I KNOW I'm overdue, it's just school's a pain. So just a quick update this week.
PRINCESS AND THE FROG IS OUT! I haven't seen it yet, but it's garnering alot of honors and positive reviews.
spoilers here, sort of...
Both of these songs are done by Voice Actors. Jim Cummings is Ray, and Keith David (Goliath from Gargoyles) is Dr. Facilier. As far as I can tell, these two characters stole the show.
The Lulu mentioned in Jim Cummings Song, is named after his adopted Daughter. His other adopted Daughter made it in the film physically. She has a "Mickey Mouse" hairstyle. He took a picture of her, and then took it to the animators. She's in the background or something somewhere.
Keith David was lauded for his ability to add in little movements which were then worked into the character, particularly Keith David's sinister smile.
This isn't new. Rattigan was turned very muscular and Dramatic based on Vincent Price's Shakespearean acting in the booth.
Sorry for not giving you some music recently... I've been busy. I've also been neglecting Disney's TV.
SCARECROW!!! Normally, I would put all my info here, but IMDB and Wikipedia fail me. I can't give any specifics really.
Anyway, The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh was a three part series for the Wonderful world of Disney. Despite being intended for US release first, it was released in England where it shared a bill with Sword in the Stone.
The protagonist is named Reverend Syn who is a "Modern Day" (during the revolutionary war) Robin Hood for the people of Romney Marsh England. He had two assistants, the governer's son and his church's Deacon (I think it's a deacon) who smuggle money and goods in and out and the money is used for taxes.
In the three adventures he has to save an American, keep one of his men from betraying him, then rescue several men falsely imprisoned (by blackmailing the Vicar! Aka himself to help the men out)
After it was edited, and reedited, and released in short runs, an unedited version was printed on DVD by Disney in 2008 complete with the original Walt Disney intros (which referred to the Scarecrow as being real)
This was not the original opening Song. Before there was a song known as "beyond the laughing sky" but Kathryn Beaufort (Alice's voice) could not sing it and it was too slow, so this song replaced it.
This movie, like most Alice Movies, was a flop when it was first released. It grew to be very popular in the 1960's though as a cult film.
The Jabberwocky segment was supposed to be in the film too, but remnants stay in the movie (a song references the poem, and a character from the poem appears.
The movie combines "Alice in wonderland" and "beyond the looking glass"
Sterling Holloway, the Cheshire Cat, played The Frog in a 1930's version of Alice.
The movie was edited to a one hour format and was the first Disney movie shown on TV. It was also originally promoted on TV... however TV's at that point were in black and white.
Disney also made a Mickey Cartoon in the 30's about Mickey going through a mirror. HOwever, it is more slapstick then this version. (and alot shorter)
I'm not really up on Alice, so I'm sorry I can't say more.
Welcome, foolish mortals, to this weeks blog post. I am your blogger, you're GHOST blogger...
Anyway, curious friends, the Haunted Mansion celebrated it's fortieth anniversary this week!
The Mansion was one of the last things Walt Disney worked on before he died, unfortunately it wasn't finished when he did die.
It went through 4 story revisions before deciding that it would work best with no story at all. The story of the ghost host being a sea captain still has some hints in the ride. Disneyland has a weathervane on the roof, in the shape of a ship. Also, there is a painting of a ship becoming haunted. (Disney world had the captain as one of the sinister 11, the paintings that watched you)
It has been hinted, that when you escape from the attic, you have now "died" in the ride, and that is why the groundskeeper is scared looking at you and why the ghosts are much closer after that.
NONE of the ghosts are conjured using any kind of digital hologram stuff. In fact, most of the gags are either typical animatronics or very old theater tricks. (I won't go into detail)
Except Madam Leota, but then they simply took the next step in what they had been doing already.
Phantom Manor (the Curious Friends bit) is Haunted Mansion in france, and to date is the only HM that is very different from the Disneyland one. Disney world only swapped out the changing portraits for the sinister 11, added a staircase and the library. Japan followed Disneyworld.
The Ghost Host is played by Paul Frees.
Gracey is the fan name for the mansion. It comes from the tombstones on the outside of the mansion (it's film credits, if you will) and a Gracey is mentioned there. That is Yale Gracey's stone.
Loeta Toombs was the only tombstone added to the mansion on the outside. She is the face for Madam Leota, and the face and voice for Little Leota. She was also an imagineer and volunteered to help test the equipment and recording used. She did such a bang up job it has been kept as the official piece.
In case you couldn't tell, I'm a Haunted Mansion Phan (Also, Phantom Manor) so I'll leave you all with this.
Song by Danny Elfman, and sung by Danny Elfman (he sung Jack) THis shows Jack when he arrived in Halloweentown.
This is one of my favorite movies, it is so fun and kooky! And incredibly time conusming. It took 10 days to film one minute of film. Despite how short (comparitively) the movie is, it is filled with texture because it is stopmotion. This is 3D without being cartoony.
The dolls used were only a few feet high, and sometimes if you watch long scenes you can tell the scale.
Some of the gags from here were worked into Christmastown in KH2.
THe poem that made the movie came from Tim Burton. He was watching a Halloween storefront being changed to Christmas. The odd juxtaposition made him write the poem.
Jack shows up some of Tim Burton's other films, such as Vincent, Beetlejuice, and James and the Giant Peach.
There are a few references to Batman, which Tim Burton had a comitment to direct at the time, in the movie. Can you find them? (they're not in the clip)
The hardest shot in the film is just before this. When Jack reaches for the door, you can see the forest behind him. Meaning they have to make sure nothing made in on accident.
The NIghtmare crew was nominated for best visual effects, but lost to Jurassic Park.
Yes, it's Saturday, but I will be going on vacation until the 25th, so no updates until then.
I saw UP on Thursday. It was FANTASTIC! So, if by some miracle you are reading this blog, AND if you haven't seen it yet go see it now! (If it's out there, I know I have some international readers.
Up was made by Pixar, featuring the voice of Ed Asner as Carl Franklin.
I'll admit it, I cried three times in the movie, because of how sad and sweet it was! We have a devoted couple, a love for all time...
Since it just came out, I can't really sprinkle it with the trivia (between it being hard to find and spoilerish) so...
The idea came from an idea that director Peter Docter had to escape life. Russell was added later in the film then BOTH Carl and Dug, in order to make it seem less episodic (this trait is shared with John Ratzenburger's character) John Ratzenburg has appeared in all 10 of Pixar's movies, making him their "Lucky Charm" despite not officially working for the company, he is in their baseball competition. Dug was made to show what dogs probably think, instead of what we think they do. (And, really, Dug is HILARIOUS) Carl is shaped like a square, to symbolize his relationship with his house, Ellie, his wife, is shaped like a baloon. For reference, the animators looked at images of their grandparents and the Senior Olympics. Russell is Pixar's first asian or Asian American character to be voiced by an Asian American (but the only one I can think of otherwise is the Japanese Car in Cars, so...) and is designed after Peter Sohn (A Pixar Storyboarder who voiced Emille in Ratatouille)
I'll see you guys later! And watch the end credits for Up, it's really funny.
Hey guys! I'm back, hopefully. I really don't know if anyone reads it besides one person...
Anyway, in a Vincent Price mood, so I'm talking about one of his favorite roles, Rattigan from "The Great Mouse Detective"!
The Great Mouse Detective was released in 1986, based on the Basil of Baker Street stories by Eve Titus, but an original story in the universe, it had Vincent Price as Rattigan, Barrie Ingram as Basil (named after Basil Rathbone, the original Sherlock Holmes in the movies, still does a great job. Also an excellent sword fighter. It ended up saving his life while filming "The Court Jester") and Wayne Allwine as a henchman. (that scene is starting to make me cry)
Anyway, one of Vincent Price's favorite parts, ever. Henry Mancini wrote the tune, with Larry Grossman and Ellen Fitzhugh doing the lyrics. It had the first time using CG in a cartoon (I don't know when, but assuming during the Big Ben scenes. Coincidentally, Donald Duck was the first of the fab five to become CG. A cartoon in "House of Mouse" had him sucked, Tron-like, into a computer)
When Vincent Price recorded his voice, he preformed exagerrated Shakespeare gestures to help get into the part. This was used for basis for Rattigan's movements and transformed Rattigan from a skinny rat to a well muscled one.
The doll in the clip is based on the drawings from the book.
Sorry it couldn't be better, but...yeah.
So, have you ever seen this movie? I used to have it on tape. Let me know if you've seen it and your favorite part if so in the comments?
A more recent song today! (and a short one) This one minute bit is from "The Three Musketeers" The movie is not a strict adaption of the movie, but is a loose sequel where the originals appear in the opening sequence, and influence these three.
The idea for a full length Mickey Donald Goofy movie had been around for around 65 years, but Disney lacked the established characters needed to pull it off. After all this time, they fixed the adaption problem (as stated above) and had enough characters to pull it off.
Pete reappears with his pegleg in this version, while his flunkies are the Beagle Boys from Ducktales (though altered so they appear and talk different. But they are still have their personalities and are still more or less flunkies. And not very intelligent)
The movie is filled with references to other Disney works. The most obvious in this clip is Donald in his Sailor's outfit (which has a reason which I will list below) but others include Mickey's costume being ripped off during a fight, revealing his traditional outfit, Pete (mockingly) referring to a number called "I just can't wait to be king" and mocking Mickey with the "Mickey Mouse Club March" and there are many more that I don't want to spoil ;)
Alright, the music. THis movie was going to have original music, but when one of the directors listened to a CD that had some of the proposed songs on there he went to the wrong number and listened the Habanera instead. He came back raving about how it would be interesting to use it, and then realizes he had listened to the wrong song. Well, they decided to keep the idea and all the songs in the movie are based on songs in the public domain. This one is Beethoven's fifth, I think.
The Reason why Donald is in his normal wear is because they changed his fault for the movie. Instead of him having a short temper, he became a coward (it works well in the movie, but it would have been nice to see the Temper too) The Musketeers (who were just put there by Pete because he thought they would fail) have been tasked to keep Princess Minnie safe. DOnald get's freaked out, and Mickey tells him that as long as they wear the uniforms they are musketeers. Donald promptly rips his off revealing his traditional outfit.
This scene takes place where Mickey has been captured and the narrator (our turtle friend) is trying to goad Donald into being loyal. It obviously works.
Today is Opening day for Baseball! So with that, I give you one of the baseball scenes in Disney movies (which is kind of surprising) "I Don't Dance" from High School Musical 2. This is a baseball influenced song with Swing, Rap, and Samba influenced. And I would die of embarrassment if someone actually played Baseball this way.
THis song was adopted
High School Musical 2 was the TV movie sequel to HSM 1. This one took place over the summer and with everyone at their jobs. Ryan (the guy in white)played by Lucas Grabeel is pushed out of his normal position at the country club where they work so he is kind of adopted by the workers. THis leads to him being in the baseball game, since they are short one player.
Chad, the African American boy played by Corbin Bleu, and Ryan are having a baseball argument on this field and they are using baseball to argue their points. It was filmed in Colorado I believe and Lucas Grabeel only had 2 pairs of pure white clothes, so he couldn't let the first get dirty. Corbin Bleu, though, got beaned at least three times.
Corbin Bleu had a hard time with this song. Not all of the actors can do hip hop (Olyesa Rulin was trained as a Ballerina for example) and Corbin Bleu apparently had trouble with the sports aspect.
The review for the song and dance number were mixed. The general consensus was "I Don't Dance" was one of the most enjoyable songs in the movie, and was a good mix of genres, but the camera work was shoddy. The tune was either "insanely Catchy" or "excruciating" (I like it, but I'm a baseball fan)
On me being a baseball fan, yes, Ryan should be thrown out for Balking (starting to throw the ball, then changing his mind. He does this with his dancing) I think it is legal but improbably for people to score get on base with the dancing movies/headstands they do. and Disney promoted this song with having Clips from baseball games, players singing/saying "I don't dance" or shots of players dancing. Clip of that below, unfortunately the first 30 seconds were cut off. But enough remains you get the gist.
Happy April Fools! I thought this song fit for today. 1996, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Clopin sings this song, with a dance by Esmerelda. Hunch back of Notre Dame deviates substantially from the book. Mostly by making Quasimodo, Esmerelda, and Phoebus kinder and allowing more people to live. This was also one of the most mature Disney productions, despite being rated G. The movie covers Sexual themes (Alot. This will be explored more in depth with Hellfire) Infantcide, Hypocrisy, Prejudice, and social injustice. This was also the first Disney movie to use the word "Damnation"
Clopin is played by Paul Kandell. There isn't much on his wiki page (yes, that's where I get most of my info. Or from podcasts) but it notes he was nominated for a Tony (Broadway's Oscars) for his portrayal of Uncle Ernie in The Who's Tommy.
Tony Jay plays Frollo, the villain in this movie. He passed away in 2006, but left volumes of work to his credit. His other Disney credits include Monsieur D'arque, the asylum owner in Beauty and the Beast, Shere Khan in Tale Spin and Jungle Book 2, Death in Darkwing Duck (one time role), The Wraith in the Mighty Ducks, the Magic Mirror in House of Mouse, and the Narrator in Treasure Planet. Outside Disney work includes a Yeti in Captain Planet, Baron Mordo in Spider-Man the Animated series, a lieutenant in Fallout, Magneto in X-Men Legends, The narrator in "Austin Powers, the spy who shagged me" and The History Channel series Civil War Combat. and The Narrator for Nausicaa: Valley of the wind. This is on top of Shakespeare work and his live action work as in Lois and Clare: the New Adventures of Superman and Star Trek: NExt Generation
Also, Kevin Kline plays Captain Phoebus. While he started in "Sophie's Choice" (and got nominated for best new comer) he also took on roles such as "The Pirate King" from Pirates of Penzance, won an Oscar for his work in "A fish called Wanda" (A comedy!), the Road to El Dorado, The Emperor's Club, De-Lovely, The Pink Panther (1, John Cleese took over his role for 2) and Guy Noir for A Prairie home Companion. And beyond this, many roles on Broadway.
Continuing in my obscure songs and movies is The Parent Trap, from 1961. The lead actress was named Haley Mills, and she played against herself, a technical feat in the early 1960's. I really have no idea how this was performed, but my guess would be filming a scene twice (once as the twin Sharon and once as the twin Susan) and superimpose the film. Originally the film was to be made with body doubles most of the time, but the effect worked so well that Walt Disney ordered more of the effect. Some of the body double work is evident in this scene, where often in the beginning one will have their back turned while the other is in focus.
In this scene,the twins are trying to get their parents their parents back together by recreating their first date. One of the servants plays the gypsy violin performer while one of the twins, I don't know which one, is the entertainment. The other interrupts and we get this classic Disney song!
The music and lyrics were done by the Sherman Brothers, who are classic Disney composers. Many of the songs in the parks and some of the movies are done by these brothers. They composed Mary Poppins, WInnie the Pooh, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Jungle Book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (not Disney, but Walt allowed them to work on it. It's a good movie, see it sometime), Sword in the Stone, and the Absent Minded professor, along with park songs such as "One Little Spark", "It's a Small World", "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" among others.
The Brothers are named Robert B. and Richard G. and they have written more musical scores then any other team in history.
Sung By Hayley Mills. And I feel like I can't talk about her as much as I did the Sherman Brothers, but I'll give it a shot. She is the daughter of the actor Sir John Mills and Playwright Mary Bell. Her first role was for Disney, in Pollyanna and she won a special Academy Award for that. She has also performed in That Darn Cat and the Love Boat. And other stuff I don't know.
Starting off with an old song, from 1955 it's The Ballad of Davy Crockett. Disney used to have a TV show called the Wonderful World of Disney. It allowed Disney to promote upcoming projects, and for Walt to experiments with different mediums. After Disney switched over to Color (with the help of Dr Ludwig Von Drake) the sale of Color TV's shot up.
Besides promotions, Disney also created miniseries that were shown every week with shows normally rotating with what to be shown. (so it could go Davy Crocket, then The Swamp Fox, then Kit Carson before being Davy Crockett again) (N.B. not a real order)
Davy Crockett was composed by George Bruns, with Lyrics by Tom Blackburn.
The popularity of Davy Crockett took Disney by surprise, and the "Crockett Craze" after it where anything doing with Davy took off like lightning. The Ballad of Davy Crockett was released and has been covered many times. From it's actor, Fess Parker to Tim Curry as his Rocky Horror Picture Show Persona.
Davy Crocket had 2 movies made of it, one was the story told on the Miniseries (3 episodes) ending with his death at the Alamo. And the second was a midquel/sequel that took place during the story about Davy Crockett sailor named Mike Fink and their adventures fighting eachother then fighting River Pirates. Personally I prefer the second one, but I have trouble with my heroes dying.
Sidenote: I am having trouble finding several of the songs I want to show you guys. If you want to help out, let me know in the posts below and I'll give another entry with what I am looking for.
Hi! Um, I decided to start a blog... I have no idea if people will read this but what the heck.
I'll try to post Disney music here and comment about it a little. It should be mostly Disney Music, but from both the parks and the movies. Let's see if this works...
If you read this, tell me what you think and what I should do/post.
The selection today is Phantom Manor's Ghost Host English opening, said by Vincent Price. After a few years it was replaced with the French take. While Mr. Price tried to do it in French, he was unable to. After the change, the laugh still remains throughout the ride.
The voice of the bride, Allegedly named Melanie Ravenswood, is voiced by Katherine Lench. It is orchestrated by John Debney.
Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_Manor Ravenswoodmanor: site devoted to Phantom Manor http://www.ravenswood-manor.com/ Happy Haunts is down for maintenance.
Posts
