In an animated feature film, the music is just as important as the story, animation and voice talent, which is why Walt Disney relied on composers such as Richard and Robert Sherman. During a 13-year career with the studio, the Sherman brothers composed hundreds of songs for Disney television shows, theme park attractions and movies, including the Academy Award-winning score for “Mary Poppins.”
In honor of the upcoming release of “The Aristocats Special Edition,” Richard Sherman participated in an online “Q & A” session with journalists and talked about the film, Walt Disney and especially the music that he and his brother composed over the years.
“The Aristocats” Features a Cast of Cats
Originally released in 1970, “The Aristocats” tells the story of Duchess (voice of Eva Gabor), a cat who, along with her three kittens, inherits a fortune from their kindly owner. Unfortunately, a greedy butler tries to get rid of the cats and take all the money for himself.
Duchess and her little family find allies, though, in an alley cat named J. Thomas O’Malley (Phil Harris) and his friends. In addition to the film, the DVD contains plenty of extra features, including a virtual kitten that you can play with.
Walt Disney Preferred Story-Driven Songs
Sherman said that Walt Disney was a great believer in the use of song to convey story. He was primarily a storyman and story-driven songs were his ‘pets.’ He always asked what was going on with the song; he hated ‘singing heads.’ He loved learning about character and motivation through music and lyrics,” Sherman said.
Some “Aristocats” Songs Didn’t Make the Final Cut
An animated film changes quite a bit on the way from the original storyboards to the finished product, which means that many songs, though high-quality, do get discarded. “Naturally, in the course of creation of “The Aristocats,” some songs were eliminated,” Sherman said. “Robert and I had written a number of pieces that we were very fond of, but either the song was replaced by another song that the director and producers felt was more appropriate, or, as I said, the sequence was dropped.
Specifically, in the case of a song that was retained in the film, ‘Scales and Arpeggios’ was written to a sequence where Duchess is instructing her young kittens to practice their music and art lessons,” he said.
Richard and Robert Sherman Wrote Songs for the Characters, Not Necessarily the Actors
Though legendary talents such as Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews have sung the songs written by Richard Sherman and his brother, Sherman said that their songs are written for the picture and the characters in the picture, not necessarily for a particular actor.
“Rarely have we ever written songs for the actors portraying our work. All the songs in ‘Mary Poppins’ were written for Mary Poppins, not Julie Andrews. All the songs in ‘The Jungle Book’ were written for the various animals who sang them, not for the likes of Louis Prima or Sterling Holloway,” he said.
“The Aristocats,” rated G, will be available on DVD beginning on February 5, 2008.
