111 Awesome Disney Songs, Part 5

Ryan Dosier - Look, I'm being consistent and updating this list again! Let's jump forward with even more Awesome Disney songs!

45.)   "The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room" from Disneyland
This is one of those songs that immediately makes me think of Disneyland, and makes me wonder why I'm sitting here typing and not in the park right now. It's chock full of great, silly lyrics and jokes ("I sing so beautiful, I should sing solo." "Si, so low we can't hear you!"), and the birds are all wonderfully fun characters. Really, there's not much more to say other than I adore this attraction and this song. Favorite Lyrics: "All the birds sing words/And the flowers croon/In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room!"

46.)   "I've Got No Strings" from Pinocchio
Pinocchio is one of my favorite films, and the music is such a huge part of why it's so delightfully charming and enjoyable. This little number performed by Pinocchio as part of Strombolli's marionette show is so innocent and sweet... until the saucy German marionette girls swoop in. It's funny, it's fun, the music is simple but delightful, and the lyrics are adorable. Just like Pinocchio. Favorite Lyrics: "I've got no strings/So I have fun/I'm not tied up to anyone/They've got strings/But you can see/There are no strings on me."

47.)   "Dig a Little Deeper" from The Princess and the Frog
My favorite song from The Princess and the Frog is Mama Odie's brilliantly upbeat and joyful "Dig a Little Deeper." This song breathes so much life into Mama Odie, a character who only appears in a few scenes in the film, but steals every one of them. Couple that with the soulful vocals of Jenifer Lewis, and you've got one of the finest gospel-themed songs in any animated film. It's a blast. Favorite Lyrics: "Don't matter what ya look like/Don't matter what ya wear/How many rings ya got on your fingers?/We don't care--no, we don't care!"

48.)   "It's Gonna Be Great" from Winnie the Pooh
One of the most vastly underrated Disney animated features is 2011's Winnie the Pooh. It's so deliciously funny and clever, and its charm is never-ending. One of my favorite moments from the film is this song that Tigger sings with Eeyore as he helps the morose donkey become a Tigger. The song is, dare I say it, bouncy, and one of the finest singing performances from the legendary Jim Cummings. Favorite Lyrics: "Strike me down, give me all you got/Bounce me, trounce me, flounce me, pounce me/Do it, do it, do it/It's gonna be great, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be great."

49.)   "That's How You Know" from Enchanted
Ah, the modern day fairytale classic Enchanted. Not only is it one of Amy Adams' best performances, but the film features new music from Alan Menken and its awesome. No song is better than the show stopping production number "That's How You Know." The dancing, singing, spectacle is one of the best in live action Disney films. Trivia: the old men dancing in the park were the original "Step in Time" dancers from Mary Poppins! Favorite Lyrics: "Well does he leave a little note/To tell you you are on his mind/Send you yellow flowers when the sky is gray?/He'll find a new way to show you/A little bit everyday."

50.)   "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast
A spectacular opening number to one of Disney's finest features. "Belle" is a wonderful example of group performance and echoes Broadway-style music better than any Disney animated feature song before it. Leave it to Howard Ashman and Alan Menken for that! The catchy, "talking" lyrics, the refrain of "Bonjour!" to open the song, Paige O'Hara as Belle, and so much more make this song simply delightful. Favorite Lyrics: "There goes the baker with his tray, like always/The same old bread and rolls to sell/Every morning just the same/Since the morning that we came/To this poor provincial town/Good morning, Belle!"

51.)   "Topsy Turvy" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame
A break from the dark tones of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is this joyful, colorful blast midway through the film. Clopin, the clown gypsy, sings the song with ease and speed. It's so much fun to watch all the wacky things going on in Paris on this Topsy Turvy Day. It also provides a brief moment of happiness for poor Quasimodo... before ripping it away in one of the film's darkest scenes. But still, fun song. Favorite Lyrics: "Once a year, we throw a party here in town/Once a year, we turn all Paris upside down/Every man's a king, and every king's a clown/Once a year on Topsy Turvy Day!"

52.)   "I've Got a Dream" from Tangled
Tangled features one of the few songs in modern-day Disney animated features to be primarily performed by unnamed characters, and it's this riotous ditty "I've Got a Dream." The main singers, voiced by Brad Garrett and Jeffery Tambor, are never given names, but their plights and their dreams are wonderful. It's such a treat to hear incredibly different voices like these performing in a Disney feature. This is perhaps my favorite moment in all of Tangled. Favorite Lyrics: "I've got scars, and lumps, and bruises/And something here that oozes/And let's not even mention my complexion!/But despite my extra toes, and my goiter, and my nose/I really wanna make a love connection!"

53.)   "Proud of Your Boy" from Aladdin (Deleted Song)
The only deleted song included on the whole list is also the fifth Alan Menken song in a row! Of course, "Proud of Your Boy" went on to be a major player in the Broadway version of Aladdin, but originally it was penned by Alan and Howard Ashman for the animated film. It was cut after a sub-plot involving Aladdin's mother was removed. But the song is so important and soft and powerful. It's one of the most resonating Disney songs, period, and I'm so thrilled that it has found a home on Broadway. Favorite Lyrics: "Proud of your boy/I'll make you proud of your boy/Believe me, bad as I've been mom/You're in for a pleasant surprise/I've wasted time/I've wasted me/So say I'm slow for my age/A late bloomer/Okay, I agree!"

54.)   "Winnie-the-Pooh" from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
I just need to hear someone start humming this song, and I immediately have to start singing along. It's so bouncy and catchy and lovely. This Sherman Brothers tune evokes everything that Winnie the Pooh represents: joy and kindness and friendship. Plus, it's a really handy way to remember all of the Pooh characters (except the oddly absent Tigger) in one handy song! Favorite Lyrics: "Deep in the Hundred Acre Woods/Where Christopher Robin plays/You'll find the enchanted neighborhood/Of Christopher's childhood days..."

55.)   "Bella Notte" from Lady and the Tramp
"Bella Notte" is one of the most wonderful Disney love songs, and one that often gets overlooked in favor of the newer era of songs. Still, its music and lyrics are some of the best to be found in the Disney canon. Performed by Tony, the Italian restauranteur who feeds Lady and the Tramp the famous spaghetti, "Bella Notte" is the perfect accompaniment to any romantic dinner or occasion. Favorite Lyrics: "This is the night/It's a beautiful night/And we call it bella notte/Look at the skies/They have stars in their eyes/On this lovely belle notte."

Disney Fan Art Spotlight: Kenny Durkin Part 2

Exactly one week ago we shared the fantastic and creative works of Kenny Durkin, and if you missed it, be sure to check it out now. Becuase there was just too much awesomeness to fit into one article, we decided to split the spotlight on Kenny's fabulous work and showcase it in a special two-part series. Without any further introduction, here is even more of Kenny's wonderful work featuring Muppets, Winnie the Pooh/Star Wars and Disney-owned ABC's LOST!

The Muppets' Latest Addition

Winnie the Hutt

Gonzilla

Daniel Faraday- ABC'S Lost sketch

Ben Linus- ABC'S Lost sketch

The Ribbit- The Hobbit Parody

Muppets- World of Friendship

Thanks once again to the wonderfully talented Kenny Durkin for sharing his artwork with us! 

Disney Animation Reviews #22: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Disney Movie Review: 22/53 - The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Ryan Dosier - The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is an adorably delightful collection of previously released Winnie the Pooh short subject cartoons released by Disney. The film was compiled and released (with some new interstitial material) in 1977. Although it is, at its core, a collection of shorts, the film is still wonderful and charming.

The cast of characters in this film based on A.A. Milne’s work is now iconic, mostly because of this film. Winnie the Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood are some of the most beloved characters Disney has ever drawn—and with good reason. Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, and the rest are all joyful, fun, innocent characters that are a delight to watch.

It’s hard to pick a favorite character or story in this wonderfully episodic piece. All of them are animated wonderfully, voiced wonderfully, and just plain wonderful. I’m partial to the “wise” Owl and the “smart” Rabbit, but again, I enjoy them all so much. Piglet is especially funny in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and is a definite highlight.

I also love the music in this film. Adorable songs like “Rumbly in My Tumbly” (almost typed Rumbly in My Tumblr), “I’m Just a Rain Cloud,” and “The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers” are catchy classics. It’s hard not to love this movie with songs and characters that are so well done.

But as is the case with any “package film” like this, some of the shorts are weaker than others. The “Blustery,” “Rainy,” and “Snowy” Day shorts are absolutely wonderful, but the shorts involving Rabbit and Tigger lost in the woods and Pooh and the Heffalumps are rather weak in comparison—and much, much shorter as well. Thankfully, there are enough quality shorts to give each of the colorful Milne characters time to shine.

My favorite short is when Pooh finds himself too fat to get out of Rabbit’s house and everyone must wait until he thins out to pull him free. This is the first short and it introduces us to Pooh’s world in a hilarious fashion. It also introduces the character of Gopher, who was invented by Disney, not Milne. Gopher often comments how “I’m not in the book!” and it’s a lovely break of the fourth wall that I really appreciate.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh may not be the most impressive Disney animated feature, but what it is is positively wonderful. Somehow it all works making it two great successes in a row for Disney animation.

3.5/5 Heffalumps and/or Woozles

Blu-Ray Review: Winnie The Pooh Springtime With Roo: The Hippity Hoppity Roo Edition

Mitchell Stein- When this movie was initially released on VHS, marking the first home video release of this movie, I owned a copy of this movie, which I kept watching over and over even when it was way beyond Easter time. I loved this movie as a kid, so this film means a lot to me. 

Fast forwarding to March 2014, the direct-to-video movie is about to celebrate its ten-year anniversary from when it was released publicly a whole decade ago. I made sure to revisit this movie for the first time in years and to give my entire thoughts on this release. 

While Winnie the Pooh has his name in the title, he takes a major backseat in this movie, giving the stage over to Roo, Tigger and Rabbit who easily steal the show. 

Its Roo’s second Easter in the Hundred Acre Woods, and he can’t wait for it. Until Rabbit decides its “Spring Cleaning Day” instead. Everyone is disappointed, so they try to cheer Rabbit up with a bit of Easter fun. But Rabbit doesn’t want any part in in this “Easter” business and bans the word in a style worthy of Ebenezer Scrooge. 

In fact, the film has a big Christmas Carol style feel to it, with Rabbit seeing the past Easter and what will happen in the Easter to come, as shown to him by the narrator, who plays quite a big part in the story as well. 

This marks another return of the legendary Jim Cummings, best known for his work on the classic Disney Afternoon television shows, as Tigger and Winnie the Pooh. Other great voice actors include Jimmy Bennet as Roo, Peter Cullen as Eeyore, and Kath Soucie as Kanga. Sadly this film marks one of the last works of both John Fiedler as Piglet and Ken Samson as Rabbit, who he brilliantly plays once again in this movie, and Rabbit steals the whole movie by far. This movie focuses more on Rabbit then it does on Roo, so I’m quite surprised that the title didn’t have Rabbit’s name in it. 

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The music is great too, with very bouncy songs that will stick inside your head, but doesn’t quite live up to the music in The Tigger Movie or in Pooh’s Heffalump Movie but is still enjoyable in general. Not a big fan of the song Pooh sings before he sneezes (yep, he sings about how he is about to sneeze) because it felt pointless and annoying, but other than that, the music was great. 

Sadly, after 20 years, my VCR decided to quit on us last week so I had nothing to compare this to, but I will say that the Blu-Ray looks crystal clear and the audio is great. It’s for sure an improvement from the original VHS and DVD release. As for bonus features, it’s incredibly bare. The only bonus feature available is a sing-along to the movie’s music. They could’ve included anything that would’ve made fans happy, like behind-the-scenes looks at any Winnie the Pooh films, concept art for this movie, interviews with some of the voice actors, audio commentaries, interactive videos, or anything else simple. 

Disney knows how to make their fans happy, as they've shown in the past,f it just seems that they’re too lazy to do it some of the time. I’m super glad that I could now own this film in stunning-high definition, but a few bonus features would've been nicer, and I’m sure would have attracted more people to purchase this release. 

If you were previously a fan of this film or a fan of the Winnie the Pooh franchise (who isn’t?) I suggest you check this release out! It’s a well-done Pooh film and ties in great with Easter next month!

Overall, I enjoyed this release a lot. This movie has always meant a lot to me, and this release really managed to restore that love again and this time in high-def. Make sure you pick up a copy for Spring Cleaning Day -er, I mean Easter! 

Winnie the Pooh: Springtime With Roo is available March 11th, 2014. 

Why Aren't Classic Disney Channel Shows on DVD?

Michael Wermuth-I didn’t have The Disney Channel until it switched from premium to basic cable in 1997, but I did get to watch the channel often before then, at my babysitter’s house and on special weeks when The Disney Channel was available for free. And I must say, the channel was a lot better back then than it is now (not that I watch the channel voluntarily very often now). It had a wide variety of non-Tween programming, lots of classic Disney shorts aired, the channel’s Vault Disney block contained stuff like Disney’s classic anthology show (the channel always listed it as “Walt Disney Presents”, even though it had other titles), and the original Mickey Mouse Club (as well as The New Mickey Mouse Club), the channel aired a lot of non-Disney programming (and maybe that’s still true now, but back in the past Disney aired various Jim Henson productions long before buying the Muppets, lots of Peanuts specials and movies, and even some of the Looney Tunes compilation films, among other properties), and of course original programming. And in an age where all kinds of retro shows have been released on DVD, I must ask this: How come none of the classic Disney Channel shows have been on DVD? 

 Why do classic shows from the early years of The Disney Channel need to be released on DVD? Well, technically, they don’t need to be available on DVD, and I’d much rather have most of The Disney Afternoon shows be completed, but it’d still be nice to see these old shows on DVD. But what were the most memorable original Disney Channel shows of the 1980s and 1990s?

 Well, there’s Dumbo’s Circus. That was a decent show. It used puppet and costume versions of Dumbo, plus a variety of characters not from the classic animated movie. I don’t really remember the names of the other characters, and there’s really only one episode I remember, but it had quite a catchy theme song. For some reason, Timothy Mouse wasn’t on the show, though there was a Koala who resembled the character a bit. It would have been nice if at least one episode had been on the Blu-ray of Dumbo (well there’s always the next release…). 

 Perhaps a better-known show with costumed and puppet versions of classic Disney characters was Welcome to Pooh Corner, featuring the Winnie the Pooh characters. This show featured an on-screen narrator, a story involving the characters, a song segment (I think these were repeated in multiple episodes, much like the various segments from Sesame Street), and another segment with the narrator talking to one of the characters. This series also spawned a fairly infamous PSA special called Too Smart for Strangers (I actually don’t remember seeing that show). Out of all the shows I’m mentioning in this article, I am most surprised that this show hasn’t had a DVD release, especially considering how much of a cash chow franchise Winnie the Pooh has been in the past decades. I heard a rumor that when the 2011 Winnie the Pooh movie was released that Disney wasn’t releasing any new Pooh DVDs out of fear that consumers would confuse them for the movie, but how could anybody confuse Welcome to Pooh Corner for the 2011 film? I especially liked the songs that appeared on the show. It’d be great to hear Pooh and Piglet’s “Please is a Good Word”, Eeyore’s “Yes I Can”, or Piglet’s “Say Hello” songs again.  

 Another show on the channel is it’s own version of The Mickey Mouse Club, commonly referred to as MMC. This version didn’t really interest me as a kid (I was expecting animated segments, which were not included, plus other elements of the original series which this show avoided). This show was pretty much a teen variety show. Many of this show’s Mouse-Kateers would go on to be famous pop stars in their own right, including Brittany Spears, Christina Agulerro, and N*sync’s Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez. So maybe it’s not pop artists I’m interested in, but that fact alone should have gotten this series a DVD release by now. 

 The final series I’m going to talk about is Adventures in Wonderland, based on Alice in Wonderland. Each series was bookened by scenes of Alice in her room in the real world. The structure would be: Alice would talk to her cat about some sort of problem she’s having, she enters Wonderland through her mirror, the plot would somehow be related to her problem, and she’d talk to her cat about the experience and have learned a solution to her problem. So a lot of characters were different from their animated Disney counterparts, and the Queen was a lot nicer (not the kind of person who’d shout “OFF WITH HER HEAD!”), but they pretty much got The Chesire Cat right. It’s especially puzzling that this series didn’t get a DVD release when Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland got released.

Maybe those shows will get released on DVD someday, but only time will tell. I should point out one show I am aware I didn’t talk about: Kids Incorporated. I didn’t talk about that show because Disney doesn’t own the rights to it (though Disney does have the master tapes in its vaults).

What's your favorite retro Disney Channel TV show? Which show do you want to be released to DVD most? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below! 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

Upcoming Disney Blu-Ray Announcements: December 13th 2013

Mitchell Stein- Happy Friday the 13th everyone! I decided to take a look at a few upcoming Blu-Rays and share some very exciting upcoming announcements today, as we look ahead to home-releases in the upcoming new year of 2014 (all dates are American release dates).

The Lone Ranger- 

While The Lone Ranger flopped at the box office, it simply isn't a bad film. It has it's problems (and quite a few of them) and while it might not live up to some of Gore Verbinski's other work, it sure brings a great, fun fast-paced film with Johhny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger. The bonus features reveal some really cool behind-the-scenes look at how the film was made and a hilarious blooper-reel. Look for a full review sometime next week.

Release Date: December 17th 2013








The Jungle Book- 




Forget about your worries and your strife! The famous 1967 film will be returning to the small screen, this time in high definition. Relive the animated classic over again in a stunning restored version of the film never seen before. Sounds like a load of fun for fans of the film.

Release Date: February 11th, 2014







The Jungle Book 2- 

The probably less classic film, The Jungle Book 2, will be swinging on to Blu-Ray March 18th 2014. It probably would've made more sense for Disney just to release both films in a double feature copy, which would probably sell more. But, this is an exciting time for The Jungle Book fans.

Release Date: March 18th 2014






Winnie the Pooh: Springtime With Roo- 

Another lesser-know classic film, Springtime With Roo will bounce onto Blu-Ray this March. In the film, Rabbit decides to cancel Easter and replace it with 'Spring Cleaning Day' instead. Rabbit later learns that putting others first turns every day into a precious gift.

I remember owning this movie on VHS and loving it, so I personally, am super excited for this release.

Release Date: March 11th 2014




Frozen- 

It feels like only two weeks ago that the incredible movie, Frozen was released in theaters..wait, that's because it was!
Even though the film just came out, believe it or not, there's already cover art for the release, and you can already pre-order it online. I ordered seven!

Release Date: Unknown

UPDATE: The official date for Frozen is currently March 18th 2014. Believe it or not, Saving Mr. Banks is also set to release on that day as well as The Jungle Book 2. 

That's all for now! I hope you enjoyed this, and I hope to continue to do this every couple of months or so, or whenever a lot of Blu-Rays are announced! Have a great weekend.