Awesome Music / Disney

aka: Disney Animated Canon

"Come along folks! It's time for the Mickey Mouse Musical Revue!"

"There's a terrific power to music. You can run any of these pictures and they'd be dragging and boring, but the minute you put music behind them, they have life and validity they don't get any other way".

— Walt Disney

Disney is the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier for the Animated Musical. After 100+ years of innovation, would you expect any less?

The following works also have their own pages:

• Amphibia
• A.N.T. Farm
• Big Hero 6
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
  • Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)
• Dinosaur
• DuckTales (2017)
• Encanto
• Frozen
• Frozen II
• The Ghost and Molly McGee
• Gravity Falls
• Hamster & Gretel
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Kingdom Hearts
• The Lion King (1994)
  • The Lion King II: Simba's Pride
  • The Lion Guard
• The Little Mermaid (1989)
• Marvel Cinematic Universe
• Milo Murphy's Law
• Moana
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• Nashville
• Oliver & Company
• Paperman
• Phineas and Ferb
• Pixar
  • Coco
  • Turning Red
• The Rescuers
• The Simpsons
• Sleeping Beauty
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil
• Star Wars
• Tangled
• TRON: Legacy
• Wander over Yonder
• Wish (2023)

Disney Theatrical

Alan Menken

• The score for Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which won both a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Score:
  • "Be Our Guest", Academy Award nominee. Funnily, Menken originally thought it was the dumbest piece of music he could ever possibly write, intending it as a "throw away" melody in order for Howard Ashman to write lyrics.
  • "Human Again". Originally cut from the film, but was present in the musical and eventually reinstated in the 2002 DVD release.
• Aladdin:
  • "Proud Of Your Boy". Ultimately cut from the film, but present in some stage productions. The original version is sung by Menken himself; a 2004 Remake was sung by Clay Aiken.
  • Jafar's Villain Song went through numerous iterations, eventually ending up on the quick but snappy Dark Reprise of "Prince Ali." Of the songs (those that have been released to the public, anyway), though, "Why Me?" deserves credit as an epic case of What Could Have Been. Jafar pulls out a full-on show-stopper, beginning as Jafar laments those who kept him down before escalating more and more as Jafar uses the Genie to make himself the most powerful sorcerer in the world as the music becomes booming and darkly triumphant.
• Pocahontas:
  • "Colors of the Wind", Academy Award winner.
  • "If I Never Knew You". Cut because it slowed the pace of the movie, it was reinstated in the 2005 DVD release.
• Tangled: The songs may not be up to a Beauty and the Beast or Little Mermaid caliber, but they're still great.
  • "When Will My Life Begin". A nice, upbeat song that expresses Rapunzel's very slight frustration at not being able to leave.
  • Also "Waiting For The Lights", the gorgeous score piece that directly precedes it. This piece perfectly expresses the emotions felt in the scene.
• Although not from a movie, "Compass of Your Heart", his composition for Tokyo DisneySea's Sinbad's Storybook Voyage ride, really sounds epic with a hint of The Power of Friendship as the cherry on top.

Randy Newman

• The Princess and the Frog: Let's see, which songs were in the movie again?
  • "Almost There", Academy Award nominee. Ladies and gentlemen, Disney is back!
  • The Dark Reprise of "Friends on the Other Side" is a deliciously ironic bit of horror.
  • "Friends on the Other Side". Hands down the best song in the movie; Keith David really does it justice, and the technicolor effects are fantastic.

Phil Collins/Mark Mancina

• Phil Collins did Tarzan right:
  • "You'll Be In My Heart", Academy Award winner. Film Version.
  • Not only does Mark Mancina's instrumental score for the movie qualify for this trope, but some of those pieces, including "Moves Like an Ape, Looks Like a Man" perfectly fit the Crowning Music of Heartwarming trope.

Sherman Brothers

• From The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh we have the classic: Besides having the extremely catchy "The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers," the Disney Acid Sequence "Heffalumps and Woozles," the main theme "Winnie-The-Pooh" itself is legendary.
• The Jungle Book (1967):
  • "I Wan'na Be Like You" is possibly the best jazz song ever to grace the Disney Animated Canon. Plus, it's damn catchy. "Well, oobee-do..."
  • Acclaimed director Mary Zimmerman produced an adaptation that embraced both the original Kipling stories and the Disney version, using songs from it (as well as "Jungle Rhythm" from The Jungle Book 2). Here is their version of "I Wan'na Be Like You".
  • Academy Award-nominated "Look for the baaare ne-cess-ities, the simple bare necessities...." (Not written by the Sherman Brothers though, but by Terry Gilkyson.) If you didn't like the simple "Bare Necessities"... then there's always this version of the song by none other than Louis Armstrong. Amazing doesn't even begin to cover it.
  • On the instrumental side of things, "The Overture" and "Tiger Fight" are pretty much amazing. Tiger Fight from 0:48 to the end is epic and makes driving a very fun adventure.
• The Aristocats: "Everybody Wants to be a Cat". Of course, there's a bit of Values Dissonance there, with the incredibly racist Siamese cat playing Chopsticks, but it's still a catchy song.
• From Mary Poppins:
  • "Feed The Birds" and "A Spoonful of Sugar" are awesome.
    • "Feed the Birds" should get special recognition for being Walt Disney's personal favorite song written for one of his films.
    • There's also this instrumental Dark Reprise during Mr. Banks' "walk of shame" the bank.
  • "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious/Even though the sound of it something quite atrocious/If you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious/Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"
  • Everybody now... Ohhhhhhhhhh... LET'S... GO... Fly a Kite!/Up... To the Highest Height!/Let's... Go... Fly a Kite/and send... it soaring/Up through the atmosphere/Up where the air is clear/Oh, let's gooooooooo... FLY A KITE!"
  • The melancholy reprise of "The Life I Lead" sung by Mr. Banks and Bert after Mr. Banks gets fired and Bert encourages him to take a more active role in his children's life. "A man has dreams of walking with giants/ To carve his niche in the edifice of time..."
• The Sword in the Stone:
  • The opening song is almost unbearably moving.
  • "Rubity, Scrubity, Sweepity" (the self cleaning kitchen). It's brief, but catchy.

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• You can't reason with a headless man...but you can dance to his song.
• Most of the music from A Goofy Movie is pretty good, but "I 2 I" takes the cake as the absolute best song of the movie.
  • Closely matched by "Stand Out".
  • Probably the most emotional song in the movie is Nobody Else But You.
• The Aladdin sequels not only prove to be decent (except for Return of Jafar's Off-Model Limited Animation), but they have excellent Villain Songs. Aladdin: The Return of Jafar has "You're Only Second Rate". Aladdin and the King of Thieves has "Welcome to the Forty Thieves" and its Dark Reprise "Are You In or Out?", as well as the beautiful and romantic Liz Callaway ballad "Out of Thin Air".
• Bolt:
  • "Rescuing Penny" manages to be sad and awesome at the same time.
  • Barking at the Moon, in combination with the road-trip montage that it accompanies, is Crowning Music of Heartwarming.
  • "I Thought I Lost You" proved that after 30+ years, John Travolta still had great pipes.
• The Brave Little Toaster may be little known, but it has plenty of awesome music.
  • "Vacuum Rescues the Group", which is just plain epic, with all the fanfare and so on. Also, there was a totally Zelda-style "Item Get" when Toaster gets the battery.
  • "Worthless", which doubles as a Tear Jerker for the cars being dragged to their final fates in the crusher.
  • Also from the score, we have the Finale and the End Title.
  • Also, "Toaster's Dream". Yes, it plays during one of the most terrifying scenes in the whole movie, but it is actually very epic and creepy at the same time.
  • "The Storm". Lampy, the comic relief, nearly getting himself killed just to recharge their battery in a storm to save not only Blanky, but the rest of his friends as well? Coolest. Scene. Ever. And the music just about proves it.
  • "It's a B Movie" is delightfully creepy.
  • "Cutting Edge" is very catchy, even as it gets more ironic with each passing year.
• The Transformation sequence in Brother Bear has a beautiful Inuit song playing over the entire scene which makes this scene even more awesome. The best part, the song is also available in English on the soundtrack and when you know what it actually means it just fits this trope even better.
• Academy Award nominee "Baby Mine" from the movie Dumbo.
• Kronk's improvised theme song when he's trying to get rid of Kuzco in The Emperor's New Groove.
  • Amusingly, Kronk's voice actor Patrick Warburton genuinely improvised his humming during recording, and was then ordered by Disney lawyers to officially sign over the rights to the "song".
  • Sting. Academy Award nominee My Funny Friend And Me is a combination Crowning Music of Awesome and Crowning Music of Heartwarming.
  • And for the best Villain Song to never make it into the final film, have Snuff Out the Light, courtesy of Eartha Kitt, Showmanship Goddess.
• Say what you will about the Beauty and the Beast sequel The Enchanted Christmas, but some of the songs in that are quite fantastic. First, there's Stories, then the main theme if the film As Long As There's Christmas and the Villain Song Don't Fall In Love, the last one is sung by Tim Curry no less.
• "Junkyard Society Rag" from Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, just because it's period-appropriate and Disney doesn't usually deal in ragtime.
• Whatever your opinion on the raging storms of terrifying imagery, Disney's Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 contain some of the most utterly awesome music ever written. Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Modest Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, Paul Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue... There's a reason these old pieces are still played.
  • As anyone who's had to play it knows, the finale of Stravinsky's 1919 Firebird Suite is an absolute bitch to play because of the changes in meter. It is also epically gorgeous and heroic, as evidenced in its use in Fantasia 2000.
• The Great Mouse Detective is one of the more fondly remembered films from Disney's 1980s dark age, and the songs are one reason for this.
• Regardless of whether the lyrics make any sense, "He Mele No Lilo" from Lilo & Stitch is wonderfully catchy, with exactly the right feel to it.
  • Wynonna Judd's cover of "Burning Love" is a fantastic piece of music set to a terrific ending montage.
  • "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride" is another great one.
• Meet the Robinsons has "Little Wonders", written by Rob Thomas from Matchbox Twenty!
  • "Another Believer". Rufus at his most whimsical.
• Disney's Mulan, the song I'll Make a Man Out of You. It's one of the most ironic musical numbers Disney ever made. Plus the lyrics are some of the most stirring and poetic ways to basically say "I want you to eat lightning, and crap thunder!".
  • The English version is notable for the fact that it made Donny Osmond, who performs the song, far more awesome than he could ever hope to be on his own.
  • What makes "I'll Make a Man Out of You" more awesome? When it's sung by Jackie Chan in Cantonese! Or in Mandarin.
  • Then we have this Metal Cover from Jonathan Young, making it even more awesome. Also gets away by name-dropping Batman in the lyrics.
  • "I'll Make a Man Out of You" manages to become even more awesome in this video. Admittedly, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann makes anything awesome, but damn.
  • Also "Short Hair", which plays when Mulan cuts her hair and suits up for war.
  • A short instrumental piece of "Honor to Us All" that plays over the opening titles.
  • And the music that plays as Mulan slides down the lantern rope near the end of the film, and shortly thereafter the music that plays while the entire population of the Forbidden City bows to her. None of these are on the official soundtrack.
  • "Reflections" packs in soothing and somewhat. melancholic Chinese music perfectly encapsulating Mulan's struggles as she slowly decides to help her ailing father.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas: "What's this? What's this?" One of the greatest Disney songs ever, that's what it is!
  • There is probably no more awesome way to sing yourself out of a Heroic BSoD than "Poor Jack".
  • "Jack's Lament", "Sally's Song", "Making Christmas", "Jack's Obsession", "Finale Reprise" (especially Jack and Sally's duet), "Jack And Sally Montage", "Christmas Eve Montage", To The Rescue, Overture....aw, screw it, the whole soundtrack is Made of Win! Screw Family Guy, Danny Elfman is a genius!
  • "Oogie Boogie's Song" features Ken Page's slick vocals backed by swinging jazzy rhythms, perfectly nailing the Boogie Man's menacing mild-mannered demeanour.
  • "Kidnap the Sandy Claws" is a creepy number for three singers who hit every single note on what makes this film just as spooky as it is entertaining backed by harmonies dissonant or not.
  • "This is Halloween" sets the stage for the film and the setting on Halloween Town, while introducing some of its odd residents and why everyone in it likes this place and their leader, Pumpkin King Jack.
• 101 Dalmatians' "Cruella de Vil" perfectly describes how evil Ms. Cruella is in a jazzy song with a swinging catchy tune. If that doesn't thrill you, no groovy thing will.
• Peter Pan 2: Return to Neverland had the song "I'll Try". If you don't cry hearing the pain and loss of childhood Jane's suffering having grown up in World War II, you'll cry when the downtrodden tune gets reused and revamped at the end to be an uplifting song about finding something to believe in despite it all.
• Pinocchio's Academy Award-winning When You Wish Upon A Star, which became the signature tune for the Walt Disney Company as a whole. Two other classic examples from the same film would have to be Give A Little Whistle and Hi Diddle Dee Dee (An Actor's Life for Me).
  • I've Got No Strings is a particularly easily transmissible ear worm.
• Cinderella's own spiritual successor to When You Wish Upon a Star; A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes
• The music from the Planes "Take Flight" teaser.
  • El Chupacabra's "Love Machine" song.
  • Mark Holman's "Nothing Can Stop Me Now" that plays in the film's opening.
  • Franz originally had a cute, catchy polka song, "Ein Crop Duster Can Race". Looks like it was cut for time, which is a pity.
  • The film's main theme is an uplifting masterpiece which starts off slow and soothing before transitioning into a grand motive accompanied by stirring drum beats, perfectly encapsulating the sense of flying. Its second version for Planes: Fire & Rescue includes a new string section riff to accompany the horns, a crisper bass-line and more backing percussion.
• Someone's Waiting For You, an Academy Award nominee from the film, The Rescuers. Bonus points for also doubling as a Tear Jerker.
  • Also, Tomorrow is another day.
  • "The Journey," which played over the opening credits, is hauntingly beautiful and sadly overlooked.
• The music from The Rescuers Down Under is pretty cool; for example, the music for when Cody is flying on Marahute's back, and the music in the opening.
• Song of the South may have fallen victim to Unfortunate Implications but that doesn't mean its songs aren't still catchy. The Academy Award-winning Zip-a-dee-doo-dah song is well known even to people who have no idea where it's from.
• "When Can I See You Again?" from Wreck-It Ralph. The End Credits make this song even better!
  • S-U-G-AR, jump into your race car, it's a SUGAR RUSH! SUGAR RUSH!
• Peter Pan had its fair share.
  • "Second Star to the Right", the opening song, introduces us to Peter's Leitmotif, as well as some truly beautiful lyrics and melodies that perfectly capture Neverland.
  • "You Can Fly" is adventurous and joyful, much like the film itself. Tellingly, it's the only song to get a full reprise.
  • The Crocodile's Leitmotif, which had lyrics as a Cut Song, "Never Smile At a Crocodile". Even without the ticking, it sounds like you'd expect a crocodile to sound.
• Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas has the upbeat "Make Me Look Good" and the beautiful credits theme "Share This Day".
• Zootopia's "Try Everything" by Shakira serves a strong message to set the tone for the movie in accompaniment to the Scenery Porn as Judy rides into town.
• The overture for Pete's Dragon (1977) is just irresistible to listen to.
• The TRON franchise, a Trope Codifier for Cyberpunk Is Techno. Start off with Wendy Carlos, who put electronic music on the map in the first place. Follow it up with a pair of eccentric, Grammy-winning Frenchmen for the sequel, and an entire remix album (TRON Legacy R3CONF1GUR3D) of top EDM artists with their own take on the soundtrack. Mix in Joseph Trapanese's ominous score for the animated series. Add a few shots of Journey to wash it all down. And since this this franchise also has No Problem with Licensed Games, we get a wonderful score for TRON: Evolution and the love letter to Wendy Carlos with the soundtrack to TRON 2.0.
• This triumphant orchestral remix of "Heigh-Ho", used for the 1993 re-issue trailer for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Disney TV

• The Theme Song for Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers. There's also another short piece of music used in a chase sequence that's really awesome. But speaking of that theme The Swedish version is pretty awesome too.
  • Feel the fizz of Coo-Coo Cola!
• Darkwing Duck's theme song does a first-rate job of conveying just how awesome the title character can be when the situation requires it. And it's so catchy, even villainous characters get it stuck in their head!
  • GO DARKWING GO DARKWING GO!
• The intro theme to D-TV (which was a series of music videos using footage from Disney shorts and movies made for Disney Channel back in the day). Does the song scream 1980's? Yeah. Is it still awesome? Yeah. There's a full length version of the song (actually a stock track, "RPM" by Network Music) here.
• What do to? Just grab on to some DuckTales! Woo-hoo!
  • The reboot's version by Felicia Barton takes the already great and catchy theme and takes it to a whole new level.
  • Special mention goes to Ron Jones' excellent score for the series. Several pieces he composed are suspenseful, melancholic, amusing, exciting, and triumphant; they even rival some theatrical scores. Here's a sample.
  • The reboot remixes the NES game's moon theme into being Della Duck's theme song.
• The opening music for Fillmore! is a perfect fit for what can best be described as a kid-friendly homage to 70's cop shows.
• The opening theme to Gargoyles. Especially with the Keith David voiceover. Too bad that was just about the only piece of music used (admittedly they managed to make several different really cool versions).
• We're the Goof Troop, and we always stick together!
• The House of Mouse generally has a musical number every few episodes, usually a new spin on a classic Disney tune, including the single greatest rendition of "Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?" ever made.
  Big Bad Wolf Daddy: "I love to bring down the house!"
  • Also, their take on "Grim Grinning Ghosts".
  • "It's Our House Now" is also pretty good. Interestingly, it's undergone a bit of Memetic Mutation with YouTube users adding other villains to the song.
  • Ludwig von Drake explains where everyone sits. It's undergone a fad similar to "It's Our House Now" where YouTube users add other characters to the song.
• Kim Possible. Best theme song ever. And it only got better when The Movie remixed it.
  • Drakken's Villain Song Lather, Rinse And Obey. BEST RAP EVER!
  • And from the same episode, "Naked Mole Rap"!
  • "Could It Be", especially in context.
  • "Say The Word".
• Aloha, E Komo Mai, the theme of Lilo & Stitch: The Series.
• Oh What A Merry Christmas Day from Mickey's Christmas Carol. A truly heartwarming tune to both open and finish the special on a high note. It is so awesome that The Angry Video Game Nerd remixed it into his theme tune for the Angry Nerd Christmas Carol, which is also awesome.
• The Pepper Ann theme song, truly catchy. "PEPPER ANN, SHE'S LIKE ONE IN A MILLION!
• The Recess theme song.
• As long as we're on The Disney Afternoon themes... Spin it!
  • The extended has drum and flute solos, making the already awesome song even better.
  • The theme to The Disney Afternoon block itself. Or even the extended and closing versions.
• The awesome, sports anthem-esque intro from the underloved Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series cartoon. Let's hear it for the Mighty Ducks!
• The theme for The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. People can hate the original Winnie the Pooh theme from the movies and still find this song awesome.
• The theme song for The Weekenders. Bonus points for being sung by Wayne Brady.
• Hakuna Matata! Timon And Pumbaa. The original version earned an Academy Award nomination.
• Five hours of summer, once a week! One Saturday Morning!
• Yip-a-dit-a-dit-doo, Wander over Yonder!
• Both the opening and ending themes of Star vs. the Forces of Evil.
• All of the theme songs from Disney Channel's sitcom lineup can count here, with particular mention to The Best of Both Worlds for becoming so iconic amongst the kids that grew up watching Hannah Montana.
• The inexplicably rockin' theme song to JoJo's Circus, performed by the short-lived Garage Rock group Becky. Keanu Reeves was on bass.

Video Games

• The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge is chock full of these. Special mention goes to CasinoCrash, a great remix of "The Oogie Boogie Song". It's also a duet between Jack and Oogie.
  • This town has changed my boy, since you've been away.
• DuckTales brings us to the Moon in an awesome way. The Remastered remake also has a number of amazing songs, such as the final battle and escaping Mount Vesuvius.
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers has us storming Fat Cat's Factory to a tune that ranks right up there with Mega Man storming a few Dr. Wily castles. The sequel's own version is just as good.
• DanceDanceRevolution: Disney Mix contains a certain remix of "It's a Small World", turning what's largely considered one of the most annoying songs in theme park history into a catchy, techno-inspired song. Dance Dance Revolution: Disney Grooves makes lightning strike twice with another "It's a Small World" remix. This time incorporating the iconic lyrics, covered by Alison Wade.

Theme Parks

• There's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day... One of the most positive and optimistic songs regarding the future ever written, the Sherman brothers apparently regarded this anthem as a personal ode to Walt. The power of this song is such that it frequently appears in unexpected places. Here it is on the Tomorrowland soundtrack and here is a cover by They Might Be Giants which can be found on the Meet the Robinsons soundtrack.
• The Main Street Electrical Parade is this for many people. From the vocoder used on the voice at the beginning, to Baroque Hoedown playing throughout, which gets remixed to different songs as the parade progresses. Each park even has their own set of remixes that play.
• Behold the unrelenting beauty of the soundtrack to Soarin' over California by the late great Jerry Goldsmith.
• Tokyo Disney Resort's melodies are as awesome as the events and rides their parks bring out. Behold: "Hippity Hoppity Springtime", "Dreaming Up!", their parade for Tokyo Disneyland's 35th anniversary, "A Table is Waiting", their musical stageshow at Tokyo DisneySea's American Waterfront area, and "Crystal Wishes Journey", the theme song parade of Tokyo DisneySea's 15th anniversary, among others.

Albums

• Mickey Mouse Splashdance is an album from 1983 that features 1980s-style pop songs with Mickey and his friends. As cheesy and outdated as the album is nowadays, there are some songs on it that are still pretty catchy:
  • "Happy, Happy Birthday to You" is an enjoyable birthday song with fun lyrics and a catchy chorus. Trevor Noah grew up with this song, and still prefers it over the traditional Birthday song.
  • "Minnie Mouse" is a song performed by LA-based rock band Sparks. It is rumored that some of the people who worked on the song would later join Devo, and the song does have a slightly Devo-esque sound to it.

Other

• The "There Is Only One Disney" ad, which played on various Disney DVDs between 2007-2009, has a suitably triumphant, magical-sounding theme that makes you want to go on an adventure.

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