Music Series: International Disney

8/24/16: In the midst of life, I am trying to blog more. I have several posts in a series about Music in development, along with some random posts developing as well. I hope to get at least one out once a week for the next few weeks, but it may be more or less, who knows. Anyway, on with the blog!

J.R.R. Tolkien is famous for not only being the author of the stories about Middle Earth, but he is also well known as a professor of philology. He studied languages, their history, and what made words work. He was passionate about languages foreign to his own and found beauty in many of those foreign words, which influenced his creation of the different languages seen and heard in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The Elvish languages can be heard featuring aspects of the Finnish and Icelandic languages for example.

What I imagine Tolkien was hoping Elvish songs would sound like.

Now, obviously the title of this post tells you that this is about Disney and not Tolkien. I brought him up though because I feel like I have experienced the enjoyment and the passion for foreign languages that Professor Tolkien demonstrated. And that is because of Disney. Specifically, songs found in Disney movies, sung in foreign languages.

Disney animated features have been famous for their music, most especially during the Renaissance in the late 80s and early 90s. Most everyone around my age can still sing along to all of the songs from Aladdin, Lion King, Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. There was just something catchy and attractive about the songs, kind of like combining the hooks of musical theatre with the hit power of pop radio (although the songs became more like pop radio in the last few years).

Exhibit A!

Why do I enjoy these songs in foreign languages? I think one of the elements involved is sound. These songs, while structured and pitched the same as in the English version, demonstrate how the sound of words change around the world. Words sound different because the mouth and the tongue is used differently depending on where you are. Another element is the beauty in mystery. I do not really understand what songs are saying in foreign languages, but I know they sound beautiful. I also know that translators attempt to match lyrics as best as possible, so I can still get the general idea of a song even if I do not really know what the characters are singing. I think there is also the fact that most of these sounds and words are new to me. Since I really only speak English, with some Spanish and Latin thrown in, all of these sung words sound new to me, and I think we all enjoy finding something new and mysterious.

Youtube is a fantastic site. One reason is because I can find videos of Disney songs in multiple languages. If Youtube was not around, I probably would not be able to hear an Icelandic or a French or a Japanese version of Disney tunes unless I came across a dubbed copy of those movies. The odd thing is, the best songs, or the most beautiful songs, to me are the princess songs. I am not sure if it's the allure of a pretty feminine voice or if the songs were just written very well or if there are just more songs for female singers in Disney than male singers.

Anywho, below are some samples of some of my favorite Disney songs sung in foreign languages. I chose to, for the most part, connect the language with the setting of the corresponding movie.

Arabic: Aladdin-A Whole New World

Mandarin (Chinese): Mulan-Reflection

French: Cinderella-So This is Love

Greek: Hercules-I Won't Say I'm in Love

Danish: The Aristocats-Thomas O'Malley 

Sure the movie is set in France, but I already picked one for that language. Anyways, this version sounds the closest to the cool vibe from the English.