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Synopsis
Amazon.com essential recordingBefore Broadway was Disneyfied and Times Square became a mall, the best Broadway musicals were being written for Disney animated features by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman. Their songs for The Little Mermaid created the mold from which their even more popular work (Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin) would be cast. Almost every tune in Mermaid has its (slightly inferior) counterpart in Beauty, for example. But there's no topping the Oscar-winning calypso show-stopper, "Under the Sea"--in which a Caribbean crab convinces you that "Darlin' it's better/Down where it's wetter." Other songs, just as delightful, are even more impressive in the context of the movie. The rapturous "Kiss the Girl" accompanies a scene in which, despite the whispered urgings of creatures all around, the romantic hero does not act on the title's advice! That's the kind of abstract dramatic (OK, comedic) conceit you'd expect from Harold Pinter rather than Disney. And the gruesomely hilarious "Les Poissons" gives us a fisheye view of a kitchen where the seafood chef is a sort of French Ed Gein--a sadistic murderer who brutally tortures and chops up his victims, then eats them! Who says Disney never did black comedy? "...I stuff you with bread/It won't hurt, 'cause you're dead/And you're certainly lucky you are...." Lyricist Ashman may not have been Cole Porter, but he was the next best thing. --Jim Emerson
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Member CD Reviews
Catherine B. from CANTON, GA Reviewed on 5/20/2013... Loved the movie and love the songs! Renae D. from LAND O LAKES, FL Reviewed on 3/28/2007... All instrumental. 0 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.
CD Reviews
~Enhanced VS Original~ W. Malecha | 08/23/2008 (5 out of 5 stars) "As of The Little Mermaid's rerelease an 'Enhanced' version of the music was also released.
And after reading the reviews on the 'Enhanced' version I was inclined to spend my money on the 'Original' for these reasons.
1.) The 'Enhanced' version has been recorded (I personally favor originals)
2.) The 'Enhanced' versions re-recording has been redone with a whole new cast (Not a very good situation for anyone including myself who likes the original)
To be fair I have not listened to the 'Enhanced' version because I didn't want to spend $15.00 for something that would end up collecting dust. So I can't say on how 'good' or 'bad' it is.
I purchased and just finished listening to the original and I found it to be superb recording identical to the movie and I highly recommend it for anyone (like me) who is an original kind of person.
Thank you" The Little Mermaid - the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Auburn Niewiadomski | Anacortes, Washington | 07/25/2010 (5 out of 5 stars) "Music lovers would probably ignore this soundtrack since it's for a Disney princess movie. But this one is special. Alan Menken (the composer and writer of the Little Mermaid songs) and Howard Ashman (writer) were very talented and have composed many classic Disney movies from the renaissance period. The Little Mermaid's score could easily have been from another movie, it's that good, the only way you can tell this orchestrated score apart from any other orchestra, are the songs. The soundtracks arrangement is great, instead of putting all of the songs on the beginning tracks, they're spread out. But the soundtrack does not include each track in order of how they appeared in the movie. Like everyone else, I enjoyed the songs "Under the Sea" and "Part of Your World" but some of my favorite tracks aren't songs but the score. I love the opening score while viewing a montage of the underwater animals and plants right before we meet the main characters. I also love the score while Ariel is touring the kingdom with Prince Eric. But there are many tracks on this CD, they are;
Fathoms Below (1:41)
Main Titles (1:26)
Fanfare (0:27)
Daughters of Triton (0:38)
Part of Your World (3:13)
Under the Sea (3:12)
Part of Your World (Reprise) (2:15)
Poor Unfortunate Souls (4:49)
Les Poissons (1:33)
Kiss the Girl (2:41)
Fireworks (0:38)
Jig (1:32)
The Storm (3:18)
Destruction of the Grotto (1:52)
Flotsam and Jetsam (1:22)
Tour of the Kingdom (1:24)
Bedtime (1:20)
Wedding Announcement (2:16)
Eric to the Rescue (3:40)
Happy Ending (3:11)
While the arrangement could have been better, it's still better than many soundtracks. Now I've been discussing the originally released soundtrack, but what about the two disc special edition? It really isn't much better. The "special edition" really is just the soundtrack but with an additional disc of four of the songs sung by Ashley Tisdale, the Jonas Brothers, Jessica Simpson, Raven-Symore and two music videos with Ashley Tisdale and the Jonas Brothers. So there's nothing special about the "special edition" CD.
The Little Mermaid is a special movie, and so is the score and this soundtrack delivers all of the memorable scores and songs so I can easily recommend this as a great buy.
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