Editorial - Top 10 Disney Songs (Animated Canon)

It is springtime, and that means my mind is set towards the Magical corporation that is the biggest name in animation, Disney. Since I like to space out my Disney movie reviews, at least my reviews of the movies in the Animated Canon, I decided that I would do an editorial that has been sitting in the back of my mind for at least a year by now, and since you've probably read the title, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Disney songs have become an iconic part of their movies, these songs were probably a lot of kids first introductions to music in general. So many people can sing every lyric to these songs, know the music by heart, every key change, each and every dialogue exchange in between the songs. Whether we grew up with these songs on Sing-along Video Tapes, on Soundtrack albums, or streaming them online, Disney songs have stayed with us from childhood to adulthood. So of course, there is always discussion about which songs are the best, from the show stealing title tracks, to the iconic villain songs, to the songs that play in the end credits, people have their favourite Disney songs. I am absolutely no different in that regard. So, I want to share with you, my favourite Disney songs, even if you can probably guess a few of them already. Of course, the basic rule must apply, that being, only songs from the official Disney animated canon qualify for this list. So no Live-Action, No Direct-to-Video Sequels, no Nightmare Before Christmas, and no Disney TV songs, though a separate list about the best Disney Cartoon Theme Songs sounds like a fun idea... I'll put a pin in that. I should also mention I am going with the soundtrack versions of these songs, more often than not, it doesn't actually matter.

Without further ado, here are my top ten Disney Songs.

#10. Strangers Like Me - Tarzan

To be frank, I think the Tarzan soundtrack may be one of my favourite Disney soundtracks of all time, up there with The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Muppet Christmas Carol, it is kind of weird not having any of the characters actually sing these songs, but as a whole I don't mind to much. I really like the theme of Strangers Like Me, a song about Tarzan learning about his own kind, a song of fascination and infatuation, and of course I am just a sucker for songs that have big and bombastic endings, where the singer just puts all their power and passion into it. I do like Phil Collins as a singer and I think he and Mark Mancina did a fantastic job here, even if the backing music of the bridge of the song sounds like a turn signal.

#9. The Phony King of England - Robin Hood

Robin Hood and Country? Oddly a match-up that works pretty well. It's not really that often you hear a Disney song about how inept the villain actually is. Off the top of my head there was "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" from The Three Little Pigs, but that was more bluster on the pigs' behalf, so it's kind of fun to have a song just about how lousy the villain actually is, even if it isn't really that historically accurate, considering John actually was King, the taxes were more for Richard's crusades, and if Robin Hood was around the time of King Richard the Lionheart and was a noble like many stories say he was, he would have been French, well Norman anyway. Hey, who would have thought that Shrek had the most accurate interpretation of Robin Hood? Anyway, there isn't really much I can say about this song, it's just fun.

#8. Under The Sea - The Little Mermaid

Speaking of fun, when making a song all about how it's more wonderful to live beneath the waters than it is on land, you better pick a genre that is upbeat and bouncy. There are a lot to choose from, Ska would probably be my go to, love me some "We Are Number One", but Calypso was definitely the right choice here. To be absolutely fair, Sebastian does make some fairly good points, I mean, what do we have up here? Green forests and big dirty cities. Colourful coral reefs, calm vastness of blue and a lot of unique creatures, many of which are too small to actually kill us, unlike on land. Of course, we are also making sure that none of those stay around much longer, but conservation of the ocean is for another blog. This genuinely is a song that would make me want to pull a Captain Nemo and live under the sea. Rest in peace Samuel E. Wright.

#7. Let It Go - Frozen

Yeah... I'm one of those people. Like I said, I am just a sucker for songs that build upon themselves, where the power and passion is put into the singing and the music. It's funny because I'm not actually a fan of Idina Menzel's music, I have nothing against her, it's just not my thing. That being said, I think what really makes me fond of this song is the subtext, or maybe it's context. Elsa is finally free, free from the expectations placed upon her, free from the guilt of hurting Anna, free from her fears and she finally has a chance to just let it all go. She can do what she wants now, she can use her powers for whatever, and it's fitting that during the song, she builds a snowman, the thing Anna wanted to do with her for such a long time, arguably Elsa wanted that too. I think a lot of people just look past the song because, outside of overplay, they just kind of see it as Elsa running away from her problems, because you know, it isn't like distance can be a solution, or can help with finding a solution. Anyway, I still love this song, and it's fine if you disagree, just, you know, let it go.

#6. Friend Like Me - Aladdin

Again, this is just a really fun and bouncy song. Really fitting considering the late-great Robin Williams sang it. It is a song that really does seem to perfectly fit his energy, and really introduce the character of the Genie really well. I guess you're probably wondering what I thought of Will Smith's rendition of this song. Honestly, while I prefer Will Smith's version of Prince Ali, for the most part, I do prefer Robin Williams version of Friend Like Me. Will Smith, being an actual musician, does give the song a different kind of sparkle, but I just think the energy of the music paired with the energy of Robin Williams just fits the song better. Really, we never had a talent like Robin since.

#5. Heaven's Light/Hellfire - The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I know everyone loves Hellfire, but the soundtrack puts these two songs together so I'm doing the same. Putting them together is actually really great though, since it shows the contrast between how Quasimodo and Frollo see Esmeralda. Heaven's Light is very pretty and ends with bells and a cheerful symphony, contrasting that to how Hellfire begins, with a deep Latin choir and a slower, much more haunting bell sounds. The contrasting elements go further, with Tony Jay's singing voice being much deeper than Tom Hulce's. I don't think I need to say this, but Hellfire is the best part of this song, again it's the build up and the passion put into it. The Latin is a nice touch too. Still, these two songs together do make a very interesting piece. I think more people should talk about Heaven's Light, because it is a nice little song. Two sides of a beautiful coin, One side is much more traditionally Disney, the other is much more risqué and unique.

#4. Circle of Life - The Lion King

It was a toss up between this and Be Prepared, I was gonna cheat and put them both on this list as a tie, but then I realized, Circle of Life is one Hell of a way to open a movie. Be Prepared is an excellent song, but I love the instrumentation and beat of Circle of Life. I could also talk about the pretty lyrics and the use of actual African language in the song (Apparently it's Zulu, but correct me if I'm wrong) which is a nice touch, but let's be honest, the one best thing about the song is that it's big. As soon as you hear that "NAAAAAAAAAA" screaming with the the rising sun, you know exactly what kind of movie you're in for. Believe it or not, that actually used to terrify me as a kid, it was this harsh screaming paired with this harsh reds and it was just awful. Still somewhat terrified, but I still have to admit, this is a pretty fantastic song.

#3. Beauty and the Beast - Beauty and the Beast

Taking things down a notch, this song is beautiful. I could talk about the lyrics and how the reflect upon the story, theme and character arcs of the movie, or I could point out the beautiful orchestra work, but if I'm going to be honest, the one thing that makes this song work so well and what puts it in my top three is simple, Angela Lansbury's voice. Her voice is just the chocolate drizzle on top of the strawberry shortcake of this song. Like yes, the lyrics and the score are exquisite and darn near perfect, but some songs need the right singer. Under The Sea needed Samuel E. Wright, Friend Like Me needed Robin Williams, and this song needed Angela Lansbury. May she rest in peace.

#2. We Don't Talk About Bruno - Encanto

You know, I think a big reason I enjoy Let It Go is simply because I wasn't as overexposed to it as a lot of people say they were, like I knew it was a charted hit song, but like, I never really absorbed how big it actually was. The same can definitely not be said about "We Don't Talk About Bruno", I heard that song playing in a McDonald's at least twice. What is it about this song that works though? Well, to start with, the different musical beats to represent the different family members and how they sing about Bruno makes the song a lot of fun to try and sing along with, anyone else remember the Singstar games? Anyway, this is easily one of the best songs to just get up and move to, but then you think about how this song is also a bit of a subversion. Bruno is somewhat of a subversion of Disney clichés, he wears green, a colour associate with Disney villains. On top of that, you notice little things in the song, like Isabella saying "I'm fine", sounding like... well anyone who is forcing an "I'm Fine" would sound, and the entire song hinting that Bruno is still in the house. It's a clever song, and it would easily be my favourite of the modern Disney era... but...

#1. I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme) - Treasure Planet

You know, I'm not actually that big a fan of the Goo Goo Dolls, but John Rzeznik was easily the best singer and writer they could have gotten for this song. The best thing about this song is easily how it relates to the main character, so many of the lines relate back to him, especially in the chorus with "Wanna hold on and feel I belong". Best lists are always difficult to write, because there are only so many ways to say something is beautiful, or well-made, or relatable. You would think I'd have something more to say about my favourite Disney song, but outside of it perfectly relating to Jim, and probably a lot of audience members, I can't really describe it. I'm not a music guy, I'm an animation guy. Either way, this is my favourite Disney song, and one that I think is fairly underrated, seriously, give this song another listen, it's worth it.

And of course, because this is Disney we're talking about, here are the honourable mentions:

1. Friends on the Other Side - The Princess and the Frog; Easily one of Disney's best Villain songs.
2. I Won't Say (I'm in Love) - Hercules; Again, I love the twist here, as it's a Disney love song, where the heroine is trying to convince herself to not be in love.
3. I'll Make a Man Out of You - Mulan; You're seriously telling me this was Donny Osmond singing this? This song is way too good.
4. The Three Caballeros - The Three Caballeros; Again, this song is just fun.
5. Goodbye May Seem Forever - The Fox and the Hound; HA, I just made some of you feel like crying.
6. Colors of the Wind - Pocahontas; Eh, this song is pretty, but very preachy, but like... maybe rightfully so I guess? I don't know how I feel about this one.

Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie! (2013) - Not great, but it's pretty chill

 

April the twentieth, otherwise known as 4/20, is upon us. To me, the day is about spreading good vibes, a kind of pleasance and joy that don't normally come with other days. It's a day to just chill, or it would be if it wasn't on a Thursday this year... but I digress. To celebrate the stoner holiday, I figured I'd look at a stoner movie, the problem is, animation and stoner movies don't seem to be that common. I mean you can make cases for movies like Yellow Submarine, Alice in Wonderland or Spirited Away, but those movies aren't really the kind of stoner comedies as something like Dazed and Confused, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Pineapple Express or even Tenacious D In: The Pick of Destiny, thankfully, I happened across a copy of Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie, which is just perfect.

I'm only as familiar with Cheech and Chong as anyone else who grew up when they were icons, but never had any of their records or movies. So, I know of them but I'm not as familiar with them or their bits. Stoner comedy is a very different style of comedy to other kinds, and as such it can be a difficult genre to get into. It can range from slow and monotonous to bizarre and absurd, so I think the big question for this review is ultimately, is this good for Cheech & Chong fans and is it good for newcomers?

So this is where I would usually go into the plot, what the major events are and how the plot flows together. Just one problem with that, there really is not plot to this movie, sorta. It's all just a collection of classic Cheech & Chong sketches put to animation, and I mean that literally. I can't find any evidence to this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was literally the skits from their records put to animation. Lots of their classic skits including Sister Mary Elephant, Dave, Ralph and Herbie, Let's Make a Dope Deal, Trippin' in Court, and Earache My Eye. It's funny, not the movie itself, I'll get to that in a bit, but the fact that there aren't too many animated sketch comedy films. Yes, we have movies that are package films, but those are typically movies they can chop up and air as segments on their own, I mean movies like Monty Python's The Meaning of Life or The Kentucky Fried Movie. We don't really have the movie version of Robot Chicken or MAD or anything like that. Actually a MAD movie might be interesting. We don't really have a lot of animated sketches loosely tied together with some central plot or theme. Oh yeah, the scenes that tie this movie together follow a genital crab trying to land in Tommy Chong's beard, yeah, raunchy and toilet comedy are going to be present a lot in this movie.

Guess that should be my segue into talking about the comedy. This is a Cheech & Chong movie after all. So, is this movie funny without the need for uh... comedy enhancing psychedellic smokable plants? Well... not really. A lot of the humour is very slow moving and I just kind of wanted them to get to the point faster, but after a while I did kinda get into the pace and flow of the movie. I dunno, if you dig slower kind of laid back humour, you might get into this movie. Then again, as stated before, there is quite a lot of toilet humour, well "humour" is the wrong word, unless you find the image of a dog's anus opening up to let a giant turd out to be funny. To be fair, some of the toilet humour was somewhat amusing, Cheech urinating on his car trunk yelling to the people inside of it is kind of funny, so I think most of the humour is going to depend on your tolerance for slow comedy and toilet humour. Again, this is not my style of humour, so I wasn't super into this, but I could dig the pacing and tone after a while.

All of the voices in this movie are done by Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, and they do good work... I think? Again, I have a hunch that they may have just taken their old recordings and put them to animation. In the Sister Mary Elephant sketch, when the Sister Mary Elephant character yells, it sounds like somebody blowing out their headset mic on Audacity, not like professional recording. That being said, I wouldn't be shocked if they did redo their skits for this movie, since Cheech Marin has done plenty of voice work in the past, such as on Oliver & Company and The Lion King, while Tommy Chong did films like FernGully and Zootopia, plus the two did a bunch of comedy albums, plus the movie had a couple of people in the sound department, according to IMDb, so it could have been either. Either way, the vocal work is solid.

What isn't very solid is the animation itself. I'd usually go into issues with the animation with any other movie, but the issue with the animation here can be summarized in one sentence; It looks like a cheap Flash production. Characters look flat, everything is coloured with solid colours, light and shading is basic, and when characters are meant to move smoothly and have some flow to their movement, it looks really off because the rest of the animation looks stiff and cheap. I don't think anyone really wanted to make this movie look spectacular, I wouldn't be surprised if they aimed for something simple looking, but this looks like something you would see for free online, not a theatrically released animation. I feel like something like this might make someone's opinions of theatrical adult animation much less positive, which is totally not fair.

So, where do I rank Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie? It's... watchable, mostly harmless, but not essential viewing. If you have the comedy albums, I'd say listen to those instead, maybe watch Up In Smoke too, but it might be interesting as a curiosity viewing. I think movies that you need to watch stoned off your butt to enjoy kind of miss the point entirely, like yes, they're funny when you're too high to remember you have hands, but they also should be funny when you're sober. That being said, I didn't have an awful time with this movie, and I did feel the vibe after a while. I'd imagine this as a decent film to put on in the background and chill. This is a very different style of movie than I am used to reviewing, so I'm glad I saw it, but I don't think I'd choose to watch it again. This movie fits very nicely in the "Slight Recommendation" category of movies. Hope you have a happy, SAFE and RESPONSIBLE 4/20 everyone.

First Impressions: The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

I'm going to be honest, I hate Illumination Studios. I have not seen all of their movies, and I doubt they're all terrible movies. However, Illumination is easily the poster boy for "Safe" movies. The kind of movies that are so inoffensive and non-threatening that they straight up annoy me. So, I was actually kind of excited for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as surprising as that sounds, because the trailers and screen-shots of the movie made it look so much different and more unique from the rest of Illumination's output. So I waited with anticipation and high, but reasonable expectations. I was not expecting something like a Secret of NIMH or a Felidae here, honestly if Illumination made a movie on par with either of those, I'd would be beyond amazed, but I was kind of expecting Illumination to take a risk, be bold and raise their bar by a lot, and did they accomplish that?

Truthfully, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is... somewhat what I expected. By Illumination's standards it is a very risky movie, but that is by Illumination standards, which is a bar so low it's practically in the Earth's outer core. Secret Life of Pets 2 and Minions: The Rise of Gru were not awful movies, but they were fairly safe and formulaic. Not that this movie is not formulaic at all, but it isn't as predictable as Minions 2 was. Minions 2 had the recognizable pattern of the standard family film, the third act break-up that is meant to be emotional only to bring everyone together in the end because "Hey, I didn't really mean what I said". There is a bit of a third act break-up here, but it isn't played with a misunderstanding or a emotional low point... sort of. It was more a consequence of the action. Plot wise, I do think Illumination stepped out on a limb here, a baby step maybe, but still a step.

Of course, no discussion of this movie is complete without talking about the voice cast, namely one Pratt by name of Chris. Chris Pratt is the voice of Mario and... he's fine. Yes, it would have been nice if we got Charles Martinet as the voice, but Chris Pratt does fine. Charles Martinet is not forgotten in this movie, being the voice of Mario's Dad, which is a nice touch. Honestly, my biggest issues with the voice actors lay with Cranky Kong and Bowser. Cranky Kong's actor was fine, but he sounded way too young for this role, I always imagine Cranky with a Red Green kind of voice, old and grizzled without a hint of wisdom. as for Bowser, for the most part he's actually fine, great even, but when he sings he often slips into Jack Black's regular voice, and that is just distracting. I love Jack Black, and I do think he was a good casting choice for Bowser, but moments like that did pull me out of the movie a bit.

Honestly though, those were my only complaints. Everything else is fairly good. The animation is colourful and does its job pretty well, the story moved at a good pace, and the characters were pretty well written. Avid Mario fans are also going to enjoy spotting references all over the place, with things like Pauline's cameo, Foreman Spike and his hat saying Wrecking Crew, the Dragon Coin from Super Mario World and the shop from Mario Odyssey, plus references to other Nintendo properties like Punch-Out and Kid Icarus. Some references I would have loved to see would have been mostly characters that could appear in a potential sequel (Wink wink) such as Wario, Waluigi, Daisy, Rosalina and Toadsworth, who relly should have been on the council of Toads, but I digress.

On Twitter, Crimson Mayhem put forth the question about Illumination making a movie based on The Legend of Zelda. Honestly, I will still need a tad bit more convincing for that. Not that I don't think Illumination can pull it off, but they really should get some more experience with video game adaptations before I'm fully on board. Honestly, I think now would be the best time for a Zelda movie, since video game adaptations are finally getting quality releases, with the Sonic movies being enjoyed by games fans and general audiences, and this movie being pretty solid. Is it the big risky move I was expecting from Illumination? Not really, but to be fair, I was kind of expecting a lot there, wasn't I? The fact that this movie is better than "Watchable" is quite frankly astounding on its own. I'm hoping this isn't just a fluke, but I doubt it's a sign of things to come. I can say this movie gets a solid Recommendation from me.

Wonder Park (2019) - A Kind of Generic and Dull Movie

 

Hey, didn't you already review this movie? Technically, I haven't, that was a First Impressions blog. Okay, truth be told, it's been four years since my initial first impressions on this movie, and time has been... well, I don't want to exaggerate, but saying "Time hasn't been kind to this movie" is an understatement. Especially since time has been unfriendly to this movie before it even released. It went through Development Hell, was critically panned, just barely made back it's budget at the box office, which means it's pretty much a flop, and nobody even really remembers this movie. To be fair, it does seem like most of the bad movies from 2019 have been forgotten, unless there is a special place in your heart for Arctic Dogs, UglyDolls and The Secret Life of Pets 2. Everything was against this movie... except for me. I didn't like this movie, but I did have some respect for it, this was the first movie I gave a First Impressions look at, and all this time later, does it still have any respect from me?

The story follows June Bailey, an imaginative young girl who loves to build an imaginary theme park with her mother. Unfortunately, her mother gets the very serious "Never-explained" disease and has to leave, and I am wording it like that for reasons. This causes June to develop some emotional issues, which her father thinks sending her to math camp will help. However, while trying to get back, she stumbled upon a magical gateway to Wonder Park... Oh wait I'm sorry, Wonder Land, yeah, this movie's title totally wasn't a last minute name change in the slightest. Anyway, she finds the park is destroyed and overrun by possessed plush toys that feed broken pieces of the park to this entity called "The Darkness", sadly not a 2000s hair metal pastiche, but just a big purple cloud. This movie is a touch more generic than I remember it being. In my first impressions, I did say that this movie's plot was predictable and followed the formula, you can kind of tell where this story is going, except for the reveal that June's mother isn't dead, which is... a choice. This movie definitely has the stench of "We don't exactly know what we're doing", is this a story like Inside Out or Where the Wild Things Are?

A big part of the story for this movie is meant to be June taking her Mother's illness hard, which causes her to develop some mental issues, and I think it's meant to be mirrored by Peanut, who she meets sorting candies by colour. The thing is, we didn't see June sorting things by colour, and we didn't see Peanut aggressively vacuuming. I am going to, really word myself carefully here, I know OCD isn't just sorting everything by colour and keeping a cleaner than clean house, I know OCD is a lot of other things, but if you're going to connect these characters, you should at least have them doing the same thing. Have Peanut aggressively cleaning his area, polishing glass and sweeping up behind June as she walks around. Have what Peanut does mirror was June was doing.

I guess I should talk about the characters, but they're all pretty basic, don't really stand out too much, and just barely serve their purpose in the movie. Honestly, you can say similar things about the animation, it's bright and colourful, but nothing is really amazing, it's kind of like a basic plate of rice or pasta that's shaped like a circus tent, it looks nice, and as a meal it does its job, but it isn't really something that wows and amazes anybody. Character designs are pretty basic, not unappealing, but I feel I could see these designs in any other animated movie, and the montage songs are bland and forgettable. I can see why very few people have talked about this movie since 2019, there really isn't anything that spectacular about it. It does the basic job, and that's about it.

I do remember saying that I might have enjoyed this movie when I was a kid, because it would have triggered my imagination and make me think about what kind of fantastical and magical theme park I would build. Not an impression that holds up over time, not after playing the enormous waste of potential that is Disneyland Adventures and wanting to build my own virtual Disney park. I can imagine really little kids having their creativity sparked by this movie, but I'd probably give them Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and download the OpenRCT2 mod and let them go crazy instead. I compared it to The Greatest Showman, another movie that gave me a creative bug, making me plan my own circus, and might have been a big inspiration to a personal project I've had on the back burner for a while now. The difference is, The Greatest Showman had some really good songs and choreography, and was a movie I would actually want to come back to. Wonder Park is mostly just a bore.

Yeah, my First Impressions do not hold up to snuff. I can't say I agree with everyone, I don't think this is one of the worst animated movies I've seen, but then again, generic and boring movies don't really rate highly for me. Nothing about this movie is really worth hating, save for the ending where they decide to chicken out and have the mother live, giving this movie the perfect ending. Yes kids, your sick parents will get through just fine, and my grandmother will come back from her fatal run-in with pneumonia. I know, sometimes things turn out just fine, but things never turn out perfect, and I do think that this movie is trying to portray a perfect ending. Is it harmful to kids? I'm not going to say yes, but I think it can give them the wrong idea, but really, if this is the only thing that gets me upset about a movie, the movie is pretty boring. I'm dropping my rating from a Slight Recommendation to a Not Recommended.