It’s time to take another look into the Toon Talk Jukebox to check out the latest Disney CD releases, from June 2001 to the present:

Album Title: Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Album Type: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
What’s Good About It: Composer James Newton Howard (Dinosaur) ably transitions between stirring adventure themes for Milo’s team and exotic melodies for the City of Atlantis.
What’s Not So Good About It: The boring Diane Warren end credit ballad “Where the Dream Takes You”.
Toon Talk Rating: B
Purchase From The LaughingPlace Store

Album Title: Beauty & the Beast: Special Edition
Album Type: Special Edition Soundtrack
What’s Good About It: Superb packaging, with complete lyrics (not included in original soundtrack), beautiful artwork and cardboard slipcover. The only place to find “Human Again” sung by the film’s original cast and a previously unreleased track, an early score for “Death of the Beast”.
What’s Not So Good About It: Instead of taking the opportunity to place the tracks in the order of the film (not to mention include the film version of “Gaston”), the producers simply tack on a couple demo recordings from The Music Behind the Magic box set of a few years back. Still, Beauty & the Beast is one of the greatest movie musical scores of all time, even if they fumbled on making the soundtrack even better then before.
Toon Talk Rating: B-
Purchase From The LaughingPlace Store

Album Title: Disney’s Magic in the Streets: Parade Memories
Album Type: Theme Park Album
What’s Good About It: Featuring the full scores for three of the new parades from Walt Disney World’s 100 Years of Magic Celebration, plus a “Suite of Dreams” composed of the themes from all four parades. Filled with familiar Disney tunes, “Share a Dream Come True” and “Disney Stars and Motorcars” are irresistible, but you’ll be humming and dancing along to “Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade” even if you haven’t seen the parade.
What’s Not So Good About It: The character voices throughout don’t add much to the recording. Generic cover art (what, no pictures of the actual parades?). Oh, and three words: “Tapestry of Dreams”.
Toon Talk Rating: A-