Granted, the musical animated film is a Disney tradition but they've set it so that everyone has to compete with them by delivering a like product.

I hear that Dreamworks up coming Road to Eldorado is more of the same. A songfest with little pockets of movie between numbers. It's all quite tiresome by now.

either you like the story of Tarzan or you don't.
Either you like musicals or you don't.

Musicals are by no means a Disney invention, they have been around for ages.Actually it isn't even an American invention. Musicals are direct descendants of Operrettas which derived from Operas.

The fact that Disney makes it so that everyone has to do the same thing is ...well, I don't know. It seems that the majority of audiences just likes the formula, and as long as they like Disney and all the others will probably play it save.

I find Tarzan did break a little away from the tradition however, in somuch that none of the characters actually sang (except for that rumble in the jungle bid).

I found the songs, in the background actually enhanced the story.

What bugs me with the Disney Animated Features lately is the pathetic political correct messages and story changes they are lazed with these days.

Just my two cents. Actually one cent, need to get a second job, all these soundtrack purchases are driving me to the poorhouse.

Scott

Scott. I agree with you on nearly every point. Persronally I have never liked the underlying messages in the Tarzan thing. I rented the video to check out how the music (Mancina's) worked in the movie.

The songs from MULAN and ANASTASIA, while enjoyable, completly overshadowed what the film's should have presenting: The brilliant scores by Jerry Goldsmith and David Newman, respectively.

What if John Williams was scoring an animated feature(and God willing, he shall someday)?

Would you truly bookend his score with catchy(but not in a good way) songs?

Think hard now: one of the greatest film composers, living or dead; 37 Oscar nods; household name; wonderous themes.

The Great Mouse Detective (2 songs, but it's Vincent Price, so it's forgiven.)

The Black Cauldron

The Rescuers Down Under

Watership Down (One song, but it's refreshing, and not sung by rabbits.)

The Plague Dogs (Ditto.)

The animated Batman movies

The Secret of N.I.M.H. (One song, but it's part of the plot. And it's Jerry.)

This is the reason why I belive that The Iron Giant wasn't promoted as much as it should have been. There were no songs in it and the studio was frightend with this "new" approach. And when I finally saw the movie I was happy to see there was no songs in it and it was a great story with humor, heart, and action. None of which had to be expressed through a song with inanimate objects or cutsie little animals.

If worse comes to worse we can all move to Japan where animated features are very comon and offten are #1 in their box office.

dave

That's way my favorite animated movies are the two Batman ones, Mask of the Phantasm and SubZero. Can you imagine: if Disney had done them, Batman and Robin would have been breaking into a song and dance every TEN damn minutes!!

"Tarzan" was really a break from the norm with Disney, in the first place, in that the songs were, for the most part, sung by a "narrator" of sort--in that much, I consider it to be rather innovative. It wasn't a "musical" so much (wherein the characters break out into song)....I am rather impressed with "Tarzan", combining the talents of Phil Collins and Mark Mancina, and I think it was one of last year's better efforts.

From what I understand, "Kingdom of the Sun" featuring Sting, is next up on the drawing board for Disney. I rather like this trend of bringing one vocal artist and one composer in for the Disney feature.

I took the 5-year-old to Iron Giant, he loved it.

I'd like to make a favorable comment about one child-oriented musical -- even though it isn't animated: Muppet Treasure Island. GREAT songs -- even a little subversive to entertain the adults who listen closely.

(No, sailor moon, pokemon, dragonball Z do not count as anime. Those are children's shows.)

My friend Tab Murphy (who wrote Tarzan) will be writing a couple of Disney's upcoming projects. For 2001, an animated movie titled, "Atlantis - The Lost Empire" will be exactly what you guys are talking about. No songs. Apparently it's gonna be a pretty awesome film and story (according to Tab).

Just thought you guys might wanna know.

Jeron

Where do you guys get to know all of these hi-fa-looten Hollywood types ??

dave

I don't really like the "Tarzan" story, but I liked Disney's film. Especially the Elephant scenes very incredibly funny. The songs were, in my opinion, simply boring. The only good thing Phil Collins did for the film was that percussion piece.

I DO like the songs in "Lion King", whatever you may think of Hans Zimmer (I'm not too fond of him), I think he did a great job arranging Elton John's songs (which are again not very good in their original versions, IMHO). And I did find most of the "Robin Hood" songs quite good (except that cheesy love song), but I only know them from the synchronized German version. A fantastic score, BTW, but unfortunately not available on CD (seems to be the only unavailable Disney score ).

I also like Randy Newman's songs (and score) for "Toy Story", but I haven't yet seen #2.

All I have to say is I can't WAIT FOR TITAN AE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS, I Enjoyed both the songs and score to Prince Of Egypt, Aladdin, and The Lion King. But I hate all the others.

They barely had songs, and those that were added to the story or were amusing. Those are the best!

The original 101 DALMATIANS; you must admit that "Cruella De Vil" is a great song

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS; without Danny Elfman's superb, award-worthy songs, the film is only half a classic

LADY AND THE TRAMP; good tunes, particularly the one used in the Italian restaurant scene(which incidentally is another memorable scene)

In addition to these, here are my favorite animated features, songs notwithstanding:

THE SWORD IN THE STONE
ANASTASIA
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM
THE LION KING(though these songs are good)
SCOOBY-DOO ON ZOMBIE ISLAND
CATS DON'T DANCE
ANTZ
TOY STORY 1 + 2(you must see 2 with the outtakes; they are simply sidesplitting) (sp?) and...

NP - THE SECRET OF NIMH *****/*****
but the "Flying Dreams" lyrics bite

The original 101 DALMATIANS; you must admit that "Cruella De Vil" is a great song

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS; without Danny Elfman's superb, award-worthy songs, the film is only half a classic

LADY AND THE TRAMP; good tunes, particularly the one used in the Italian restaurant scene(which incidentally is another memorable scene)

In addition to these, here are my favorite animated features, songs notwithstanding:

THE SWORD IN THE STONE
ANASTASIA
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM
THE LION KING(though these songs are good)
SCOOBY-DOO ON ZOMBIE ISLAND
CATS DON'T DANCE
ANTZ
TOY STORY 1 + 2(you must see 2 with the outtakes; they are simply sidesplitting) (sp?) and...

NP - THE SECRET OF NIMH *****/*****
but the "Flying Dreams" lyrics bite

And Danny Elfman's sly, irreverent song's fit Nightmare Before Christmas like a glove. Tarzan was, to me, a textbook example of how not to do it. A self consciously crass marketing gimmick aimed squarely at the McDonald's crowd. I hope the news of Atlantis indicates a change in attitude over at the Mouse Company. In the meantime we're going to get a similar thing to Tarzan in Road To Eldorado (although Prince of Egypt did a decent job with song integration). Most of the songs are written by Elton John and Tim Rice and performed by Elton John. Happy meal anyone?

Wedge, why is there no Haiku thread????

LOTR, of course. How could I forget this completely amazing score! It DOES have a song, but I like that one. And actually, as has already been mentioned on the LOTR thread, a GOOD LOTR movie needs a LOT of songs (but not a single musical-styled one!).

NP: Bond Back in Action (****.5/*****)

Ruff, ruff,

that's a big statement to make. Care to back that up with specifics.

Btw, Prince was heavily marketed, had songs and distorted the original story in various ways (another political correct version of something). A lot of animators on that film came from the Disney studios as did some of the writers and directors.

Little bias there DjC, what happened, Mickey beat you up?

Scott

NP: Borne on the fourth of July (BOTFJ, for Jeron). I love this one. Awesome.