A writer has to "pitch" ideas--to editors--over and over again. It's an awful, hateful part of life.
One thing Howard Ashman pitched was the thought of converting Sebastian the crab from an English butler-type to a Caribbean fellow. Ashman wanted to explore Caribbean music. The pitch worked. "Darling, it's hott-a....down in the wat-a....."
Another Ashman pitch: "Aladdin should be the tale of a ne'er-do-well trying to reform and to please his perpetually-aggrieved mother, or grandmother." This pitch did not work. Many of Ashman's "Aladdin" ideas were eventually trashed, because the characters didn't "pop"; I think this massacre was known, at Disney, as "Black Friday."
I think Ashman was an enthusiastic maker of "pitches," and I think, when he had to draft a song, a natural angle he would take is "the salesman approach." How can I work myself into a possible mindset for Sebastian? Well, maybe he's selling something. I know what it's like to try to sell something.
*An Ashman "salesman" song: "Under the Sea." The pitch: Abandon your dreams and stay underwater. "The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake; you dream about going up there, but that is a big mistake." Excellent, epigrammatic lines, worthy of Dorothy Parker. Would a crab talk about grass being greener? No. He would talk about seaweed.
*Another: "Be Our Guest." "Let us entertain you..." "You're alone, and you're scared, but the banquets are prepared...." Another: "Prince Ali." "Please buy into the myth I'm trying to create here." "Prince Ali! Fabulous he! Ali Ababwa!"
*Ursula is making a pitch in "Poor Unfortunate Souls," and Sebastian, once again, uses a song to try to get what he wants (I'm thinking of "Kiss the Girl").
*I think these songs are so infectious because Ashman himself was bursting with zeal and with ideas, and so he had very little trouble imagining some *characters* who were also bursting with ideas.
*I don't love "Mermaid"'s second half in the way that I love "Mermaid"'s first half. I wish that Ariel had more agency in defeating Ursula; the work is done mainly by crafty seals and seagulls, and of course by Eric. I do like the playful Shakespearean use of assumed identities; it's exciting to imagine what might happen if you were literally speaking with someone else's voice. (And Jodi Benson has great fun with the character of "Vanessa." Benson's work is slightly under-appreciated, if you ask me.)
*All that said, what a thrill when Triton grants Ariel her new pair of (permanent) legs. A bittersweet moment--well-executed.
You wonder if you've now heard the last about "Little Mermaid"? My pitch to write about Ashman was just dropped by Slate, so I'm feeling eager to spell out precisely what that publication is missing. Anyway: Happy Friday!
One thing Howard Ashman pitched was the thought of converting Sebastian the crab from an English butler-type to a Caribbean fellow. Ashman wanted to explore Caribbean music. The pitch worked. "Darling, it's hott-a....down in the wat-a....."
Another Ashman pitch: "Aladdin should be the tale of a ne'er-do-well trying to reform and to please his perpetually-aggrieved mother, or grandmother." This pitch did not work. Many of Ashman's "Aladdin" ideas were eventually trashed, because the characters didn't "pop"; I think this massacre was known, at Disney, as "Black Friday."
I think Ashman was an enthusiastic maker of "pitches," and I think, when he had to draft a song, a natural angle he would take is "the salesman approach." How can I work myself into a possible mindset for Sebastian? Well, maybe he's selling something. I know what it's like to try to sell something.
*An Ashman "salesman" song: "Under the Sea." The pitch: Abandon your dreams and stay underwater. "The seaweed is always greener in somebody else's lake; you dream about going up there, but that is a big mistake." Excellent, epigrammatic lines, worthy of Dorothy Parker. Would a crab talk about grass being greener? No. He would talk about seaweed.
*Another: "Be Our Guest." "Let us entertain you..." "You're alone, and you're scared, but the banquets are prepared...." Another: "Prince Ali." "Please buy into the myth I'm trying to create here." "Prince Ali! Fabulous he! Ali Ababwa!"
*Ursula is making a pitch in "Poor Unfortunate Souls," and Sebastian, once again, uses a song to try to get what he wants (I'm thinking of "Kiss the Girl").
*I think these songs are so infectious because Ashman himself was bursting with zeal and with ideas, and so he had very little trouble imagining some *characters* who were also bursting with ideas.
*I don't love "Mermaid"'s second half in the way that I love "Mermaid"'s first half. I wish that Ariel had more agency in defeating Ursula; the work is done mainly by crafty seals and seagulls, and of course by Eric. I do like the playful Shakespearean use of assumed identities; it's exciting to imagine what might happen if you were literally speaking with someone else's voice. (And Jodi Benson has great fun with the character of "Vanessa." Benson's work is slightly under-appreciated, if you ask me.)
*All that said, what a thrill when Triton grants Ariel her new pair of (permanent) legs. A bittersweet moment--well-executed.
You wonder if you've now heard the last about "Little Mermaid"? My pitch to write about Ashman was just dropped by Slate, so I'm feeling eager to spell out precisely what that publication is missing. Anyway: Happy Friday!
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