Lecture and Film: Animation Musicals by Disney & THE LITTLE MERMAID

Animation Musicals by Disney – On the Analysis of Musical Conventions with regard to Dramaturgy, Constellation of Characters and Songs

Lecture and Film

Animation Busicals by Disney – On the Analysis of Musical Conventions with regard to Dramaturgy, Constellation of Characters and Songs

Feature-length animation films by Disney often copy conventions, structures and design principles of the musical or its predecessor operetta. Most of the time they are a mixture of (musical) dialogues, songs of the protagonists – often based on conventional musical song forms – and dances. Prof. Dr. Claudia Bullerjahn will demonstrate this using SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937), THE JUNGLE BOOK (1967), THE LITTLE MERMAID (1989) and THE LION KING (1994) as examples.

THE LITTLE MERMAID Arielle, die Meerjungfrau
USA 1989 Director: Ron Clements, John Musker. 83 mins. Original language version with German subtitles.

With THE LITTLE MERMAID the studio returned to the classical musical form in 1989. Composer Alan Menken, who celebrated numerous other Disney successes in the 1990s and 2000s, won in both categories for “Best Original Score” and for “Best Original Song” (for “Under the Sea”) at the Academy Awards.

The exhibition The Sound of Disney. 1928-1967

Our special exhibition The Sound of Disney. 1928-1967 presents the sound world of Disney classics from August 7, 2020, through January 10, 2021. The exhibition explores the use of music, sounds and dialogues in the original films as well as in the various dubbed versions. It focuses on the period from the short Mickey Mouse cartoons and films from the popular SILLY SYMPHONIES series from the 1920s and 30s to the feature-length masterpieces created during Walt Disney’s lifetime (1901 – 1966): from SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (US 1937) to THE JUNGLE BOOK (US 1967).