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If you spend time with young children, surely you’ve noticed they tend to develop a deep attachment to the word “again.” Play hide and seek, again. Make macaroni and cheese for dinner, again. Watch that same episode we’ve seen 300x, again. Yes, we all know repetition is a powerful learning tool, but we also know too much of the same thing makes adults want to…let’s go with, step away from children? We’ve all been there, no judgment. While there are countless categories ripe for repetition, one stands out as the most painfully irritating to adults — the request/demand to “play that song again!” And again. And again. And…oh you get it.
Working off that assumption, it’s a safe bet you’ve heard one song more than any other on repeat for months everywhere you go because it’s truly been inescapable. Heck, I don’t have kids or Disney+ and even I know it! Maybe you still love it. Maybe it’s grating on your nerves. Maybe your feelings about it depend on the day of the week. Wherever you land on the like or dislike scale, there’s no denying that even though I haven’t mentioned the song’s title, just because we don’t talk about “it” doesn’t mean we don’t know what I’m talking about. Yes, of course, “it” is the global number 1 smash “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the Disney film Encanto.
There is a reason why “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” has been everywhere, and we mean everywhere. It’s the undeniably potent Disney magic. From the start, Disney movies have known that if you include beautiful, funny, instantly hummable songs in your film, the audience will be hooked. Walt Disney said it best himself, “There’s a terrific power to music. You can run any of these pictures and they’d be dragging and boring, but the minute you put music behind them, they have life and vitality they don’t get any other way.” Ain’t that the truth.
With the 94th Annual Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards, aka the Oscars, coming up, we thought it might be fun to look at a category Disney has dominated time after time with the Best Oscar-Winning songs From Disney movies. For those keeping score, Disney has had 42 songs nominated and walked away with 14 wins. And while “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” isn’t nominated this year (that honor went to “Dos Orugutias”), it’s still a winner of a song and the latest entry to the deep canon of Disney.
Read on for our favorite Oscar-winning songs from Disney movies below.
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“When You Wish Upon a Star” from ‘Pinocchio’
Image Credit: ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection. What it must have been like in 1940 to see an animated cricket named Jiminy sing this song for the first time on the big screen. This gentle ballad’s parental hope is perhaps the most iconic of the Disney movie songs. While it once belonged to Pinocchio, it now belongs to all of us. “When You Wish Upon A Star” was the first Disney song to win an Oscar and has been the signature song for Disney productions and parks for decades.
Listen to the song here.
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“Under the Sea” from ‘The Little Mermaid’
Image Credit: ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection. Ah, the Disney Renaissance. 1989-1999 was the decade when Disney released hit after magical hit and it all started with The Little Mermaid. The story of an innocent redheaded mermaid named Ariel who longed for adventures — and one good-looking prince — on land. In a film filled with incredible songs, “Under the Sea,” stood out because it was just so fun. The song was driven by a bouncy calypso beat that was a stark contrast to the more traditional ballads the Disney princess genre was known for. It also served as the launching pad for songwriters Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s incredible run with Disney.
Listen to the song here.
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“Beauty and the Beast” from ‘Beauty and the Beast’
Image Credit: ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection. I challenge you to find another song as perfect as the titular track from this 1991 film. 30 years after its release, the song is still magical, fresh, and timeless. Perhaps that’s because it was popularized by two very different voices. First in the film by Tony winner Angela Lansbury (who, to the masses of the early ’90s, was known primarily for playing amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher) and then as a duet between one of the greatest voices of our time, Céline Dion, and Peabo Bryson. That such different versions could connect so deeply with audiences proves the power of this song, which encourages us to accept differences and grow together. I think it’s safe to say this song was destined to be a classic.
Listen to the song here.
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“Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from ‘The Lion King’
Image Credit: ©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection. This power ballad from The Lion King is the first, and to my knowledge only, Oscar-winning Disney song written by two knights, Sir Tim Rice and Sir Elton John, and what a song it is! Much like “Beauty and the Beast,” this song as it appears in the film and on the radio elicited a different scale of emotions. In the film, Nathan Lane’s Timon serenades the young soon-to-be lovers, Simba and Nala, with romance and hope but closes the song choking back tears with the realization that his young friend is outgrowing him.
The Elton John radio version, which highlights both the tenor and baritone timbres of Elton’s voice, is all romance. Some may say it’s schmaltzy but I say it’s gorgeous and clearly, I’m not alone as it won the Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe and continues to be a fan favorite in Elton’s live show.
Listen to the song here.
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“Chim Chim Cher-ee” from ‘Mary Poppins’
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection. 1964’s Mary Poppins has always felt more like a traditional musical than a movie-with-music to me. That could be because the soundtrack has 16 songs — 16 songs with lyrics! Hindsight being twenty-twenty, as much as I enjoy the sweetness of “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” it’s surprising that none of the more popular songs from the film won the trophy since they became such a meaningful part of popular culture. “Spoonful of Sugar,” “Let’s Go Fly A Kite,” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” I’m talking to you.
Listen to the song here.
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“A Whole New World” from ‘Aladdin’
Image Credit: ©Buena Vista Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection. Ahhh, young love. I remember it well. Those inescapable feelings of endless possibilities. Sigh. No other Disney song captures that deep exhale of bliss quite like this love song between Jasmine and the title character, Aladdin. And again, those voices? Fresh from her Tony win for Miss Saigon, Lea Salonga imbues Jasmine’s dreams of love with a kaleidoscope of colors. Not for nothing, this duet is incredibly fun as a karaoke jam. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
Listen to the song here.
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“Let It Go” from ‘Frozen’
Image Credit: ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection. Talk about inescapable — 2013’s Disney juggernaut, Frozen, the first of the princess genre where the female lead isn’t rescued by a prince (can I get an Amen?), focused on the bond between sisters and the inherent challenges faced when one has special powers that terrify her. I read that the husband and wife duo who wrote the music for Frozen, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, wanted this song to have an emo feel, and after learning that, you know what, I hear it.
Powered by the earth-shaking voice of Idina Menzel in the film, the intensity of this song, and I speak from experience here, is best exhibited when scream-sung by a child under the age of 7.
Listen to the song here.
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