FernGully: The Last Rainforest is one of my favorite animated films that doesn’t come from the Walt Disney studio. It tells the story of Crysta, a fairy who lives in the untouched rainforest of FernGully.
She is learning to use magic as she will one day be the leader of the fairies. According to their legends, fairies and humans used to be very close until an evil spirit named Hexxus drove them away, presumably to their extinction.
Of course the humans didn’t go extinct, and they’re very close to FernGully even now in the form of loggers cutting the forest down acre by acre. And when the tree containing the spirit of Hexxus is destroyed and the evil spirit is set loose, it’s up to Crysta and her new human friend Zak to stop him.
I absolutely LOVE the music for FernGully, it was composed by Alan Silvestri (of Back to the Future fame) and it will stick with you long after the story is over. One of my favorite pieces from the score is “The Spirit of the Trees” and I hope to talk about that piece at some time in the future. But for now, I have a behind the scenes look at making the overall score that I think you will enjoy.
I think we can all agree that the Ents are one of the greatest things about The Two Towers. After Merry and Pippin rescue themselves from the Uruk-hai, they head into Fangorn Forest and run straight into Treebeard, de facto leader of the few Ents that remain in Middle Earth. Ents…are like trees, sort of. They resemble different varieties of trees, but they have legs, and eyes and they can talk too. Oh and they live for a really LONG time. So long in fact, that regular events in Middle Earth like war very rarely bother them. They’d just as soon let the humans, elves and other races sort it out among themselves, despite the pleas Merry keeps making to them.
But just as Treebeard is set to take Merry and Pippin to a place where they can safely head off to the Shire, Pippin has an idea: he tells Treebeard to take them south past Isengard, having a fairly good idea of what the Ent will run into on the way.
See, while the Ents have been busy deep in the forest, Saruman the wizard has been busy having the forest surrounding Isengard chopped down as fuel for the furnaces helping to produce weapons and armor for his army. So when Treebeard comes to the slopes nearest the wizard’s tower, he emerges to find that acres of forest have been chopped down and completely destroyed, trees that he had known since they were seedlings.
That does it!! Exclaiming that “a wizard should know better” Treebeard lets out a howl of pain and anger that summons all the remaining Ents to his side as he explains to the hobbits:
“There is no curse in Elvish, Entish or in all the tongues of Men, for this treachery.”
Now the Ents will go to war, as they have not done for ages. But there is no optimism here: as the females of their species disappeared centuries ago, there are no more Ent children. Whatever losses they suffer in the coming battle will only hasten the extinction of their race, hence the reason this is called “the last march of the Ents.”
I love the scene when all the Ents are striding across the ruined plain, the Ent theme sounding clear in the background. This is one of those moments that is absolutely pure Tolkien and I never get tired of it. It’s such a sad theme, sad and bittersweet, but it matches the Ents perfectly.
Ever since the Evil Queen fell screaming to her death in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), there has been a tradition of Disney villains meeting a particularly gruesome fate by the end of the story. And few are more gruesome or disturbing than what happens to Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog (2009).
Facilier is a witch doctor operating in New Orleans, making a living by promising his “clients” one thing and then trapping them into something else entirely. His latest victims are Prince Naveen and Tiana, who have both been turned into frogs. But they’re small fry compared to Facilier’s big plan: capturing the souls of everyone in New Orleans for his “friends on the other side”, the dark voodoo spirits. These spirits are impatient for Facilier to deliver what he has promised and at one point make it clear that if the witch doctor does not deliver, then it will be HIS soul in jeopardy.
Fast forward to the climax of the film: Facilier tempts Tiana with everything she ever wanted if she will only give back a magic amulet that allows the witch doctor’s current spells to work. When Tiana refuses and attempts to smash the amulet, Facilier changes her back into a frog (he’d temporarily made her human again) and prepares to finish her off. But having learned about what it means to be a frog, Tiana uses her sticky tongue to seize the amulet back and smashes it into oblivion!!
This is a big problem for Facilier. The voodoo spirits had made it clear that they would not help him any more once they gave him that amulet, he would have to deliver what he promised….or else. But with the amulet smashed, it was now impossible for Facilier to deliver New Orleans to the voodoo spirits, so the spirits come to collect Facilier in their place.
Welcome to Hell Dr. Facilier
As someone brilliantly commented on YouTube, “when a villain’s theme song is used against them, you know they’re screwed.” The voodoo spirits come crawling out of the earth, singing a refrain from Facilier’s song “Friends on the Other Side”, and keep asking “Are you ready?” , to which Facilier keeps pleading that he is NOT ready, this is only “a minor setback in a major operation”, he can still deliver what the spirits want, “I just need a little more time” he pleads. But then the head voodoo spirit appears and his glare makes it clear, he is DONE with waiting. The shadows literally grab hold of Facilier and drag him screaming to Hell via the mouth of the head voodoo spirit. The entire way Facilier is pleading for his life, screaming “I promise I’ll pay ya’ll back, I PROMISE!!” And with a final scream, he is pulled into Hell and the mouth of the voodoo spirit slams shut!!
The scene gives me goosebumps every single time I watch it. For all the bravado Facilier has shown up until now, he is completely terrified when he realizes that the voodoo spirits are coming for HIM and him alone.
It’s really a disturbing way to go, being dragged alive into Hell, where he’ll suffer who knows what for all eternity. And this is why Dr. Facilier’s demise is part of the list of Disturbing Disney. What do you think of Facilier’s death at the hands of the voodoo spirits? Does it send chills down your spine? Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear what you think about it 🙂
After Star Trek V: The Final Frontier went FLOP at the box office, it was very nearly the end of the Star Trek films. But the studio managed to persevere and plans were laid to make a sixth film. Initially, Star Trek VI was going to be a prequel, featuring Kirk and co. at the Academy (which later became the basic plot of Star Trek (2009)), but that was scrapped in favor of a final adventure with the original Enterprise crew.
Now when it came to scoring Star Trek VI, director Nicholas Meyer had some trouble finding a composer. Jerry Goldsmith was so disappointed after Star Trek V that he currently wanted nothing to do with the project. James Horner felt that his career had advanced beyond Star Trek, so he declined as well. With no other alternatives, Meyer looked to a pile of demo tapes sent in by other composers wishing to work on the project and he ultimately selected a tape sent in by composer Cliff Eidelman, as he felt his music best captured the “spirit of Star Trek”.
Eidelman’s music is a big part of why I love The Undiscovered Country so much. It’s dark, occasionally eerie, and chock full of tension at all the right moments. And the main theme is a perfect introduction to this score. The music plays over the opening credits before the story proper begins and instantly lets you know that this isn’t like the other Star Trek films. Jerry Goldsmith’s bright fanfare is absent, Horner’s beautiful strings aren’t there. What we have instead is a dark motif that will recur throughout the film.
As the credits move on towards the end, the music becomes more and more tense, and it will later come out that what we are hearing is the music from the final battle between Captain Kirk and General Chang. The tension builds higher and higher, until finally the music ends on almost a literal cliffhanger, as the music cuts off just before a huge explosion fills the screen (talk about starting a story off with a bang!)
I really enjoy the main theme of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, it is an underrated gem in the musical canon of Star Trek. I hope you enjoy listening to this theme as well.
Make Mine Music is the 8th animated feature in the Disney canon and for the most part has been completely forgotten today. Unlike other animated films, which consist of a single story, Make Mine Music is an anthology, that is, it is a collection of unrelated animated shorts that all heavily feature music in some way. The most famous short from this film (in my opinion) is Peter and the Wolf (narrated by Sterling Holloway), but the finale piece is what I’d like to draw to your attention.
The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met (quite the mouthful to say) concludes Make Mine Music and is without a doubt one of the most disturbing pieces of animation you will ever see. The story is about Willie, a large sperm whale who has the gift of singing grand opera and dreams of starring at the famous Metropolitan Opera in New York City (how a whale would do that I don’t know, but it’s Disney so why not?).
As Willie continues to sing for any ships that pass by (or for the local seagulls), word eventually spreads back to the city that there is a whale with tremendous operatic talent. This news reaches the ears of the famed head of the Metropolitan opera, Tetti-Tatti, who quickly (and wrongly) deduces that Willie must have SWALLOWED a talented opera singer, and he must go rescue him straight away!!
Tetti-Tatti sails out with a harpoon boat to “rescue” the (non-existent) opera singer, and Willie, thinking this is an audition, goes to perform for him. The crew, enthralled by Willie’s singing, does everything they can to stop Tetti-Tatti from firing the harpoon (up to and including sitting on him). We then see a montage of Willie’s operatic career, implying that Tetti-Tatti changed his mind and accepted that Willie COULD sing opera.
But then…just as Willie is performing the role of Mephisto from Faust, we see Tetti-Tatti appear amongst the flames (Mephisto is a devil), harpoon poised to strike…and then he fires!!!! In the midst of his singing Tetti-Tatti fires and KILLS WILLIE!!!!! I mean brutally kills him too, there’s a shot of Willie thrashing away over the sea, harpoon embedded (albeit it’s at a great distance, we can’t see it clearly) and then the sad truth that a great talent has been extinguished forever, on Earth anyway. The “silver lining” is that Willie can sing on forever in Heaven (hence his appearance below as a member of the heavenly choir) but for me that doesn’t make up for the fact that a singing whale was killed, KILLED!!! Up until this point it was just another cartoon, you don’t expect the main character to actually DIE!!
Yes, I know they called the story “tragic” from the outset, but “tragic” doesn’t have to equal death. I mean come on Disney!! Let me tell you, when I first saw this, the ending traumatized me, and that’s why this story belongs in the list of “Disturbing Disney.”
I am dying of curiosity to know what you think of this cartoon and of the ending. Did it disturb you just as much as it does me? Please let me know in the comments below.
I was surprised when Where the Wild Things Are became a motion picture in 2009. As a kid, I remember having this book read to me and I enjoyed it very much, but it didn’t seem like the best story to adapt into a movie (after all, it isn’t very long). But to my surprise, the movie actually turned out to be very good. If you haven’t read the book before, the story in brief is about a young boy named Max who sails to a magical island inhabited by oversized monsters. Max makes himself their king and happily rules over them for a while until he becomes homesick and returns to where he came from. The film expands on this story quite a bit by giving names and distinct personalities to the different “wild things” on the island, but the basic elements of the story remain the same.
While Carter Burwell might not be a name as familiar as, say, John Williams, James Horner or Brian Tyler, he has done a fair share of great film scores. He composed several scores for the Twilight series (Twilight; Breaking Dawn parts 1 and 2) and collaborated six times with director Bill Condon. Burwell has certainly done some interesting work over the years.
And the composer has some interesting thoughts to share on the story’s musical score, as seen in the video above. For instance, once Max arrives on the island “where the wild things are”, the composer thought it appropriate to completely change the music from something familiar to something more exotic (like using non-traditional instrumentation).
One part involves literally banging on pots and pans to create a musical effect. The idea is that these are things you might literally find on the forest floor on the island. Using non-traditional items to create music is always exciting and I had no idea that Burwell and his fellow musicians had done this to create the music for Where the Wild Things Are.
Let me just start by saying that I am not a fan of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy; not the books or the movies. I don’t like the concept behind the story (did you know this started as Twilight fanfiction?) and it just…*shudders* it doesn’t sit well with me.
That being said…my ears perked up with interest when I discovered that Danny Elfman wrote the score for Fifty Shades of Grey (and he has also scored Fifty Shades Darker). I have been a fan of Elfman’s work ever since I first heard the music for Batman (1989) and I was surprised to hear that he is working on this film trilogy. Elfman isn’t the first composer I would think of when it comes to dark romantic films, but to each his own.
I can’t recommend this film, but it was interesting to briefly hear Elfman’s thoughts on how he put the important musical themes together for this story.
Now I have to ask, for those of you who may have seen Fifty Shades of Grey, did you like it at all? Was it worth seeing? I would love to hear your comments on this film, so let me know in the comments below 🙂
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I have not seen Now You See Me (2013) or its sequel Now You See Me 2, though I have heard plenty about both films. Both films feature a group of stage magicians who use their talents to pull off huge and daring heists. The scores for both films were composed by Brian Tyler, and what I have here is two clips relating to the sequel, Now You See Me 2, which came out last year. The top link takes you to a concert performance of the film’s main theme, which I found very beautiful. I will never stop loving the experience of hearing movie music in a concert environment.
The bottom link comes from a scoring session led by Tyler at the famous Abbey Road studio in London. There is something enthralling about watching Brian Tyler at work; when he is on the podium, you can tell he is 100% into the music.
I know Now You See Me 2 got mixed reviews upon its release, but surely the music was not a part of any problems the film had. I hope you enjoy the recording session and the performance.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but at times I think Cruella de Vil is severely underrated as a Disney villain. Granted she doesn’t have any magic powers or an army of minions to do her bidding (Jasper and Horace are bumbling nimrods at best), but she DOES have one of the more disturbing plots to ever take place in a Disney film. And she nearly gets away with it too!
One thing that must be understood about Cruella is that she is obsessed with fur (remember they made this film back in 1961 when real fur coats were very much a common thing) of all kinds, it is all she lives for. Cruella also comes from a great deal of money (considering there’s a huge dilapidated mansion that belongs to her) and is obviously used to getting whatever she wants, whenever she wants. Therefore, when Roger and Anita refuse to sell her their dog’s newborn litter of puppies, Cruella explodes into a rage, declaring that she will “get even” with them. So when the puppies are stolen several months later, it doesn’t take much to make the connection that Cruella had everything to do with it.
You have to be evil to want to hurt puppies
But why? What does a spoiled heiress need with Dalmatian puppies? In fact, what does she need with 99 Dalmatian puppies? The truth is horrifying: Cruella wants to make COATS out of the puppies! Let that sink in for a minute: this nasty woman wants to have 99 adorable puppies killed, skinned and turned into spotted coats that she can wear. This isn’t merely disturbing; this borders on the sociopathic!! And what’s worse, she wants Jasper and Horace to do the deed. Look at Jasper and Horace for a second:
I give you the original Dumb and Dumber
Do those idiots look capable of skinning ANYTHING, let alone 99 puppies? Sure, they talk about killing the puppies first by “knocking them on the head” but I have severe doubts in their ability to do it properly. And speaking of, the villains get THIS close to actually starting the process. Just before Pongo and Perdita literally crash into the room, Jasper and Horace have the puppies (plus Sgt. Tibbs the cat) cornered, ready to begin striking them down.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t until about five years ago that I was struck by the full magnitude of what Cruella wanted to do. I’m not sure why that is, except to say that it’s one thing to hear the words “She’s going to make coats out of us” and quite another to understand exactly what those words mean. And this is in a children’s film!! I wonder how kids watching this film in 1961 reacted if/when they figured out what Cruella was trying to do (I bet it wasn’t pretty).
Cruella’s plot to murder a lot of puppies is dark and disturbing and rightly deserves a place in this series. What do you think of Cruella’s twisted plot? Let me know in the comments below, and have a great rest of the day 🙂
The final act of Bambi does not lack for ‘disturbing moments’ especially when you consider that in short order: Man attacks the forest en masse, causing total hysteria among the animals; Bambi gets shot; and the entire forest is set on fire, compelling the surviving forest creatures to run for their lives. But the moment I would like to focus on happens in the midst of all this, during Man’s attack, but before the forest is set on fire.
Due to a series of events, Bambi and Faline have become separated and in the chaos are frantically searching for each other. And during a sudden lull in the shooting (which in retrospect is a sign that things are about to get worse), Faline bounds over a hill only to discover…the dogs. And just calling them ‘dogs’ alone is an understatement, these are killers!! I mean look at them: fangs bared, angry eyes, these dogs will rip apart anything they can catch, including Faline!! What makes this moment disturbing for me is that regular dogs have been turned into savage monsters by the studio. This, combined with the heart-pounding accompaniment of chase music, adds up to a scene that had me simultaneously engrossed and terrified.
The scariest (and most disturbing part) comes when the dogs have Faline cornered on a tiny ledge:
It’s a terrifying scene: only a few inches of rock are keeping Faline from those dogs and they’re not giving up! I’m very thankful this scene did not traumatize me for life in regards to dogs (because it could very easily do that).
Thankfully, Bambi comes to rescue Faline and the danger passes. And yet…the image of those dogs lunging up at Faline has stayed with me for a very long time. What do you think of the scene where the dogs hunt and chase Faline? Let me know in the comments below 🙂
Film Music Central 