Eight time Oscar-winning composer and EGOT recipient Alan Menken created some of the greatest film scores in cinematic history. Any composer would be thrilled to have only created the scores to Disney’s animation renaissance unofficial trilogy of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. But he did not stop there. His scores range from more Disney classics (The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a personal favorite) to Little Shop of Horrors (brilliant) to Broadway versions of his major works.
Glenn Slater is a Grammy and Emmy-winning lyricist who received Tony nominations for his work on Broadway’s The Little Mermaid and Sister Act. He also partnered with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber on Love Never Dies, the divisive, cult favorite sequel to Phantom of the Opera.
Now, the pair again reunite after collaborating for over 25 years on Netflix’s newest animated film Spellbound. An original story produced by John Lasseter, the film features the vocal talents of Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) as Ellian, Princess of the Lumbria kingdom. When her parents are mysteriously turned into unruly monsters, Ellian must figure out a way to break the spell that has enchanted them. Just because Ellian is a princess, though, don’t expect traditional Disney princess stereotypes.
“When we talk about, the ‘Disney Renaissance,’ the Rosetta Stone for the ‘Disney Renaissance’ was actually Little Shop of Horrors for me and Howard [Ashman].The use of genre, the structure, the way we created the score and the world… Really we used to refer to ‘Part of Your World’ as ‘Somewhere That’s Wet’,” Menken laughed. “So, we took from musical theater and infused that into the world of Disney fairy tales or princesses, but the fact is that these are all emotional journeys of aspiration. In this case, we take one of aspiration that what [Ellian] gets at the end is not what she was aspiring for. It is profound and emotionally meaningful.”
When approaching the material, Menken and Slater took a cue from early project artwork that had a Spanish influence. That provided a starting point, but the extremely emotional focus of the material led the team to look more broadly to create the final score. They eventually pulled influences from Indian, Arabic, Brazilian, and Eastern European countries into the mix.
The broad mixture of originating countries avoided establishing the film in any specific location.
“We wanted to make sure there were enough different influences that you could never quite pinpoint exactly where it is because it’s not a place that exists. But we also wanted to have some musical identifying features that would remind audiences of a tricky dance in which one person is trying to convince another person, not unlike a tango or a flamenco,” Slater explained. “We wanted to give that sense of uninhibited street performances and joy that you would get from like a Brazilian carnival without necessarily saying you’re in Brazil.”
One of the highlights of the song creation process for Menken and Slater was in breaking down the song “Remembering.” Traditionally, songs within an animated film fall into one of a few categories: the “I want” song, a broad comedy song, or a big production number (think “Be Our Guest”). Through this number, characters begin to regain past memories in a very quiet and subtle journey.
It’s that journey that helped Menken and Slater understand that the moment really needed a song.
“Alan came up with a set of melodies for each of the characters that kind of interlocked and worked together in this sort of almost Rubik’s Cube of emotion where one thing turned and another thing turns and each time the character makes a turn, it makes the other character turn a bit,” Slater recalled. “By the end of the song, you’ve gone on this great journey with them, but they’ve been standing still, sitting there the entire time.Yet, they’ve taken this great leap together.”
Spellbound drops on Netflix today.
Listen below for my full interview with Spellbound composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater.
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