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Robert Komaniecki

@Komaniecki_R

Jul 7

#DisneySongsRanked 14-10: Top tier

14. We Don't Talk About Bruno (Encanto)
Score: 484/500

Note: You can get a sense of how tight the point spread is going to be going into the top 10: this song is only 16 points away from a perfect score, and there are 14 songs left!

Weirdly, I was one of the folks that wasn't on the "We Don't Talk About Bruno" train at first--I thought the showstopping hit from Encanto was going to be "Surface Pressure." Now, the more I listen to it, the more I do think that the seemingly general consensus that it's the best song in Encanto is merited.

Writing a musical number that either advances the plot or explains crucial character information is difficult. I can only imagine the challenge of tackling a song that does those things, but also incorporates a whole gaggle of characters, each with their own idiosyncratic super powers. But that's exactly what Miranda gives us, and the number is a massively successful plot moment that not only crystalizes the family's opinion of Bruno, but gives us more information about the personalities of each featured soloist.

Lyrically, this number is really nothing short of brilliant. From the opening banter between the married couple Pepa and Félix, to the contributions from the cousins/siblings, to the townsfolk getting in on the fun, every line is expertly crafted. I could spend all day going over Miranda's prowess with rhyme, but you know his rep at this point--he's got it. What I really like about this number, lyrically, are the moments where people complain about Bruno's prophecies as if they're malicious, but when you actually listen to what he predicted, it's all super benign: goldfish are known to die, people get fat, folks go bald, and your sister whose mood effects the weather is liable to cause some rain during her stressful wedding day.

Vocally, every featured singer shines, and I wish they could all have their own solo songs. A real highlight for me is when Dolores, the cousin with supernaturally acute hearing, delivers her verse in a whispered rap: It's such a novel effect, close-mic'd so it sounds like she's whispering in our ears, and perfectly on brand for a character that doesn't need to strain to hear anything.

There are only a few things that don't work for me in this one: The ending, where everybody is singing their verses together, is really ambitious, but I've **personally** never been a big fan of those moments in musical theater where 3+ performers sing something different and overlapping. Just not my thing.

There's also a brief moment in Isabela's (the perfect, flower-growing sister) solo that threw me off: A weird pause, after she says "Hey sis." It has always sounded strange and inorganic to me, and I wonder if I'm missing something, if people like that moment, or if maybe it's a result of something being changed later in the process. If anybody has insight, let me know.

#DisneySongsRanked
13. Part of Your World (The Little Mermaid)
Score: 485/500

Ashman and Menken at their apex: An astonishing, empowering, goosebump-inducing moment as Ariel yearns for something more from life. Arguably the greatest "I Want" song in the animated musical canon, and certainly one that launched a new era.

It's wild to think that originally, Ariel's "I Want" song was going to be focused on Prince Eric. It's so, so much better as a song about her fascination with the human world: The number becomes a vehicle for all kinds of charming idiosyncrasies of her (mis)understanding of humans, and endears her powerfully to the audience as a risk-taking dreamer who can't be held back by her overprotective father. That, not her affection for Eric, is the essence of Ariel as a character.

Jodi Benson as Ariel is astonishing. She performs the number with such grace and charm, delivering the song as if she's a soloist in front of a live audience, feeding off the energy of the crowd. Her phrasing, vibrato, pitch, and tiny artistic choices regarding speech/song balance are all totally perfect for the role. I know that Benson was coached to sing in a "younger" tone of voice to sound more adolescent, and to my ear there's something just the tiniest bit off about that: I would like to have heard this number sung using her completely authentic voice, rather than having potential hinderances from that characterization.

Musically, "Part of Your World" is unimpeachable. The gorgeous use of countermelodies, and the very touching reprise sung to an unconscious Eric are all to die for. We even have a really nice, thoughtful application of reverb on the vocals that is not just obligatory, but well-suited for the larger, underground cavern she's seen to be singing in.

Lyrically, I think this one is just about as good as Ashman's ever done, so basically perfect. I love the use of interior rhymes in the bridge:

"What would I give
if I could live
out of these waters?
What would I pay
to spend a day
warm on the sand?

Betcha on land
they understand
Bet they don't reprimand their daughters
Bright young women,
sick of swimmin',
ready to stand"

My only other (tiny) complaint about this one is that the orchestration feels a little thin: There's a lot of reliance on middle voices being supplied chords voiced by the arpeggiated keyboard/synth thing, and I would've liked to have heard that divvied up among other instruments in a slightly larger ensemble. We get exactly this during the reprise--that role is filled by harp and arpeggiated, bowed strings, and it's fantastic.

#DisneySongsRanked
12. I'll Make a Man Out of You (Mulan)
Score: 485/500

"Tranquil as a forest, but on fire within
Once you find your center, you are sure to win"

Donny Osmond as commander Li Shang throws the entire movie on his back. With music composed by Matthew Wilder and lyrics from David Zippel, the big takeaway from this number is that the music in Mulan was much, much more effective when it was not trying to clumsily integrate nods to traditional Chinese styles that were neither idiomatic to the medium or to the artists. The whole project of Mulan as a Western-produced movie was sort of a shaky premise to begin with, and it's not surprising that this movie didn't make the splash the filmmakers were hoping for among Chinese audiences.

Sylistically, "I'll Make a Man Out of You" is almost like a song lifted from a different musical: with the exception of some very faint gong hits at the beginning, it bears little resemblance to the rest of the soundtrack, moving from a military march into a flat-out rock musical tune complete with drumset and electric guitar. I might have liked a bit more traditional orchestral percussion in the mix later in the song, but the full rock-out moment is cool too, and there's a fair amount of busily arpeggiating violins to scratch that orchestral itch.

Donny Osmond is magnetic as he puffs his chest and delivers the iconic opening lines, oozing machismo and derision. He has an absolutely gorgeous voice, with fantastic control in his high range, never losing that bit of gruff edge even when pushing his limits up there.

The best moment in the song, for me, is when all instruments drop out and there's a brawny chorus singing a cappella, just in octaves. It's such a raw moment, and the deliveries from all the men singing in that ensemble are completely on point. It's a moment that I think benefits from leaning into sincerity, instead of trying to break up the moments with a joke (like the dorky line from earlier in the number about cutting gym).

For me, the thing I love most about "I'll Make a Man Out of You" is the role it plays in the dramatic arc of Mulan. We see her fail, repeatedly, and embarrassingly, as she tries to channel the physical strength of a warrior. Then, one morning, she looks at the huge wooden pillar that nobody's been able to summit, and instead of dragging the weights up there with her, uses them to her advantage. It's a huge payoff to see her accepted among the soldiers in this moment, and it's impossible to not feel triumph right along with them.

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Robert Komaniecki

@Komaniecki_R

Jul 6

#DisneySongsRanked 19-15: Top tier

19. You're Welcome (Moana)
Score: 479/500

Maui lists his heroic deeds and flexes his heroic pecs in a bid to distract Moana long enough to steal her boat.

There's so much to love here. We'll start with lyrics: Lin-Manuel Miranda is relatively restrained here compared to some of his other stuff on this list, but his scansion and rhymes are very good--plenty of cute, endearing moments, and even a few chuckles ("I'm just an ordinary demi-guy" or "Maui can do anything but float"). There's one, tiny moment that makes me scratch my head:

"Oh! .... also I lassoed the sun"

I think it might actually be the delivery that's a little off here, because if The Rock had played that more like he was remembering this deed as an afterthought, it would've landed better.

I'm a big fan of the ambitious triplet rap section. I didn't realize it at the time, but this is basically analogous to the really early Disney movies interpolating big band and jazz idioms. Rap is the most popular music today, makes sense to include some of it in a contemporary musical. Plenty of cool rhymes, of course, but I'm a big fan of:

"The tapestry here on my skin
Is a map of the vict'ries I win"

I am *not* a big fan of The Rock as an actor in most of the things he's done, so I was flabbergasted by his performance in Moana, which hit all the right notes for a character who's a brash, bragging rascal with a heart of gold. His vocals are crisp, clear, enthusiastic, and incredibly charming. You can tell that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote this song specifically to accommodate The Rock's vocal range. Musically, the song is a lot of fun, though I could've used a bit more fleshed out harmonies in the introductory section.

Listen, word on the street is that this song has Melodyne (a pitch correction software) all over it, but to my ear, The Rock's vocals sound really, really good. I made my assessment based on the singing I hear in the finished product, not the singing I think somebody may or may not be capable of live. With any modern movie musical, you should be assuming that the vocals you're hearing have been doctored in some way, it's just a matter of to what degree. If it sounds good to me, I don't spend a lot of time fretting about what's been done to it digitally.

Still, there are moments where there's no hiding The Rock's rough-around-the-edges singing technique: Specifically, when he releases on consonants, he tends to voice them. So, instead of singing "You're welcome!" he lets all of the remaining air in his lungs burst out at the end of the word, and says "You're welcomAH." Just a little thing, and you might like it, but I'm not crazy about it.

#DisneySongsRanked
18. For the First Time in Forever (Frozen)
Score: 480/500

A time skip and a huge lift after the tragic end of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?", this number starts with a brisk double tressillo rhythm as the wide-eyed Anna bursts out of bed, excited that she's finally going to get a chance to socialize, and maybe, if she's lucky, meet a nice guy.

As I've grown to expect when listening to music by the Lopez duo, the rhyming is down pat. A nice, classic AAB,CCB structure here in the first verse:

"The window is open, so's that door
I didn't know they did that anymore
Who knew we owned eight thousand salad plates?

For years I've roamed these empty halls
Why have a ballroom with no balls?
Finally, they're opening up the gates!"

Remarkably, the start of the *second* verse still has end rhymes that rhyme with verse 1. I love it when lyricists manage to do that, it just makes the whole song lock in so well.

Kristen Bell is fantastic--she's a great, captivating singer with the same control and precision that you'd expect from someone on Broadway, but she's also a wonderful actress that's been perfectly cast here, and she disappears into the role of a wide-eyed, clumsy optimist with a whole lot of love to give.

Idina Menzel's Elsa has a brief, worried moment in this number, singing in a different key, before she's musically steamrolled by Anna and relegated to the background. This changes, however, in the song's reprise, which is employed masterfully.

During the reprise, the title "For the First Time in Forever" takes on a new meaning, as Anna urges her older sister to return from her icy castle, and Elsa refuses. It's an intense scene, that ends with Elsa accidentally zapping Anna in the heart with her ice powers, effectively signing her death warrant if she can't experience an act of true love ASAP.

The lyrics are lovingly handled in the reprise as both women sing simultaneously: lyric parallelisms, homonyms, and interlocking vowels.

#DisneySongsRanked
17. Under the Sea (The Little Mermaid)
Score: 481/500

Howard Ashman is the GOAT. I can't count how many times I've heard this song, and I'm still completely blown away by what he's done with the lyrics here. It's impossible to pick a favorite, but here's a great passage:

"Down here, all the fish is happy,
As off through the waves they roll
The fish on the land ain't happy,
They sad 'cause they in their bowl

But fish in the bowl is lucky,
They in for a worser fate!
One day when the boss get hungry...
Guess who gon' be on the plate?"

Or, there's the fantastic ramp up to the end:

"Each little clam here know how to jam here,
Under the sea!
Each little slug here cutting a rug here,
Under the sea!
Each little snail here know how to wail here,
That's why it's hotter under the water!
Yeah, we in luck here down in the muck here
Under the sea!"

What a maniac, dude. Ashman rocked at writing lyrics.

Samuel E. Wright also does a phenomenal job here, with his deep, mirthful voice radiating off the screen. He exudes and creates joy.

My only complaint with this one is the mix: In the official recordings, I find the balance (and at time, the orchestration) to be inconsistent and a little bit swallowed. You definitely want the vocals to pop in musical theater, but there are times where I really wished I could've heard a bit *more* of what was going on in the ensemble, especially in the mid frequencies. It's not surprising that a listener in 2024 wouldn't be crazy about the mix in this number, as it was right at the start of the Disney Renaissance, and they came a long way very quickly. Listen to the stuff from The Lion King a few years later to hear what I mean.

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Robert Komaniecki

@Komaniecki_R

Jul 4

#DisneySongsRanked 24-20: Fantastic

24. I Wan'na Be Like You (The Jungle Book)
Score: 471/500

A musical number that advances the plot, but with the bones of a jazz standard.

Louis Prima plays King Louie, an ape with aspirations to learn the secret of man's fire. Turns out, his ability to improvise over ii-V-Is is already fire enough, am I right?

From what I understand, the powers that be originally had Louis Armstrong in mind for this role, but changed course when somebody pointed out that having a Black man playing a jazzy orangutan might not go over well. I'm shocked that they showed that sort of restraint--but the undertones of that dynamic are still there in the scene, and if you're somebody who's really tuned into that, I could see how it would tank your enjoyment immensely and sour this song for you.

This number is really a delight--I personally love the shift from C minor in the verses to E flat major in the chorus. There's a great use of applied chords in the chorus as well: E flat major > C major > F major > B flat dominant > E flat again--all chords with plenty of little additions, like ninths, sixths, etc. It's lovely, classic stuff.

Prima's voice is great as well, and the real brilliance in "I Wan'na Be Like You" comes from the usage of scat singing--one of Louie's lackeys attempts a solo, but is far too pedestrian with his choices, so he's dismissed. Louie takes a few solos, before Baloo, unable to resist the groove, enters wearing a monkey costume, and starts trading fours with the King himself. It's a scene that celebrates being a jazzy goofball, while also establishing King Louie as a sort of secondary villain to Shere Khan.

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23. I See the Light (Tangled)
Score: 472/500

This song is completely indebted to "A Whole New World" From Aladdin, and whether you think it's a knockoff or a tribute probably depends on your level of cynicism. A romantic, nighttime duet that modulates up a minor third--hell, there's even the lyric "it's crystal clear." This song wouldn't exist without its predecessor in 1992.

I think a lot of the reasons why I ranked this slightly higher than the very similar "A Whole New World" come down to personal taste. I mentioned previously that I didn't like the extent of piano used in the orchestration for AWNW, and in "I See the Light," there's a lot of acoustic guitar, an instrument I find much more tasteful for the intimate setting. The orchestration in general is much more lush and nuanced to my ear, ebbing and flowing with each phrase.

The lyrics are not as "rhymey" as a lot of my favorites, but they are sincere and artful.

"All those days chasing down a daydream
All those years living in a blur
All that time never truly seeing
Things the way they were

Now she's here shining in the starlight
Now she's here, suddenly I know
If she's here it's crystal clear
I'm where I'm meant to go"

Mandy Moore is a star as Rapunzel, breathless and sweet, brimming with sincerity. Zachary Levi is perfectly fine as Flynn Rider/Eugene--he imbues his previously smarmy voice with a lot of sensitivity as his character shifts his attention from material wealth to the girl right in front of him.

#DisneySongsRanked
22. Prince Ali (Aladdin)
Score: 475/500

The best song in Aladdin is helmed by lyricist Howard Ashman, with Menken writing the music and Robin Williams delivering a fantastic performance as Aladd-er, Prince Ali's hype man Genie as he enters the castle an eligible bachelor to meet Princess Jasmine.

When it comes to "Prince Ali," the first word I think of is "extravagance." Everything in the number is over the top, from the Genie's listings of Aladdin's supposed accomplishments, to the monkey Abu being blown up into a huge elephant, to the male chorus belting the opening lyrics, to the rallying coda taken at a slower tempo.

Ashman's lyrics are the real extravagance here: He's firing on all cylinders:

"Prince Ali! Mighty is he!
Ali Ababwa
Strong as ten regular men,
definitely!
He faced the galloping hordes
A hundred bad guys with swords
Who sent those goons to their lords?
Why, Prince Ali!"

There's also a great part where he embraces alliteration, saying that folks are "lousy with loyalty for Ali." It's great stuff--yes, unfortunately without the cultural sensitivity of today (Genie gave Aladdin... slaves?! For a musical number? That can't be right)

The reprise, sung by Jafar as he strips away Aladdin's "princely" appearance and reveals him to be the "street rat" Jasmine met earlier in the movie, falls just a little flat for me. The tone of the music doesn't quite fit the grave humiliation that Aladdin's suffering--and certainly, a little more darkness in the music may have made the various traumas endured by the protagonists before they defeat Jafar a little less jarring.

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Robert Komaniecki

@Komaniecki_R

Jul 3

#DisneySongsRanked 29-25: Incredible
29. Surface Pressure (Encanto)
Score: 461/500

I remember putting Encanto on with my wife after it came out on Disney+, and when this song ended, we looked at each other, eyebrows raised. "Are you kidding me?" she said. I ended up rewinding so we could listen to it a second time, because it was so different from what we were expecting. Finally, some husky alto representation!

Jessica Darrow delivers in this vocal performance, balancing power and vulnerability and endearing us to the buffest chick to ever grace the screens of a Disney movie. The recording, to me, sounds like somebody who has been given lots of directing, ample prep time, and plenty of time in the studio to deliver something optimal, resulting in fewer touch-ups needed in post.

I love the idea for the bridge in this song--tough-as-nails Luisa is suddenly transported to a glittery, feminine land of clouds and donkey-unicorns, as her voice shifts into a higher, more delicate register. We learn that there's more to this character than smashing rocks and looking tough--she's worried, overburdened, and needs some tenderness from her family.

Love LMM's lyrics here, but in my humble opinion, they also demonstrate that he sometimes has to learn to walk away from a rhyme. There are times where the rhymes are so, so dense in this song that it distracts from the narrative--instead of learning about Luisa, we're listening to her spit bars. Take this stanza, for example:

"Under the surface, I hide my nerves and it worsens,
I worry something is gonna hurt us
Under the surface, the ship doesn't swerve
as it heard how big the iceberg is
Under the surface, I think about my purpose,
can I somehow preserve this?"

The amount of "errr" in this is a bit overpowering: surface/nervous/swerve/berg/purpose/preserve/hurt yerr yerr yerr we GET IT DUDE you can rhyme. Let the rhymes breathe a bit.

#DisneySongsRanked
28. Shiny (Moana)
Score: 463/500

This song is super polarizing! I remember watching the movie and thinking it sucked, then watching it again with the benefit of hindsight and being totally into it. Here's why:

I was expecting a true villain song, and that's not what "Shiny" is, because Tamatoa isn't a true villain. He's just kind of a needy, hoarding schmuck who temporarily beats up on the protagonists, but is left behind narratively after his single scene. You have to see "Shiny" for what it is: A moment of levity that brings the protagonists closer together, while also giving us new information about Maui's backstory and progressing the plot.

Jermaine Clement is a delight. This song was originally written with David Bowie in mind, and it would've been interesting to hear his take on it (you can check out the demo on YouTube), but I think Clement has a great energy and depth to his voice. He plays the heel well--he does have a beautiful voice, but leans more toward its goofy qualities for this character.

This is a super fun song harmonically, in that it starts in a menacing E minor, but toggles abruptly to G major for the chorus, stripping away some of Tamatoa's menace in favor of groove and glam. I've grown to like the two-sided nature of the song, and I think the goofy chorus is appropriate for the sort of mid-tier villain he is.

Plenty of cute lyrics here, including a few laugh-out-loud moments, such as:

"Maui man, you could try, try, try
But you can't expect a demi-god
To beat a decapod (look it up)
You will die, die, die
Now it's time for me to take apart
Your aching heart"

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27. The Next Right Thing (Frozen 2)
Score: 468/500

The darkness of this moment really comes out of nowhere--not dark because of a stereotypical evil villain, just dark due to grief, depression, and hopelessness as Anna feels she's lost her sister and everybody she's ever loved for good.

If you're not familiar with the song, I'd recommend that you only check it out if you don't have some sort of recent grief/trauma that you're working through, because if you've lost someone recently, this could really be a gut punch. Kristen Bell practically sobs the lyrics, singing:

"Can there be a day beyond this night?
I don't know anymore what is true
I can't find my direction, I'm all alone
The only star that guided me was you
How to rise from the floor
When it's not you I'm rising for?"

Musically, the song is somber and subdued, as one would expect--I would've liked a climax that was perhaps a little more developed, but I do understand why the writers left it the way they did. It's a powerful moment, and they stuck to their guns.

Even in this, one of the darkest songs in the Disney canon, there's a ray of hope: If you can't picture what tomorrow will look like, or what you're doing an hour from now, just focus on the next breath, the next step--just stay alive and keep doing the next right thing. You can survive.

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Robert Komaniecki

@Komaniecki_R

Jul 3

#DisneySongsRanked 34-30: Delightful

34. Family Madrigal (Encanto)
Score: 458/500

The challenge that Lin-Manuel Miranda faced when writing this song cannot be overstated. Think about the song's function: It introduces viewers to the plot, the setting, the language, the family dynamics, and most importantly, to each major member of the cast.

Miranda really does have the the heart of a hip-hop fan, and that is immediately apparent in the lyrics. Mirabel prances around town delivering the lyrics as a solo, and nearly every stanza involves not only a traditional end rhyme, but multiple internal or slant rhymes as well. For example:

"And that's my mom Julieta, here's her deal
The truth is, she can heal you with a meal
Her recipes are remedies for real
If you're impressed, imagine how I feel"

So as you can see, we've got the expected deal/meal/real/feel rhymes, but look at the internal rhymes as well: "heal," recipes/remedies, and "-pressed/rec-/rem-" partial rhymes as well. Like a good rapper, Miranda sets the lyrics in such metrical positions that these little correspondences are brought out. An additional trick Miranda uses is setting rhymed syllables on the same pitch, something that more melodic rappers like Nelly and Bone Thugs have been doing for a long time.

However, there's a real issue of comprehensibility in lyrics that blow by at this pace. With so much crucial plot information, it's easy to miss somebody's name or magical power as Mirabel triplet-raps her recap, leading up to the big reveal that she herself has no powers. Still, the faster it gets, the more fun I had, with some great lyrics like

"My dad, Agustín, well
He's accident-prone, but he means well"

or

"My primo Camilo
Won't stop until he makes
you smile today,
My cousin Dolores
Can hear this whole chorus
a mile away"

It's like if Eminem had the heart of a theater kid. That's Lin-Manuel Miranda.

#DisneySongsRanked
33. How Far I'll Go [including reprise] (Moana)
Score: 459/500

Note: I don't think I've mentioned this outright, but for any songs that have reprises, I include those with the main song ranking.

Moana's "I Want" song, performed by Auli'i Cravalho, and very much in the spirit of the earlier Menken "I Want songs" from the animated musicals of the 90s.

There's lot to love here, especially the generous use of modal mixture--we love a good minor iv chord, and they're a big part of the recipe in this tune.

I think the lyrics for this song get a bit of a bad rep, with ignorant people claiming that Miranda is rhyming "island" with "island" in this stanza:

"I know everybody on this island
Seems so happy on this island
Everything is by design
I know everybody on this island
Has a role on this island
So maybe I can roll with mine"

I imagine most people reading this can tell that the structural rhymes here are "-sign/mine," with a cool homonym "roll/role." I imagine she's repeating the word "island" because the character only knows the island, and is obsessed with getting away from it. I hate to break it to you, but guys, you're not better than Lin-Manuel Miranda at writing rhymes.

The real magic in this one comes in during the reprise, with additional music production work by Mark Mancina. If you know the reprise, you'll know why I'm praising the use of the woodwinds here, which are brought in with some gorgeous arpeggios that swell into the exciting moment Moana sets out to sea, while still allowing for the tenderness at her grandmother's transition to the next, ethereal realm.

#DisneySongsRanked
32. When You Wish Upon a Star (Pinocchio)
Score: 460/500

From a technical, songwriting standpoint, this song is essentially perfect, and served as the blueprint for so much that came after it. This song is synonymous with childhood magic for so many.

It's much more in the tradition of a slow, ABA-form jazz ballad than many of the more outright "musical theater" songs from the later era. The melody is to die for--so many gorgeous little chromatic neighbor notes that are themselves harmonized in the accompaniment, creating a lush, shimmering harmonic texture that always finds its way home.

Cliff Edwards, singing as Jiminy Cricket, gives an astonishing, loving performance. There's this brilliant moment in the reprise, where he's singing the second verse, and he takes a sort of descant, leaping up to his high falsetto, that just stops me in my tracks every single time.

The Disney Studio chorus takes the B section, and it's gorgeous. The song lost a few points in my ranking because it's more of a suspended time moment that doesn't necessarily advance the plot, but that's totally subjective: I could absolutely see somebody arguing for this being their Number 1, and they'd be right to do so.

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Robert Komaniecki

@Komaniecki_R

Jul 2

#DisneySongsRanked 39-35: Extremely Good

39. Friend Like Me (Aladdin)
Score: 455/500

Robin Williams introduces himself as the inimitable Genie after Aladdin happens upon his lamp, in a Cab Calloway-inspired, stomping, romping, big band showstopper.

Robin Williams was a singular talent. People complain about celebrities being cast in voice acting roles, and for good reason--animated movies today are chock-full of top-billed celebs that can get butts in seats, but aren't necessarily a great fit for a character. Williams, though, is an example of when this goes right.

Robin Williams took a pay cut--a MASSIVE pay cut--in order to avoid having his voice be used for merchandising by Disney, but they did it anyway, resulting in a public falling out that lasted for several years. He really is synonymous with the character Genie, whose frequent asides and imitations were folded remarkably into the animation.

"Friend Like Me" is a lyrical powerhouse, though of course without the cultural sensitivities of later Disney:

"So don'tcha sit there slack-jawed, buggy-eyed
I'm here to answer all your midday prayers
You got me bona fide, certified
You got a genie for your charge d'affaires"

I also love the main motif: Sol-me-do! Le-sol..." It's a real earworm, and Menken knows it, drilling it into our heads over the course of the number with a walloping horn section.

It seems almost unfair that Robin Williams could sing, on top of all of his other talents, but sing he does. There are some truly delightful moments, some that are a tiny bit rough around the edges, but everything seems purposeful, confident, and in character. The repeated voice changes are pretty wild--there's one almost every 2 bars--and at times they do obscure the lyrics slightly.

#DisneySongsRanked
38. Hakuna Matata (The Lion King)
Score: 455/500

Listen, I'll be honest: I love Nathan Lane. I will watch anything and everything containing even a brief performance by this man. He has this beautifully self-aware sense of humor that still carries a certain gravitas and old-fashioned show business charm, is sharp as a tack, and has incredible range. His magnetic personality shines through even as he voices the meerkat Timon. I had a Nathan Lane t-shirt in high school. No, I did not have a girlfriend.

This song is a lovely little comedic number that serves a dual purpose as a montage to help us transition child Simba to young adulthood. Great vocal performances by all of the featured singers, but also beautiful background work by the studio choir, which is generally outstanding in The Lion King. That orchestral swell as we see Simba grow, and reach his adult self singing "it means no worries" is just great.

My only complaints about this one is that it's lyrically just a bit underdeveloped, and that the second line jazz/NOLA influence seems a bit too derivative of some of the earlier films, especially Jungle Book.

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37. Bare Necessities (The Jungle Book)
Score: 457/500

This song features one of my favorite rhymes in any genre of music: "Bare necessities/Bear can rest at ease." Fantastic.

Honestly, "Bare Necessities" really is the slightly better version of "Hakuna Matata." The NOLA jazz setting is perfect for the laid-back message of the song, there are ideal vocal performances from both Phil Harris and Bruce Reitherman, and the number has a lovely little arc that takes us across feelings and locations.

The thing that I want to highlight about "Bare Necessities" is the superb quality of the mix for the time, facilitated by excellent studio engineers and stellar performances from the session and/or staff musicians. A personal favorite is the gorgeously played muted trumpet--just lovely stuff.

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