Mousekingdom Blog

The British have a relationship with Disney which is unique in Europe. No other people in Europe have embraced Disney and its creations as much as a part of their life as those British… and thanks to that the British get quite some extra treats as non-Disney institutions carter to the Disney fans as well. Case in point: BBC Radio 2 which is about to kick off a four part series about the music in the worlds of Walt Disney “Ain’t No Mickey Mouse Music”. But this time ALL of us, even those outside the UK, will be able to enjoy the treat! But first of all: what will be the treat here?

Brian Sibley explores the words and music of the Disney Song Book in a new series featuring contributions from stars including Sir Elton John, Angela Lansbury and Julie Andrews.

Over the last 80 years, music has been one of the Bare Necessities of life for the Walt Disney Company’s Hollywood studios – its films have featured hundreds of songs, which are well known all over the world. Thanks to the dedicated merchandising skills of the Disney Company, they can also be heard just about anywhere, from the stages of Broadway and the West End to mobile phones with Disney ring-tones. All of which means that it ain’t no Mickey Mouse music!

The program consists of four 30 minute installments, airing on the Fridays July 7, 14, 21 and 28 from 7.00 pm to 7.30 pm on BBC Radio 2 (local time!). So what will the different parts concentrate on? Well so far information regarding the parts 1 to 3 is available:

In the opening programme, Brian explores Disney’s revolutionary way of telling stories through music and song. It features the tracks Second Star To The Right (from Peter Pan), Beauty And The Beast and The Ballad Of Davy Crockett. Other new interviews featured in the series include: Phil Collins, who won an Oscar for You’ll Be In My Heart, one of the songs he wrote for Disney’s 1999 animation, Tarzan; Randy Newman, composer on Toy Story, Monsters Inc and the new Disney/Pixar film Cars; Diane Disney Miller, Walt Disney’s daughter; Richard Sherman, composer on Mary Poppins; Roy E Disney, Director Emeritus of the Disney Company; and film expert Leonard Maltin.

[...]

In the second programme in this four-part series, presenter Brian Sibley focuses on the way in which Disney has used words and music to convey moods and emotions in their films: wistful dreams of future happiness, youthful yearnings for love, tears of loneliness or failure and – again and again – buoyantly upbeat invitations to “give a little whistle”, be “full of fun and fancy free”, consider the “bare necessities of life” and always remember that everything is really “zip-a-dee-doo-dah”! Guests include composer Randy Newman, Walt’s daughter, Diane Disney Miller, his nephew, Roy E Disney, and composer of the music from The Incredibles and TV’s Lost, Michael Giacchino. Songs featured include Little April Showers from Bambi, Circle Of Life from The Lion King and Baby Mine from Dumbo.

[...]

Disney characters are often remembered by their songs – whether they are princesses, witches or genies, elephants, bears, cats or dogs or even an orang-utan with human ambitions. This programme looks at how Disney uses pop stars not only to sing their songs, but also to write them. Songs featured in the programme include I Wanna Be Like You from The Jungle Book, Winnie The Pooh from the film of the same name and Belle from Beauty And The Beast. Key contributors are Walt Disney’s daughter, Diane, Disney Studio Chairman Dick Cook and Phil Collins.

Unfortunately there isn’t any information available yet regarding the final installment, but one can be assured that the team of producer Malcolm Prince and presenter Brian Sibley will come up with some great material - after all Brian Sibley already has a name as a Disney expert and authored several books on the worlds of Disney.

As I said in the beginning: we all can enjoy this program - even if we are not located anywhere were we can actually listen to BBC Radio 2 on our radios. How? BBC Radio 2 streams his complete program online through its website! Just tune in on the four Fridays at 7.00 pm (don’t forget to make sure you remember, it is 7.00 pm UK-TIME!) by clicking on Listen Live. And if you miss a part - well, there is always the Listen Again feature … usually “Ain’t No Mickey Mouse Music” should be available there too. Just don’t wait too long or the part you want to listen to might be deleted.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 1st, 2006 at 9:41 pm and is filed under Disney Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.