungle Book
• **The Fox and the Hound
• *The Black Cauldron
• *Oliver and Company
• The Little Mermaid
• Beauty and the Beast
• Aladdin
• The Lion King
• Pocahontas
• *The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Hercules
• Mulan
• Tarzan
• The Emperor’s New Groove
• *Atlantis: The Lost Empire
• *Lilo and Stitch
• *Treasure Planet
• *Brother Bear
• Bolt
• The Princess and the Frog
• Tangled
• Frozen

(* Seen but do not own ** Own but have not seen)

As you can see there is quite a list to get through, with many more that are not on the list (somehow?!)! If there are any that you would specifically like to hear about then please feel free to comment below and I will happily do my best. I hope you enjoy reading this series as much as I hope to enjoy writing it!

Disney Film Music Categories

Hello!

So as I have been doing research towards this blog (ahem, yes… research…) I have noticed a pattern cropping up in the style of film music which is being used. By style, I don’t mean genre such as the difference between the Jazz used in The Aristocats (1970), 80’s pop in Oliver & Company (1988) or African influences in The Lion King (1994). By this I mean how music is used in the context of the film, or how the music contributes towards the connotations of the story.

To understand how music is used in Disney’s now 53 animated ‘classics’ series I thought it only made sense to distribute the films into distinctive categories to group them easier than in just a long list (although it’s still pretty long…).

Below is my best shot at four different categories for most of the 53 films. The films which are not listed are films that I don’t really know too much about yet and tend to be quite hard to get hold of (they’re mostly the films made during WWII) or which I just don’t know enough about to be able to say. After the list you’ll find how I define each category and why some films are included in a certain place.

Broadway Musical

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
• Pinocchio (1940)
• Dumbo (1941)
• Cinderella (1950)
• Alice in Wonderland (1951)
• Peter Pan (1953)
• Sleeping Beauty (1959)
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
• The Sword in the Stone (1963)
• The Jungle Book (1967)
• The Aristocats (1970)
• Robin Hood (1973)
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
• Oliver & Company (1988)
• The Little Mermaid (1989)
• Beauty and the Beast (1991)
• Aladdin (1992)
• The Lion King (1994)
• Pocahontas (1995)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
• Hercules (1997)
• Mulan (1998)
• The Princess and the Frog (2009)
• Tangled (2010)
• Frozen (2013)

Film Score

• Bambi (1942)
• Lady and the Tramp (1955)
• The Rescuers (1977)
• The Fox and the Hound (1981)
• The Black Cauldron (1985)
• The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
• The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
• Dinosaur (2000)
• The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
• Treasure Planet (2002)
• Meet the Robinsons (2007)
• Bolt (2008)

Pop Music (Synchronisation)

• Tarzan* (1999)
• Lilo & Stitch (2002)
• Brother Bear* (2003)
• Chicken Little (2005)
• Wreck-It Ralph* (2012)
• Big Hero 6 (2014)

Other

• Fantasia (1940)
• Make Mine Music (1946)
• Fantasia 2000 (2000)

Phew! It’s only when you see a list like this when you realise just how many there are!

So, Broadway Musical. This might sound like a very specific category but I mean for it to be a general over sweep for many of the musical films of the series. A number of the films have been adapted for musical theatre but adaptability isn’t the main reason a film may be placed in this category. I have placed the films here in which the songs and singing are part of the story and help in the progression of the story and the conveying of emotion/situation through song by the characters.

While a lot of these were easy to place, one I did find quite difficult was Oliver & Company (1988). I remember seeing this film in the cinema when it was re-released in the 90’s, seven years after its initial release (as was Disney tradition for its more successful films. Remember, this is before VHS home video was a massive thing) and though I couldn’t remember much of the story as I was only 4 or 5 years old at the time, I do remember the soundtrack and the feel of it quite well. The soundtrack is made up of 80’s style pop songs, which almost made me place it in the pop music category. However, luckily for me (and I guess lots of other people) Oliver & Company is one of the few Disney films available on Netflix so I was able to re-watch it to get a feel for it again. And yes, the songs are very 80’s pop. But they are sung by the characters and convey the emotions and situations they’re in so it made sense to me to place it in the musical category.

In contrast to Oliver & Company I also had to think about where to place Tarzan (1999). At first this seems to be in a similar place in that it contains Pop Music. But the difference is that the songs in Tarzan aren’t sung by the characters (except for one brief moment) but are sung by the composer, Phil Collins. This places the songs, in terms of context, outside of the film and act as more as a non-diegetic musical narration rather than the characters expressing themselves.

Other films also included in this section are ones which use popular music which also exists outside of the film context. With this I think of the use of Elvis in Lilo & Stitch (2002) or the Fall Out Boy song (although composed for the film, I believe) used in Big Hero 6 (2014). These songs are placed into the film to express emotion but the connotation for that feeling comes from outside of the film’s context. You may listen to those songs away from the film and still feel the same emotion (basically, as summary).

My Other section is kind of related to this but is used to a very different effect. I guess I could call it something better, but you could always suggest something? The three films here all use existing classical music, where the animation is made to aid or give a visual representation of the story being told in the music. The visuals aid the music, rather than the music aiding the visual. That opens up topics of whole different essays though, so I won’t go into that too much on here. This just demonstrates why I thought these needed to go in their own section.

With Film Score, these are the films wherein the music acts non-diegetically to enhance the animation. The music here functions similarly to what would be found in a usual film and is somewhat the same stylistically. This doesn’t mean that the music is any more or less important than in any of the other categories but simply serves a different function.

As always with this kind of topic there are many blurred lines between the categories and I nearly used a Venn diagram to demonstrate them but then thought it would be far too complicated! If you think you have a good argument to place any of the films in a different category then please feel free to mention in the comments!

Thanks a lot for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it. It won’t be too long before I post for individual films I’m hoping so I hope you will read those too!

TTFN!