Alan Menken News & Discussion

[Woodrow Pride]

I'm so exited for Spellbound!! Alan Menken and John Lasseter? What could be better?

[Sotiris]

I wonder what he's working on with Nell Benjamin? I know it wouldn't happen, but I'd love if they were working on Tiana. Any ideas about what it could be, Sotiris, if it's not simply an original project?

It's a stage adaptation of Nancy Drew.

All-Star Nancy Drew Stage Musical in Development
https://www.playbill.com/article/all-st ... evelopment

[Disney's Divinity]

Thank you!

Interesting. It'll be worth checking out anyway.

[Jäger-Rose]

I've just posted about it in the Hercules Musical thread but I figure not everybody is gonna look into that one. So...

Alan Menken and Thomas Schumacher are in Germany right now for the Hercules premiere. Today, there was a press event to which I was invited. And I'm happy to share the 40 minute panel plus a quick interview roundtable with all of you here:

40 minute panel talk:
https://youtu.be/p0qJTOoW4Es

5 minute interview round:
https://youtu.be/HMYQUkIvdfE

I'll also have the chance to interview both of them in the next couple of days - so I'm extremely honored and excited!!

[Jäger-Rose]

Here's my 15 minute interview with Alan that I did a few days ago. I'm posting it here too so that everybody can see it.

We're talking about the new Hercules Musical in Germany obviously, but also the songs, characters, the live action remake and also some other projects. I asked him about his relationship to the Disney Parks, I mentioned that Snow Queen musical show he once did for Tokyo DisneySea (that I had no idea about it...) and more.
Check it out, I think it's a very interesting interview. =)

https://youtu.be/DAvcY94Ubqk

[Josh123]

I’ve found myself wondering about this over the last few years. Every now and then, we still see glimpses of his brilliance—like in The Disenchanted score, which is stunning, and tracks like Waiting in the Wings and Days in the Sun. But these days, it feels like there are way more misses than hits.

I just listened to the opening number from Spellbound, and honestly... it’s disappointing and not good, especially by Menken’s standards. The "I Want" song, "The Way it Was Before", feels so uninspired that I’m starting to wonder if Menken will ever recapture his past magic. I kinda like the pop version though.

The opening song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_wDf1 ... rkTheGamer


The Way It was Before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WktNIp ... mmadEmraan

The Way It was Before pop version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY7iyWY ... nPohFilms

What do you all think?

[blackcauldron85]

I love those!! I'm very easy to please, though, but I think they're pretty.

[Disney's Divinity]

I personally really like the main theme, although the opening is one of those types of songs that might work in-film but just does nothing for me on its own. Zegler is the one singing in this film, right? At least I thought I remember her name being attached to this. Wow, I always thought she sang well anyway, but she sounded very different here from WSS (in a good way). She made me think of the woman who played Anna in Frozen on Broadway.

I thought the main theme was better than everything from Disenchanted other than "Love Power" (itself more pop-lite and not a very theatrical song to me). To be fair, I wasn't craxy for most of the Enchanted soundtrack either; only "That's How You Know" was a knockout and the cleaning song was funny. Marsden sounded great on "True Love's Kiss," and the animation of Edward was very pretty, but the song wasn't that interesting. "So Close" is dull, but not bad. I loved the vast majority of the Tangled series songs though, as well as Speechless, Evermore, Days in the Sun, Wild Uncharted Waters, and the new reprises to One Jump Ahead and Part of Your World. In This Place's pop version was good. I feel like the past decade he's been experimenting more, trying to imitate people like the Lopezes or Pasek & Paul as if he's trying to say to the people who pushed him out that he can give them that style if that's what they wanted. The sad thing is the more Broadway stuff by him and the Lopezes are a cut above what P&P or Miranda or Julia Michaels have served up, so I wish he wouldn't try to imitate them... I mean, those three have had a few good songs that I know of--This Is Me, Never Enough, and Speechless for P&P; Surface Pressure, We Don't Talk About Bruno, and How Far I'll Go for Miranda (not to mention things like Paciencia y Fe and It's Quiet Uptown from non-Disney things); the two Magnifico songs from Wish are the ones I come back to the most often as far as Michaels--but none of them are on level with the Lopezes or Menken to me. I guess I prefer the more theatrical straight Broadway for a musical to pop lite or R&B.

[MoonMarc21]

I dunno, I think he still got it since I really like how "The Way It Was Before" sounds. It's catchy in my ears due to me liking more sentimental-sounding songs which I hear in some video games like "Beyond the Sky" in Xenoblade Chronicles and "The Heritors of Acradia" in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, which are far superior that this and i didn't mean to put this song on the same level as those for fans of those games, it's just a song composition comparison. On it's own, it's fine enough. I think of it as a child's first sentimental video gamey song, if that even exists. (this isn't even a video game, what am I saying) Maybe it's because of the melody played in the piano at the beginning that really hooked me in the song. Not only that, but I really like it's very different rhyming scheme than the usual "1212", "1122", or "1221" word distribution, if you know what I mean. (which I hope ) Also, the pop version's instrumental sounds like it could be from EPIC: The Musical which uses both classical and modern musical sensibilities. Makes it sound like a warrior visiting a long lost palace that's ruined and reminiscing of her memories there. Also, speaking of EPIC, please give it a listen with an open mind, guys. The pop instrumentals may seem jarring at first, but man, the lyrics there are just fire and the instrumentals have subtle messaging in them, with leitmotifs of each character and foreshadowing events to come in the musical. The compose is genius, I say.

Sorry, back to Alan Menken hehe

I'm not really feeling it with the opening song yet but it will warm up to me soon because like what Disney's Divinity said, it's one of those songs that needs context in the film in order to be enjoyed or at least somewhat.

[Farerb]

I’ve found myself wondering about this over the last few years. Every now and then, we still see glimpses of his brilliance—like in The Disenchanted score, which is stunning, and tracks like Waiting in the Wings and Days in the Sun. But these days, it feels like there are way more misses than hits.

I just listened to the opening number from Spellbound, and honestly... it’s disappointing and not good, especially by Menken’s standards. The "I Want" song, "The Way it Was Before", feels so uninspired that I’m starting to wonder if Menken will ever recapture his past magic. I kinda like the pop version though.

In my opinion, both of these songs are superior to "We're Back" and "Beyond" from Moana 2, though I do think they could have easily been from Enchanted or Tangled or Tangled the series or Galavant, etc... so I guess it's more about him sticking to a single style unlike the '90s when each movie he worked on had its own unique style (you couldn't say the songs in Hercules fit the style of Beauty and the Beast).

In addition, it's important to note that Alan is not a lyricist and the quality of the songs also depend on them and while Glenn Slater is fine, he's nowhere near the level of Howard Ashman or Stephen Schwartz. I just wish Menken was involved with something that truly inspires him instead of Disney remakes or mediocre streaming movies like Disenchanted or Spellbound, but I don't think that's going to happen, not with the way things are going (Hollywood and movies in general are in decline).

[DisneyFan09]

I’ve found myself wondering about this over the last few years. Every now and then, we still see glimpses of his brilliance—like in The Disenchanted score, which is stunning, and tracks like Waiting in the Wings and Days in the Sun. But these days, it feels like there are way more misses than hits.

I just listened to the opening number from Spellbound, and honestly... it’s disappointing and not good, especially by Menken’s standards. The "I Want" song, "The Way it Was Before", feels so uninspired that I’m starting to wonder if Menken will ever recapture his past magic. I kinda like the pop version though.

The opening song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_wDf1 ... rkTheGamer


The Way It was Before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WktNIp ... mmadEmraan

The Way It was Before pop version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY7iyWY ... nPohFilms

What do you all think?

To be honest, I`ve felt that Menken lost his touch and mojo long ago. He peaked with Hunchback and Hercules and never managed to truly restore himself ever since. And it would be tempting to just blame on nostalgia, but frankly, Menken was better before. And frankly (and not to be condescending), I wasn`t impressed by his songs from Disenchanted. They were good, but not great. I was suprised that Menken was doing the songs from Spellbound and having listening to both of them, the opening song hardly sounds like Menken (despite how it sounds from Tangled Ever After or even from the Disney Fairies franchise). The Way It was Before certainly sounds more like Menken, but even by his standards, it sounds lackluster.

[Kyle]

Disenchanted was the first time I wondered if he had lost his touch. I was fine with anything before that really.

[Farerb]

Alan Menken said that Spellbound will be his 10th animated musical:


https://x.com/AIMenken/status/185821839 ... 3VrBw&s=19

But I only managed to count 9:

1. The Little Mermaid
2. Beauty and the Beast
3. Aladdin
4. Pocahontas
5. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
6. Hercules
7. Home on the Range
8. Tangled
9. Spellbound

Which one did I miss?? Unless he considers Enchanted but then shouldn't he consider Disenchanted too?!?

[D82]

The 10th one might be Tangled: Before Ever After. According to Wikipedia, that one's considered a TV movie, while the one-hour episodes from season 2 and 3 of Tangled: The Series are regarded as special episodes.

He also wrote a song for Ralph Breaks the Internet and one for Sausage Party, but those aren't musicals. Although, Tangled: Before Ever After only has two songs and a reprise, so I don't know if it counts as a musical either.

I hope he's asked to do more animated films for Skydance. Well, I would of course prefer he'd work for WDAS, but that doesn't seem likely.

[Kyle]

What about Little Shop of Horrors?

Edit: oops, that wasn't animated. My bad.

I don't see why he wouldn't count enchanted, but yea I also don't know why he wouldn't count the sequel.

[Farerb]

I think you're right, D82, I didn't think about Tangled Before Ever After. I know it's technically a movie but I never think about it as such.

I think even though there are only two songs and a reprise, it feels more like a musical compared to Ralph and Sausage Party because there's a song in the beginning and in the middle and a reprise in the end. In addition, the songs in Ralph and Sausage Party are satire.

[D82]

I never think about Tangled Before Ever After as a movie either. I was wondering what the missing animated musical could be and then that one came to mind, but I had to google it to make sure it was a movie.

You're probably right about why it might be considered a musical. It definitely feels more like one than Ralph Breaks the Internet and Sausage Party.

I don't see why he wouldn't count enchanted, but yea I also don't know why he wouldn't count the sequel.

Though both films have animated segments and CG characters in the live-action parts, I personally don't see Enchanted or its sequel as animated films, but I know that's debatable. Even the Academy now allows similar movies to compete for best animated feature.

[Sotiris]

I can't believe Menken actually said that. Oh, the shade!

He is keen to point out that his scores do have musical and emotional specificity, be it the “apocalyptic” Phil Spector girl-group sound behind Little Shop of Horrors or the ragtime influence on Newsies. “I’m not trying to be egotistical, but that was very much my and Howard’s approach: we established throughout our scores a specificity of place,” he says. By comparison, “a lot of the new Disney scores are generic…”. He stops, as if reconsidering what he is about to say. “I think they have moved into a different place, where a Lin-Manuel score is very much Lin-Manuel,” he con­tinues, referring to Lin-Manuel ­Mir­anda, the creator of Hamilton, who wrote the Oscar-nominated score for Disney’s 2021 film Encanto. “That’s not what Howard and I did, but, hey, things evolve.”

Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2025/ ... now-white/