Day 5: Silly Love Songs

I love love songs. It's the core of what I listen to. The sappier, the better. And with the exception of an occasionally-well-done pop number (not a fan of pop in general so this is very rare), the majority of my love songs are...drumroll...musical theatre. SURPRISE, I know. ;) So to be honest, whittling them down was tough.

SO.

I decided to select the love songs that are not quite...well, that you're like, yeahhhhh...from THAT movie. You know. ;)

And so I must admit that besides the sweeping romance of song like "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera or my very, very favorite song ever, "Somewhere" from West Side Story ("hold my hand and we're halfway there...hold my hand and I'll take you there..." Sigh! How can you argue with that?!), the other large chunk of favorite love songs come from...

Animated films.

I don't know what it is about animated films...but they have the BEST love songs, you know? Seriously!!! And while it may be considered incredibly cheesy to cite a childrens' film as epic love song material, I'm not ashamed of it. :)

So. My favorite animated love songs in no particular order. Complete with mini-commentary and that-one-line-I-adore-and-go-back-over-and-over-to-listen-to-until-the-song-starts-skipping...

"Let Me Be Your Wings" from Thumbelina

"Heaven isn't too far...Heaven is where you are."   

 

Thumbelina is a film I have mixed feelings about. The pluses are it's gorgeous love songs, Jodi Benson, whose animated awesomeness knows NO bounds (hello, Little Mermaid!), and some really cute moments. The minuses include Cornelius' red headed bowl-cut hairstyle (Seriously?! It makes me think of my brother and his friends when we were in kindergarten in the nineties), some not-so-great songs (looking at you, "Yer Beautiful, Baby") and Cornelius' slight lack of invincible heroicness needed for this kind of story (I don't mind a hero who gets beat up, of course...but the whole "I'll get you, you beast" and then pow, the frog knocks him right over. Cough.) ...yeah. All that said, this song is one of my absolute, if not my absolute favorite songs ever, ever, ever. And that line? It gives me the chills every time I hear it. "Heaven is where you are"?! SQUEEEEE.        

 

"If I Never Knew You" from Pocahontas

"If I never knew you, I'd have lived my whole life through
Empty as the sky, never knowing why."   

 

Okay!!! It's a tragic love song. What did you expect from me?! Those of you who've read my blog for a while know my obsession with tragic love stories. Hello, my favorite film couple never end up together. My favorite movie is a tragic love story. So are two of my favorite musicals. How could you think a post of my favorite animated love songs wouldn't include one tragic song?

 

Pocahontas is horrifically inaccurate. Agree. Full of humanistic crud...yeah, I know. But all that aside...it's a gorgeous love story, and to be honest, I consider it more of a "grown up" love story than the other Disney princesses...if it were not animated, it would totally be a romantic drama, not a children's film. All that considered, this song, which was deleted out of the film but included in special editions, is so incredinbly gorgeous and sad and just amazing and I listen to it at least once a week. ;) "If I never knew this love, I would have no inkling of how precious life can be..." Plus it has Cosette and William Wallace singing...erm, I mean Judy Kuhn and Mel Gibson (who knew he could sing?!). And that last line..."Empty as the sky...never knowing why." Yes, I am a sap.

 

 

"So This is Love" from Cinderella

"So this is the miracle that I've been dreaming of...so this is love."

 

Basically this is like, my earliest memory of a "love song". Cinderella is a part of my earliest subconsious and was my favorite princess before Belle and then Rapunzel very-slightly-bumped her...but only very slightly. ;) My romantic three-year-old self would twirl around the room in my Cinderella gown, imagining the day my tall, dark, and handsome came into my own life (yes, I'm sure my ideal man was influenced by my two preschool film crushes, Prince Charming and Gilbert Blythe). Now in my slightly cynical romantic view, there is still a deep-down wish that someday I can say that "this is the miracle that I've been dreaming of"...so I can appreciate it more now that at three. :)      

 

"Beauty and the Beast" from Beauty and the Beast

"Just a little change, small to say the least.
Both a little scared, neither one prepared - Beauty and the Beast."

 

What I love about Beauty and the Beast (Tangled also falls under this) is the fact that it's not love at first sight. It takes time, they get to know each other, and it's not all about the hot hero (although, I'm not going to lie - I'm not saying that we should reform the romance genre  and always make the hero ugly and homely to remedy that. It's half the enjoyment. Let's just admit it and stop trying to rationalize it. What's a good romance (or action flick, or whatever) without a handsome hero? Agreed? Good.) And the gorgeous ball scene is just that crux moment that we've all been waiting for. And Belle is one of my dream theatre roles. So.       

 

"Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid

"Don't stop now, don't try and hide how you want to kiss the girl!" 

 

Ok. I don't advocate casual kissing with people you barely know, of course. But I'm not gonna lie...I love this song. Wouldn't this make the cutest video documenting a couple from when they met to their wedding kiss? Me thinks so. And it just kinda captures those magical moments I love in films when eyes lock and that thought just goes through the hero and heroine's heads...sigh.

"Far Longer than Forever" from The Swan Princess

"Far longer than forever, like no love ever known.
And with your love, I'll never be alone."

 

I'm not the only one who watches this still, right? Please? Thanks. :D Nest Entertainments' films might  not be the best quality when it comes to animation, but their music is always incredible (their Bible films and the Animated Hero Classics) and The Swan Princess is no exception. Plus it's sung by the lovely Liz Callaway and Howard McGillin, who holds the distinction of being the longest-running Phantom on Broadway (a whopping ten years! - go here to hear his "Music of the Night"). Because I Love Her from the third Swan Princess film is a close runner up as total sappiness.    

 

 

"Looking Through Your Eyes" from Quest for Camelot

"It's out of our hands, we can't stop what we have begun
And love just took me by surprise, looking through your eyes." 

 

So I haven't actually seen this...one of those nineties flicks that I somehow missed during my childhood...but someone sent me the link for the song a while back and I absolutely fell in love.  (And this is where "The Prayer" came from, in case you're wondering ;)) 

 

 

"I See the Light" from Tangled

"All those days watching from the windows,
All those years, outside looking in.
All that time, never even knowning
Just how blind I've been."

 

Duh. How could I make a list without mentioning the most gorgeous love scene since the Beauty and the Beast ball scene? The floating lights scene is one of the most gorgeous ever, rivaling any romantic movie I've seen, and Tangled is one of the most adorable love stories Disney has made yet. And this song is just gorgeous, period.

 

Honorable Mention Singles-Valentines-Songs -

 

"Soon" from Thumbelina

"I know there's someone somewhere,

Someone who's sure to find me soon.
After the rain goes, there are rainbows.
I'll find my rainbow soon.

Soon it won't be just pretend,
Soon a happy ending!
Love, can you hear me?
If you're near me,
Sing your song sure and strong

And soon."

 

This is my favorite pining-single-song ever. It just perfectly describes every emotion that we girls feel at one point or another. I will freely admit that through the years the lyrics have popped up in my diary. :)  

 

 



"Somewhere Out There" from An American Tail

"Somewhere out there, someone's saying a prayer
That we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there."

The context may be two siblings trying to find each other, but this song is totally perfect for we pining singles. :) The idea that somewhere out there, he's missing and needing you as much as you're missing and needing him is highly appealing, no? And more often than we may think, it's true. :)
 

"A Dream is A Wish Your Heart Makes" from Cinderella
 "No matter how your heart is grieving,
If you keep on believing,
The dream that you wish will come true."     

 

I've mentioned this in context with waiting and having faith, and I'll just mention it again. :) I remember having a particularly difficult day after my breakup and watching this with my little sister. I freely admit to breaking down sobbing at the end, when all the trials in her life leading up to this moment are resolved and she's happy with the man she loves. A huge smile on her face, she waves to her friends as the song plays in the background. The perfect fairy tale ending. We don't know what the future holds for us as far as marriage is concerned, but losing faith in what God can do cannot be an option.

And there, mine sweets, is my list of Silly Love Songs! So what about you?