The earliest I remember of music... Good music... Is in the early-nineties Disney movies. "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," "The Little Mermaid," and "The Lion King," just to name a few. Alan Menken, the man responsible for these films' soundtracks, is an absolutely astounding composer. The songs in question are extremely well-written; they tell a story while still being great out-of-context. They're harmonically complex, but still sing-along-able.
This is the music I grew up with. I had all the casette tapes (remember those?) for these soundtracks, and sat in the back of mom's van, singing "Hakuna Matata" at the top of my lungs. Menken wrote melodies that, to this day, are instantly recognizable. This goes pretty contrary to most of the other cartoons I remember, which took classical or folk music and re-packaged it. (It's because of this phenomenon that no american can listen to Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" without fighting the urge to sing "Kill da waaaaaaabit, kil da waaaaabit" a la Elmer Fudd)
The point I'm trying to make is that all my love for music stems back to one man, one composer, who found a media through which his music would greatly impact a generation. Today, the popular Disney movies are produced by Pixar. For all it's achievements, Pixar uses little music. I'd be interested to see the results of this sad development.
-Brooks
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4 comments:
sorry, i posted the first comment on stacey's account. here's what i said:I've never been much for disney cartoons, i tolerate and maybe even moderately enjoy lion king, and big al, but the others have always been too girly... which, as you can imagine is something i decided at an early age as well. but i would agree that they have great music...all of the ones you mentioned...keep remembering the good ole days, and living the present to the fullest
Disney has moved away from alot of things. I am all about the cool new 3d animation but I still like the old school, 2 dimensional movies. The best most recent one for that was the emperor's new groove. However that movie had no music. I think I remember some movie about a barnyard and singing cows that I almost walked out of, but yeah.. there has definately been a void since the great days of Aladdin and Lion King. But I guess everything comes in cycles.
And by the way... I remember tapes.. I remember life where there were no CDs.
I don't think expecting a certain amount of maturity from people is immature...but I'll admit that I enjoy having fun, and sometimes that leads me to act younger than I really am. I hate having to be in charge whhaaaw.
PS- I'm ready for you to post something new.
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