Top 10 Songs From Animated Movies
It is no surprise that the best way to teach children is through song. Animated movies are enhanced by music sing-a-longs; characters belting out tunes that brings children excitement which holds their attention. A select group of songs from animated movies leaves a more lasting impression and top the list of the best songs created for animated movies.
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, released in theaters on June 15, 1994 by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd film in the Disney animated feature canon. The film was the highest grossing animated film of all time until the release of Finding Nemo (a Disney/Pixar computer-animated film). The Lion King still holds the record as the highest grossing traditionally animated film in history.
Some say that Lion King contains the best songs that Disney ever produced. Elton John and Tim Rice wrote five original songs for this film, with Elton John performing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” during the end credits. The film’s score was composed by Hans Zimmer and supplemented with traditional African music and choir elements arranged by Lebo M. Some of the memorable songs are:
“Circle of Life” is sung by an off-screen character voiced by Carmen Twillie, with African vocals by Lebo M and his African choir. This song is played during the ceremony where the newborn Simba is presented to the animals of the Pride Lands. The song is reprised at the end of the film, during the presentation of Simba and Nala’s newborn cub.
“Can You Feel the Love Tonight” is a love song sung mainly by an off-screen character voiced by Kristle Edwards, along with Timon (Nathan Lane), Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella), adult Simba (Joseph Williams) and adult Nala (Sally Dworsky). This musical sequence shows Timon and Pumbaa’s frustration at seeing Simba fall in love, and the development of Simba and Nala’s romantic relationship. The song won the Oscar for Best Original Song during the 67th Academy Awards.
Beauty and The Beast
“Beauty and the Beast” is the leading single from the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack. It was written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman. During the film, “Beauty and the Beast” is performed by Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts, and is heard while Belle and the Beast dance in the castle ballroom. Another version is performed by Céline Dion and Peabo Bryson at the end of the film. This was also the version released on a CD single and is also included on Dion’s self-titled album (1992).
In 1991, Walt Disney Feature Animation produced a musical animated film adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, directed by Kirk Wise & Gary Trousdale, with a screenplay by Linda Woolverton, and songs by Alan Menken & Howard Ashman. It won Academy Awards for Best Song and Best Original Score, and is the only animated film ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was also one of only two animated films included in AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Passions list, which announced the 100 greatest love stories of all time.
“Beauty and the Beast” was very successful on the charts around the world. It was Dion’s first international hit. The single reached number 9 in the U.S. (number 8 on the Hot 100 Singles Sales and number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay) and hit top 10 in Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. It was certified gold in the U.S. for selling over 500,000 copies, and platinum in Japan (100,000 copies sold). Thanks to its success, the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack was certified 3x platinum in the U.S., for selling over 3,000,000 copies.
Aladdin
Aladdin was released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 25, 1992. The thirty-first animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is based on the Arab folktale of Aladdin and the magic lamp from One Thousand and One Nights. Several characters and plot elements are also based on the 1940 version of The Thief of Bagdad. Many aspects of the traditional story were changed for the film—for instance, the setting is changed from “China” to a fictional Arabian city, Agrabah.
The musical score was written by Alan Menken, with lyrics written by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. Aladdin features the voices of Scott Weinger, Jonathan Freeman, Linda Larkin, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, Douglas Seale, and, as the Genie of the lamp, Robin Williams. It was the first major American animated feature film in which particular attention was paid to a celebrity voice cast member, such as a major movie star, in the film as part of its promotion. This has led to a subsequent increased attention to the casts of later productions, as a major element of animated film marketing. Williams also provided the voice of a merchant in the opening scene, which was completely unscripted (the production left Williams a table with props and asked him to describe the object in character).
“A Whole New World” is a love theme sung by Aladdin and Jasmine while they travel the world on the magic carpet. The song won the Academy Award, Grammy Award, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. It was composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Tim Rice. The single version was performed by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle and is heard over the end credits. The version heard during the narrative of the film was performed by Brad Kane and Lea Salonga, the singing voices for Aladdin and Princess Jasmine, respectively. Aladdin was the most successful film of 1992, earning over $217 million in revenue in the United States, and over $504 million worldwide.
The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid (Danish: Den lille havfrue) is a fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a merperson to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince. In 1989, the fairy tale was adapted into an animated film by the Walt Disney Company called The Little Mermaid.
“Under the Sea” is an Academy Award-winning song from Disney’s 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid, composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Howard Ashman and is heavily influenced by the Calypso style of the Caribbean. The song was performed in the film by Samuel E. Wright. The song is a plea by the crab Sebastian imploring Ariel to remain sea-bound, and resist her desire to become a human in order to spend her life with the prince with whom she has fallen in love. Sebastian warns of the struggles of human life while at the same time expounding the benefits of a care-free life underwater.
“Part of That World” is a song written and composed by the songwriting duo of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. It was originally featured in the 1989 Disney film The Little Mermaid, and is also featured in the Broadway musical adaptation of the film. This song is sung by the mermaid Ariel, while in a cavern which holds most of her treasures, most of which are human things. It reveals how Ariel longs for being part of the human’s world, and how she is fed up with being a mermaid and living under the sea. During its initial release, it grossed over $84 million in the United States and an additional $99 million internationally. The Little Mermaid was a box office success and grossed over $200,000,000 worldwide.
Prince of Egypt
The Prince of Egypt is a 1998 American animated film, the first traditionally animated film produced and released by DreamWorks. The story follows the life of Moses from his birth, through his childhood as a prince of Egypt, and finally to his assignment to lead the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, which is based on the Biblical story of Exodus.
The film featured songs written by Stephen Schwartz and a score composed by Hans Zimmer with additional production by Babyface. The voice cast featured a number of major Hollywood actors in the speaking roles, while professional singers replaced them for the songs. The exceptions were Michelle Pfeiffer, Ralph Fiennes, Steve Martin, and Martin Short.
The Prince of Egypt was nominated for best score and won for Best Original Song at the 1999 Academy Awards for “When You Believe”. The pop version of the song was performed at the ceremonies by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. The song was nominated for the Best Original Song (Motion Picture) at the 1999 Golden Globes, and was also nominated for Outstanding Performance of a Song for a Feature Film at the ALMA Awards. The film went on to gross $218,613,188 worldwide, making it the second traditionally animated feature not released by Disney to gross over $100 million in the U.S.
Mulan
Mulan is a 1998 animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on June 19, 1998. Mulan originally began as a short, straight-to-video film titled “China Doll” about an oppressed and miserable Chinese girl who is whisked away by a British Prince Charming to happiness in the West. Then Disney consultant and children’s book writer Robert San Souci suggested making a movie of the Chinese poem, “The Song of Fa Mu Lan” and Disney combined the two separate projects.
Mulan’s opening weekend box office figures were $22.8 million, placing it as the second highest grossing movie that week to The X-Files. It went on to make $120 million domestically and $304 million worldwide, placing it the second highest family film of the year, behind A Bug’s Life, and the 7th highest of the year overall. Mulan won many Annie Awards. The film itself won the award for Best Animated Theatrical theatres. It was also nominated for an Academy Award for Original Music Score in 1998.
The movie’s soundtrack is credited for starting the career of pop singer Christina Aguilera, whose first song to be released in the U.S. was her rendition of “Reflection”, the first single from the Mulan soundtrack. The song, and Aguilera’s vocals, were so well received that it landed her a recording contract with RCA records. In 1999, she would go on to release her self-titled debut album, on which Reflection was also included. As well as her own, the pop version of Reflection has 2 Spanish translations, because the movie has separate Spanish translations for Spain (performed by Malú) and Latin America (performed by Lucero). “Reflection” was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.
Pocahontas
Pocahontas is an animated film based on the known historical story of Pocahontas but also on the folklore and legend that surround it. In particular, it presents an emotionally charged and highly dramatic account of the meeting between Pocahontas and John Smith.
“Colors of the Wind” by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz was the 1995 Oscar-winner for Best Original Song from the Disney animated feature film Pocahontas. It also won the Golden Globe in the same category as well as the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Movie. The song poetically presents the Native American viewpoint that the earth is a living entity where mankind is connected to everything in nature.
The song was performed within the movie’s narrative by Judy Kuhn as the singing voice of Pocahontas. Singer/actress Vanessa Williams recorded a version for the end credits which was successfully released as a single and became one of Williams’ biggest hits in 1995, earning a gold single for sales of 500,000 copies, and reaching #4 in the U.S. charts. The film was a box-office success, earning $141,579,773 in the United States and $347,179,773 worldwide.
An American Tail
An American Tail is a 1986 animated film produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, and directed by Don Bluth, originally released in movie theaters on November 21, 1986. It was the first animated film produced by Universal Pictures. The film starts off on Hanukkah in 1885, opening in the village of Shostka, Russia, and it shows the story of the life of a family of Jewish-Russian mice who emigrate after their village is destroyed by Cossack raiders and they are attacked by cats. Believing in the American dream they head to New York City because (as a song repeated early in the picture goes) “there are no cats in America, and the streets are paved with cheese.”
The mice of New York decide that they are fed up with the continuous attacks by cats (and paying Warren for protection), and must find a way to defeat them. It is Fievel who suggests a plan to build a giant “Mouse of Minsk” (based on folklore) to chase the cats into the harbor where they will end up on a ship going to Hong Kong. An American Tail reflects the terrible conditions immigrants to the United States faced at the turn of the century (the mice represent the various oppressed minority/immigrant populations of the period, and the cats their various tormentors) and the film is similar in this respect to Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus. It also illustrates the hope (of a new, better life) that America represented to these immigrants at that time.
The film was a box office success, making the first Universal animation movies success in theaters. The film has grossed up to $47 million in the United States and $84 million worldwide. At the time of its release, An American Tail became the highest grossing non-Disney produced animated feature, drawing over $47 million USD. It was also one of the first animated films to outdraw a Disney film, beating out The Great Mouse Detective (also released in 1986) by over $22 million USD.
“Somewhere Out There” is a song written by James Horner, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. It appears in the 1986 animated film An American Tail. The lyrics describe, as in the film’s story, the bond between two siblings and their optimistic hope in being able to see one another again after being separated. The song was sung by Phillip Glasser (for the character of the brother in the film) and Betsy Cathcart (for the character of the sister). A professionally sung version performed by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram was also recorded for the closing credits. The Ronstadt–Ingram single went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in March 1987. At the Grammy Awards of 1988, the song won two awards, one for Song of the Year and the other for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television. It also earned an Academy Award nomination in 1987 for Best Original Song