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San Jose State Univeristy
Music in Disney Films
Its Significance and Its Impact
Christina McKinley
TA 100W
Laura Long
April 27, 2015

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When one thinks of a famous Disney film, take The Little Mermaid, for example, one of
the first things that comes to mind is the music that accompanies the film. Part of Your World
has been sung by Disney obsessed children around the world since its release in 1989. Often,
Disney soundtracks have become more famous than the films themselves. Many songs from
Disney movies have spanned across generations to become universal anthems, holding very
special places in people’s hearts. Walt Disney has created a film industry that has captivated
people of all ages for almost a century, but its success in music is not to be overlooked. Music in
Disney films have not only broken many barriers, but it has also become iconic in our world
today.
Disney has broken many barriers in the world of music. Since the beginning of Walt’s
animation career, sound has always played a huge role. Steamboat Willie, which was released in
1928, was the first cartoon with successful synchronized sound at the time, meaning that it was
not a silent film and had sound to go along with the actions. (Nicole.2016) The success of this
short film led Walt and his team, starting in 1929, to create a whole slew of animated shorts
entirely based around music with its jolly main character, Mickey Mouse, called Silly
Symphonies. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in 1938, is famously known for being
the first full length animated movie, but it was also famous for breaking musical barriers. It was
the first film to release a soundtrack that was available to the general public, which was unheard
of at the time. A bit later in 1941, Disney won their first Academy Award for their music,
Pinocchio bringing home two awards for best original score and the song “When You Wish
Upon A Star” winning best original song.

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Disney’s innovation in music cannot be mentioned without discussing Fantasia. Inspired
by his Silly Symphony shorts, Walt wanted to take the idea of music and animation together to
the next level and make a feature length film set to music, or a “concert feature” as he called it.
(Thatch.2013) He asked conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski to help
with the music aspect of this project.
“It took seven weeks, thirty-three microphones, and over a hundred and ten musicians to
record the soundtrack of Fantasia, and it all took place at the Academy of Music, home
of Stokowski's Philadelphia Orchestra. The music was recorded onto eight optical sound
recording machines placed in the basement. Each machine represented an audio channel
that focused on a different section of instruments: cellos and basses, violins, brass, violas,
and woodwinds and tympani. The seventh channel was a combination of the first six
while the eighth provided an overall sound of the orchestra at a distance. A ninth was
later added to provide a click track function for the animators to time their drawings to
the music." (Nicole.2016)
The duo also wanted a whole new sound technique to add to the depth of the film and eventually
created, aptly named, Fantasound, which was the first stereophonic sound system, which is
basically just surround sound having multiple speakers positioned in different ways creating a
fuller sound. This surround sound is what is standard in all movie theatres now, but Disney and
Stokowski were the first to create it.
After Walt Disney’s death, Disney films and its music suffered slightly, losing its typical
“magic” magic that it once had. Composer and pianist, Alan Menken, was the man who changed

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all that. It is hard to find a 1990’s Disney film that Menken did not compose the music to, such
as Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and The Beast, Pocahontas, even up to more modern
films such as Enchanted and Tangled and oh so many more. Before Menken, a full-fledged
musical had not been touched in a while, so he was a huge part of Disney’s resurgence, later
called their renaissance. Every song needs lyrics, and the man to bring that to Menken’s
beautiful compositions was Howard Ashman. Ashman wrote the lyrics to all of the songs in the
90’s titles mentioned above. Together, the pair brought the Disney films to life giving each
character a voice, with themes of strength, hopefulness, and desire running through almost all of
their songs.
The Little Mermaid was the first film that Menken and Ashman worked on together and
is a great example of how songs can really further along plot. Even in the making of this film,
the composers and the animators worked simultaneously, each group feeding off of each other
for inspiration and this allowed the music and story to really mesh together as one. Beauty and
The Beast was another special film that the pair worked on. It was the first animated film that
was nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards in 1992, along with nominations for best
original score, best sound, and best original song. Although it did not win for best picture,
considering after the Academy Awards had been running 64 years and this was the first animated
nomination for that category, that is a pretty big milestone to break. (Brayson.2015)
The music in Disney animated films are there for a reason- it helps bring the animation to
life in a way. It is not always just singing songs as mentioned before, but it can also be more
ambient music to move the storyline along. For example, one of Walt’s earlier films, Bambi,

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there is a very obvious synchronization between action and music. There will be parts of the film
where raindrops are matched up with delicate violins or a full orchestra will demonstrate the
intensity of the mother’s death scene. Music helps add to a movie which otherwise would not be
as lively.
Skipping ahead to the present, one of Disney’s latest films, Frozen, has become iconic
for its soundtrack, loved by children and adults alike creating what is now referred to as “Frozen
fever.” Frozen quickly became the highest grossing animated movie of all time, but what made it
so popular? The music of course. Disney pulled in some pretty famous voices for the main
characters, Broadway star Idina Menzel as Elsa and Kristen Bell as Anna. The most popular
song of the album, “Let It Go” features Idina’s belting vocals singing strongly about overcoming
her inner demons. These lyrics appealed to such a broad audience with its message of liberation
and self-acceptance; anyone can interpret the song how they want to in their own personal way.
Not to mention it is just a really beautiful song to listen to. Interestingly enough though, Let It
Go is not your typical happy Disney song about love and happiness, it starts from quite a dark
place actually. Musicologist Anthony Sheppard analyzed the song’s negativity, finding that
“There are five ‘don’ts’, four ‘nevers’ and three ‘nos’ in the lyrics.” He also says “that Let It Go
starts from a pessimistic place and even when it makes its journey from a minor key to a major
one, it's optimistic in a closed, selfish way.” (Vincent.2014) The connection of animation and
music is very apparent in this song as well, her moves perfectly in sync with the tune making the
grandeur of building her ice castle even more grand. To push this song’s popularity even further,
Disney also released a version of the song sung by pop sensation Demi Lovato to gain even more
radio play.

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As I sit here writing this paper, I thought it only be appropriate to play some Disney
music, so I played the Disney station on Pandora. In my hours doing research and writing,
beautiful music filled the air that was really the soundtrack of my childhood as I am still able to
recall all of the lyrics of every single one of these tunes. Halfway through, I came to realize-
Disney really created their own genre of music. There is really nothing out in the realm of music
that is quite like music off of Disney film soundtracks. They have incorporated plenty of
different genres to create their own unique sound that someone could easily define as Disney if
they heard it. This quote from David Tietyen, author of “The Musical World of Walt Disney”
really encompasses Disney’s impact on music and society,
“Walt Disney was not a musician, he was a cartoonist. In fact, from all reports, he had no
formal music education. Yet, the music and songs that flowed from his studio have
become a part of our American heritage. These are songs that evoke fond childhood
memories—memories of being caught up in the magical fantasies created by Disney. His
music was cheerful, carrying a message of hope; appealing to all generations with a
universal theme that life has much to offer. Disney’s films were not children’s films but
they touched the child in all of us.” (Tietyen.1990)

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Bibliography
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Great for 'Inside Out'" Bustle. Bustle, 29 Dec. 2015. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.
Nicole, Jade. "The History of Disney Music (with Images) " Storify. 1 Apr. 2016. Web.
05 Apr. 2016.
Sara K. Chasse, "The Magic in the Music of Disney" (April 1, 2015). The Research and
Scholarship Symposium. Paper 3.
Thatch, Milo J. "The Genesis of Disney Music: 1920-1950." HubPages. HubPages, 6 Jan.
2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.
Tietyen, David. The Musical World of Walt Disney. Milwaukee, Wis.: H. Leonard Pub., 1990.
Vincent, Alice. "5 Reasons Why Frozen’s Let It Go Is so Addictive." The Telegraph.
Telegraph Media Group, 16 Dec. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.