The "Rodgers and Hammerstein of Disney" Part 2

              

               If Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman weren’t the “Rodgers and Hammerstein” of Disney, then Howard Ashman and Alan Menken probably were.  Like the Sherman’s, Ashman and Mencken also wrote a huge number of the most popular Disney songs of all time. They were not apprentices of the Sherman brothers, but one could say that, in a way, they did follow in their footsteps because both pairs helped keep the company running. Although Ashman and Menken’s real ambition was to keep musicals, in general, alive as an art form, they had no experience in movies or in animation. They came to work for Disney in the late 1980s, when the studio was on the verge of having to permanently shut down because none of the films the studio had produced since Walt Disney’s death in 1966, animated or live-action, had done well enough to keep the studio financially stable. The studio hired the two of them after they had created the hugely successful Off-Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors. Disney took a great risk in hiring the two of them because the only movie-making experience Menken nor Ashman had was the 1986 film adaptation of Little Shop of Horrors.  Little did anyone know the ginormous success that awaited them all  

              

               Howard Ashman began the “Disney” chapter of his career in 1986 when he was hired to co-write the song “Once Upon a Time in New York City,” the opening song of Oliver and Company (1988). After the writing that song, the studio told him of another project that was in development called The Little Mermaid (1989).  Ashman brought in his good friend and frequent collaborator Alan Menken to write the songs and the original score for the movie, and to everyone’s surprise – both the creative team’s and the whole world’s – it turned out to be a huge hit. It was so successful that Menken and Ashman would go on to win the Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song: “Under the Sea,” for their work. Because they played such a huge role in helping make The Little Mermaid (1989) a hit for the studio, they were immediately hired to write material for the studio’s next animated musical, Beauty and the Beast (1991) A film that Walt Disney himself had tried to adapt for the screen twice (both attempts of which were unsuccessful), Beauty and the Beast (1991) turned out to be an even bigger hit than The Little Mermaid (1989), and won them Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Original Song: “Beauty and the Beast.” The movie also garnered a Best Picture Oscar Nomination, making it the studio’s first Best Picture Oscar Nomination since Mary Poppins (1964), and the very first animated movie ever to be a Best Picture Oscar Nominee.

               Howard Ashman unfortunately passed away of AIDS on March 14th, 1991 at the age of 40, 6 months before the premiere of Beauty and the Beast (1991), and while the studio’s next animated film, Aladdin (1992), was well into production. He never saw the final cut of either movie. Though it was a crushing and devastating loss for Alan Menken, Disney quickly hired Sir Tim Rice to finish the songs for Aladdin (1992).  Menken composed the songs “Friend Like Me,” “Arabian Nights,” and “Prince Ali,” with Ashman, and he wrote “One Jump Ahead,” “A Whole New World,” and “Prince Ali (Reprise),” with Rice. Both Rice and Ashman are given screen credit in the film. Rice would also go on to collaborate with composer Sir Elton John on the songs for The Lion King (1994).

               After Howard Ashman’s passing, Alan Menken continued to write material for Disney movie-musicals. He composed the songs and original scores for Newsies (1992), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Home On the Range, Enchanted (2007), and Tangled (2010). He would win 4 more Oscars in addition to the 4 he won with Howard Ashman for his work on Aladdin (1992) and Pocahontas (1995): Best Original Score and Best Original Song, “A Whole New World” from Aladdin (1992) and “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas (1995). Menken collaborated with many different lyricists for all of these projects, including Jack Feldman for Newsies (1992), Stephen Schwartz for Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Enchanted (2007), David Zippel for Hercules (1997) (Zippel also would write the lyrics for Mulan (1998)), and Glenn Slater for Home on the Range (2004). Menken received additional Oscar nominations for Best Original Score on The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Best Original Songs “Go the Distance,” in Hercules (1997), “That’s How You Know,” “So Close,” and “Happy Working Song,” in Enchanted (2007), and “I See the Light,” in Tangled (2010). 

               Menken and Sir Tim Rice were reunited to write additional material for the Broadway versions of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Beauty and the Beast ran for a total of 5,461 performances and 46 previews from April 18th 1994-July 29th, 2007. It became the 9th longest-running musical in Broadway history. Menken was reunited with Glenn Slater for a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th time for the Broadway Versions of The Little Mermaid and Sister Act the musical and the movie Tangled. The Little Mermaid, played on Broadway for a total of 685 performances and 50 previews from January 10th, 2008 to August 30th, 2009. Sister Act the musical played a total of 561 performances and 28 previews from April 20th, 2011-August 26th 2012. Aladdin opened on Broadway on March 20th, 2014, and is still currently playing today. The show received 5 Tony Award Nominations last year including Best Original Score for Menken, Rice, and Additional Lyricist/Book Writer Chad Beguelin. It managed to win the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for James Monroe Igelhart for creating the role of the Genie in the show. Jonathan Freeman, who provided the voice of Jafar in the film, also reprised his role for the stage version. Alan Menken did however win the Tony for Best Original Score for the highly acclaimed Broadway Version of Newsies along with his lyricist partner from the film version, Jack Feldman. This is his only Tony win, though he received additional nominations for Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Sister Act. He is currently revising a new stage version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Broadway and he just finished scoring an all-new live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast for Disney, which will star Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast.

               When they were casting for The Little Mermaid (1989), many women were considered for the role of Ursula the Sea Witch. Originally the studio offered the role to Beatrice Arthur. She unfortunately turned it down, because she was doing The Golden Girls on television for Disney at the time, and she was convinced that her schedule for the show wouldn’t allow her to do the movie. Tony-award-winner Elaine Stritch was then offered the role, who accepted, but then quit the movie due to bitter creative differences clashing with Howard Ashman. (Ironically, Elaine Stritch had also been considered for Beatrice Arthur’s role of Dorothy on The Golden Girls.) In addition to those two, many other women were considered, even Roseanne Barr, at one point, but the studio ultimately thought of and offered the role to Pat Carroll, who immediately accepted, having longed to be in a Disney movie all her life. She had no problems with how they were running the production whatsoever. In fact, after one of her recording sessions for the film, Pat Carroll went up to Howard Ashman, and she said “Howard, can I ask you a favor?” He replied “Sure.” Carroll then asked “Can you sing Ursula’s song for me?” With that, Howard then proceeded to sing the song “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” While he was singing, he ad-libbed some lyrics that were highly amusing to Carroll, including the lyrics “Life’s full of tough choices, isn’t it”. They were so amusing, that when he was done singing she asked “Howard, is it ok if I steal some of those ad-libs.” Howard replied “I was hoping that you would.”

               Shortly before his passing, the creative team of Beauty and the Beast all went to work at Howard’s studio in New York because he couldn’t travel to L.A. because of his illness. And they were in a recording session for the “Something There,” sequence in the film, and Paige O’Hara (Belle’s voice) was singing the lyrics “New and a bit alarming,” and Howard wanted to give a note about that. He unfortunately couldn’t speak so he had to whisper his note into Alan’s ear. He whispered “Tell Paige, Streisand.”  If you listen carefully, you hear some “Streisand” in O’Hara’s voice.

               On the night Alan and Howard won their Oscars for The Little Mermaid (1989), they were both ecstatic to have won, but their happiness was short-lived when on that very same night Howard said to Alan, “When we get back to New York, we have to have a talk.” Alan was caught off-guard, and he said “Oh really, what is it can we talk about it now?” Howard said “No, not till we get back to New York.” And they got back to their studio in New York, and Howard said “Close the door,” and Alan closed the door. He then said “What is it?” Howard said “Well…, you know.” Alan said “I know, what?” Howard said, “Well, I’m sick, I’m HIV positive.” Alan didn’t say anything after that.  As they helped each other through a very difficult time, it became clear that Menken was up to the task of “carrying the torch” for the pair – helping to make Disney musicals a ‘tour de force’ in movies and on Broadway…and continuing the Rodgers and Hammerstein legacy.

The “Rodgers and Hammerstein” of Disney Part 1

               If you are a musical lover like I am, you could definitely agree that the one of the best teams to ever write musicals was Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.   But what if you narrowed it down to just “Disney musicals”?  Who might be characterized as the “Rodgers and Hammerstein” of Disney?  There are several teams which could arguably lay claim to the title, but in this article, we’ll deal with perhaps the most obvious choice: Richard M. Sherman and his brother Robert B. Sherman.

               The Sherman brothers were under contract to the Walt Disney Studios from 1958-1971, though they did additional work for the studio in the late 1990s. Together they wrote songs for the movie-musicals that the studio produced, such as The Sword in the Stone(1963), Mary Poppins (1964), The Jungle Book (1967), The Happiest Millionaire (1967), The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band (1968), The Aristocats (1970), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), All of the original “Winnie the Pooh,” shorts: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), Winnie the Pooh and Tigger  Too (1974), and Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (1983), as well as the feature length movie The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving (1999), and The Tigger Movie (2000). They also wrote songs for movies that were not musicals, but had songs sung in them that served as non-diegetic elements of the story, such as The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), The Parent Trap (1961), Big Red (1962), In Search of the Castaways (1962), Summer Magic (1963), Those Calloways (1965), That Darn Cat! (1965), and Follow Me Boys! (1966). They also wrote the songs for Disney park attractions including “It’s a Small World After All,” and “The Enchanted Tiki Room,” for the park attractions of the same name, and “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” for the Carousel of Progress. They won 2 Academy Awards for their work on Mary Poppins (1964): Best Original Score and Best Original Song: “Chim Chim Cher-ee.” They received additional Oscar nominations in the same categories for their work on Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971): Best Original Song “The Age of Not Believing.”

               In addition to what they wrote for Disney, Richard and Robert Sherman composed the material for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) (Academy Award Nominee: Best Original Song “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” the Charlie Brown animated-musical Snoopy Come Home (1972), and Charlotte’s Web (1973). Mary Poppins is their only project for Disney that was fortunate enough to be re-adapted for Broadway, though Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was adapted for Broadway as well. Mary Poppins played on Broadway from November 16th, 2006-March 3rd, 2013, for a total of 2,619 performances, and it received a total of 7 Tony Nominations, including Best Musical. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang opened on Broadway on April 28th, 2005 and ran until December 31st, 2005, after a total of 34 previews and 285 performances. It was nominated for 5 Tony Awards.

The Sherman brothers’ often said that their fondest memories of working the Walt Disney Studios were created when Mary Poppins (1964) was in production. At one of the very earliest story meetings they had for the movie, the Sherman’s played some songs they had written that they thought would work for the movie, including a song entitled “Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag).” At the end of the meeting Walt said, “Play me that Bird Woman song again,” and Richard Sherman played it.  As they moved forward with the production, there were several Saturdays in a row where Walt called the two of them over to his office, and he would say “Play it.” They knew what he meant, and when they were done playing, he’d say “Have a good weekend boys,” and he would send them home.

Another time, when Robert was working from home, his eldest son, Jeff, came into where he was working.  His father asked him how school had been, and he said that they had vaccination day at school.  When his dad asked him how that went, he replied “It was fine. They gave us a spoonful of sugar to help it go down.” I’m sure you can guess the name of a certain song that was created as a result of that story. On December 5th, 2001 (Walt Disney’s 100th Birthday), a new statue of Walt Disney holding Mickey Mouse’s hand was dedicated to Disneyland, and Richard Sherman was asked to play songs that he and his brother wrote in honor of the dedication. When he finished, he then gave a surprise ending by announcing that he was going to play Walt Disney’s favorite song, and then played “Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag).” In the time that he played this, there was a bird that flew clear out of the sky onto the ground where he played. Richard Sherman took this as a sign that was Walt himself saying thank you. 

               I’m positive that we can all agree that these two men have written songs that no one will ever be able to forget. You can feel like you’re on Broadway when you watch any of the movies that these men worked on without having to go all the way to New York City. They brought numerous qualities into all of the material that they wrote for these shows, including time, effort, patience, perseverance, eloquence, theatricality, and charm. How they managed the ability to combine all of those qualities into their work, I don’t think we will ever know, but what matters is that they were able to do so, and as a result they came up with many of the most extraordinarily beautiful movies and Broadway musicals of all time, and their work will leave a most enduring and magical legacy in the history of storytelling. 

A Non-Speaking, Non-Silent Voice

Have you ever wondered who provides the voices of cartoon characters that don’t speak? They might be animals, or sometimes even objects – but in any case, don’t use words. Most people probably think it is just some sort of sound effects in use. But, you would actually be mistaken. Frank Welker is an actor who is a legend in the field of voice-over artistry because he has done the voices of all of Disney’s animated animal characters who don’t talk but just make noises. 

Although he did act bit parts in live-action movies such as Universal’s How to Frame a Figg (1971), and Disney’s The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), his voice-over roles include Max the Dog in The Little Mermaid (1989), Joanna the Salamander in The Rescuers Down Under (1990), the Footstool in Beauty and the Beast (1991), Abu in Aladdin (1992), Flit the Hummingbird in Pocahontas (1995), Cri-Kee and Khan the Horse in Mulan (1998), Maximus the Horse and Pascal the Chameleon in Tangled (2010) – and for more recent fans, Sven the Reindeer and Sitron the Horse in Frozen (2013), and Mochi the Cat in Big Hero 6 (2014). 

For all of your Hanna-Barbara fans, Welker is also known throughout the world for providing the voices of Fred Jones in the original Scooby-Doo series and every additional series that followed it, with the exception of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.  In addition to voicing Fred, since 2002, he has taken over the main role, voicing Scooby-Doo. 

Frank Welker had practically as many voices up his sleeve as Mel Blanc did, who voiced all Bugs Bunny and all of his friends, as well as Barney Rubble in The Flintstones and Mr. Spacely in The Jetsons. It’s ironic to compare these two actors because Frank Welker would go on to succeed Mel Blanc in the role of Barney Rubble in when Blanc passed away in 1989.  Welker also voiced Hefty Smurf in The Smurfs and Santa’s Little Helper on The Simpsons and Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget.

Frank Welker doesn’t have a voice that one could recognize instantly, like James Earl Jones, but he does have an extraordinary voice that can transform into just about any kind of tone or pitch.   For most of us, from a footstool to Scooby-Doo and Fred, he’s actually a voice we’ve all come to love!