Favourite soundtrack from a Disney animated movie?

[Necronopticous]

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[Shiny]

Be a man
We must be swift as the coursing river
Be a man
With all the force of a great typhoon
Be a man
With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon

Nuff said

That's the only catchy, fun song in the whole movie. Mulan is awesome, but not its music. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, and several others (most Disney films prior to Mulan, basically) have consistently awesome background music and songs. =P

See? Debbie knows this, too.

"Sha la la la la, the music play - do what the music say - you got to KISS THE GIRL!"

No wai. "Reflection", "Honor us All", and a "Girl Worth Fighting" for were good too. Mostly, because a few of them had humorous lyrics. If you want to count the 98 Degrees song then be my guess, but I dislike them. I don't even remember Snow White's music, so it must not have been that catchy.

[Marshall Banana]

No wai. "Reflection", "Honor us All", and a "Girl Worth Fighting" for were good too. Mostly, because a few of them had humorous lyrics. If you want to count the 98 Degrees song then be my guess, but I dislike them. I don't even remember Snow White's music, so it must not have been that catchy.

Eh, they're okay; they fit the movie well is all.

You don't remember Whistle While You Work, Heigh-Ho, or Someday My Prince Will Come? Oh, my. =O

[LunarWeaver]

I'll go with The Little Mermaid. Poor Unfortunate Souls is my favorite Disney song, and the others were nice as well. I always like the villain songs and I had the villain toys when I was a kid. I don't want to know what this says about me.

[Kossage]

Mulan is awesome, but not its music. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, and several others (most Disney films prior to Mulan, basically) have consistently awesome background music and songs. =P

Now you're making Mr. Smiles sad. See?

It's interesting that a few people say that Mulan's music isn't awesome. Yeah, it isn't the best Disney music stuff out there, but it's still quite good. I'll divide my analysis into two sections, one for the songs and the other for the score.

SONGS:

Although the songs aren't necessarily as good as the ones in, say, certain Menken-scored Disney films, they're by no means bad. After all, there's a great song "Reflection" which is amazing in its intensity and the way it's performed (particularly in the Finnish version). Another wonderful song is "I'll Make a Man Out of You" which not only is a catchy song, its lyrics are relevant to the story at hand (like in "Reflection") and it actually furthers the story quite a bit and gives us a truly epic moment when Mulan finally succeeds in getting to that arrow.

"Honor to Us All" and "Girl Worth Fighting For" are more of a comedic mold than epic stuff, but they work relatively well in the context and although they're a bit silly, to me they're catchy as well and aren't as obnoxious as, say, some songs in certain Disney sequels. Heck, the only remotely annoying song for me is "True to Your Heart" which is played at the end of the film and during the end credits. It isn't appropriate to the style of other songs, and the pop kind of approach is out of place and irritating.

SCORE:

Although I could in some way understand that people might not like the songs for various reasons, I'd be amazed if people said that the underscore is bad as well, because frankly speaking it isn't. This of course depends on one's taste (like whether you enjoy classically-oriented, orchestral, complex film scores or not), but the fact is that the score's done by the great late Jerry Goldsmith who was a skilled composer and had created multiple great scores to great films and not-so-great films. Goldsmith was well versed in his craft and in Mulan he didn't disappoint: he combined synths, western orchestra and choir with Chinese instruments, and the end result is a spectacular action score with lots of romanticism.

There are quite a few interesting themes oozing with excitement, dread, tragedy and lyrical romanticism, and even the 'silly' music (like during the hilarious scene with the Matchmaker) isn't simple mickey mousing but is consistent with the rest of the score and develops various themes subtly underneath. Some of the themes are simple yet effective: a great example is the threatening theme for Shan Yu which describes the character well with powerful percussion and the like. I also like the way how Goldsmith occasionally refers to the themes of the songs themselves as well and doesn't neglect them.

Only one cue in the film differs radically from the style of the rest of the score, and that is "Mulan's decision" scene. The soundtrack has the original orchestral version of the cue whereas in the film Goldsmith used a 80s type of synth and orchestra combo to show the rebellious nature and determination of Mulan when she cuts her hair, and it works surprisingly well in the context of the film (not to mention the scene itself is among the most memorable of the whole film and the turning point).

The choir is used sparsely but in good spots like the Main Titles and in the end when people show their gratitude to Mulan, and it really gives an ethereal quality to the music as a whole. The action stuff is bombastic and threatening when the Huns are prominent, but there's still enough heroism injected into it, particularly when Mulan shows up, and the way themes are developed during this moment is complex and exciting.

I also like the way how the tragic moments are developed and how music truly enhances the scene: a good example of this is the burned-out village scene where Shang learns what happened to his father and the troops. Without Goldsmith's appropriate music this scene wouldn't have been as effective as it is now, and the same can be said about the massive Hun attack and avalanche scenes during which the score really elevated the scenes to a memorable status.

This is getting long enough, so in summary I'll just say that in my opinion the songs aren't Disney's worst and that they actually are quite nice and occasionally very memorable, particularly the emotional ones such as "Reflection" and "I'll Make a Man Out of You" as I explained earlier in this post. Goldsmith's score, whether you like it or not, is still leagues ahead of Menken and Zimmer in complexity as far as composition goes (which is understandable considering Goldsmith's role in scoring films). Both the songs and the score fit into Mulan well and elevate it to some extent. Don't get me wrong: as much as I like the music in Mulan in the way how charming and complex it can be, I don't consider it the best Disney soundtrack even though it's enjoyable. However, for me it's still among the best Disney soundtracks for the reasons I've mentioned, and it was a worthy follow-up to Hercules as far as music goes.