The Soundtracks of Mr. DAPs’ Life
Today I thought I’d start a new series of posts on something that I absolutely love… soundtracks. If you follow me on twitter, you have probably read my random tweets about a certain soundtrack or song from a soundtrack. So I’m going to take my love of soundtracks (many of them Disney) and share them with you. I won’t get into all the music techno jargon, but I will tell you what I like about whatever soundtrack I’m talking about and what I dislike. For me a good soundtrack tells a story as much as the actors do in the movie. In a perfect world, there are specific themes for specific characters or segments. A very effective soundtrack not only takes me through the story, but also takes me on an emotional journey.
All of that being said, it’s time to pick my first Soundtrack of Mr. DAPs’ Life. There are a lot of different soundtracks I could pick but there has been one specific soundtrack that has been popping into my head over the course of the last few days. Beauty and the Beast is that soundtrack. The version I like is the Original Motion Picture release. I am not as big of a fan of the newer version that came out later.
The original soundtrack to Beauty and the Beast is divided into two sections. The first half of the album includes songs that are sung from the movie. It is interesting because this album tells the story twice in many respects. First through the songs written by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman. It is a movie that is built around the music and the songs are some of the best in the Disney catalog. It begins with that amazing Prologue and narration that really sets up the entire story and things just get better from there. Highlights for me are Be Our Guest and Beauty and the Beast. There really is no bad song on this album and all of them are memorable.
While I do enjoy the songs from Beauty and the Beast, I LOVE the score to this movie. This is what takes this movie to the level of greatness that it has achieved in my humble opinion. There are moments of dark heaviness when telling of the Beast’s plight. There are light uplifting moments as that throughout the movie in moments of happiness and hope for the future. All this to say, there are a lot of different moods portrayed through the movie. There are definitely some themes that are coupled with characters and the themes are altered to fit the mood of the current scene. My favorite musical moment is towards the end of the soundtrack when the transformation has happened and there are several different variations of Beauty and the Beast. It captures the moment and I just can’t help but feeling happy when I hear it.
If you don’t have Beauty and the Beast’s original motion soundtrack, this is one I’d highly suggest picking up or downloading it. My first copy of it was on cassette tape back when it first came out. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Make it a GREAT day!
Mr. DAPs
