Weird.

25. Once Upon a Dream (Sleeping Beauty, 1959)



Sung by Aurora and Prince Philip
Performed by Mary Costa and Bill Shirley
Music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky Lyrics by Jack Lawrence and Sammy Fain


Best Lyric: And I know it's true that visions are seldom all they seem.

This song is sort of cheating, because the melody is not Disney; it's from Tchaikovsky's 1890 ballet of the same name. But I really don't care, because the song is enchanting nonetheless, and the lyrics are original. Sleeping Beauty is notable in that it is the first time the princess and the prince get to spend much time together before falling in love, and this song illustrates that perfectly. It's a more believable love story than Snow White or Cinderella for sure. "Once Upon a Dream" is the perfect dance tune; it's easy to imagine oneself waltzing around the room with the love of our lives. And I really like Lana Del Rey's recent cover of the song for the film Maleficent; honestly I think it would have been cool to hear dark versions of "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" sung by the stepmother and "The Bare Necessities" sung by Shere Khan, but oh well. Disney gets off scott free here for re-purposing someone else's song purely because the creation is still so magical nonetheless.

24. Gaston (Beauty and the Beast, 1991)




Sung by Lefou, Gaston, the Bimbettes, and Townspeople
Performed by Richard White, Jesse Corti, Mary Kay Bergman, Kath Soucie, and Beauty and the Beast Cast
Music by Alan Menken Lyrics by Howard Ashman


Best Lyric: Gaston: And now that I'm grown, I eat five dozen eggs so I'm roughly the size of a barge!

Gaston really deserved to be nominated for an Oscar along with the other songs from Beauty and the Beast, but nonetheless, it's a great song on its own. The lyrics are probably the funniest that Howard Ashman ever wrote, as he describes Gaston's manly pursuits, whether it's eating a truckload of eggs for breakfast every morning or using antlers in all of his decorating. Gaston is made to look even more like a buffoon than he already did before, and makes his dramatic evil actions later in the film all the more shocking. Even the reprise, where you can see Lefou and Gaston making a plan, you would never guess that it would be as awful a plan as it is. Gaston is Disney's best drinking song; I've never been to Gaston's Tavern in Disney World, but it would be cool if the guy playing Gaston would lead the guests in a few rounds of this song. Ironic really that the film's most fun song would be sung by the villain, but that's how it is. It's also notable as the only villain song to be sung without having to do with the villain's evil plan (reprise notwithstanding).

I'm a fan of "Are You In Or Out?" from Aladdin: King of Thieves. Will it not be on the list?

Songs from the DTV sequels were not considered.

23. A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes (Cinderella, 1950)



Sung by Cinderella
Performed by Ilene Woods
Music and Lyrics by Mack David, Jerry Livingston and Al Hoffman

Best Lyric: Have faith in your dreams and someday your rainbow will come smiling through.

If Snow White introduced the idea of each princess having a signature song, Cinderella cemented its legacy. While it's not a traditional "I Want" song, "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes", is a marvelous little ballad that Cinderella sings to her animal friends. The lyrics are romantic, and like "When You Wish Upon a Star" before it, assures the listeners that dreams really do come true. Whether or not you believe this, the song is irresistible due to the combination of Woods' sultry voice, the classic sound of the melody, and the optimistic, endearing lyrics. It's not as nuanced in its intentions as "So This is Love" and "Sing Sweet Nightingale", which develop Cinderella with hardly any meaningful lyrics, "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" wears its heart on its shoulder, and that isn't a bad thing.

22. Friends on the Other Side (The Princess and the Frog, 2009)



Sung by Doctor Facilier
Performed by Keith David
Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman

Best Lyric: And if you was married...you'd be pushed around by your wife.

The Princess and the Frog has a pretty good soundtrack, but this is probably the best or one of the best villain songs that Disney has ever written. It most closely resembles "Poor Unfortunate Souls" in it structure, but this song is more successful in a few ways. First of all, Dr. Facilier isn't as obviously evil as Ursula at first, making his upbeat song more shocking at its conclusion. The animation sequence with the cards is one of the most creative that Disney has done, and it really makes me sad that we will probably never get another 2D animated flick, because I have no idea how they'd achieve this or the demons in CG. His plan also isn't as obvious as Ursula's, and the way he tricks them is a little more believable (green, meaning frog not money like he thinks), when Ariel doesn't even look at the scroll when she signs it. This is a song that has to be seen to be believed.

21. Let it Go (Frozen, 2013)



Sung by Elsa
Performed by Idina Menzel
Music and Lyrics by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez
Winner of the 2014 Best Original Song Oscar

Best Lyric: My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around.

Based on the still enduring popularity of this song 3 years after release, you'd think this would have to be the best Disney song ever. Personally, I don't even find it to be the best song from "Frozen" but even if you are totally and undeniably sick of this song, you cannot deny that iy is epic in every sense of the word. Menzel sings the hell out of the song, which has a very wide range of notes and is quite difficult (even for her, if you've seen her try to perform the song live). The song begins with Elsa, walking through the snow, afraid of her powers and what she could end up doing, but by the end of the song, she has fully realized the extent of not only her power, but her newfound freedom to do as ever she pleases. The animation as she build the ice castle, transforms her dress and slams the window shut is just jaw dropping in its execution, and exudes both awe and a real "fuck yeah!" from the audience. This song has become an anthem for anyone who feels they have to hold back a part of their personality for fear of persecution, in particularly the LGBTQA community, and given the richness of the music and lyrics, it isn't hard to see why.

I think Let It Go is a Top 10 song.

For the First Time In Forever is my favorite

I did say Let it Go wasn't the best Frozen song...

because obviously the troll song is the best.

"Let It Go" is such a catchy, annoying song.

Top 6 prediction

I'll Make a Man Out of You
Colors of the Wind
Just Around the Riverbend
Part of Your World
A Whole New World
One Jump Ahead

That's another annoying song! I hope that isn't in the top ten.

Idea for your next list, zwackerm.

Top 100 Non-Disney Animated Movie Songs

Other than the GOAT animated musical South Park, Anastasia has some good ones

For the top 20, I'll do 2 a day. For the top 6, I'll do one a day.

Coming up today we've got a song about a children's toy and a song involving brutal law enforcement.

I don't know enough. I've seen like American Tail and Prince of Egypt and that's it.

20. Let's Go Fly a Kite (Mary Poppins, 1964)



Sung by Mr. Banks, Bert and Ensemble
Performed by David Tomlinson, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Poppins Cast
Music by Robert B. Sherman Lyrics by Richard M. Sherman

Best Lyric: "Up through the atmosphere, up where the air is clear!"

I love this song. It's probably the most joyous overall of the Mary Poppins soundtrack, with the film's main conflict between Mr. Banks and his children finally being resolved and them going off to play in the park with the newly mended kite. It has often been remarked that the mended kite is an analogy for the newly mended Banks family, and I'm not going to dispute that. It's some of Disney's (or Travers, I'm not familiar with the original novel) most obvious symbolism, but it's effective nonetheless. The melody truly sounds like how the family feels and where they are going to send the kite: high up in the atmosphere, gallant and triumphant, and the lyrics are just utterly full of bliss. And this is not the highest ranking Mary Poppins song...

19. One Jump Ahead (Aladdin, 1992)




Sung by Aladdin, Guards, and Townspeople
Performed by Brad Kane, Jim Cummings and Aladdin Cast
Music by Alan Menken Lyrics by Tim Rice

Best Lyric: Aladdin: "Better throw my hand in, wish me happy landin', all I gotta do is jump!"

"One Jump Ahead" has two drastically different renditions in Aladdin. The original, full version is an operetta style tune in the style of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. This version is fun, and really develops Aladdin's Robin Hood type "it's okay to steal since I'm poor" attitude. But where the song truly soars is its reprise, sung by Aladdin in the alley after he is told he will die a street rat. It serves as his "I Want" song, and while it is short, it foreshadows Aladdin's longing for fame and fortune. Really, it is a wonder Aladdin and these sequences turned out as wonderful as they did considering all of the backstage drama that went down between Jeffrey Katzenberg and the original writers and storytellers, particularly Howard Ashman. He had originally intended Aladdin to be a story of Aladdin desperately trying to impress his mother, but this storyline was scrapped, including the original "I Want" song written for Aladdin, "Proud of Your Boy". The song was not deleted until after Ashman's death, and it is a little sad to think how after all Ashman had done to spur the new renaissance, Katzenberg dismissed his ideas for the film altogether and took it in a whole new direction. We were lucky that One Jump Ahead worked, but it would be awesome to see an alternate version of the film that followed Ashman's original vision for it.

Tomorrow coming up we have a song whose title is a pun, and another song about cabin fever.

I can't really think of any pun songs (unless "I'll Make A Man Out of You" is enough of a pun), For the First Time In Forever is likely the cabin fever song

I won't have a computer till tomorrow, so this list is delayed for a day.

18. Arabian Nights (Aladdin, 1992)



Sung by The Peddler
Performed by Bruce Adler
Music by Alan Menken Lyrics by Howard Ashman

Best Lyric: Aladdin: "Where they cut off you ear if they don't like your face; it's barbaric, but hey, it's home!"

The best opening numbers is Disney movies set the tone perfectly for what is to come in the rest of the run time, and Arabian Nights is as good as any other; possibly only The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast have stronger ones. The peddler is introduced as a sort of narrator for the film, though he really isn't seen again. I believe this is because the genie and the peddler are supposed to be the same character. Like Mulan, Aladdin captures the sound of the geographical location it takes place in, with this song in particular having a very middle East flavor. This was the one song that the Arab-Americans found offensive in the film, and thus the lyric which I have picked as the best is now on many recordings as "where its flat and immense and the heat is intense". I don't think this is as good as the original lyric, but I still love the song, and it's a really fun one to sing as well.

17. Out There (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1996)



Sung by Judge Claude Frollo and Quasimodo
Performed by Tony Jay and Tom Hulce
Music by Alan Menken Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Best Lyric: Quasimodo: Out there among the millers and the weavers and their wives! Through the roofs and gables I can see them!

With the notable exception of Tangled, the "I Want" song in any Disney movie is one of the best, if not the best, songs in the film. "Out There" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame is such an underrated gem, I honestly cannot fathom how the entire soundtrack failed to receive any original song nominations. While the "wishing to see the outside world" type I want song was replicated for Tangled AND Frozen, I do believe this one is especially different, because the warnings that Frollo gives Quasimodo are actually somewhat true. He is different in that he actually does have persecution to fear from the outside world (as is seen in Topsy Turvy), even if it's not to the degree that Frollo tells him. I really love the melody and think it's probably overall the strongest in the film, even if the elements combine in another song in the film a tad better. And the ending with the doves as the camera pans out on the cathedral and the score plays is magnificent. Truly epic stuff that doesn't get enough credit.