Your 3 Favorite Disney Film Overtures/Main Titles

[carolinakid]

I’m curious to learn your favorite Disney Film Overtures/Main Titles/Opening Credits. Please feel free to include both animated and live action films. I’m pretty certain this would only pertain to older films, as by the 1980s opening credits and overtures were pretty much a thing of the past. Thanks for sharing.

On reflecting I discovered I have SO many openings I adore that I decided to list 3 animated and 3 live action favorites. Please feel free to participate anyway you like and I also look forward to reading any comments you may have on why you love these opening themes. You guys are so articulate and passionate about the Disney films you love.

Without further ado, here are mine.

Live action:
Mary Poppins
The Parent Trap (1961)
Benknobs and Broomsticks

Honorable Mentions:
Pete’s Dragon (1977)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Song of the South

Animated:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The Jungle Book (1967)
Dumbo (1941)

Honorable Mentions:
Pinocchio (1940)
Cinderella (1950)
101 Dalmatians (1961)

I could list dozens more but that would be too easy.

[Disney's Divinity]

TLM's "Main Titles" is my favorite of course from the way it builds to a crescendo with the reveal of the undersea palace and how pretty the text is. But I also like "Love Is a Song" and "Cinderella" that open Bambi and Cinderella. Also "The Legend of the Sword" in TSitS. And I adore the "Main Title" / theme that opens The Great Mouse Detective. "The Aristocats" is actually really cute, too, much better than the movie actually is.

I can't right off place the opening music for Dalmatians and Bedknobs (I wish there were full soundtracks for all the Disney films, sigh, that would make easier to sort through.), I'll refresh and put those on later. I know I always loved the opening to Dalmatians, so I imagine the music is part of that.

[rb_canadian181]

Great question! I would say...

Snow White
The Little Mermaid
Pinocchio

Honorable mention...
The Jungle Book (1967). Such an iconic melody!

Actually, not all of you may have listened to this before but the Main Titles for Pinocchio are beautiful without the narration/choir as well: https://youtu.be/4J0V0glxGGw

[Disney Duster]

My three favorites are:

The Little Mermaid: I love how quiet it starts out, and then the harp and the "ah ahhhh"s when the title appears, and like Divinity said, the crescendo with Triton's palace is great.

Bambi: It opens with my favorite Disney song. It's like the better more powerful-feeling "Circle of Life" despite not being as "big" as that song.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Epic fairy tale music!

Honorable mentions: I really love Cinderella's, especially when it's matched with the visuals. Makes me feel like I'm entering a dream world. Maybe that is my secret top favorite... I also love Sleeping Beauty's opening, The Sword in the Stone's "The Legend of the Sword", and Robin Hood's opening! "Whistle Stop" is such a nostalgic number!

[carolinakid]

Love all your responses so far!
Snow White’s overture is so epic, thrilling and magical that they play it on all the buses as they approach the bus drop off area in front of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom!

[blackcauldron85]

Overture + Main Title (combo of music + visuals):
The Little Mermaid
The Emperor's New Groove
Robin Hood
Lilo and Stitch
The Parent Trap

Overtures (more so the music):
The Great Mouse Detective
The Sword in the Stone
Dumbo
Bambi
Pinocchio

Main Titles (more so the visuals):
The Rescuers Down Under
101 Dalmatians
The Aristocats

[Vlad]

I really like the Overtures for Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Pocahontas. The vintage ones are lovely, because most of them have a choir singing the main song, matched with great visuals, and beautiful calligraphy. The ones from the Renaissance are awesome, because the music starts off very calm and peaceful, and it builds to a full orchestra, and it gives me the chills.

The other two I find worthy of a mention are Beauty and the Beast and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. They don't have overtures, but the prologues are among the best.

[Marce82]

My favorites:

- The little Mermaid: that whole sequence where the fish goes through marine life (as the titles play) and we eventually find the merpeople and THEN the palace... it's such a beautiful, elegant way of inviting the audience into the underwater world. I really love it.

- Aladdin: Titles DO play on screen during Arabian Nights... and like little mermaid, we are being slowly drawn into the world the film will take place in. And a brilliant move to set the city in the middle of the desert (as opposed to the STUPID live action version, where Agrabah is a PORT CITY??? REALLY???)... so this city may have existed... and we've never heard of it... cause it was in the middle of nowhere. Also love how the entire song plays as a seemingly continuous shot.. no hard cuts, almost no crossdissolves.

Out of the pre-renaissance titles:

- 101 Dalmatians: love the very fun, super graphic titles. Specially how the images often match the credit on screen.

- Dumbo: those opening titles look like advertising for the circus... along with the very circus-like music. The stage is set!

[carolinakid]

Re: 101 Dalmatians- I love the jazzy melodies so typical of the late ‘50s/early ‘60s when the film was in production. And the snippets of Playful Melody and Cruella deVil that are heard. And the visuals are done so cleverly.

I also love the visuals and choral work on the main titles of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.

The Lady and the Tramp main title with the visuals and music evokes for me the beautiful nostalgia of turn of the century (1900) America.

[DisneyFan09]

My favorites are The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Fox and the Hound and Sleeping Beauty.

[Disney Duster]

Good points, Marce82!