Can You Feel The Love Tonight (from The Lion King)

"Can You Feel The Love Tonight" film clip

Thank God Disney figured out how to make their love songs not suck.

Sorry to be so crass, bur SERIOUSLY. One of my favorite films of all time is Disney’s animated versions of Robin Hood. That film is hilarious, and has fantastic music, EXCEPT for the love song “Love,” which features Robin Hood and Maid Marian running around the forest and gazing into each others eyes in an ever so nauseating fashion. I mean, this thing is painful. I clearly remember every single time we got to this part of the film, my brother and I would frantically leap for the remote control to fast-forward through this section.

Now with the new Disney animated film renaissance that started with the The Little Mermaid (which I discussed in this earlier post) Disney made a lot of improvements in their craft and what they did to their love songs was make them interesting, unique, and emotionally meaningful as opposed to the trite statements of romantic love.

Howard Ashman and Alan Menken created the music for The Little Mermaid. These two composers had such a great success that they continued their partnership with Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. These three films had some of the best film music ever composed, songs that were both witty and touching and were critical parts of the story telling adding insight, depth and character. Then Howard Ashman died of AIDs in 1991 at the age of 40.

Riding this wave of animated film success and facing the death of one of their important artist, Disney took some big changes. They decided for the next animated film to create an original story as opposed to basing the film on a pre-existing fairy tale and trusted the music, one of the most important aspects of their success to Tim Rice and Elton John.

Tim Rice made his mark working with Andrew Llyod Webber on such musicals as Evita and Cats. His first work doing film musicals was finishing up the lyrics for Aladdin after Ashman had died, but taking on a whole film full of songs was a much larger undertaking.

Disney had previously featured pop singers like Billy Joel in the Oliver & Company song “Why Should I Worry.” However, Disney had never trusted a pop artists to compose the songs for one of their films.

Elton John in 1994 far from the peak of his career. In 1990, he checked into hospital for health issues due to his drug abuse, alcoholism, and bulimia (not exactly the image Disney likes to associate with). Of the four albums that were from 1990-1993, two were made up of previously recorded material, and the other two albums The One and Duets, though moderate successes, were a shadow of the pop masterpieces Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.

It didn’t help either that Elton John had never composed music for a musical before The Lion King.

Despite all of this, The Lion King came together as one of Disney's greatest accomplishments. When it was released in 1994, it became the highest grossing film of the year and the most successful animated feature film until the release of Finding Nemo in 2003. Elton John and Tim Rice were nominated for four Oscars for the film and won for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” If you are one of the two people on this planet who haven’t seen The Lion King, go watch it, I promise you’ll love it.

“Can You Feel The Love” takes the best of Disney traditions while innovating the Disney love song. The composers approached the background music like Disney composers always had utilizing the music to support the meaning of the words. When Timon reaches the line, “our trios down to two” in the introduction, the music falls flat onto a staccato chord. After "twilight," there’s a ascending sparkle and after “there’s magic everywhere” there is a harp flourish. At the end of this section, under the line “romantic atmosphere,” the music rushes up like with a ocean wave. Composers have utilized this technique of putting meaning in the background music throughout classical music displaying a high level of creative artistry.

“Can You Feel The Love Tonight” could have been a straightforward love song describing how these two lions are falling in love, instead the composers took a different path developed the characters by expressing their viewpoints.

Timon and Pumbaa bookend the song with feelings of loss which is not the usually response from Disney supporting characters. Most of the time, supporting characters are elated at the prospect of their friend falling in love like in "Beauty & The Beast." This is a great comedic moment that does ring true as most people have to learn how to share their friends when buddies find significant others.

The chorus asks if questions the listener the question “can you feel the love tonight?” While this questions is in our mind, we hear Simba’s insecure thoughts about Nala’s acceptance and Nala’s questioning of Simba’s life choices. Do we really feel the love when they are thinking about these things? If we take the lyrics outside of the context of the song we see that don't express love love but are seeds of conflict which foreshadow later scenes in the film.

What is special about this song is that despite the inner dialogue we feel the love between the Nala and Simba. There is a glorious moment when they share their love and the background choir comes forward and the instrument drop out (1:45). What this moment describes to us is that despite unresolved conflict they can feel love and so can we.

There is this idea that falling in love with someone is finding someone you completely agree with and always get along with. That’s simply not the case and if you are looking for this kind of love, then you might as well give up, because you will never find that. “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” gives a more realistic viewpoint of the complexities of love without diminishing the magic that can exist between two people who love each other. It’s a beautiful statement about relationships and most definitely does not suck.

Stick To The Status Quo (from High School Musical)

Whether you love, hate or are simply mystified by High School Musical, it is undeniably the most successful film musical franchise of all time.

The soundtrack to of High School Musical sold over 4 million copies making it the best selling top-selling CD in 2006. 7.7 million viewers watched the premiere broadcast of this film and the DVD release set sales records as the fastest selling television film of all time. There have been successful two sequels (with another one rumored to be in pre-production), and merchandising including backpacks, lunchboxes, school folders, and clothing (working in an elementary school, I’ve seen it all).

I don’t necessarily think that something is good just because it’s popular however when something is as huge a success as High School Musical it becomes part of our culture. In order to stay culturally literate and have a better understanding of the art that my students enjoy I felt that it was necessary to watch High School Musical. Well, I was able to avoid watching it for three years but I glad I finally did.

My inner music snob (which over the years has diminished) did not like the idea of such a pop music orientated musical. The mass popularity of it could not possibly be a good thing. That sort of thinking does not make the most amount of sense but there is a feeling that great music, true “art” music is not something that the masses could ever understand so therefore something so popular cannot possibly be good. Now, even though I disagree with this idea it does make sense on some level as many of the greatest pieces of art are not really all that popular. The why’s and how’s of that are part of a different discussion but regardless High School Musical was not seem appealing to me.

So on the Sunday night of Valentine’s day weekend my wife and I sat down and watched High School Musical. It’s not bad, actually it’s very good. I am making this statement with an important caveat. I say that, not comparing it to other musicals like West Side Story or my personal favorite Mary Poppins but in considering the artists’ intention and how effective they accomplishes their goals. If a song is made with every intention to be sad then saying it’s a bad song because it doesn’t make you happy isn’t really a fair assessment of the quality of the artist’s work. However, if it is clear that a musician is trying to make you happy and the song does not express happiness then it is not an effective piece of art.

If you are over the age of twenty, no fifteen, you probably are not going to enjoy watching High School Musical. If you don’t enjoy the sound of modern day pop music, seeing people randomly break out into song and dance sequences (that are both inexplicable and mystifying) and predictable and derivative plots then please don’t watch High School Musical. You are not going to be happy with your viewing experience. However, if you can put yourself in the mindset of an 8 year old this is transcendent musical experience.

High School Musical like many modern musicals speaks in a musical language that is both familiar and non-threatening. With shows like The Lion King and Jersey Boys, the audience knows exactly what to expect musically. They are no artistically challenge to the audiences’ ears. The artistic adventure comes in other ways like the puppetry in The Lion King and the sets in Jersey Boys. Maybe the lack of familiarity of the music in musicals is a reason for the decline in the popularity of musicals and that is probably the reasons we’ve seen more and more musicals use pre-existing music.

Every song in High School Musical pulls form, chords, harmony and even lyrics from pop music. This is mostly a late 1990s sound with slight nods to hip-hop. For most kids growing up this is their musical language. If you are going to draw people in to see a musical you might as well speak to them in a language that they understand, and High School Musical does this incredibly effectively.

This film exists works within “musical logic.” One has to suspend their level of disbelief quite a lot to believe that Troy, the main character can sing as well as he does without any training or intention to be a singer. This isn’t any less ridiculous than a nun teaching a bunch of children their Do, Re, MI's over in 2 minutes. (ask any music teacher you know and they will tell you that it takes MONTHS to teach kids to utilize their Do, Re, Mi’s like they Von Trapps do).



The plot is well nothing extraordinary, but it makes sense why it is so simple. the other day I was talking about what my favorite book was to some of my fourth grade students and started to explain the plot to Grapes of Wrath. They were of course utterly confused. Young kids need to be taught about good guys and bad guys, the way plots develop and how stories usually play out. There is a rhythm and language in the way that plots are put together and having a musical that follows in a predictable way deriving many of its plot points from other stories helps teach children the way that stories are told which is an essential and important part of their education.

Great art is able to appeal to people who are beyond its target audience and High School Musical doesn’t really do that. It’s effective, it’s fun and well-crafted. The actors in the film commit completely to the characters. The production is excellent in the way high school atmosphere is created and in the intricate and impressive dance sequences. However, unlike a musical like Mary Poppins, which speaks not only to kids but also to adults, High School Musical lacks depth. Like many things that children love, most kids will probably outgrow High School Musical and only look back at it in a nostalgic way to remember how it made them feel.

The film’s major theme is the creation of the adolescent identity. Young adults want to assert their own identity and be individuals while at the same time they want to fit in with everyone else. The song that captures the spirit and innate conflict in this struggle is “Stick To The Status Quo.” Three students have the urge to express their true passion and the other students at the table encourage them to, but when they express something that doesn’t fit in with their clique they back up and tell them to stick with the status quo. This song expresses the way many young people feel who want to get something else but don’t feel comfortable because of peer pressure. We can’t fault the other students too much for not understanding why they want to be something other than they appear to be. By the end of the film, the student body comes together beyond the cliques to support each other in a way that speaks more to friendships then to cliques. This may not be realistic but is a nice thought.

High School Musical is about working against the status quo to be true to yourself, embracing your passions as Gabriella reminds us, “Do you remember in kindergarten, how you'd meet a kid, and know nothing about them, then 10 seconds later you'd be playing like you were best friends, because you didn't have to be anyone but yourself?” Though that may sound overly simple, but that might actually be all it really takes to make meaningful connections with people.

Even thought I enjoyed High School Musical, I’m probably never going to watch it ever again but I’m glad so many young people love this show. It has a great message and is a fantastic introduction to the world of musicals and music in general. I love the excitement that kids get when they have a piece of art that they love. It encompasses their whole lives, they want to experience it repeatedly, and it may annoy the rest of us but their excitement is a beautiful thing that leads passion and love for art that stays with them for the rest of our lives.

When She Loved Me (from Toy Story 2) by Sarah McLachlan

"When She Loved Me" live at the Academy Awards

I didn't cry when Bambi's mom died. I didn't cry when Simba walked off into the dust believe that he had killed his father, but I did cry when Jessie told us her story about the love she once shared with her Emily.

Pixar continues the grand Disney tradition of animated films that feature incredible technical innovations but more importantly powerful character-driven stories that examine the human conditions. One of the central themes in Disney animated features is love. In Sleeping Beauty, it was the kiss of a her true love that woke her but like in many early Disney films this love was more based on destiny rather then human interaction. Later Disney film took a deeper more realistic examination into love like in Beauty And the Beast. Belle and the Beast both learned to love from a relationship that started in conflict and evolved into friendship. This was not love at first sight but rather love that born out of struggle and true caring.

In Pixar's first film Toy Story, romantic love took a back seat to the love between friends. Woody and Buzz, two toys learned to care about each other like a family and enjoyed a mutual love for their owner Andy. In Toy Story 2, released four years later in 1999 we found out just how powerful and beautiful love between friends could be when Jessie another toy told Woody about the owner she had lost.

Randy Newman the composers of “When She Loved Me,” is a master orchestrated who has composed soundtracks for over twenty films and is a skilled song writer as well. Great orchestra composers show their skill not by using as many instruments as possible but by using particular instruments at specific times like a painter with a palette of colors. For example, in the last verse, the word loved of “like she loved me, ” is colored with the high strings, the woodwinds, the French horns, and accentuated by plucked notes in the lower string. These instruments warm up the song like a gentle ray of sunlight and are made effective by the fact that this is the first time this particular group of instruments appear in the song.

“When She Loved Me” feels like a simple song and one of the reasons that it speaks so clearly to us is the way the lyrics and the rhythm in the melody work together. If you were to say “when somebody loved me,” you would probably have a slight emphases on “loved.” It would come out as “when somebody loved me,” as opposed to “when somebody loved me.” Newman also emphases “when,” which doesn’t necessarily feel natural but it changes the meaning of the line to be more reflective.

Later Newman sets “So the years went by, I stayed the same” working so closely to the rhythm of the words that he disregards the meter and drops beats. This doesn’t seem awkward because people don’t speak in perfectly organized meters. Working from the natural rhythm in our language makes the melody an organic extension of the words that helps the melody be more accessible while allows the composer to add layers of meaning within the text.


“When She Loved Me” is a perfect marriage between the song and the singer and Sarah McLachlan performs this song as only she can. Sarah McLachlan is an accomplished songwriter and singer with a unique and powerful artistic voice. She has a dynamic singing voice that can start at a whisper and grow to an incredible full glorious sound flowing between different colors in her voice effortlessly. Sara McLachlan often will slide up to notes in an almost like yodel way but slower and with more grace. She does this at the beginning on the word “was” in “everything was beautiful.” The best example of the power in her voice is when she sings “I will always love you” at the climax of the song, the clarity of the tone, the way she colors the pitch by pulling each note flat and the shape in each word creates sublime and emotionally draining moment.

At it's core "When She Loved Me" is about a break-up. Jessie was Emily's toy. While Emily drifted away, Jessie stayed the same and Emily eventually gave Jessie away. The love that they shared has never left Jessie and this not a selfish love. Jessie reminisces about making her happy when she was sad and comforting Emily when she was lonely. As beautiful as the descriptions of love are, each verse reminds us of the heartbreaking truth that this love is gone. The first line “when somebody loved me,” sets the mood for the whole song and does not only imply that Jessie has lost love but also that she does not feel like anyone currently loves her. This song describes love so well that the thought of life without love almost too much to bear.

Jessie gets a second taste of love in the last verse and it is wonderful but Jessie knows that it’s not real as Emily holds her “like she loved me.” Most people I know after a break-up would rather not have that person give them the same feeling of love if they knew that it wasn’t true. The reason that Jessie accepts it and speaks so warmly about it isn’t that because is ignorant of the way that Emily truly feels but because she is so sad that even illusion of Emily’s love makes her feel alive.

“When She Loved Me,” is one of the saddest songs I know, but I love listening to it. We listen to sad music not because we like being sad but because the experience of feeling makes us feel alive. In “When She Loved Me” we experience great sadness, it touches our hearts and we may cry but when it’s over we appreciate the love we have in our lives even more.

If you have never watched Toy Story 2,please do. It’s a beautiful film. After seeing it I promise that you will never forget “When She Loved Me” the same way that Jessie never forgot her Emily. . . with love in her heart.

Part Of Your World by Jodi Benson

Everybody has a dream.

Some picture a new car. Others think a life without work, and we all hope for a world in which we can understand each other on a deeper level to make us closer as human beings and diminish the conflict in our lives.

“Part Of Your World” is from the Disney animated film, The Little Mermaid. This film was released in1989 and marked the beginning of a new renaissance in Disney animation including the films, Beauty And the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. “Part of Your World” is the “I Want” song that is part of most musicals. The “I Want” song features the main character describing his or her motivation for the actions he or she takes within the story. Other well known “I Want” songs include “I Just Can’t Wait To be King” from The Lion King, “Up There” from The South Park musical and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz. These are often the memorable songs from musicals because they provide a direct insight into the hopes and dreams of the main character that define their beliefs and actions.

I’m not saying that we all know what if feels like to be a mermaid, become infatuated with a guy you saved and want legs but I think we can all understand desiring something different in our lives and feeling misunderstood which is what “Part of Your World” is really about.

The Little Mermaid was the first Disney movie that felt like it spoke to my generation. The animation was more modern, the story was less predictable and the music reflected modern sensibilities. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman created a musical universe in The Little Mermaid that took the musical traditions of Disney and modernized them for a new generation. No longer was the singing a caricature of the human voice like in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves but the sound of real people singing. The background music, though orchestrated with tradition acoustic instruments melded effortlessly with synthesized colors reflecting the music of the 1980s.

Jodi Benson is my Disney Princess. She did the voice acting for Ariel in The Little Mermaid, the title character in Thumbelina, as well as Tour Guide Barbie in Toy Story 2 (if you haven’t seen that film in a while pay special attention to Benson’s work here, it’s a stroke of genius). Jodi Benson sings with a bright clear tone that at the beginning of "Part of Your World." She doesn’t have a lot of vibrato (a pulsating effect produced by rapid variations in pitch) which often makes trained classical music voice not as relatable to people’s ears. Her voice isn’t weak and you can hear her fill out tone when she holds the word “more” at the end of the first verse. In the chorus she pulls back her volume with “I want to be where the people are blurring the lines between singing and speaking. Her voice floats around the notes and has a weightless quality that propels the music along. She utilizes variation in her tone and dynamics as great speakers do, sometimes speaking loud, sometimes speaking softly, sometimes speaking quickly and sometimes taking time make sure that they are understood.

Bet'cha on land they understand
That they don't reprimand their daughters
Proper women sick of swimmin'
Ready to stand

We all know as landlubbers that female oppression is not exclusive to the undersea world. This level of hope through child-like ignorance is charming because we understand that Ariel feels misunderstood by her father. As much as the realist in us knows that Ariel’s dreams are preposterous, it is hard not to smile at the innocence and the hope that she embodies.

Almost all the melody lines have an upward direction. It’s like how we raise our pitch when we ask a questions. With Ariel, the melodies don’t so much question but rise to differenr possibilities. She idolizes the human life partially through ignorance but also because she doesn’t know how to make her mer-life better.

I have the pleasure of spending my days as a teacher with fourth grade students. And if you talk to fourth grader they share many feelings with Ariel. They wish for a recess that would last forever or a life where their parents can just get along. They just want to be like everyone else and can’t understand why their teachers seem to make their lives so difficult. It’s a time in life when dreams are so often crushed by reality, a time where the world becomes darker and a time when hope is so often disappointed by reality. The genius of this song is that it relates to children but also speaks to adults, because we remember how it feels to be a child and we so often see that hope in the children around us.

The inspiring part of the story of Ariel is that her unrealistic hopes come true.

There are people who fight through the doubts and the criticism and rise beyond reason to make the improbably a reality. They are people like Fred Rogers who was told that children would never watch a television show that focused on education with little song and dance to entertain. However, in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, Fred Rogers created television show that has inspired generations of children to believe in themselves.

They are artist like George Lucas, who had to personally finance the first Star Wars film because no one else believed the universe he created would capture the imagination of audiences. More then thirty years later Star Wars has entertained millions of people and has become one of the most influential franchises in entertainment.

There are politicians like Barack Obama who after losing his 2000 bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives was left with little in his life savings and personal credit. When he went to the 2000 Democratic National Convention after the election he had just lost, his credit card was rejected he was not even able to get a floor pass. Eight years later, Barack Obama has done what many thought was impossible and is preparing to be inaugurated as the forty-fourth president of the United States of America.

What defines us? Is it our jobs or where we come from? Is it the people that we love and things that we believe? Or is it the dreams that we have and hold close to our hearts? We tell children that they can grow to be anything that want but we stop telling ourselves that somewhere along the line. What we hope for, what we desire reflects what we value in our lives. It informs our motivation and actions as well as the outlook we have in life.

When I listen to “Part of Your World” and it makes me want to part of Ariel’s world. A place where dreams come true, forgiveness and true love are around the corner, and crabs can conduct impromptu orchestras filled with sea animals. The great thing though is that my world isn’t that far away from Ariel’s (except for the crab part) and maybe the reason this song warms my heart is because it reminds me of the feeling of hope that makes each day shine with the potential to make our dreams come true.