The Little Mermaid is a tale of a
young mermaid princess, Ariel, who is unhappy living her life under the sea and
wants to find out what she is missing on land. Ariel falls in love with a human
from land named Eric. Her father, King Triton, is very displeased by her
disobedience. He had told her to stay away from humans. Ariel finally gets her
chance to become human when she makes a compromise with the evil sea witch
Ursula. Ursula gives Ariel legs in return for her voice and tells Ariel she
must earn the “Kiss of True Love” by Eric by the third day or else she will be
turned back into a mermaid and she will belong to Ursula. She agrees to the
evil sea witches terms and gets to live life on land with Eric for three days.
The sea witch then tricks young Ariel and tries to marry Eric before Ariel
does. Ursula takes over Triton’s underwater sea kingdom, until Eric defeats
her. Triton gave a lot of respect to Eric for saving his kingdom and decided to
let Ariel live on land with him forever. Like most Disney movies, the young
girl is able to find her prince charming and that’s what every little girl
dreams of. The Little Mermaid won two Oscars for best music, a BMI film music
award, and two Golden Globes in 1990. Then it continued its success by winning
two Grammy’s in 1991. “Under the Sea” is the song that had the most success
from the movie and it is by far my personal favorite song from The Little
Mermaid, it is the first song that comes to mind when someone talks about The
Little Mermaid. It’s a catchy song that you just want to dance to. The Little Mermaid’s famous song “Under the Sea” is an excellent example of how music makes the movie. When asked most moviegoers relate The Little Mermaid to this famous song.
With every movie made there is the music behind it that creates the dynamics that enhance the characters, their actions and personalities. Prior to the1930’s the movies that were made were silent and had no musical connection. Beginning in the 1930’s, music however began to become a vital part of the movies with King Kong having its original score in 1933. By the end of the 1930 era of movies, music was used to help support not only the actors and characters but the plot as well. In the 1940’s and into the 1950’s the music associated with movies was mostly symphonic with the introduction of Jazz music in the 1950’s. Through the 1960’s and all the way through the 1980’s music as a part of movies continued to advance. “The first widespread use of synthesized sounds in films occurred in the 1980s and film scoring once again underwent a major revolution.” (“Film Appreciation”) Disney’s The Little Mermaid came out in 1989, and was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, with music by Alan Menken, and lyrics by Howard Ashman. Recently I came upon a book that was about Disney’s film Beauty and the Beast that had a foreword in it by Alan Menken, who had also written music for Beauty and the Beast. He wrote something that really stuck out to me about music as a part of the movies. He wrote, “There is no form like musical. It gets inside of us, haunts us, and somehow changes us for the better.” (Frantz) I have always felt like music is somewhat like a form of therapy, it tends to help a lot of people deal with issues in their life. I also think music says a lot and can be interpreted differently by each individual to suit their many situations in their life. I feel music can make or break a movie, and it is a definite must in films. Disney music is a great example of how music play’s a huge role in films. In this book I learned that Beauty and the Beast was Disney’s first Broadway musical. Menken stated, “Disney had never produced a large-scale musical, much less adapted an animated film onto the Broadway stage.” (Frantz) Soon after this in 2008, Disney’s The Little Mermaid had its chance to be a Broadway musical, just like Beauty and the Beast, and it became a big hit. Disney’s The Little Mermaid had top grossing sales within 96 weeks of $102,444,402. (“The Broadway League”)
As to Disney music, the general audience is typically a younger group of children. Children are known to like more upbeat music over slow music. Alan Menken made sure with his favorite song “Under The Sea” in The Little Mermaid, that it was very up beat. Alan Menken said, “They (the audience) were just delighted, and you got a sense that the people who were delighted were the smart people, you know? Besides Disney fans, people outside of the Disney family were going, "this is really hip. It's smart." They were surprised and delighted.” (Gilchrist) Another song besides "Under the Sea" in The Little Mermaid that is really hip and bouncy is "Kiss the Girl." The song that was played when Eric and Ariel were in the boat and it was a very romantic moment.
Movies are a very vital part of films, especially Disney films. Music is amazing in the way that it can make people feel what is actually going on in the movie like in the video above of the song "Kiss the Girl." You can just feel the flow of the beat and the romance. Disney music in movies is something I will always be able to relate to when i'm older because I related to it so much when I was a little girl.
With every movie made there is the music behind it that creates the dynamics that enhance the characters, their actions and personalities. Prior to the1930’s the movies that were made were silent and had no musical connection. Beginning in the 1930’s, music however began to become a vital part of the movies with King Kong having its original score in 1933. By the end of the 1930 era of movies, music was used to help support not only the actors and characters but the plot as well. In the 1940’s and into the 1950’s the music associated with movies was mostly symphonic with the introduction of Jazz music in the 1950’s. Through the 1960’s and all the way through the 1980’s music as a part of movies continued to advance. “The first widespread use of synthesized sounds in films occurred in the 1980s and film scoring once again underwent a major revolution.” (“Film Appreciation”) Disney’s The Little Mermaid came out in 1989, and was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, with music by Alan Menken, and lyrics by Howard Ashman. Recently I came upon a book that was about Disney’s film Beauty and the Beast that had a foreword in it by Alan Menken, who had also written music for Beauty and the Beast. He wrote something that really stuck out to me about music as a part of the movies. He wrote, “There is no form like musical. It gets inside of us, haunts us, and somehow changes us for the better.” (Frantz) I have always felt like music is somewhat like a form of therapy, it tends to help a lot of people deal with issues in their life. I also think music says a lot and can be interpreted differently by each individual to suit their many situations in their life. I feel music can make or break a movie, and it is a definite must in films. Disney music is a great example of how music play’s a huge role in films. In this book I learned that Beauty and the Beast was Disney’s first Broadway musical. Menken stated, “Disney had never produced a large-scale musical, much less adapted an animated film onto the Broadway stage.” (Frantz) Soon after this in 2008, Disney’s The Little Mermaid had its chance to be a Broadway musical, just like Beauty and the Beast, and it became a big hit. Disney’s The Little Mermaid had top grossing sales within 96 weeks of $102,444,402. (“The Broadway League”)
As to Disney music, the general audience is typically a younger group of children. Children are known to like more upbeat music over slow music. Alan Menken made sure with his favorite song “Under The Sea” in The Little Mermaid, that it was very up beat. Alan Menken said, “They (the audience) were just delighted, and you got a sense that the people who were delighted were the smart people, you know? Besides Disney fans, people outside of the Disney family were going, "this is really hip. It's smart." They were surprised and delighted.” (Gilchrist) Another song besides "Under the Sea" in The Little Mermaid that is really hip and bouncy is "Kiss the Girl." The song that was played when Eric and Ariel were in the boat and it was a very romantic moment.
Movies are a very vital part of films, especially Disney films. Music is amazing in the way that it can make people feel what is actually going on in the movie like in the video above of the song "Kiss the Girl." You can just feel the flow of the beat and the romance. Disney music in movies is something I will always be able to relate to when i'm older because I related to it so much when I was a little girl.
Works
Cited
The Broadway
League. "PLAYBILL." The Little Mermaid Broadway Grosses and Box Office Statistics. N.p. 15 Nov. 2012
<http://www.playbillvault.com/Grosses/Show/5011/The-Little-Mermaid>.
"Film
Appreciation - A Brief History of Music in Films." Film Appreciation -
A Brief History of Music in Films.
Debbie Twyman. 16 Nov. 2012 <http://www.twyman-whitney.com/film/essentials/music-history.html>.
Frantz, Don,
Sue Heinemann, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, Linda Woolverton, and Alan Menken.
Foreword. Disney's Beauty and the beast: A celebration of the Broadway
musical. 1st ed. New York: Hyperion, 1995. 12-13.
Gilchrist, Todd.
"Interview: Alan Menken." IGN. 3 Oct. 2006. 15 Nov. 2012
<http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/10/03/interview-alan-menken>.
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