It’s Episode 30, and we at Art of the Score are finally tackling two genres we’ve so far overlooked – animation and the musical, combined in the form of the great Disney revival musical, The Little Mermaid. Join us as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of this wonderful film and explore the cabaret roots of Ursula, the perfect pop song for Ariel, and the debatable reggae of Under The Sea in Alan Menken’s joyous and groundbreaking score.

Episode notes:

4:10 – The Art of the Mailbag?
5:12 – The Disney Dark Ages
8:15 – Alan Menken: the secret to Disney’s revival
12:52 – Ariel’s theme: Part of Your World
15:33 – “I want”
19:26 – Ariel’s verse
25:01 – Ariel’s verse (Hoarders edition)
28:41 – Creative voicing
32:47 – A pre-chorus?
35:33 – Recorders on the beach
38:44 – Ariel’s musical maturity
42:17 – Ursula’s theme: Poor Unfortunate Souls
45:03 – Craberet
50:40 – Fortunate Souls
54:35 – Poggo’s Unfortunate Lyrics
56:44 – Scheming eels
1:00:49 – Prince Eric’s Roadshow
1:06:02 – Eric’s Organ Announcement
1:09:48 – Triton’s Fanfare
1:13:04 – Triton’s Minor Fanfare
1:15:53 – Scuttle’s scuttlebutt
1:24:11 – Mickey Mouse-ing
1:34:26 – Le Chef, and Nick’s waltzing tangent
1:42:04 – Andrew’s Chef genocide tangent
1:44:51 – Under the C
1:49:45 – Dan’s reggae tangent
1:59:37 – Fathoms Below and the opening song

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