Raise your hand if you’ve ever left a Six Flags and thought to yourself, “Gee, I hope they sell a CD or something with that park’s music on it!” Yeah, probably never.
And yet, there’s a cottage industry among Disney fans for exactly this type of product.
The main reason for this is that the music of Disney’s theme parks serves as important a role as any other element. Just as a roller coaster is incomplete without a lap bar, a Disney attraction is incomplete without music of some kind. On some attractions, its purpose is mostly as background noise designed to make the dialogue and imagery pop. On others, it’s the central focus.
In fact, there are a handful of rides and shows that, in the opinion of this writer, owe much of their success to the musical compositions put to use within them. That’s not to say they’d be poor attractions without their signature tunes, but rather, the music is the most important factor in elevating them from merely good experiences to great ones.
Let’s take a look at these attractions, starting with arguably the most famous and beloved of them all:
1. Haunted Mansion
There are so many elements in play that make the Haunted Mansion so iconic – the simple and foreboding ride vehicles, the perfectly creepy architecture, the brilliant use of animatronics and illusions, and the positively genius script all intertwine and interact in such a way that it’s impossible not to ride without feeling just a tiny bit creeped out.
But while all of that is amazing – the script singularly so – I think no one element is more valuable than the ride’s signature song, “Grim Grinning Ghosts.”
Disney’s rides tell a story: They have a beginning, a middle and an end. They increase tension over time, and they (usually) build to a grand climax. The Haunted Mansion is special in that it not only does this thematically, through design and plot, but it does so sonically as well. “Grim Grinning Ghosts,” written by Disney composer Buddy Baker with lyrics by the brilliant X. Atencio, begins with a sonorous, droning organ playing out of tune and, as the show’s energy builds and the ghosts appear before the guests, it coalesces and resolves itself into an eerie melody.
And, at that point, the clever lyrics kick in and the ride shifts into its highest gear.
The musical experience of the Haunted Mansion works because it fits in perfectly with the world of ride itself. The music is diegetic, meaning it’s not meant as any sort of a subconscious signifier. We hear it and it’s part of the story. And it, like the doombuggy, carries us along on our journey to encounter the supernatural.
2. Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean is inextricably linked with the Haunted Mansion in that both attractions are attempting to accomplish a similar feat. With the Haunted Mansion, Imagineers wanted to bring guests inside a haunted house and show them the kinds of magic they are used to seeing on the silver screen. With Pirates, the goal was to take guests inside the world of the seagoing outlaws, again letting them experience something they’re used to seeing on the screen.
And so, it should come as no surprise to learn that both use a similar strategy to achieve a similar goal – they accompany perfect scenic design with a now-famous song.
“Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life for Me,” written by the masterful George Bruns and X. Atencio, is Disney at its atmospheric best. While the song recedes into the background a bit more than “Grim Grinning Ghosts,” it is still very much an important part of the story and provides guests a more subconscious way of interpreting the action depicted in front of them.
The song’s merry vibe is crucial in this capacity. The animatronics themselves are performing rather violent and uncomfortable actions – things like auctioning off women and torturing the town’s mayor. With the wrong tone, Pirates wouldn’t just be a worse attraction, it would be downright problematic.
And yet, for whatever reason, “Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life for Me” seems to dull the edges on all of that. Perhaps it’s the jolly attitude of its singers, or the cute touch of having a dog bark along with the beat, but it somehow works to remind you that what you’re seeing is not only fictional, but OK. Its jovial, carefree attitude is infectious and, when you hear it, you can’t help but think it’s the life for you too.
You know, without all the violence and theft.
3. Soarin’
There is perhaps no ride on Disney property that needs its music more than Soarin’. Without the music, this ride would likely be a mere shadow of the fantastic attraction it is today.
Think about it: What is there to this ride? There’s a gentle motion simulator, recreating a calm and rather uneventful glide above California. There’s the film, grainy and imperfect, showing beautiful landscapes of a state far away. And, well, that’s about it – unless you count Patrick Warburton’s goofy pre-show video (“Even these beauties!”).
And that’s where Jerry Goldsmith’s perfect composition comes into play.
Disney’s attractions don’t need a plot to tell a story, but they do need something. A beautiful collection of images is fine and dandy, but nobody’s paying nearly $100 each day to experience the rough equivalent of an art museum. Soarin’ tells a story, but against all odds, its primary storytelling mechanism is its score.
It ebbs and flows, builds and collapses. At risk of sounding hackneyed (too late!) it soars through your ears and into your heart. Its synchronicity with the film and the motion of the simulator is bewilderingly precise – and, ultimately, it brings together every element of the attraction such that the whole far exceeds the sum of its parts.
There are people out there who don’t like Soarin’, and that’s perfectly fine, but I’d be willing to bet it’s because the music simply doesn’t move them. Without that, the ride loses what makes it special and, at that point, it’s just a nice movie theater.
4. Impressions De France
How do you capture the essence of a country? How do you teach guests a culture with which they are unfamiliar, and give them an understanding of it that reaches them on an emotional level? How do you explain a nation in 15 minutes?
These are the questions Epcot’s World Showcase pavilions have to answer, and for the part, they do alright. No, visiting the World Showcase isn’t going to give you the same experience as actually travelling to those places, but it is something of a reasonable facsimile.
The France pavilion is really no more or less successful than any other, but it sure is more ambitious.
Its film, Impressions De France, is about as old as Epcot itself. It’s the kind of attraction Disney wouldn’t even think about making today – it features very little original music and no Disney characters. It celebrates the culture of France, and that’s it.
But man, it is absolutely stunning.
Without the score, Impressions De France is little more than a nice travelogue, and that’s perfectly fine, but because of the brilliantly curated accompaniment, the ride elevates into something approaching a transporting experience. You may not truly understand France, but you come as about as close as you can without visiting. Sure, it’s probably unfair including it here due to the fact that it features music by Camille Saint Saens, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel (arranged by Buddy Baker), but, I mean, look at that list of names. How could I leave it off?
5. Splash Mountain
Believe it or not, Splash Mountain is based on a Disney movie. It just so happens that the movie on which it is based, “Song of the South,” is disappointingly and uncomfortably racist. And, as such, it has long since been placed into the Disney vault, never to see the light of day again.
However, the film isn’t without any redeeming qualities. In fact, parts of it are downright brilliant.
And so, in the late 1980s, Walt Disney Imagineers did something incredible – they deconstructed “Song of the South” and brought its most charming story and music to the parks. In doing so, they created one of the most ambitious attractions they’ve ever worked on.
Unlike other Disney rides based on their movies, guests riding Splash Mountain have almost certainly never seen the original film. Because of this, the tried-and-true “book report”-style ridethrough popularized by Peter Pan’s Flight and Alice in Wonderland simply wouldn’t work.
Instead, Disney crafted a fully-realized short story and set it to the music of the Southern United States. The result is a ride that feels in every way like an actual Disney film. There’s character development, there’s action and conflict, and there’s a satisfying resolution (and a pretty spectacular denouement).
But, above all else, there’s that charming and catchy score. Splash Mountain would probably work with a replacement-level substitute, but it wouldn’t be nearly as incredible. Songs like “How Do You Do?” and “Ev’rybody’s Got a Laughin’ Place” add color and depth to the world of the attraction and, of course, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” is as enduring and infectious a tune as any.
There’s a school of thought in musical theater dramaturgy that says the only time a character should sing is when they’ve run out of other ways to express themselves adequately. The same is true for theme park music – it is there to express ideas that designers cannot express any other way. Disney understands this better than anyone, and because of that, they’ve been able to create lasting and memorable attractions that work as escapist fun and popular art.
And they’ve sold a lot of CDs doing it.
