This article contains spoilers for "Wish."
"When You Wish Upon a Star" is considered by many to be the signature song of The Walt Disney Company. Written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for 1940's "Pinocchio," the song originally performed by Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket has accompanied the production logos before most Disney films since the 1980s. The roaring sound of "When Dreams Come True" sets the stage to help transition audiences out of the real world, and into the land of Disney magic.
It's a tune synonymous not just with its source movie, but Disney as a brand, company, and cultural touchstone. So much so that when Disney put out "Once Upon a Studio" to honor 100 years of Disney Animation, the short ends with a century's worth of characters joined together in a singalong led by Jiminy Cricket. There's almost a Pavlovian response at this point to hearing the tune,...
"When You Wish Upon a Star" is considered by many to be the signature song of The Walt Disney Company. Written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for 1940's "Pinocchio," the song originally performed by Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket has accompanied the production logos before most Disney films since the 1980s. The roaring sound of "When Dreams Come True" sets the stage to help transition audiences out of the real world, and into the land of Disney magic.
It's a tune synonymous not just with its source movie, but Disney as a brand, company, and cultural touchstone. So much so that when Disney put out "Once Upon a Studio" to honor 100 years of Disney Animation, the short ends with a century's worth of characters joined together in a singalong led by Jiminy Cricket. There's almost a Pavlovian response at this point to hearing the tune,...
- 11/22/2023
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is an Oscar frontrunner for best animated feature, and if it wins, it won’t be the first time the Academy has honored the wooden puppet who longs to be a real boy. In 1941, Walt Disney’s Pinocchio became the first animated feature to win Oscars for best original score and song, for “When You Wish Upon a Star.” The 1940 film, based on children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, was the second animated feature released by Disney, after 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (which, incidentally, also earned an Oscar nomination for original score). Composers Leigh Harline and Paul J. Smith, who had written the music for Snow White with Frank Churchill, were enlisted to craft Pinocchio‘s score. Harline and lyricist Ned Washington wrote the tune “When You Wish Upon a Star,” which was immediately recognized by Disney as...
- 2/26/2023
- by Hilton Dresden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The songs in the running for the 2022 Best Original Song Oscar are “Down to Joy” (“Belfast”), “Dos Oruguitas” (“Encanto”), “Somehow You Do” (“Four Good Days”), “Be Alive” (“King Richard”), and “No Time to Die” (“No Time to Die”). Our current odds show that “No Time to Die” (82/25) is favored to win, followed in order by “Dos Oruguitas” (18/5), “Be Alive” (9/2), “Down to Joy” (9/2), and “Somehow You Do” (9/2).
Five of the seven individual songwriters included in this year’s lineup are first-time Oscar nominees, with Diane Warren (“Somehow You Do”) standing out as the only female veteran. All 12 of her past bids, beginning with one for “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (“Mannequin”) in 1988, have been unsuccessful. She has now been nominated in seven of the last eight years, with her most recent loss having been to D’Mile, H.E.R., and Tiara Thomas’s (“Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”) last year.
Five of the seven individual songwriters included in this year’s lineup are first-time Oscar nominees, with Diane Warren (“Somehow You Do”) standing out as the only female veteran. All 12 of her past bids, beginning with one for “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (“Mannequin”) in 1988, have been unsuccessful. She has now been nominated in seven of the last eight years, with her most recent loss having been to D’Mile, H.E.R., and Tiara Thomas’s (“Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”) last year.
- 3/24/2022
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
With the Oscars coronating another winner for best original song, it’s an occasion to look back at 20 of the times when the golden guy got it most right with the tune he carried, from “Lullaby of Broadway” to “Lose Yourself.”
1: “White Christmas”
from “Holiday Inn” (1942), by Irving Berlin
It always feels strange watching the “Holiday Inn” scene where Bing Crosby, playing a songwriter, teaches this song to Marjorie Reynolds as something that had recently come off the top of his head, because implicit in the scene is the idea that “White Christmas” was written by a human, not God. The same could be said of its status of an Oscar winner, which never fails to surprise younger generations: Isn’t it from a hymnal of some sort? If it’s true that Berlin said at the time that it wasn’t just the best song he ever wrote...
1: “White Christmas”
from “Holiday Inn” (1942), by Irving Berlin
It always feels strange watching the “Holiday Inn” scene where Bing Crosby, playing a songwriter, teaches this song to Marjorie Reynolds as something that had recently come off the top of his head, because implicit in the scene is the idea that “White Christmas” was written by a human, not God. The same could be said of its status of an Oscar winner, which never fails to surprise younger generations: Isn’t it from a hymnal of some sort? If it’s true that Berlin said at the time that it wasn’t just the best song he ever wrote...
- 4/25/2021
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
James Taylor will take on the Great American Songbook on the singer’s upcoming album American Standard, due out February 28th. The LP is Taylor’s first since 2015’s Before This World and 19th overall.
“I’ve always had songs I grew up with that I remember really well, that were part of the family record collection — and I had a sense of how to approach, so it was a natural to put American Standard together,” Taylor said in a statement. “I know most of these songs from the original...
“I’ve always had songs I grew up with that I remember really well, that were part of the family record collection — and I had a sense of how to approach, so it was a natural to put American Standard together,” Taylor said in a statement. “I know most of these songs from the original...
- 1/23/2020
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
If Tim Burton seemed like an offbeat choice to direct Disney’s live-action adaptation of “Dumbo,” you can bet he found an equally unusual choice to sing the film’s signature lullaby “Baby Mine,” Arcade Fire.
The indie rockers turned the soothing lullaby into a lilting, elegant rock song and even introduced some of their strange instrumentation. Lead singer Win Butler said the song features harp, theremin and an instrument called the Sonovox.
“My mom plays the harp on the track, my brother the theremin, my wife sings and plays drums, and our son even plays the triangle, as well as the rest of our ‘family’ in Arcade Fire,” Win Butler said of the recording in a statement (via Pitchfork). “I will forever relate to the song thinking about the people I hold so dear that are ‘so precious to me.’ Listen for the cameo of my grandpa Alvino’s famous Sonovox at the end.
The indie rockers turned the soothing lullaby into a lilting, elegant rock song and even introduced some of their strange instrumentation. Lead singer Win Butler said the song features harp, theremin and an instrument called the Sonovox.
“My mom plays the harp on the track, my brother the theremin, my wife sings and plays drums, and our son even plays the triangle, as well as the rest of our ‘family’ in Arcade Fire,” Win Butler said of the recording in a statement (via Pitchfork). “I will forever relate to the song thinking about the people I hold so dear that are ‘so precious to me.’ Listen for the cameo of my grandpa Alvino’s famous Sonovox at the end.
- 3/11/2019
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Rita Hayworth in 3-D, in a hot story that was acceptable for 1925 and 1932, but too racy for repressed 1953. On a tropical island, a prostitute cabaret singer battles a fiery preacher missionary inspector for her freedom. Hayworth is dynamite, and it takes all of her talent to keep the show afloat, with so much interference from the equally repressed censors. Miss Sadie Thompson 3-D 3-D Blu-ray Twilight Time 1953 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date July 12, 2016 / Available from Twilight Time Movies Store29.95 Starring Rita Hayworth, José Ferrer, Aldo Ray, Russell Collins, Diosa Costello, Harry Bellaver, Wilton Graff, Peggy Converse, Henry Slate, Rudy Bond, Charles Bronson, Jo Ann Greer. Cinematography Charles Lawton Jr. Original Music George Duning, Morris Stoloff, Ned Washington, Lester Lee Written by Harry Kleiner from a story by W. Somerset Maugham Produced by Jerry Wald Directed by Curtis Bernhardt
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Yes! 3-D on Blu-ray shows no sign of going away,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Yes! 3-D on Blu-ray shows no sign of going away,...
- 7/26/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
'The Letter' 1940, with Bette Davis 'The Letter' 1940 movie: Bette Davis superb in masterful studio era production Directed by William Wyler and adapted by Howard Koch from W. Somerset Maugham's 1927 play, The Letter is one of the very best films made during the Golden Age of the Hollywood studios. Wyler's unsparing, tough-as-nails handling of the potentially melodramatic proceedings; Bette Davis' complex portrayal of a passionate woman who also happens to be a self-absorbed, calculating murderess; and Tony Gaudio's atmospheric black-and-white cinematography are only a few of the flawless elements found in this classic tale of deceit. 'The Letter': 'U' for 'Unfaithful' The Letter begins in the dark of night, as a series of gunshots are heard in a Malayan rubber plantation. Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) walks out the door of her house firing shots at (barely seen on camera) local playboy Jeff Hammond, who falls dead on the ground.
- 5/8/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Given how revered Disney's "Pinocchio" is today, it's hard to believe it was a flop when it was first released exactly three quarters of a century ago. Upon its New York City premiere, on February 7, 1940, critics hailed the film as a masterpiece, and even to this day, many prefer it to Disney's pioneering first animated feature, 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Yet it took the film many years and multiple re-releases to make a profit.
Today, of course, the legacy of "Pinocchio" is inescapable. Everyone's image of the puppet-boy with the nose that grows when he lies comes not from Carlo Collodi's original novel but from the kid with the Tyrolean hat and the Mickey Mouse gloves, as drawn by Disney animators. And the opening tune, Jiminy Cricket's "When You Wish Upon a Star," is ubiquitous as the theme music played before every Walt Disney movie and home video release.
Today, of course, the legacy of "Pinocchio" is inescapable. Everyone's image of the puppet-boy with the nose that grows when he lies comes not from Carlo Collodi's original novel but from the kid with the Tyrolean hat and the Mickey Mouse gloves, as drawn by Disney animators. And the opening tune, Jiminy Cricket's "When You Wish Upon a Star," is ubiquitous as the theme music played before every Walt Disney movie and home video release.
- 2/7/2015
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Baby mine, don’t you cry. / Baby mine, dry your eyes. / Rest your head close to my heart, never to part, / Baby of mine. • From Walt Disney’s “Dumbo”(1941), Words and Lyrics by Frank Churchill and Ned Washington
So Donna Troy is coming back.
Only this isn’t the vibrant, intelligent, powerful, and oh-so-very human – with all the foibles and strengths inherent in homo sapiens – young woman that I came to know and love back in the day when Marv Wolfman and George Pérez created and collaborated on The New Teen Titans.
This is a Donna created through the teamwork of Meredith and David Finch, who has been granted life through the dark arts, through black magic, and as she rises naked from the brewing miasma of a black cauldron, and so we react with fear and horror, our intrinsic fear of human sacrifice, blood ritual, and “unnatural” life causing...
So Donna Troy is coming back.
Only this isn’t the vibrant, intelligent, powerful, and oh-so-very human – with all the foibles and strengths inherent in homo sapiens – young woman that I came to know and love back in the day when Marv Wolfman and George Pérez created and collaborated on The New Teen Titans.
This is a Donna created through the teamwork of Meredith and David Finch, who has been granted life through the dark arts, through black magic, and as she rises naked from the brewing miasma of a black cauldron, and so we react with fear and horror, our intrinsic fear of human sacrifice, blood ritual, and “unnatural” life causing...
- 12/18/2014
- by Mindy Newell
- Comicmix.com
By Terence Johnson
Managing Editor
One of the bright spots this past film year was the success of Disney’s Frozen. On the strength of it’s more modern princesses and an infectious score, the film set box office records and has garnered two Oscar nominations, Animated Feature and Best Original Song for “Let It Go”, its infectious hit. In honor of Frozen’s nomination, we figured it was time to take a look at the history of animated movies in Original Song.
The history of animated films picking up nominations and wins in Best Original Song is a tale as old as time (see what I did there?). Since the 1930s, animated films have won this award 13 times and over 50 nominations, which you can see below. This is an even greater feat when you think about the consideration that animated films get when lists of musicals are made (they...
Managing Editor
One of the bright spots this past film year was the success of Disney’s Frozen. On the strength of it’s more modern princesses and an infectious score, the film set box office records and has garnered two Oscar nominations, Animated Feature and Best Original Song for “Let It Go”, its infectious hit. In honor of Frozen’s nomination, we figured it was time to take a look at the history of animated movies in Original Song.
The history of animated films picking up nominations and wins in Best Original Song is a tale as old as time (see what I did there?). Since the 1930s, animated films have won this award 13 times and over 50 nominations, which you can see below. This is an even greater feat when you think about the consideration that animated films get when lists of musicals are made (they...
- 2/5/2014
- by Terence Johnson
- Scott Feinberg
Always one of my favorites from Disney, Dumbo has been released as a special 70th Anniversary issue Blu-Ray and DVD. One of the truly magical efforts in the Disney collection, the courageous little elephant has stolen the hearts of viewers since it was first released.
The story itself hardly needs any introduction at this point (though even fans may be surprised when forced to recall that the feature is only 64 minutes long), but the amazing restoration and reissue deserves its own fanfare.
Going back to the original nitrate negative, the film has been restored to its original splendor, and the Blu-Ray looks far better than one could hope, especially considering the original process, and how long ago this was. It's a wonder to behold, and filled to bursting with an amazing palette that really shows off how it was meant to look.
Much like the recent release of Bambi, the...
The story itself hardly needs any introduction at this point (though even fans may be surprised when forced to recall that the feature is only 64 minutes long), but the amazing restoration and reissue deserves its own fanfare.
Going back to the original nitrate negative, the film has been restored to its original splendor, and the Blu-Ray looks far better than one could hope, especially considering the original process, and how long ago this was. It's a wonder to behold, and filled to bursting with an amazing palette that really shows off how it was meant to look.
Much like the recent release of Bambi, the...
- 9/23/2011
- by Marc Eastman
- AreYouScreening.com
The most compelling aspect of the master class that Michael Feinstein recently taught at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, N.Y., was that by the time the two hours had elapsed, he had encountered—and made strides to correct—just about every problem faced by not only new but seasoned singers.Affable and amusing, as he always is on the bandstand, and consistently complimentary, Feinstein was there to help shape up eight wannabes taking a course taught by the singer La Tanya Hall, who performed behind him during his annual Christmas show at the New York club that bears his name, Feinstein's at Loews Regency. As this observer can attest, Feinstein was right to praise the participants for the quality of their voices and was also right in his introductory remarks to say he was there to assess their "truth in expressing the music."Awarded an honorary doctorate in...
- 2/2/2011
- backstage.com
Glen highlights some of the finest tunes ever to emerge from films aimed at much younger viewers than he...
My home movie watching has involved a lot of animated and other films primarily aimed at children over the past month or so. This proved to be quite useful, given the wealth of great music included in these films, so I thought it was time I compiled a list of my favourite songs that feature in kids movies.
‘Kids movies' is not a term that I'm particularly fond of, especially as many of these films appeal to adults as much as younger audiences, but it's less of a mouthful than ‘films primarily aimed at children' or something similar.
There were plenty of songs considered for this and, in fairness, it could have quite easily been double the length. But restraint was needed and after a lot of editing and re-ordering, what's...
My home movie watching has involved a lot of animated and other films primarily aimed at children over the past month or so. This proved to be quite useful, given the wealth of great music included in these films, so I thought it was time I compiled a list of my favourite songs that feature in kids movies.
‘Kids movies' is not a term that I'm particularly fond of, especially as many of these films appeal to adults as much as younger audiences, but it's less of a mouthful than ‘films primarily aimed at children' or something similar.
There were plenty of songs considered for this and, in fairness, it could have quite easily been double the length. But restraint was needed and after a lot of editing and re-ordering, what's...
- 4/20/2010
- Den of Geek
Music has accompanied film almost since film's invention, whether performed live, cued off rudimentary wax cylinders or digitally recorded. When thoughtfully employed, a song can lift a scene from the boundaries of entertainment into the realm of art. "The Jazz Singer" featured synched songs back in 1927, but it wasn't until 1934 and the 7th Academy Awards that Oscars were given out for them.
The greatest of these songs take on a life of their own, and, though they may always recall the film for which they were conceived, stand on their own merit. But plenty of other prizewinners don't, particularly once you get past the golden age of the movie musical -- quick, hum 2006 champ "I Need to Wake Up," from "An Inconvenient Truth."
With the 81st ceremony approaching and two Bollywood-inflected tunes from "Slumdog Millionaire" going up against Peter Gabriel's Grammy-anointed "Down to Earth" from "Wall-e," it seems a...
The greatest of these songs take on a life of their own, and, though they may always recall the film for which they were conceived, stand on their own merit. But plenty of other prizewinners don't, particularly once you get past the golden age of the movie musical -- quick, hum 2006 champ "I Need to Wake Up," from "An Inconvenient Truth."
With the 81st ceremony approaching and two Bollywood-inflected tunes from "Slumdog Millionaire" going up against Peter Gabriel's Grammy-anointed "Down to Earth" from "Wall-e," it seems a...
- 2/23/2009
- by Brandon Kim
- ifc.com
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