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Tag Archives: song

By The Cover: Pinocchio

22 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by UpOnTheShelf in 1940's, Action-Adventure, By The Cover, Comedy, Disney, Fantasy, Horror, Movie Reviews, Musicals

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

80th anniversary, academy awards, anniversary, bibbidi bobbidi bach, bill frisell, billy joel, By The Cover, Christmas star, classic disney, close encounters of the third kind, desolation theme, Disney, disney animated, disney animated feature, disney animated movie, disney animation, disney golden age, disney muppets, disney song, foulfellow, gene simmons, Gepetto, gideon, gipsy kings, Give A Little Whistle, gypsy kings, herb alpert, hi diddle dee dee, honest john, i got no strings, I've Got No Strings, jazz cover, jazz loves disney, jiminy cricket, john williams, julietta novis, ken nordine, Little Wooden Head, mannheim steamroller, michael crawford, Muppets, music, Neverland Orchestra, oscars, Pinocchio, pleasure island, pokemon, ringo starr, sega genesis, Simply Mad About The Mouse, snes, song, song cover, song covers, songs of the stage and screen, Stay Awake, Stay Awake Various Interpretations of Music From Vintage Disney Films, stromboli, the king's men, the muppet show, Walt Disney, wayne horvitz, When You Wish Upon a Star

Yes folks, after a lengthy absence on this blog, we’re returning to the semi-popular recurring series By The Cover, wherein I discuss my favorite covers of songs entirely from movies. This is a particularly special entry as we’re marking the 80th anniversary of the timeless Disney animated feature, Pinocchio!

When people hear the words “animated musical”, movies like Beauty and the Beast or Snow White come to mind quicker than Pinocchio does. It’s a movie where the characters and story come first and the music comes a close second. That’s not a knock on the soundtrack, far from it. The music is the icing on what’s already a perfectly baked dark and delectable dessert. Leigh Harline and Ned Washington gave us some iconic songs ranging from the fun to the inspirational, and artists have stepped up to the overwhelming task of interpreting them time and again for the past fourscore. Let’s pay them some homage.

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Rankin-Bass Month: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Review)

01 Sunday Dec 2019

Posted by UpOnTheShelf in 1960's, Christmas, Fantasy, Musicals, Non-Disney, TV Reviews

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

1960's, abominable snowman, animagic, anti-bullying, Billie Mae Richards, bullying, bumble, burl ives, charlie in the box, Christmas, christmas elves, Christmas Eve, christmas special, christmas town, Clarice, coach, comet, dentist, dentistry, Donner, elf, elves, fame and fortune, flying lion, gay, groupthink, Hays Code, Hermey, hermey the misfit elf, holiday special, holly jolly christmas, island of misfit toys, isle of misfit toys, king moonracer, kris kringle, misfit, misfits, mrs. claus, music, musical, nightmare before christmas, north pole, nostalgia, outdated, racist, Rankin Bass, real time fandub, reindeer, reindeer games, Romeo Muller, rudolph, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, rudolph's dad, rudolph's dad is the worst, sam the snowman, santa claus, sexist, silver and gold, snowman, song, songs, spotted elephant, stop motion animation, stop-motion, talking snowman, the bumble, the worst, there's always tomorrow, toys, tv review, tv special, unpopular opinion, we are santa's elves, we're a couple of misfits, winged lion, Yukon Cornelius

rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer-poster.jpg

Hi! If this is your first time here, I highly recommend checking out my other movie/tv/holiday special reviews before this one, just to get a more positive idea of what to expect from my writing. Usually, I’m not this…well, you clicked on this review, didn’t you?

I suppose I should begin this month with a little bit of Rankin-Bass’ history. It was founded in 1960 by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass under the name Videocraft International. They began by producing animated television series for children, alternating between stop-motion and traditional cel animation before combining both with a process they called “Animagic” (which sounds more like a fireworks show at Disney World than an actual animation technique if you ask me). All the animation for these shows and the holiday specials and films that they would later branch out into were outsourced to Japan. Throughout the studio’s existence, work rotated between five different Japanese animation houses: MOM Production, Toei Animation, TCJ (Television Corporation of Japan), Mushi Production, and Topcraft. Chances are if you’re into anime, then these names ring a few bells. These studios have produced hit after hit on the big and small screen, with some of them continuing to do so today, and many of Topcraft’s animators went on to bigger and better things at Studio Ghibli.

Most of Rankin-Bass’ Christmas specials, particularly the ones I’ll be looking at, follow a simple formula – take a well-known holiday song and build a story around it. It’s not a bad concept if a bit overutilized. Their first outing, and most beloved in the eyes of many, is Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, based on the tune of the same name written by Johnny Marks (who would also write the other songs in the special) and popularized by Gene Autry in 1949. The song itself was taken from a children’s book created a decade prior to promote the Montgomery Ward department store, and the special was sponsored by General Electric, who, by a stunning coincidence, were selling Christmas lights that holiday season which happened to resemble Rudolph’s nose.

In short, this special originated as a commercial, and always was one through and through.

In spite of its original intent, Rudolph has become a holiday staple and icon as big as Santa Claus himself. And if you are one of the millions of people on this planet who loves this special, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing so, and you are not wrong for enjoying it. After all, this is just one person expressing their opinion. If this person’s opinion differs from yours, that doesn’t invalidate how you feel nor should you feel as if you absolutely must agree with them –

simpsons-mob

“Hey…you’re making it sound like you’re about to say something bad about Rudolph!”

caricature self

“Well, I-“

simpsons-mob

“Nobody dislikes Rudolph! Everyone in the entire world loves it! It’s a classic! The perfect Christmas special! You like Rudolph too, right? RIGHT?!”

caricature self

“Well…”

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By The Cover: The Wizard of Oz

23 Friday Aug 2019

Posted by UpOnTheShelf in 1930's, By The Cover, Comedy, Fantasy, Movie Reviews, Musicals

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Tags

80th anniversary, anniversary, Barbra Streisand, blogathon, boston pops orchestra, broadway, By The Cover, concert, cowardly lion, dainumo, ding dong the witch is dead, dorothy, E.Y. Harburg, eartha kitt, Ella Fitzgerald, eva cassidy, greta matassa, harold arlen, harry connick jr., harry nilsson, if i only had a brain, if i only had a heart, if i only had the nerve, if i were king of the forest, impelliterri, Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole, Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, Jackson Browne, jazz, jazz cover, jeff beck, john williams, joseph william morgan, josh groban, judy garland, kermit ruffins, king of the forest, madison square garden, mandy patinkin, merry old land of oz, michael crawford, music, musical, natalie cole, nathan lane, off to see the wizard, optimistic voices, over the rainbow, oz blogathon, pentatonix, peter macdonough, phil wilson, Pogo, rock, rock music, scarecrow, somewhere over the rainbow, song, song cover, song covers, straight outta oz, the fifth estate, the jitterbug, the wizard of ahhhs, the wizard of oz, tin man, todrick hall, tony bennett, Trio de Paz, what a wonderful world, wicked witch, wicked witch of the west, witch, witches, wizard of oz, wizard of oz blogathon

To read the first entry of the By The Cover series and see what this is all about, click HERE.

I’ve already discussed at length how much of an impact The Wizard of Oz has made upon the world. Well today I’m doing it again. This time I’m focusing on a big part of what made it such an iconic film – the music. Needless to say a movie that gave us such memorable tunes would ensure decades worth of covers by plenty of voices that are worth revisiting and rediscovering. So, for The Wizard of Oz’s 80th anniversary and as a part of Taking Up Room’s Wizard of Oz Blogathon, we’re taking an audio journey over the rainbow.

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By the Cover: Beauty and the Beast

06 Monday May 2019

Posted by UpOnTheShelf in 1990's, Action-Adventure, By The Cover, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Musicals, Romance

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

AHmusic, akioboy, alan menken, anthony evans, be our guest, beast, beauty and the beast, belle, broadway, brows held high, By The Cover, caleb hayes, chip, cogsworth, concert, cover, darren criss, descendants, Disney, disney fairy tale weddings, disney jazz, disney song, disney song cover, evermore, everybody wants to be a cat disney jazz, Fred Mollin, gaston, gilad hekselmen, heavy metal, heigh ho mozart, hollywood bowl, hollywood bowl concert, honorable mention, howard ashman, if i can't love her, jane krakowski, jazz, jazz cover, johnathan young, josh groban, kelsey grammer, kill the beast, kyle kallgren, live in concert, lullaby, lumiere, maurice, metal, metal cover, mrs. potts, music, parody, parody song, rock cover, rose, something there, song, song cover, tale as old as time, teacup, the mob song, tony goldmark

Ah, Beauty and the Beast, could I ever stop singing your praises? Of course not! It’s one of the greatest musicals of all time. Finding good covers of these songs was harder than it seemed, however. The original cast was so perfect to begin with that discovering reimaginings that measure up was a daunting cast. In fact, finding covers of certain songs at all was the real challenge. But since Beauty and the Beast is one of the most popular Disney movies ever created, there’s no shortage of fans who have made their love for it known, and we’re going to highlight some of them today.

And for the record, I’m not counting reprises, or the versions of the original’s songs from the Broadway musical or 2017 remake.

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