All Things Disney Music Discussion Thread (4 Viewers)

Hiya Mouseketeers (and fellow Disney music fans)!


I am an unabashed fan of Disney music: Movie soundtracks, Broadway scores and--most especially-theme park music.


Over in the Weekly RoundUps we have been having ongoing discussions about the recent re-releases of classic Disney soundtracks--due to a common interest among some of us on the forum. I thought we should bring some of that attention and love to it's own dedicated thread here.


In fact, I used to be an everyday participant in another online forum dedicated solely to the different aspects of Disney music--even becoming an online friend with Disney Music Producer Randy Thornton. I got lured away from there (by HTF member Rob Kilbride) due to some crossover issues with music on some of the early big Disney DVD releases back in 2000 and 2001.


I personally have a collection of Disney music that must number into a couple hundred CDs.


So, let's get started.


We are currently in the midst of the release of Disney's Legacy collection...some really nice repackages of existing soundtrack releases--some of which contains previously unheard tracks. This is a great place to get this discussion started.


For myself, as attractive as this packaging is...I find myself being very wary about re-buying some of these titles as the amount of new music on them varies from title to title.

Most of the Disney soundtracks I have are for orchestral scores (James Newton Howard's Dinosaur and Maleficent, for example,) and I only have one Legacy Collection release (Hans Zimmer's The Lion King, which is quite terrific,) but I see others that I'd like to get. I believe I have most of the scores for Pixar releases too (I assume those count under this category,) with Thomas Newman's Finding Nemo (and Wall*E) and Michael Giacchno's Up and The Incredibles being my favorites.


I also have Jerry Goldsmith's Soarin' Over California track, used for the ride in Orlando's Disney Park which is a wonderful piece of music.

I think I have pretty much every animated soundtrack I can find (and some I probably shouldn't have). My iPod says a total of 1,280 tracks for Disney and Pixar music (this does include The Muppets and The Black Hole). Not too long ago, I couldn't be bothered to find the CD's, but that's changed in the last year and a half. Now, I know when the Legacy Collection discs are coming and they're sitting in the mailbox on release day.


There's always an interesting track (or more) in every release, even for the "lesser" films. One of my favorite songs from a Disney/Pixar movie is "Find Yourself" by Brad Paisley from Cars. Imagine how disappointed I was when it was played over the closing credits and not during the movie proper.


I've been impressed with the Legacy Collection releases thus far. Like Mike said, the packaging is very spiffy and they contain a lot of music. Most of these releases have been sub-$20, making them a no brainer for me. The Toy Story release, coming on Friday, is running $14.99 on Amazon, with a total of 59 tracks over 2 discs. This one should be on my desk at work mid-Friday.

Carrying over our discussion from this week's Roundup thread...

Jason_V said:

I think in the recesses of my mind, I had heard this was a 12 title set, but I could be wrong about that. Here's the thing, if indeed the series will continue next year: there are three releases coming in August, theoretically speaking. They're not being spread out and, by the time something new comes out next year, all momentum would be lost. Why not space out the three August releases into August, September and October?


There's still more films with 2015 as a "every 5th year" anniversary: Dinosaur, Emperor's New Groove, Toy Story 3, Rescuers Down Under, Black Cauldron...there's plenty more to go for 2015, at any rate.

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Jason, you and I are in total agreement that Disney SHOULD do this for every single one of their animated films. Should. However, what Disney should do and what they actually do are two very different things indeed. None of the other titles you mentioned above (with the exception of Toy Story 3, which was only released 5 years ago) are a top-tier famous title for them, and I never really expected them to do Legacy releases for their B-range titles. The Black Cauldron soundtrack was just released recently by Intrada, and it's a bit of a miracle they put that one out at all. I'm not entirely sure why Aristocats, which is a B-range title, got included in the initial list (although I am certainly not complaining either.)

Mike: I wouldn't worry about the quality of the singers on the Hunchback recording I mentioned in the Roundup, as they are drawn from the initial cast of the musical they are recording, so it should be a fine disc.

Back in my heyday of Disney music collecting mania, I would gather up discs such as these...








Ten different recordings of the Hunchback soundtrack?!? Crazy...

JakeLip said:

Carrying over our discussion from this week's Roundup thread...


Mike: I wouldn't worry about the quality of the singers on the Hunchback recording I mentioned in the Roundup, as they are drawn from the initial cast of the musical they are recording, so it should be a fine disc.

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Jake: I was just worried that sometimes record producers will bring in operatic voices for "special recordings." But since they belong to the Broadway cast, I am going to really be looking forward to this. Thanks again!

Mike Frezon said:

Back in my heyday of Disney music collecting mania, I would gather up discs such as these...

Ten different recordings of the Hunchback soundtrack?!? Crazy...

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It's not a problem. He can stop any time.

JakeLip said:

Jason, you and I are in total agreement that Disney SHOULD do this for every single one of their animated films. Should. However, what Disney should do and what they actually do are two very different things indeed. None of the other titles you mentioned above (with the exception of Toy Story 3, which was only released 5 years ago) are a top-tier famous title for them, and I never really expected them to do Legacy releases for their B-range titles. The Black Cauldron soundtrack was just released recently by Intrada, and it's a bit of a miracle they put that one out at all. I'm not entirely sure why Aristocats, which is a B-range title, got included in the initial list (although I am certainly not complaining either.)

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Oh, I agree wholeheartedly. No company is obligated to do anything more than what the market can support or what their business needs are. I'm just looking at it from a perspective of "keep the line going until some of the heavy hitters come up next year". IF these releases were spaced out correctly (ie. one a month) and IF some of the "lesser" titles were thrown into the mix, then they'd have enough material to get them to Beauty and the Beast next year, not to mention Great Mouse Detective and Fox and the Hound.


They have some kind of momentum right now. If the line goes dormant from August 2015 to sometime in 2016 (my guess is Q4 since B&tB should be a big seller), no one is going to remember these releases anymore. At least from my perspective.


Aristocats and Pocahontas are odd inclusions, to be sure. Maybe this has something to do with useable elements...

Pocahontas is not really as odd of an inclusion because it is still a '90s musical that grossed $346 million worldwide and was the #4 domestic grosser of the year in 1995. Also, all of the '90s musicals have material missing from their original releases of the soundtracks, which makes those releases more valuable than, say, Sleeping Beauty, which just repackaged the original edition with new bonus tracks on disc 2 but isn't adding any principal musical material. Pocahontas is the most interesting Legacy title to me since Mermaid last November, and it is one I will buy automatically (without having to check what is on it, etc.)


Let's just be honest here - all of the '90s musicals (Beauty and the Beast through Tarzan) should be obvious inclusions in this line.

Ya know, I'd most likely go in for a Legacy Edition release of the terrible (ie. horrible, painful, very bad, awful) Home on the Range...


Frankly, every animated film needs some kind of complete score/soundtrack. This is Disney, for heaven's sake.

Home On the Range? Did Disney really make that?!?


I kid.


But I am on record saying I really haven't liked anything the Disney animated Studios has put out since...oh, about 1999.


Things have started to pick up a bit with films like Tangled, Frozen (especially Frozen) and Big Hero 6. But not anything like the offerings of the 2nd Golden Age from '89 thru '99.


But that's just me. And my kids had the good fortune of being kids during that period. My daughter was born in '86 and my son in '90.


My daughter and I went to see Beauty and the Beast in the theater more than a half-dozen times in '91 (while Mom stayed home to take care of her new-born little brother). I loved it just as much as she did. I was THRILLED it was one of the five nominees for Best Picture that year. I completely thought it was deserving of the nod. My favorite song from the film is Belle. The amount of exposition it gives--while starting off the film (after the prologue)--is amazing to me and in such an entertaining way. I marvel at it each and every time.

Excellent topic for a thread Mike.


I've always enjoyed the music for Disney films, both animated and live-action. I doubt this will ever happen, but I'd love to have the complete soundtracks to the "package" films of the 1940's. Saludos Amigos (1943) and The Three Caballeros (1945) which feature gorgeous Latin music including Aquarela do Brasil, You Belong to My Heart and Baia performed by some of Latin America's top talent of the era along with Make Mine Music (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947) and Melody Time (1948) which feature the talents of some of the best and most popular of the big bands and singers of the 1940's including Benny Goodman, Dinah Shore, The Andrews Sisters, Roy Rogers, The Pied Pipers, Nelson Eddy and so many more. Great stuff!

Mike Frezon said:

Home On the Range? Did Disney really make that?!?


I kid.

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Don't feel bad. It's teeeeeeeeerrible. (And yes, I own the BD. And I've watched it.)


I never thought of Belle in those terms, Mike, but hot damn...you're right! It tells you everything you need to know about Belle, the village and what we're about to see while being humorous, enjoyable and damn catchy!


I'm a little more partial to the Reprise portion since it's just a little more melancholy (and I used part of it in an online profile not too long ago to, uh, disastrous results...).

It even introduces us to Gaston! And those three blonds who swoon over him! Va-va-voom!








But, honestly, it's not just a really good animated film. BatB is a great film. Period.

And if you youngsters weren't watching Oscar night that year you missed this:





I wish the quality was better. I actually have this burnt to DVD (off my VHS recording). Mine looks better than this. But, you'll get the idea.


BatB was nominated for three songs that year. Three!

Thanks Mike! I hadn't seen this before! It's so refreshing to have an actual production number for a nominated song/s.

Later, there was a medley of Beauty & the Beast (the eventual winner of the Oscar) by Lansbury, Dion and Bryson (with one of those horrible interpretive dance routines alongside):

Jason_V said:

Frankly, every animated film needs some kind of complete score/soundtrack. This is Disney, for heaven's sake.

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Complete scores of all the studio's canonical animated films and live-action/animation hybrids would satisfy me. There are plenty of live-action musicals worthy of expanded scores that will probably not be added to the Legacy line but still should be released. Intrada should try to get the rights to those, as they've already done several live-action film scores already (and one animated one).

Hey, Matthew! Glad you found us!

So this was announced today: http://www.disneymusicemporium.com/silly-symphony/.


It does not seem like there are plans for a CD version, though, since everything I've seen talks about it being a set of vinyl LPs (which is great for those folks who have a player, but I don't.)