Toon Talk CD Round-Up: House of Mouse & Michael Crawford
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(c) Disney
The Disney Album
Michael Crawford
Music of the Bright
Click to purchase from Amazon.com
Michael Crawford, one of most popular performers in international theater today (Tony-winner for the long running The Phantom of the Opera, the upcoming Dance of the Vampires), has released several successful solo albums covering the best of Broadway, Hollywood and pop standards. His latest CD turns to the canon of Disney music, simply titled The Disney Album.
The CD cover recreates a classic Walt Disney photo, and the result is either presumptuous or blasphemous depending on your point of view. It's only the first misstep in this disappointing project.
At a scant ten tracks, the album consists almost entirely of songs from the past seven years, from The Lion King to Aida, save for a token nod to the classic period, Dumbo's "Baby Mine". Nothing from Snow White ("One Song" would have been a good vocal match) to the Howard Ashman trilogy (even though Ashman is included in the liner notes). Not even the oft-covered "When You Wish Upon a Star" makes an appearance.
Instead Crawford has selected what he terms "contemporary standards"; in other words, songs whose dull end-credit versions have been heard ad nauseam on MOR radio stations for years. There's nothing particularly wrong with these choices per se, but the production on the majority of them varies little from standard adult contemporary blandness. After awhile, all the tracks sound the same. Never thought I'd say this about an album of Disney songs, but it's boring.
Crawford has also chosen songs that, no matter how good the voice, should really not be sung by a 59 year-old man. There's something slightly disturbing at his invoking the muse of a teenage Chinese girl in Mulan's "Reflection", and it only gets creepier on Toy Story 2's "When She Loved Me". One half expects him to be singing the Pochantas part in that film's "If I Never Knew You". (Sherie Rene Scott, Aida's original Amneris, does the honors. Crawford also croons her 11th hour show-stopper from that show, "I Know the Truth".)
When the producers do attempt any variations, it's either with distracting background vocals (Chanting "just around the riverbend" at the beginning of Pocahontas' "Colors of the Wind") or cloying arrangements (an utterly insipid music box melody for "Baby Mine").
One exception is "The Lion King Medley", which does maintain the pop lushness of the original film and current Broadway show, both of which are represented: "Circle of Life" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from the former, "He Lives In You" and "Shadowlands" from the latter. (Although, it must be said, "Shadowlands" is just used as an instrumental bridge.)
Crawford's trademark is an impressively high-ranged tenor combined with the ability to fully express the emotions of the music through his voice. Anybody who has seen or heard his "Music of the Night" from Phantom can attest to that.
Unfortunately here, he forgets to act. There's no passion, nothing to distinguish one song, one character's voice, from the other. He's not telling the story of the song, something so very important in Disney music, but simply saying the words and hitting the right notes. When he finally does cut loose on the last track, Toy Story's "I Will Go Sailing No More", it's to little, to late ... and frankly, a bit embarrassing too.
Outside of die-hard Michael Crawford fans and Disney music completists, there's not much of interest here.
Toon Talk Rating: C-
Toon Talk Trivia:
Michael Crawford starred as the title character in Disney's 1981 adventure comedy Condorman.
The music video for Crawford's version of "Baby Mine" will be one of the bonus features on the upcoming Dumbo DVD, due for release October 23rd.
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Related Links
- Purchase the House of Mouse Soundtrack from Amazon.com
- Purchase the Michael Crawford CD from Amazon.com
- List of all Toon Talk columns
-- Kirby C. Holt
Kirby is a lifelong Disney fan and film buff. A frequent contributer to the LaughingPlace.com Discussion Boards, he currently resides near one of the Happiest Places on Earth: Orlando, Florida.
Took Talk is posted whenever Kirby has something to review or talk about.
The opinions expressed by our Kirby C. Holt, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future plans of the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted September 21, 2001