Film Music Central

Beauty and the Beast “Human Again” (1991)

Beauty and the Beast “Beauty and the Beast/Tale as Old as Time” (1991)

Beauty and the Beast “The West Wing” (1991)

Beauty and the Beast “Battle on the Tower” (1991)

For more great Disney songs and films, check out the main page here: Disney Films & Soundtracks A-Z

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Royalty on Film Blogathon: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

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*This post is part of the Royalty on Film Blogathon hosted by The Flapper Dame

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The 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood is the epitome of the perfect swashbuckler film: there are exciting sword fights, an archery tournament, a great ambush in Sherwood Forest and an A-list cast led by Errol Flynn as Robin Hood himself. But this film is also notable for highlighting a real life feud between two royal brothers, namely Prince John and his older brother King Richard “the Lionheart”.

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King Richard (Ian Hunter)

The story begins when news arrives that King Richard has been taken prisoner by Leopold of Austria while returning home from the Third Crusade and is being held for ransom! This is indeed what happened to the historical King Richard: during the crusade, Leopold had been insulted when Richard had replaced the Austrian banner with his own and so when Richard was returning back to England, he took the opportunity to capture him for his own personal revenge (never mind that those returning from crusade were not to be harmed in any way).

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conniving Prince John (Claude Rains)

Back in England, Prince John, brilliantly performed by Claude Rains, is gleeful at the idea that his older brother is out of the way for the foreseeable future. It’s no secret that John and Richard never got along very well (if at all), as John resented Richard for being favored by their mother Eleanor of Aquitaine. With Richard gone, John disposes of Longchamps (the man assigned to co-rule England with John in Richard’s absence, not all of England, as the film implies) and sets himself up as ruler of England.

This proves to be disastrous for the common folk of England as John begins to tax them ruthlessly. Ostensibly, this money is for Richard’s ransom, but John has no intentions of helping his royal brother get free. Instead (the film never mentions this but it’s a historical fact), John plans to use this money as a bribe to KEEP Richard locked up, at least until he can secure the throne for himself.

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historical illumination of the real King John

The plan is working beautifully until Robin of Loxley, a Saxon knight, gets tired of seeing his people oppressed and vows to do something about it. After fleeing Nottingham, Robin sets up a hideout in Sherwood Forest and gathers a huge company of outlaws who wreak havoc with Norman tax collectors (and wealthy Normans in general) any chance they get. The culmination of all this is when they take Sir Guy and Lady Marian captive and force them to have dinner with them in the forest (Marian ends up enjoying herself, while Sir Guy just fumes the whole time). While this film greatly highlights the tension between the Norman and Saxon populations, I should note that by the time of King Richard’s reign in real life, these tensions had all but vanished (it just made a good plot device for the movie).

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There is a third royal (of sorts), in this mix, the Lady Marian Fitz-Walter (Olivia DeHavilland), the royal ward of King Richard (and Prince John in his absence). Being a royal ward means that your parents are dead or unable to care for you, and your education and marriage and general well-being are the responsibility of the king. John plans to use this to his advantage by trying to match Marian with the handsome (but lethal) Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone). It almost works too, until Robin interrupts the feast at Sir Guy’s castle in Nottingham and Marian gets a good look at the Saxon rogue.

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Historical drawing of the real King Richard

While Marian and Robin slowly build a romance together, John proceeds with his plans to take the throne for himself, plans that are accelerated when the Bishop of the Black Canons reports that he’s spotted Richard himself in England (how and when Richard got back to England is never said). Desperate, John plots to have Richard murdered and himself proclaimed as King in two days time. Marian (fortunately and unfortunately) overhears all of this and writes a warning for Robin so that he can save the King. However, Sir Guy, Prince John and the Bishop noticed Marian overhearing, so Sir Guy catches her red-handed with the warning letter. This leads to a summary trial where Prince John condemns her to death. When Marian protests that John can’t order her execution because “only the King himself has the right to condemn me to death”, John states that it shall be a King who gives the order, implying that as soon as he is crowned, Marian will die.

Of course Robin gets word of what’s going on regardless and moves to save Marian, but not before meeting three mysterious monks in the woods. Of course, these aren’t monks at all but King Richard and two of his knights in disguise! Richard had been trying to find Robin Hood for quite some time, but when he noticed that the outlaws tended to show up for rich abbots/monks, he decided to go in disguise to grab his attention. Robin (and all the outlaws) are naturally overjoyed that King Richard has returned, but there isn’t a lot of time to waste: John is going to be crowned the very next day and he’s got to be stopped! Of course, Robin has a plan on how to do that…

As majestic as the coronation scene looks, there are a host of errors that make it completely implausible as well. First of all, a mere bishop cannot possibly crown Prince John, it has to be the Archbishop of Canterbury. Second, coronations are always held in Westminster Abbey; Prince John may be a prince of England, but even he can’t order a coronation where and how he pleases, the other nobles wouldn’t have accepted it! Errors aside, it is a grand sight to see, with the bishop marching in followed by altar boys and hundreds of fellow monks (you’d think they’d have gotten suspicious with so many monks tagging along).

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At the last moment, King Richard reveals himself when John tries to proclaim himself king, answering “Aren’t you a little premature brother?” Bedlam ensues in the form of a gigantic sword fight while Sir Guy and Robin separate to have their long awaited reckoning with one another.

Adventures of Robin Hood- Climactic sword duel

Happily, the good guys come out victorious, Prince John is banished from England for the rest of King Richard’s lifetime (which would be less than ten years) and Robin is “ordered” to marry the Lady Marian, to which Robin can only say “May I obey all your commands with equal pleasure sire!”

While coming up a little short in the historical accuracy department, The Adventures of Robin Hood still gives a great look at two of England’s most well known royals: the noble King Richard and the ever-despised Prince John.

Enjoy the rest of the Royalty on Film Blogathon! And please check out The Flapper Dame’s great blog if you haven’t already 🙂

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A Random Thought on Ocean’s 13 (2007)

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(yes I skipped over Ocean’s 12, I’m weird like that)

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When I watch a movie, there are few things quite as satisfying as watching the bad guy get what he/she has coming to them; the more drawn out the comeuppance is, the better. So it should be no surprise that after discovering the glory that was Ocean’s 11 (2001), I absolutely fell head-over-heels for Ocean’s 13 (2007), because this story is all about sweet, sweet revenge!

The story finds Danny Ocean and his crew out for vengeance after Willy Bank (Al Pacino) screws Reuben (Elliot Gould) out of his share of a new casino, causing Reuben to have a near-fatal heart attack. Because Bank “shook hands with Sinatra”, Ocean gives Bank one chance to make things right, but when Bank refuses…excuse the pun, but all bets are off!

Fast forward several months and Bank’s new casino is ready to open, but Danny and co. are ready with a genius plan to ruin the new casino and put Bank out of business for good. This plan has so many layers it’s a little dizzying at times, but in brief the plan involves:

Convincing a large number of high-rollers to withdraw from the casino
Sabotaging the experience for the reviewer responsible for determining if the hotel-casino will win a big award
Rigging the slot machines to pay-out on command
Rigging the card shuffling machines, using gimmicked dice, loaded roulette balls, etc. to ensure huge payouts
Slipping Bank a phone with a hidden magnetron that will short out the A.I. monitoring activity on the casino floor
Using a giant boring machine to simulate an earthquake, forcing everyone to leave with their winnings and not come back.
And last, but certainly not least, after reluctantly crawling to Terry Benedict for additional financing, they have to steal a set of valuable diamonds from the top of the casino as well.

George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and everyone else knock it out of the park yet again with this one. There is a hilarious scene where Rusty (Brad Pitt) comes in with new intel and discovers that Danny has been watching Oprah…while drinking wine. I could seriously watch a movie with just those two characters talking about stuff, and I would love it.

The revelation of what Linus’ dad does for a cover is genius! (Linus is right when he says his dad has “the greatest cover of all time”) The whole phone conversation that he has with his dad regarding the nose is just hysterical (“No I’m not giving the phone to Danny” *Rusty holds out his hand* “Not giving it to Rusty either.”)

But Al Pacino is just brilliant as the too-greedy-for-his-own-good casino owner Willy Bank. He’s so engrossed in the grand opening that by the time he figures out he’s been screwed…there’s absolutely nothing he can do to stop it. And it’s just beautiful to watch.

I do have one small gripe however: the reveal of Toulour (the thief from Ocean’s 12) being hired by Benedict to steal the diamonds; it’s not bad per se, I just wish that they’d kept the deleted scene in that included the pair meeting so that we had some idea that they were working together.

Ocean’s Thirteen is highly entertaining, and I recommend it to everyone! Have a great rest of the day!

Beauty and the Beast “Battle on the Tower” (1991)

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From the moment Gaston saw the Beast in the magic mirror, it became clear that a conflict between the two was inevitable. And Gaston couldn’t ask for a more complacent target: ever since he let Belle go rescue her father, the Beast has been sunk in a deep depression, he doesn’t think Belle is ever coming back and so he doesn’t care if he lives or dies. Thus, when Gaston appears in the West Wing with an arrow cocked at him, the Beast doesn’t even twitch (that alone should’ve told Gaston that this was no ordinary “Beast” but we already know that he’s not one to think anything through), that is until he gets an arrow in the back.

Beauty and the Beast “Battle on the Tower” (1991)

Gaston is being deliberately cruel: clearly an an expert hunter, he’s deliberately taunting the Beast (as opposed to a swift kill) because (in his mind) “how dare this ugly thing claim Belle as his own in any way?” He’s so blinded by hate that he can’t see that the Beast is clearly heartbroken. But Gaston’s taken way too long; Belle comes riding up and when Beast sees that Belle has come back, the entire game changes (and not in Gaston’s favor).

While Belle races to the West Wing, Gaston and Beast play cat and mouse on the roof tops of the castle. I mentioned in the post for “Tale as Old as Time” that this scene very nearly became the CGI scene (in which case the roof of the castle would’ve been computer generated), but the test images weren’t nearly realistic enough, so the idea was scrapped and animated traditionally.

Musically, this scene is a blending of several themes, most noticeably there are several lines from “Something there” but in an entirely different key (you can hear “for he’s no prince Charming” when Belle is seen running up the stairs, and “something there I didn’t see” when Gaston smashes the head of a statue by mistake).

Beauty and the Beast “Battle on the Tower” (Soundtrack version) (1991)

Gaston is delusional at this point, going so far as to say “Were you in love with her Beast? Did you honestly think she would want you? When she had someone like me??” It’s a total lie and the Beast knows it (if Belle had been attached to anyone in the village in that way, she would’ve surely said something to him), and he sneaks up for the attack. But Gaston believes he has him cornered until he goes one step to far and shouts “Belle is mine!!” This is too much for the Beast who, in two swift movements, knocks Gaston’s club away and leaves him dangling off the rooftop with one hand around his neck. What happens next is very, very important. Gaston (true to his character) is now a sniveling coward, pleading for his life. He’ll do anything, ANYTHING, just don’t kill/hurt him. I always knew that when the Beast did NOT kill Gaston, that he had learned mercy, embracing his inner humanity, but it only struck me last week that there was something more as well.

Remember in the prologue when, just before his initial transformation, the Beast tried to apologize to the Enchantress? It occurred to me, just then, that the Prince must have begged for mercy in the exact same way that Gaston begged for his life. And the Beast paused (with a magical theme echoing in his ears no less), not just because he was choosing mercy, but because he can see the person he was (a spoiled young man) in Gaston. And so, he’s granting Gaston the mercy that the Enchantress did not show him (the Prince) in the hopes that he will learn something from it, merely telling him to “Get out!”

Just at that moment, Belle appears on the balcony, and the Beast only has eyes for her. Gaston watched him climb towards Belle, but neither of them care; the Beast is awestruck that Belle really did come back and there’s a beautiful moment as the two grab hands, and you can tell they’re both happy to be together again. But just as the moment is building to a romantic climax…Gaston intrudes for the last time. Not content to run away with his life, Gaston has fully embraced the “if I can’t have her, no one can” mindset, snuck up from behind and STABBED the Beast in the back! Anyone who’s seen the movie knows what comes next, but would you believe me if I said the ending used to be a whole lot darker?

Don’t get me wrong, Gaston was always going to die, but it was the how of his death that was changed. In the original script, after stabbing the Beast, Gaston was going to shout something cruel to Belle and then throw himself laughing off the balcony down to his own death. And I can hear people saying Disney wanted to do this?? While it is incredibly shocking and dark, bear in mind that this is the same studio that originally planned for Bambi to come back and find his death mother in a pool of blood (Disney himself vetoed that idea once he got wind of it). Thankfully for all concerned, the animators and writers felt that this really was too dark and Gaston’s death was re-animated to the version we know today: the Beast thrusts Gaston aside and he falls screaming to his death. But you can actually see a few frames of the original ending (because the animators were running out of time and money): look at Gaston’s face and body posture just before he gets knocked off and begins to flail. See that insane grin? You can tell he’s positioned to jump, but in the very next shot, he’s in a slightly different spot.

No one dies like Gaston (I couldn’t resist)

And there we have the end of Gaston, and also the end of the Beast as Belle knows him. Next time, the final entry for Beauty and the Beast: “The Transformation”

Become a Patron of the blog at patreon.com/musicgamer460

Check out the YouTube channel (and consider hitting the subscribe button)

*all images are the property of Walt Disney Studios

For more Beauty and the Beast, see:

Beauty and the Beast “Human Again” (1991)

Beauty and the Beast “Beauty and the Beast/Tale as Old as Time” (1991)

Beauty and the Beast “The West Wing” (1991)

Beauty and the Beast “Transformation” (1991)

For more great Disney songs and films, check out the main page here: Disney Films & Soundtracks A-Z

Don’t forget to like Film Music Central on Facebook 🙂

The Great Mouse Detective “The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind” (1986)

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It pains me to see that The Great Mouse Detective (1986) often falls under the radar of Disney fans. The film is really quite important to the history of animated film: after the debacle of The Black Cauldron (1985), Disney’s animation department was at serious risk of being eliminated. But the great success of The Great Mouse Detective the next year proved to the powers-that-be that Disney could still find success in animation and because of this, a little film called The Little Mermaid was given the green light (paving the way for the Disney Renaissance).

Based on a series of children’s books entitled Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus, the film follows the adventures of the titular “great mouse detective” Basil, who lives in a tiny home at 221B Baker Street (sharing his residence with Sherlock Holmes and Watson). When Basil’s eccentric life is interrupted by Dr. Dawson and a little girl named Olivia whose father was kidnapped, Basil finds himself thrust into the greatest case of his career: stopping that master of crime, Professor Ratigan!!

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Ratigan might just be one of the greatest animated Disney villains, as he was brought to life by the master of horror himself, Vincent Price. Price had always wanted to be a Disney villain, and in an interview he gave, he called his performance as Rattigan as one of his favorites. In fact, Price’s acting influenced how the character was animated. Originally, Rattigan was going to be this rather weak-looking and snivelling character, but Price’s unforgettable voice changed all of that.

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Ratigan, as his name implies, is a very large rat; but in a world where mice make up the majority of the population, he has taken great pains to pass himself off as a mouse, and won’t stand to be referred to as a rat. “The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind” serves as Ratigan’s introduction to the audience, as well as highlighting how evil and devious he is.

The Great Mouse Detective “The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind” (1986)

The song begins with a spoken prologue, where Ratigan informs his gang that the time has come for his greatest plan to be put into motion, “the crime to top all crimes.” All we know for now is that it will take place on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and that it will be “a night she will never forget” and that he will be “the supreme ruler of all Mousedom!!” This declaration begins the song proper, as Ratigan brags about all the crimes he’s done before: robbing the Crown jewels, drowning widows and orphans and robbing many other places based on the amount of treasure laying around.

From the brain that brought you the Big Ben Caper
The head that made headlines in every newspaper
And wonderous things like the Tower Bridge Job
That cunning display that made London a sob

Now comes the real Tour de Force
Tricky and wicked of course
My earlier crimes were fine for their times
But now that I’m at it again
An even grimmer plot has been simmering
In my great criminal brain

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During this part of the song, one detail that sticks out right away is Bartholomew, the really, really drunk gang member who is more interested in lapping up the champagne instead of listening to Ratigan’s plan and song.

Even meaner? You mean it?
Worse than the widows and orphans you drowned?
You’re the best of the worst around
Oh, Ratigan
Oh, Ratigan
The rest fall behind
To Ratigan
To Ratigan
The world’s greatest criminal mind!

Oh, Ratigan
Oh, Ratigan
You’re tops and that’s that
To Ratigan
To Ratigan

In fact, he gets so drunk, that as the gang is preparing to toast Ratigan mid-song, Bartholomew pipes up “To Ratigan the world’s greatest rat!!”

Of course Ratigan is not amused. And as the rat in mouse’s clothing tells his drunken lackey “…I’m afraid you’ve gone and upset me. You know what happens when someone upsets me…” he pulls out a bell and gives it a ring, and as this very action causes the rest of the gang to squeak in terror, you know something bad is coming.

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As it turns out, Ratigan has a rather fat cat at his beck and call. As the overfed kitty stalks up for her next meal, the oblivious Bartholomew launches into a spine-chilling refrain of “Oh Ratigan, Oh Ratigan, you’re the tops and that’s that…” This use of the song is what we musicologists call “musical irony”, in that the lyrics praising Ratigan are contrasted with the increasingly sinister sounds that are building to the mouse’s death by cat. To further add to the suspense, you don’t actually see the moment happen: all the audience see’s is the shadowy profile of Bartholomew suspended above the cat’s mouth and then….*GULP* Now thoroughly cowed, the gang hysterically launches into the final verse (lest Rattigan summon the kitty again) and the status quo in Ratigan’s lair is re-established.

Even louder
We’ll shout it!
No one can doubt what we know you can do
You’re more evil that even you
Oh, Ratigan
Oh, Ratigan
You’re one of a kind
To Ratigan
To Ratigan
The world’s greates criminal mind!!!

Seeing how casually Rattigan can dispose of anyone who “upsets” him (though we don’t really get to see him upset until the climax), this one sequence has made it clear that Rattigan is very, very dangerous (a lot more dangerous than even Basil is aware of). And also because of this scene, Ratigan remains one of my favorite Disney villains.

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Check out the YouTube channel (and consider hitting the subscribe button)

*all images are the property of Walt Disney Studios

The Great Mouse Detective “Goodbye, So Soon” (1986)

For more great Disney songs check out the main page here: Disney A-Z

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Beauty and the Beast “The West Wing” (1991)

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From the moment Beast informed Belle that she could go anywhere in the castle except the West Wing (with no other explanation than “It’s forbidden!”), it was a foregone conclusion that Belle would go to the West Wing and that she would get caught. This is a long-standing trope in film that when something is explicitly forbidden, the character will go anyway and get caught by somebody at some point (case in point: Ariel was forbidden to have anything to do with humans, but she kept a grotto full of human things, and we all know how that turned out; Simba was forbidden to go to the elephant graveyard, Quasimodo couldn’t leave the bell tower, etc.)

I absolutely love the music for this scene. Purely orchestral, it highlights the danger of what Belle is doing (because we have no way of knowing where the Beast is right now), and also the growing curiosity to see what IS in the West Wing. As Belle walks down the hallway, she passes by a lot of broken statues that all resemble different beasts. Actually, that’s by design: practically every “beast” statue you see in the castle comes from a concept drawing when the animators were designing the look of the beast. My personal favorite is a statue of a giant snake (when Belle is looking in horror at all of the ugly statues in the hallway, just before she bursts into tears, look to the right and you’ll see it in an alcove).

Finally, Belle comes to a large door and for a moment there’s a breath of tension, as if the Beast might appear at any second, but Belle’s curiosity wins and she pulls the door open to reveal the forbidden West Wing. It’s in a shambles, but Belle presses forward anyway (as a child, my heart would always stop when she knocked the table over). And it’s here that she discovers two things: a heavily ripped portrait of a handsome man, with very familiar blue eyes (in reality a portrait of what the Beast really looks like), but just as Belle seems to make the connection, she notices something else, it’s the magic rose!!

The shot of Belle walking up to the bell jar is just beautiful, and for a moment, it almost looks like the rose is rotating to “look” at her (and maybe it is, it IS a magic rose after all). Of course, Belle then does the worst possible thing she could do, which is to remove the jar and try to touch the rose itself, and that’s when everything goes wrong in a hurry.

When I was young, I didn’t quite understand the magnitude of what Belle almost did. I knew that Beast was angry because she’s gone where she wasn’t supposed to, but something was going over my head. It was only when I was older that I realized that the reason Beast kept the rose in a jar was to protect it from any outside force inadvertently knocking off the petals more quickly and thus shorten the time he has left to break the spell. If Belle had touched the rose, she might have done just that, and that is what really infuriates Beast, who as expected, appears just as Belle is reaching out, and he is beyond angry!

Now, while Belle is in trouble and Beast does have a right to some anger (since she did disobey him), it’s also true that Beast never told Belle why she couldn’t go into the West Wing, so Beast’s roar of “Do you realize what you could have done??” can never be answered because no, Belle doesn’t realize what could have happened because Beast didn’t tell her! All of this is too much for Belle to take and she runs from the castle (literally), swearing “Promise or no promise, I can’t stay here another minute!”

I’m sure there will be a counterpart to this scene in the live-action version of the film (and I can’t wait to see how it plays out!)

Become a Patron of the blog at patreon.com/musicgamer460

Check out the YouTube channel (and consider hitting the subscribe button)

*all images are the property of Walt Disney Studios

For more Beauty and the Beast, see:

Beauty and the Beast “Human Again” (1991)

Beauty and the Beast “Beauty and the Beast/Tale as Old as Time” (1991)

Beauty and the Beast “Battle on the Tower” (1991)

Beauty and the Beast “Transformation” (1991)

For more great Disney songs and films, check out the main page here: Disney Films & Soundtracks A-Z

Don’t forget to like Film Music Central on Facebook 🙂

A Random Thought on Ocean’s 11 (2001)

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Where has this movie been all my life?? That was my first thought when I finished watching Ocean’s Eleven (2001), a heist film starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, amongst many others (I can’t believe this movie is fifteen years old already!)

Clooney stars as Danny Ocean, a thief and con-artist just released from jail with a plan already in mind: rob three Las Vegas casinos in one night. It just so happens that all three casinos are owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), who just happens to be dating Ocean’s ex-wife Tess (Julia Roberts). To pull this heist off, Ocean has to assemble a crew of the best in the business, eleven in total. At stake: $160,000,000 (divided 11 ways).

The crew consists of:

Danny Ocean (George Clooney)
Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt)
Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon)
Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle)
Frank Catton (Bernie Mac)
Turk Malloy (Scott Caan)
Virgil Malloy (Casey Affleck)
Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner)
Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould)
Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison)
“The Amazing” Yen (Shaobo Qin)

From the very beginning, you can tell that this story is going to be an insane ride. Clooney, as the suave Danny Ocean, and Brad Pitt, as the eternally-eating Rusty Ryan, are the perfect onscreen bromance and henceforth I will watch any movie if I know those two actors are in it. I especially love how these two are always completing each other’s sentences, it’s like they share a brain.

The plot is, admittedly, a little convoluted in some points, but the humor is undeniable. The smug/overconfident Terry Benedict doesn’t stand a chance against Ocean and his crew.

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I highly recommend the entire trilogy of Ocean’s films, they’re all extremely funny and well worth viewing more than once or twice.

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The Sword in the Stone “Mad, Madam Mim” (1963)

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You know how a lot of Disney movies have been adapted into Broadway plays? Like Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, etc. ? Well, one film that I wish would be turned into a Broadway show is The Sword in the Stone (1963), a Disney animated feature that was released after Disney’s Golden Age and long before the Disney Renaissance at the end of the 1980s. This film generally slips under the radar but it still contains some amusing and memorable moments.

Based on T.H. White’s book The Once and Future King (1958), The Sword in the Stone tells the story of a young page named Wart (real name Arthur, voiced by Rickie Sorensen, and Richard and Robert Reitherman) who meets a strange wizard named Merlin (Karl Swenson) and a talking owl named Archimedes (Junius Matthews). Merlin is convinced that Wart has a big future in front of him, but it won’t come to pass unless he gets a proper education (that Merlin will provide).

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The Sword in the Stone “Mad Madam Mim” (1963)

Wart’s “education” can be divided into several segments based on the animal he is turned into (and the appropriate lesson he learns): a fish (brains are better than brawn); a squirrel (Love is the greatest force on Earth); a bird (knowledge and wisdom are real power). It’s this last segment, where Wart become a bird that really wants me to see this story as a stage show because THIS is where we meet Madam Mim (Martha Wentworth), a slightly-deranged witch who is as evil as Merlin is good. Wart (still in bird form) ends up falling down her chimney by mistake while fleeing a hawk and quickly comes to the witch’s attention. Hearing that the Wart is acquainted with Merlin (“the world’s most powerful bungler” as she puts it), Mim decides to prove to Wart that SHE is the most powerful, and not Merlin, by performing a song that I would dearly love to see rendered on the stage.

Mim

With only a touch, I have the power
Zim zaba rim bim, To wither a flower
I find delight in the gruesome and grim
(Oh, that’s terrible.)
(Thank you, my boy. But that’s nothing, nothing for me!)
‘Cause I’m the magnificent, marvelous, mad Madam Mim

(You know what? I can even change size.)

I can be huge; Fill the whole house
I can be teeny, small as a mouse
Black sorcery is my dish of tea
It comes easy to me,
‘Cause I’m the magnificent, marvelous, mad Madam Mim!

Mim demonstrates various abilities: she can change size (from giant to very tiny), make herself even uglier than she already is (by her own admission) and also change herself into someone beautiful as well. I’m not sure how a live show would accommodate all of these changes exactly, but I’m sure it could be done somehow.

(Hahahaha! Marvelous, boy! Marvelous! Hahohoho! Hey, lad. Did you know I can make m’self uglier yet?)
(That would be some trick, er… I mean, uh…)
(Wanta’ bet? BOO! You see? I win, I win! Aren’t I hideous, boy? Perfectly revolting?)
(N- Yes, m’am.)
(But you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Watch this.)

I can be beautiful, lovely and fair
Silvery voice, long purple hair
La la la la, la la la la la
La la la la la, la la la la la la la
But it’s only skin deep, for Zim zaberim ZIM
I’m an ugly old creep; the magnificent, marvelous, mad, mad, mad, mad Madam Mim!

After her song, Mim demands to know which one is better, but Wart still believes that Merlin is the best because his magic is for good (Mim doesn’t like this at all). Recognizing that Merlin sees something “good” in the boy, Mim declares that for her that’s “bad” and therefore she’ll have to destroy him. Moving in for the kill, Mim demonstrates one more ability, she can change into animals just like Merlin can, and what animal do you use to catch a bird? A CAT!!!

swordinthestone01

Fortunately for Wart, Merlin steps in shortly afterward…

I absolutely love this song, it’s pure Disney madness from beginning to end. If “Mad Madam Mim” were performed on a Broadway stage today, who do you think could pull it off the best? I’m not sure myself, but I’d love to hear your thoughts about it 🙂

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The Sword in the Stone “That’s What Makes the World Go Round” (1963)

The Sword in the Stone “A Most Befuddling Thing” (1963)

For more great Disney songs and films, check out the main page here: Disney Films & Soundtracks A-Z

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Beauty and the Beast “Human Again” (1991)

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“Human Again” is a musical number created by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman that originally occupied the position that “Something There” now does. Written in the tempo of a fast waltz, the song features a number of enchanted objects (led by Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, and the Wardrobe with her own verse) singing about how they could be human again now that Belle and Beast are growing closer together.

This song was ultimately cut from the original version of the film because of pacing issues and length (the entire sequence was approximately 11 minutes long!!). It also presented an issue because the number implies that a very long passage of time is occurring, which doesn’t make sense since it’s already been established that Maurice is out in the woods looking for Belle (and it wouldn’t make sense for him to be out there alone for months). So the decision was made to cut “Human Again” and replace it with the shorter and to-the-point “Something There.”

The number was first restored for the Beauty and the Beast Broadway production in 1994 and ultimately was restored to the film for the 2002 Special Edition DVD release (it is placed between “Something There” and the ballroom scene).

For the restoration, all the original cast members from the film were reunited to record the song and careful work was done on the animation to ensure it merged in seamlessly with the rest of the film. I’m glad they did this when they did, as Jerry Orbach (the voice of Lumiere) sadly passed away two years later.

I like “Human Again,” it’s a fun musical number and features some great shots of different areas of the castle being cleaned up. In fact, re-inserting this sequence does help to explain why the West Wing is suddenly much tidier when Beast takes Belle to see the magic mirror after their dance (because various servants are shown cleaning the room up). There’s also a hysterical moment when the footstool-dog comes across a pillow-cat and gives chase, tracking dirt into the newly cleaned ballroom!

Run pillow-kitty, run!!!

Believe it or not, we’ve actually made our way through all the songs of Beauty and the Beast, but I’m not done with this film just yet. There’s a few musical moments that I still want to explore: “The West Wing”, “Battle on the Tower”, and especially “The Transformation.”

*all images are the property of Walt Disney Studios

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For more Beauty and the Beast, see:

Beauty and the Beast “Beauty and the Beast/Tale as Old as Time” (1991)