New Illustrated Treasury of Disney Songs

New Illustrated Treasury of Disney Songs
This magnificent coffee table collection is a Disney lover's dream come true! It is a guided tour through the many legendary years of Disney music, from "Minnie's Yoo Hoo" in 1930 up through the latest songs from today's Disney blockbusters. The book begins with an extensive musical history of Disney, followed by beautiful piano/vocal arrangements of 68 Disney classics. The songs are divided into the following chapters: The Early Years, A Coming of Age, Expanding the Dream, Songs from Tin Pan Alley, The Sherman Brothers March Through Disney, A Musical Renaissance, Disney's Live Action Musical Legacy, TV Tunes, and A Song in the Parks. Printed on deluxe stock with more than 100 stunning full-color illustrations accompanying the text and music, The Illustrated Treasury of Disney Songs is a keepsake to treasure for years to come!
Customer Review: Put yourself in a good mood
These are accurate transcriptions of many Disney favorites. A child playing diligently for a few years could tackle some of these songs. But don't think you are getting the 1998 publication. This one takes out some like "I wanna be like you", "Higitus Figitus", in order to put in more current songs from Brother Bear, Atlantis, and Treasure Planet. At last notice this book was priced at $29.95 - pretty steep in my opinion, but the publisher has cause for this list price; it's well bound and the pages are glossy and of good quality. So far my favorites to play are "Where the dream takes you" from Atlantis, "Go the Distance" from Hercules, and "Colors of the Wind" Pocahontas. But you can't beat the old classics from Snow White, Pinocchio, and Cinderella.
Customer Review: Disney Songbook
Beautiful songbook. Great color photographs from the Disney movies. Large collection from old to recent movies. Excellent accompaniments with singable arrangements. I highly recommend. Several songs from this book are listed in the Federation Contest List for Musical Theater vocal solos.


Disney's Beauty and the Beast: The Broadway Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Way back in 1991, many of us saw the single-handed salvation and revival of the old-fashioned American-style Broadway musical comedy. True, it was in the form of a feature-length Disney cartoon, but Beauty and the Beast had it all: a wonderful, tuneful score (including a huge hit title-song), off-the-wall choreography, a great opposites-attract love story with an ultimately happy ending, comic subplots, colorful period costumes, a romantic location in small-town France, and an irresistible cast, including Angela Lansbury as the voice of a teapot. Alan Menken's songs, with lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, literally introduced the characters ("Belle" and "Gaston") and carried them gracefully through the old fairy tale with its new animated twists. Disney understandably decided to transpose this cinematic miracle to the Broadway stage in 1992. Beauty and the Beast at the fabled Palace Theatre has done as much as anything to revive New York's theatre district; it led to a similar animated film-to-stage transfer of The Lion King, which allowed for the magnificent restoration of the 1902 New Amsterdam Theatre, which was the cornerstone of the cleanup of 42nd Street, which in turn transformed Times Square and "Broadway" into the world's number-one tourist destination. And we're all terribly grateful. But, on stage, Beauty and the Beast was flat, and most of that lack of fizz is, alas, captured on compact disc. The good songs are all here, such as "Be Our Guest," but the performances of them are mostly perfunctory--the exception being the vocal renderings of Susan Egan as Belle, the Beauty. Further, the Disneyfication of the Broadway musical seems to extend to faceless and interchangeable (read: cheap to hire) players, a practice that extends to The Lion King. The only "names" in the original Beauty and the Beast cast were Beth Howland as the teapot and Tom Bosley, a mere shadow of his former Fiorello, as Belle's father. Even worse, unlike The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast was not reinvented for the stage. It's my theory that the kids who made up the live audience (and many of their parents) were filling in the blanks from repeated viewings of the cartoon on video. If you're willing to do the same when only listening, this CD might do. But why, when the movie soundtrack album is available? --Robert Windeler
Customer Review: Awsome, just like being there
Just like sitting at the show or being at Disney's Hollywood Studio watching the Beauty & The Beast live show.
Customer Review: Surprising!
I avoid Disney because they usually throw enough "sweetness" at a person to give them diabetes! Having heard two of the songs on AOL Radio, I was curious enough to order the CD. It was a TOTAL surprise! There is enough sugar in it, but there is FAR more passion than I would expect from Disney. It's a love story. (Aren't they ALL?) BUT there are enough other enjoyable moments in it to make it worthwhile. (Including what I perceive to be a suicide threat, "If I can't love her/Let the world be done with me."). Not what you'd expect!) While the whole musical can be summarized in three of the tracks, (Prologue, to tell the premise, Something There, to show development, and End Duet to resolve the situation) that doesn't say that the other tracks are fluff. They ALL contribute to the telling of the story. All in all, far better than I expected!


Disney Princess Tea Party: Nina (NEE-NUH)