Disney Discography: July 2016

Sunday, July 31, 2016

So Dear to My Heart - 15

The Original Film

An often forgotten Disney film, So Dear to My Heart, is the second Disney film to combine live action with animation. With the first being Song of the South. It concerns the story of a little boy and his pet sheep; who he trains to win a prize at the county fair in order to prove both his and the lamb’s worth.

Music wise, the only real note of the film, is that famed folk singer Burl Ives (the snowman from Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer) plays a character in the film and sings most of the songs. Including “Lavender Blue” which was nominated for an academy award.

“So Dear to My Heart” - John Beal ( Irving Taylor and Ticker Freeman )
“It’s Whatcha Do With Whatcha Got” - Ken Carson ( Don Raye andGene de Paul)
“Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)” - Burl Ives ( Larry Morey and Eliot Daniel)
“Billy Boy” - Burl Ives and Beulah Bondi (American folk song)
“Stick-To-It-Ivity” - Ken Carson ( Larry Morey and Eliot Daniel)
“Ol’ Dan Patch” - Burl Ives (flock song with new lyrics by Larry Morey)
“County Fair” - Ken Carson ( Robert Wells and Mel Tormé)

Disney Released Remixes and Covers

Melody Time - 14

The Original Film

Similar to Make Mine Music, Melody Time is yet another package feature that combines then popular sounding music of the day with short segments. Sadly no official soundtrack fir either of theses movies exists.

Disney Releases Remixes and Covers

Fun and Fancy Free - 13

The Original Film

Yet another package feature, but this film offers a change of pace by being only two featurettes instead of several shorts. The shorts are Bongo and Jack in the Beanstalk, with Jiminy Cricket and his misadventures connecting the two.

Disney Released Remixs and Covers

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Song of the South - 12

The Original Film

Ah Song of the South, Disney’s first attempt at adapting a folk lore that wasn’t of European descendant and is consequently their most controversial film. So much so that they’ve refused to release it in the states. If you want to watch the movie legally you have to buy it online from the UK or something.

Which is a shame. There is no doubt that the live action segments of the film can be seen as problematic. To put simply, the people in charge of making the film had little idea of the era of history they were portraying. Disney always tries to make his films timeless, and never bothers to specially pin down his films to one time and place. But this works to the determent of the movie since the time and place are an important part of the characters’ developments and motivations.

So what we have is a movie that expects it audience to already have a working knowledge of what time period it takes place in without telling said audience what that time period is (its during the Reformation period by the way), ignores the intricate politics that motivates some of the major decisions that effect the plot, and confuses the both important but separate issues of racism and classism as being one and the same.

And to top everything off, these problematic live action segments are boring, unnecessary filler. I wouldn’t blame anybody for being offended by the shear incompetence displayed during such segments. Which is once again a crying shame, because the animated portions of the film are brilliant.

The Br'er Rabbit stories are an important part of African American folk lore and are presented respectfully, faithfully, and by actual African Americans.This is the first full length animated film to have African Americans as the entire vocal cast. The star of the film is African American in an era where such a thing was near unheard of. This movie is an important piece of history that doesn’t deserve to be swept up under the rug and left forgotten in a vault. It needs to be seen and discussed; both it’s strengths and its flaws. So that we can grow and learn from it.

In short I encourage anyone who is interested in racial representation in animation to watch the Br'er Rabbit segments at the very least.

As for the music, which is why we’re here, the film has a variety of composers. However all were in inspired by traditional African American folk music and nearly every song sung in the film is performed by African Americans including the renowned all-black Hall Johnson Choir.

Deleted Songs

This song is actually deleted from the Splash Mountain ride which is based off of the film.

“Sooner or Later” - mother possum and rabbit (respectively) and their babies

Disney Released Remixes and Covers