Disney Songs -Duh duh DUH!

Greetings, Glancers! It’s time once more to undertake a gargantuan and pointless project by listening to all of the Disney songs. That’s right – ALL OF THEM. And by ALL, I don’t mean all – I won’t be covering the straight to DVD sequels or the non-animated work – only the central Disney Animated movies, starting with Snow White and the Fourteen Twats from way back in 1937 (and for fun I’ll throw in some of the Pixar ones too).

As there are literally (not) billions of songs, I’m going to post one movie at a time. I have my favourites and while driving with the kids I will occasionally blast a Disney Greatest Hits, but many of those songs are dreadfully annoying. There will be many songs I’m either not familiar with or haven’t heard outside of the film or have simply forgotten. For now, here is a handy list of every movie I will be covering (may be changed later as for a few of these I don’t even know if they feature songs). Let us know in the comments which Disney Movie you feel has the best songs, and which songs are your favourites!

Snow White And The Seven Dwarves                                             Pinocchio

Dumbo                                                                                                    Bambi

Saludos Amigos                                                                                    The Three Caballeros

Make Mine Music                                                                                Fun And Fancy Free                                                                                                                                          Melody Time

The Adventures Of Ichabod And Mr Toad                                    Cinderella

Alice In Wonderland                                                                          Peter Pan

The Lady And The Tramp                                                                 Sleeping Beauty

101 Dalmations                                                                                    The Sword In The Stone

The Jungle Book                                                                                  Robin Hood

The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh                                 The Rescuers

The Fox And The Hound                                                                   The Black Cauldron

The Great Mouse Detective                                                             Oliver And Company

The Little Mermaid                                                                            The Rescuers Down Under

Beauty And The Beast                                                                       Aladdin

The Nightmare Before Christmas (not complete Disney I know I know)

The Lion King                                                                                       Pocahontas

Toy Story                                                                                               The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

Hercules                                                                                                Mulan

A Bug’s Life                                                                                           Tarzan

Toy Story 2                                                                                            Dinosaur

The Emperor’s New Groove                                                              Atlantis

Monster’s Inc                                                                                        Lilo And Stich

Treasure Planet                                                                                   Finding Nemo

Brother Bear                                                                                        Teacher’s Pet

Home On The Range                                                                          The Incredibles

Pooh’s Heffalump Movie                                                                  Chicken Little

Cars                                                                                                        Meet The Robinsons

Ratatouille                                                                                            Bolt

UP                                                                                                           The Princess And The Frog

Toy Story 3                                                                                           Tangled

Cars2                                                                                                     Winnie The Pooh

Brave                                                                                                     Frankenweenie

Wreck It Ralph                                                                                    Monsters University

Planes                                                                                                    Frozen

Planes: Fire And Rescue                                                                   Big Hero 6

Inside Out                                                                                            The Good Dinosaur

Zootopia                                                                                               Finding Dory

Moana

Depending on the time I get around to doing these, I may also include the following as yet unreleased movies and lesser known Disney pics: A Goofy Movie, Doug’s 1st Movie, The Tigger Movie, Recess, Return To Never Land, The Jungle Book 2, Piglet’s Big Movie, The Wild, Mars Needs Moms, Moana, Cars 3, Coco, Wreck It Ralph 2, Toy Story 4, Gigantic.

Stay tuned then for a rundown and half-arsed review of all of the songs. Bibiddi bobbidi arrghh!

101 Dalmations- Imagine One Hundred And One Anythings Humping Your Leg!

As a monkey lover (not like that you dirty boy! Lol!) I have trouble watching films about animals which don’t feature monkeys. After overcoming this initial disappointment, I sat down to watch this Walter Dizzy classic. The story is about a family who have a hundred Dalmation dogs (the ones which look like zebras) and are entering the American version of Crufts- ‘The Abe Lincoln Sponsored Stars And Stripes Canine Appreciation Gala Contest Bonanza For Dog Breeders Featuring Exciting Races, Daring Obstacles, Grooming Awards, And Stalwart Obedience Show!’ or better known as TALSSASCAGCBFDBFERDOGAASOS! The family hear about a loophole that if someone has 101 dogs of the same breed they automatically win the top prize- the Woofey, and a million one dollar bits. Their dogs are mongrels you see- stupid, ugly, and disobedient. The first part of the show is taken up with the family trying to train their dogs to sit, sleep, run, eat, dance, and sing- this leads to some wonderful hits such as ‘Spot The Wrong’un!’, ‘Who Let The Dogs Out’, ‘Barken’, ‘Oh What A Lovely Bone’ and ‘Get Off My Nice Clean Carpet You Dirty Bitch’. Realising their dogs are useless they try to exploit the loop. Most of the film is taken up by the owners and their lovely children trying to get their puppies to mate so that they reach the target of 101- this led to some questionable scenes which young audiences were not prepared for and the eventual ‘disappearances’ of many of the staff. 40 years later a mass burial site was exhumed where a number of bodies of the staff were found- some with bones inserted in the wrong spot (pardon the puns). Bette Davis spices things up a tad with her portrayal of Cruel Fella D’Evil- a local mobster who went mental when her husband was murdered by the Godfather, Don Niro De Pachinko. She hates the sound of dogs, but loves the taste, and has heard an ancient myth which speaks of ‘the flysh of the one hundred and first born pup shall give eternal life to he who shalt feast of it’. She tries to kidnap number 101 (Ploppy) and eat it, but the other dogs set traps up for her around the house, such as messes under the windows, messes on the hallways, and worst of all, messes on the door handles. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but it ends by the plot coming to and end and the credits rolling. Although this was filmed about a hundred (and one!) years ago, the graphics and camera-work are very enticing. Disney were the only studio rich enough back then to make their films in colour, which is why this looks so could compared to other rubbish like Castle Blanka. Unfortunately the unsavoury nature of the plot combined with the toilet humour, and the fact that it was basically a remake of the Nazi propaganda film ‘Eine hundert und eine Rettungen’ or 101 Salvations mean that it makes for inappropriate viewing.

Best Scene: Fred Willard’s humorous commentary throughout the various stages of the dog trials- it was one of his first appearances, at the age of 42.

Everyone’s Hero

Everyone's Hero

At first glance I thought this was going to be a twee animation about baseball which I, like many other Brits, have no interest in. What interested me though was that it was Christopher Reeve’s last film (he partly directs). The truth is that this is a charming movie, with fewer self mocking moments which made Shrek so successful, and one which has so far slipped under the carpet unnoticed. The film did poorly when released, partly because it has nothing to do with Disney/Pixar, and partly because the cast lacks one truly BIG name. The cast is ok, with Goldberg, Reiner, and William H Macey, well acted and well suited to the parts. The animation is solid, and the score is good, again lacking some of the big hitters that Disney are known to pump out.

Baseball fanatic Yankee goes on a cross country journey to retrieve Babe Ruth’s lucky bat Darlin (Goldberg) after it is stolen. His father is blamed and fired from his job as janitor of the Yankees, and in getting the bat back, Yankee can prove his father’s innocence. It turns out that a rival team have stolen the bat in the hopes that this will stop the Yankee’s from winning the World Series.

The film’s fun comes from the relationship between bat, boy, and ball- the charm from the moments between boy and father. There are funny moments as the bad guy tries to steal the bat again, and the look and feel of 30’s America/Chicago is authentic. There is enough for adults to enjoy here, and while not as flashy and famous as other films of this kind, there is plenty for kids to like. Certain moments verge on smelly side of cheese and it is perfectly predictable, but as it is primarily a kids movie we can’t complain too harshly about that. A movie which doesn’t deserve to be swept away unseen.

Origin: Spirits Of The Past

Origin: Spirits Of The Past

Origin: Spirits Of The Past is another film which deals with humanity’s obsession with technology, and our even more recent obsession with trying to save the world from environmental collapse. Fewer, if any films have dealt with this theme in such a beautiful manner- the art alone is enough to make you recycle your car and plant a few trees in the hope that you are doing something good. The main problem here is that while the film is gorgeous too watch, and frequently will leave you in awe at the scale and beauty of the animation- the story doesn’t back up the sights as well as it should.

Countless films, even in anime, deal with Mother Nature striking back at the human race. Origins is no different- set in a distant future where humans live in the shells of forgotten cities, surrounded by miles of forests which they cannot enter as the trees are genetically engineered freaks full of strange beasts. Of course, our hero- a boy Agito enters one of these forbidden zones and awakens the spirits of the past. He meets Toola, a girl who has been asleep for 300 years and whose mission it is to restore earth to a place of harmony between man and nature. Also awoken is Shunack, a soldier who also wants to restore Earth, but his view of Earth is monstrous, and he will use extreme force to get what he wants. The trees fear the end of both species, and Agito is stuck in the middle.

There are some excellent scenes here- particularly the opening sequence and some other action pieces. Aside from the visuals, the music is haunting and toucing, adding greatly to the emotion of the film- doing the job that the script should. The story may be too muddled for those not used to anime, but for veterans it is standard fare. The voice acting is ok, though the fact that there are no big Western names may let down fans. Overall, one of the best looking animated films ever with a story that is perfectly watchable, but doesn’t live up to the breathtaking artwork.

Beavis And Butthead Do America

Beavis And Butthead

One of the seminal TV shows of my life. When I was nine, ten, and beyond, I listened to G’n’R, Nirvana, and watched Beavis and Butthead. It made perfect sense, and no-one else got it, which also made perfect sense. Cut forward several years, and the movie was released. It had everything that made the show so great. Humour I felt privileged to ‘get’, while parents and younger kids, and those who loved their ‘beats’ didn’t have a clue.

The movie follows Beavis and Butthead on a road trip across America in search of their TV, and possibly, sluts. Naturally they get into various scrapes along the way, Cornholio pops up, and both the FBI and a couple of criminals are on their asses. Certain familiar characters pop up for the faithful viewer to appreciate.

Willis and Moore don’t add anything special to the mix, they could have been voiced by anyone and I would still find the movie funny. The donkey scene: so true. The toilet scene: wish I had those. The road signs: I’m laughing now just thinking about it. Good to see Mr Anderson finally get a good seeing to. Only disappointment, um… the absence of Todd, and Stuart with his ‘Winger’ T-shirt. He tried so hard. Must stop. I’m laughing too hard.

This special edition DVD has a few decent features, but having the movie for a cheap price is good enough.

Feel free to comment on the review and the movie- did the series translate well to the big screen or do you think the shorts are superior?