DVDizzy Forum

Disney Duster wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2026 10:50 pm Why we like something or think it’s good or why we don’t can be hard to explain. I know that the Disney animated films with music written by Frank Churchill all had songs I thought were better than any Cinderella songs. I even think “The Second Star to the Right” and “You Can Fly” are better songs than anything in Cinderella, except for “Sing Sweet Nightingale”, that is a beautiful song. Frank Churchill left Disney after Bambi, and Walt hired more popular, mainstream writers for Cinderella. It made the songs sound more modern to be. Less fantasy and wistful. And don’t get me wrong, I like modern and popular, but not usually from the 1950s, and not usually for an old fairy tale. Or maybe the songs they wrote were just plain less good than the first five Disney films. My favorite Disney soundtrack is Bambi. That whole thing sounds wistful, melancholic, beautiful. Except “Gay Little Spring Song” which has got to be one of the worst, most annoying songs I have ever heard.

To be honest, I think the songs in Peter Pan are just fine enough, with the exception of Following the Leader. Which is a great song. I agree that Sing Sweet Nightingale is a lovely song and frankly, an overlooked song which rarely gets the most credit of the Cinderella soundtrack. I also agree that Bambi is among the best Disney scores. But my gripe with Gay Little Spring Song isn`t it`s quality (cause I do like it), but that it`s placement is completely wrong. It comes right after the iconic, harrowing tragedy that has labeled and defined Bambi, without letting the audience to breathe and sink in what happened.

Thanks for saying that, Bluey! I hope that if you do take a deeper dive into to the music of Walt’s films, you really enjoy it.

Peter Pan probably does have the very best opening of a Walt film…err, except after my favorite Walt opening, “Love is a Song” from
Bambi! That song makes the forest sound like this melancholic place where life is sad but then there is hope, and the reprise in the end really hits me in the heart. I am also glad you love “You Can Fly!” But yeah, I do not care for any of the rest of the songs. Interesting that your feelings on Peter Pan are similar to mine on Cinderella, except I only find one song in Cinderella to really be good (“Sing Sweet Nightingale”).

DisneyFan09, glad you appreciate “Sing Sweet Nightingale”, and indeed, it does get overlooked. I’m not a big fan of “Following the Leader”, but it’s better than some of the other Peter Pan songs. As for “Gay Little Spring Song”, maybe if after the Great Prince takes Bambi under his wing, we got a little sequence of winter turning into spring, like the sad slowly turning into hopeful, and then the song started, that would make the film work better.

Oh, yeah. I might tip my hat to "Following the Leader" also. But it's still weird to me that I normally privilege the songs as the most important part of a Disney work, yet one of my favorite pieces has a comparatively weaker offering overall.

"Cinderella" has a lovely songbook, from my view. "Sing, Sweet Nightingale" is indeed an underrated work. Something I wish I heard more in like a Disney parade or something. I also really love the title number. It has some really enchanting lyrics, "Cinderella, if you give your heart a chance/it will lead you to a kingdom of romance/There you'll see your dreams unfold/Cinderella, Cinderella, in the sweetest story ever told." Like, that's peak saccharinity, but it absolutely sells me every time. I also love the bounciness of something like "Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo" or the Mice's work song.

I can see where the "Bambi" soundtrack would strike really deep for some people. It has a very soaring, operatic quality that I don't think is matched in any other Disney film, even from its contemporaries in that first golden age of the 30s and 40s. I hear an echo of that in like "Sleeping Beauty," but even that feels a little more frivolous.

But I actually do have the same observation about "Gay Little Spring Song." Like, the tonal jump gives me whiplash every time. The whole thing is just so ...

Ok, “Following the Leader” is good, too. And Ok, Cinderella has…pretty good songs. I mean, they are either lovely and enchanting like the title song or bouncy and fun and catchy like “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” or “The Work Song”. But compared to the first five Disney films and the Renaissance…I just wish for better for my favorite film of all time. I want the best for my favorite story. That’s what it is. And yeah, the title song’s lyrics are actually some of my favorite lyrics in the world.

Thank you, so much, Bluey, for what you said about Bambi’s soundtrack. I completely agree. Well said. And what you said about the tonal “whiplash” and the gif were funny.