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The Little Mermaid performances at the 1990 Academy Awards

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 4:34 am
by xxhplinkxx
I've ALWAYS hoped to see this, and someone FINALLY put it on YouTube. Check out Kiss the Girl and Under the Sea get, uh, sung at the 1990 Oscars.

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I personally think that guy, whoever he is, butchered the songs. And what was with his freaky dance moves? They should have just had Samuel E. Wright sing it. But Paula Abdul was the choreographer! How crazy is that :lol:

It was great to see Alan and Howard though! :D

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:32 am
by Marce82
Man....i did NOT like these.Who is that guy singing?? And why isnt he wearing a shirt???

I think the Kiss the Girl number was very poor...there was NOTHING that displayed the magic of that song...Under the Sea was a boit better...but suba-divers and pirates??? What does that have to do w the film?
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I remember the Beauty and the Beast performances 2 year later. WAY better...

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:31 am
by goofystitch
You can see why they wanted to avoid any wire work in the Broadway show. So cheesy!

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:32 am
by blackcauldron85
Did he play the Genie on Faerie Tale Theatre (or was that James Earl Jones?)...he reminded me of him.

He's lip-syching to himself, right? What's the point of that? Or do they always lipsynch at the Oscars?

And "Kiss the Girl" is so boring. I mean, I'd rather see fish and bubbles than this guy twirling around. The orchestra (whether or not they were live) sounded great, though!

lol, pirates. This guy's laughing is getting on my nerves. It's not that funny, Mister.

What a disappointing performance. It was neat to see, though. Thanks, Chris.

Oh, but the Scuba divers just came on. They're quite nice.

Aww, Howard & Alan!!! <3 (And Ariel with pink hair. :p)

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:38 am
by amazon980
why didnt they use the man who sang these songs in the movie?

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:43 am
by estefan
Samuel Wright might have been busy or something. That's usually what happens when somebody doesn't sing their nominated song at the Oscars.

Oh, well. At least for the Beauty and the Beast songs and "A Whole New World", it was the original cast and did an excellent job. And of course, we all probably know why Robin Williams didn't perform "Friend Like Me." :wink:

I'm disappointed Nathan Lane didn't get to perform Hakuna Matata at the '94 Academy Awards, but I guess he was also busy.

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:48 am
by UmbrellaFish
Wow... I'm speechless.

Just- eck.

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:14 am
by Poody
Oh wow great find! I've been wanting to see this! and now.....

Yeah, that guy's lipsycning version was not too interesting. I love how Paula Abdul was involved... :lol:

and............

was Part of Your World not nominated??????

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:42 am
by Kram Nebuer
Wow!!! Thanks so much for posting that, xxhplinkxx!! I've never seen it before. I think the highlight definitely was seeing Alan Menken and Howard Ashman accept the Oscar, but I HAD NO IDEA that Howard Ashman was that tall!! I guess he's sitting down in all theDVD documentaries b/c I always thought Alan Menken was taller. What a surprise!

Also, I must agree, the renditions were wacky. I think the singer didn't really learn the music b/c he was either completely out of tune or he rewrote the music! He took too many liberties at interpreting the song that it was almost unrecognizable.
blackcauldron85 wrote:Did he play the Genie on Faerie Tale Theatre (or was that James Earl Jones?)...he reminded me of him.
LOL! I can see where you would think that! His facial expressions definitely reminded me of the Faerie Tale Theatre Genie, but alas that Genie was Mufasa a.k.a. James Earl Jones.
Poody wrote:was Part of Your World not nominated??????
I just looked it up, and it wasn't. :( IMO, that's one of the best songs in Disney history, let alone the movie.

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 12:40 pm
by SpringHeelJack
blackcauldron85 wrote:He's lip-syching to himself, right? What's the point of that? Or do they always lipsynch at the Oscars?
Most performances like this would be lip-synched. It allows for greater ease with staging and choreography. It's not that unusual anymore.
estefan wrote:Samuel Wright might have been busy or something. That's usually what happens when somebody doesn't sing their nominated song at the Oscars.
Not necessarily. Usually when whoever originally sang the song doesn't, it means that the Academy wanted to hire someone with a wider appeal. I'm not sure why that ended up being this guy here, but Beyonce sure as heck didn't sing every song at the 2004 Oscars because all the singers were unavailable that day.

Re: The Little Mermaid performances at the 1990 Academy Awar

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:21 pm
by Escapay
xxhplinkxx wrote:I personally think that guy, whoever he is, butchered the songs.
It's Geoffrey Holder. I recognized him immediately because he played Punjab in the 1982 version of Annie. :P
Ames wrote:Did he play the Genie on Faerie Tale Theatre (or was that James Earl Jones?)...he reminded me of him.
According to imdb, he did play the Genie from "Aladdin", but not in Faerie Tale Theatre! It was in "The Dupont Show of the Month". :lol:

albert

Re: The Little Mermaid performances at the 1990 Academy Awar

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:34 pm
by xxhplinkxx
Escapay wrote:
xxhplinkxx wrote:I personally think that guy, whoever he is, butchered the songs.
It's Geoffrey Holder. I recognized him immediately because he played Punjab in the 1982 version of Annie. :P
That's what I thought but was too lazy to look it up. Yeah, he creeps me out in Annie too. He's just scary.

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:49 pm
by ajmrowland
Wow, just bad. :headshake:

Re: The Little Mermaid performances at the 1990 Academy Awar

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:01 am
by blackcauldron85
Escapay wrote:
xxhplinkxx wrote:I personally think that guy, whoever he is, butchered the songs.
It's Geoffrey Holder. I recognized him immediately because he played Punjab in the 1982 version of Annie. :P
Ames wrote:Did he play the Genie on Faerie Tale Theatre (or was that James Earl Jones?)...he reminded me of him.
According to imdb, he did play the Genie from "Aladdin", but not in Faerie Tale Theatre! It was in "The Dupont Show of the Month". :lol:
Maybe I recognized him from Annie[, then? And, I don't recall seeing "The Supont Show of the Month", but he just looks like a Genie, I guess! :) Thanks! :)

Re: The Little Mermaid performances at the 1990 Academy Awar

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 3:06 pm
by UmbrellaFish
Escapay wrote:
xxhplinkxx wrote:I personally think that guy, whoever he is, butchered the songs.
It's Geoffrey Holder. I recognized him immediately because he played Punjab in the 1982 version of Annie. :P
I haven't seen Annie in years, but that caught me completely by surprise.

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 3:21 pm
by Cordy_Biddle
Geoffrey Holder was also a very talented Broadway dancer in his younger days; he later directed/choreographed several musicals on the stage. :)

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 4:39 pm
by xxhplinkxx
Cordy_Biddle wrote:Geoffrey Holder was also a very talented Broadway dancer in his younger days; he later directed/choreographed several musicals on the stage. :)
Well I hope none of the choreography was anything like what he did on that stage.

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:54 pm
by SpringHeelJack
Neither that nor his performance as Punjab should be indicative of Geoffrey Holder as a whole...

Actually, neither should the 1981 film of "Annie" be indicative of the musical "Annie". Ugh.

Re: The Little Mermaid performances at the 1990 Academy Awar

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:02 pm
by Escapay
Ames wrote:I don't recall seeing "The Dupont Show of the Month"
I'm not surprised since it aired in 1958 :P

albert

Re: The Little Mermaid performances at the 1990 Academy Awar

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:52 pm
by Siren
xxhplinkxx wrote: They should have just had Samuel E. Wright sing it.
Maybe he saw the choreography and costumes and said "screw this" :lol:

But I remember watching this live and thinking....WTF????? I could only describe it one way..."really bad gay" LOL