Favorite disney film from broadway musical era

Post by **cboy666** » January 19th, 2007, 11:31 pm

what is your favorite disney film from broadway musical era?

Post by **Meg** » January 20th, 2007, 7:43 am

Loin King for me!

Post by **YCougar** » January 20th, 2007, 3:28 pm

Lion King maybe be vying for my "favorite Disney movie" spot, but the one I like best as a musical is Beauty and the Beast.

Post by **Wonderlicious** » January 22nd, 2007, 6:59 am

The Little Mermaid

C'mon, we all know that it is the best...

Post by **droosan** » January 22nd, 2007, 8:35 am

The Little Mermaid was my pick, as well. IMO, it's just so 'perfect' in its pacing and plot; and I especially love the thematic breaking of "mood" at the end of each song (Sebastian's cataclysmic crash at the end of "Part of That World", the anticlimax of Ariel having slipped away before the big finish of "Under the Sea", the overturned boat disrupting "Kiss the Girl", etc) ..

Though, Beauty and the Beast comes close .. darn close .. to those same heights. Especially in Howard Ashman's clever, playful lyrics.

There are various things I like about the other films of that era .. but as musicals ..? Feh.

That's just my opinion, of course. YMMV ..

Post by **Ben** » January 22nd, 2007, 9:16 am

I would argue though, that the Broadway era started with Mermaid and came to a close with Hunchback.

Post by **droosan** » January 22nd, 2007, 10:08 am

Though, Oliver & Company is arguably a musical, as well ..

And even though most of the songs are Rock/R&B, Bette Midler's rendition of "Perfect Isn't Easy" is a 'Broadway' tune, if there ever was one!

Post by **PatrickvD** » January 22nd, 2007, 1:07 pm

Ben wrote:I would argue though, that the Broadway era started with Mermaid and came to a close with Hunchback.

I don't know... Mulan and Hercules are set up in much the same way when it comes to the music. And Tarzan, though the film isn't a musical, has been translated to Broadway. So for me, their "broadway musical era" definitely ran from 1989-1999... or in other words, Mermaid to Tarzan.

Post by **ShyViolet** » January 22nd, 2007, 4:01 pm

I don't know... Mulan and Hercules are set up in much the same way when it comes to the music.

Yeah, but they don't have that "stagey" broadway feel of the classic Ashman/Menken and later Menken/Rice/Schwartz pics. They feel more like cartoons with songs thrown in. They felt like pop songs even before the popular artists were brought in--after all, didn't Donny Osmond write the songs to Mulan??

I just can't imagine them singing "A Girl With Fighting For" on stage, or "Trashin' the Camp" or "Go the Distance" either. Those songs kind of rely heavily on the visuals and action, the songs just feel more peripheral. Even "Reflection" which is the best song from the Hercules-Tarzan era, doesn't seem like a Broadway song to me, for some reason.

Beauty is the best IMO, then Mermaid, then Pocahontas. I voted for Pocahontas just to add a "different" kind of opinion.

I agree that Oliver also has a definite Broadway feel to it--even "Once Upon A Time In New York City" feels like it could be done on a stage.

**********************************************************

Remember how the SaveDisney site tried to say that Broadway killed Disney animation?? So ridiculous since that's what saved it in the first place, Ashman's tunes of course but later on Menken and Schwartz as well. (SD traced the Renaissance from Mermaid-Aladdin, totally leaving out Oliver of course, (no Ashman yet, except for opening song) and uh....Lion King? Never heard of it. They pin the failure of WDFA squarely on Pocahontas for being "too stagey" and not something kids would want to watch....and although it's never said out loud, Lion King also gets the blame, since it was post-Ashman, stressed "serious" issues, had Broadway guys Elton and Rice on board and not Ashman (the only Broadway guy who "understood" Disney animation, according to SD) and had lots of hip jokes as well.

It's the fly in the ointment of the writer's never-fail formula for figuring out what makes a "classic" Disney film, so he completely leaves it out.

After all, "mature" themes, hip jokes, and relevance is what murdered the innocent perfection of Disney films!

Post by **James** » January 22nd, 2007, 5:05 pm

ShyViolet wrote: I just can't imagine them singing "A Girl With Fighting For" on stage, or "Trashin' the Camp" or "Go the Distance" either. Those songs kind of rely heavily on the visuals and action, the songs just feel more peripheral. Even "Reflection" which is the best song from the Hercules-Tarzan era, doesn't seem like a Broadway song to me, for some reason.

Tarzan is already on the Great White Way:
http://disney.go.com/theatre/tarzan/

Post by **ShyViolet** » January 22nd, 2007, 8:30 pm

Yeah, I heard....but unless they wrote new songs, I'm not much excited about this.

So, wait, Terk was really a guy all along? Is that why there's a guy playing him/her?

Post by **Josh** » January 22nd, 2007, 8:50 pm

ShyViolet wrote:after all, didn't Donny Osmond write the songs to Mulan??

No, composer Matthew Wilder and lyricist David Zippel penned the tunes. Donny Osmond was just the singing voice of Shang.

ShyViolet wrote:So, wait, Terk was really a guy all along? Is that why there's a guy playing him/her?

According to Wikipedia, the animated Terk is female, although the character is loosely based on the male gorilla Terkoz in Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes.

Post by **Jeroen** » February 22nd, 2007, 6:37 pm

Beauty and the beast, not a single doubt about it.
Simply from the fact that every day or two a song from B&B gets stuck in my head

This week it's "human again"

Post by **ShyViolet** » February 22nd, 2007, 7:49 pm

It's so weird....I remember seeing Beauty on Broadway about ten years ago, and they had "Human Again", but as I remember it, it was VERY different from the "extra" added on to the 2002 re-release.....

Or maybe it's just me?

Post by **Daniel** » February 23rd, 2007, 2:52 am

I wouldn't know, but your so lucky, Vi!

When Beauty and The Beast got rereleased, I had "Human Again" stuck in my head for the longest time! It was such a beautiful song, and very catchy! Another favorite mine, was the "tick tock, the time goes, the days past, the months go" song. Love it!

Btw, welcome to the boards, Zwollie!