I learned, during our silly antics, that she greatly enjoys various kinds of music! Being the fan of such varied music that I am, we discussed it; I showed her Will Smith's 'Gettin' Jiggy With It', and she showed me 'Sweet Home Alabama', which is one of her favourite songs, apparently. We actually have a lot of things in common; tv shows, movies, favourite pasttimes, etc etc. One such thing we share in common is Disney music! I'm actually surprised at myself for not having talked about Disney and its music here before; it's a HUGE part of my life, even now. I can cop out and say that because of my 12 year old bro and my 11 year old sis that I have the chance to watch Disney movies more now, but that would only half true...I love watching Disney movies by myself, and I would totally do it all the time if I HAD the time.
But, I digress. I love Disney and its movies, especially the more famous ones of my youth. I was fortunate to grow up in what I consider to be the golden age of Disney: Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, The Jungle Book, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, The Fox and the Hound, Aristocats, The Rescuers, etc etc etc....there are so many movies that came out right when I was the appropriate age to be amazed by the music and spectacle of the wide variety of characters, from villains like Scar, Hades, Gaston and more to heroes such as Simba, Ariel and Prince Eric, Aladdin himself....it's great.
The music, however, is basically what I loved the most about the movies. I know the words to a LOT of the more famous songs: 'A Friend Like Me', and 'Prince Ali' from Aladdin; 'Be Our Guest' and 'Gaston' from Beauty and the Beast; 'Under the Sea' from The Little Mermaid, 'Hakuna Matata', 'I Just Can't Wait To Be King', 'Be Prepared', 'Circle of Life' from the Lion King....so many of them. The music is quite timeless, as my brother and sister, born in 1998 and 2000 respectively, were not around when they were released, but my parents and I both showed them the movies, and they loved it. Even my cousins, who are now almost in their 40s, have kids who are between 3 and 5, and I've taken the time to show THEM the classic movies of my youth, and they adore them as well. They age fantastically well, and they really are meant to be enjoyed by pretty much anyone.
One point, though....my cousins' kids, the ones who are 3-5....they're kids of the new generation, meaning that they too have movies for themselves much like my friends and I did back in the early 90s. Disney, however, is not a company to rest on its laurels; I was lucky enough to see the first Disney/Pixar movie, a little movie you may have heard of...Toy Story! Woody, Buzz and co. were some of the most memorable characters you had ever seen, and if there was ever a movie I would use to show what friendship is to a little kid (heck, to pretty much anyone), it would be this one. Disney/Pixar went on to create Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Cars, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Up, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E...and of course, this past year's Oscar winner, Toy Story 3. TS1, A Bug's Life and TS2 actually all came out in the 90s (95, 98 and 99 respectively), so those were movies I grew up with as well.
Disney has been a huge part of my life, and I'm certain that pretty much everyone else in my age group would agree with me when I say that I'm sure it was a part of their lives as well. I literally don't know a single person who is aged 19-21 right now who did not grow up with Disney, and that's the gospel truth (lolololol Hercules reference). But seriously, it's great. I think one of my favourite Disney movies is one of the lesser known ones: The Great Mouse Detective. I have watched the crap out of that movie; I think after Aladdin/Lion King/Beauty and the Beast, it's my most watched Disney movie. Heck, it's probably up there with Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, the three aforementioned Disney movies, and Transformers: The Animated Movie as one of my top watched movies of all time, regardless of animation or not. It's basically Sherlock Holmes...but with mice. How awesome is that?
The answer is, as it would be for every Disney movie, pretty damn awesome.
I LOVE DISNEY! I'm pretty sure we've talked about this before, but oh man. The thing is though, I didn't really "grow up" with Disney... although I'm really not sure why. All of my friends had Disney collections, but I never did. Before these last few years, I had never seen Bambi, or Dumbo, and I could barely remember the Lion King or Pocahontas.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm going through secondhand stores picking up discarded VHS cassettes for like, $2 each! Building up my collection.
That being said though, I was really influenced by Mulan, Pocahontas, Toy Story, and the Fox and the Hound. So many good memories!
And to make this comment needlessly long, there's also this: my aunt and uncle have a three year old and a two year old, and these children are NOT allowed to watch Disney. From what I understand, Disney movies are too sad (with the parents dying, etc.), and there's probably some element of like, racism etc. that they don't want their kids seeing.
It's such a shame, right? My cousins are totally missing out. Instead they are learning sign language and only watching super educational movies. So... they're going to be really smart! That's good I guess.