Now that Disney+ is nice and settled in, and we’re seeing how well they’re doing with original content, here are three things I need from Disney.
A (True) Live-Action Lion King
When The Lion King was announced as the next “live action” Disney reproduction a few years ago, I was super excited. The creators had been broadening the stories that had been remade already, and if Beauty and the Beast was a good example, they’d bring in some of the themes from the stage play, even if they didn’t use many of the songs. Have you heard the music from The Lion King? The difference between the movie and the play are practically night and day. The stage play from beginning to end, with all the chants and other music added by Lebo M and a few other songwriters is so joyous, so intense, so lush, so…African. It would be a hell of an experience onscreen, even with all the CGI.
And then, they started to announce the voice actors. And I knew there would be no chance in hell they’d be using songs from The Lion King: The Broadway Musical. Lebo M., an exile from South Africa, helped write some of The Lion King (the chants, mostly) and then became pretty much the man in charge of turning a relatively musically flat cartoon into a 2.5 hour stageplay. He extended “Circle of Life”, wrote some amazing chants and choral pieces, and helped Tim Rice and Friends work on the solo songs that bring depth to the characters and breadth to the story. Songs like “They Live/He Lives In You” and “Shadowlands” and (sobbing) “Endless Night.” (Keep in mind, the musical version was written after Apartheid was dismantled and all of that Zulu music is joyous AF.) Bey might be able to pull of “Shadowlands,” but there was no way Childish could do justice to “Endless Night.” (Yes, I am a complete theater snob and I acknowledge it.)
I mean, just look at this. LOOK AT IT. (PS: Rafiki is in my top five dream roles.)
So now that we have this platform where you can just…make whatever you want, Disney, give us a live recording of The Lion King: The Broadway Musical. Use an archive recording I’m sure you’ve got somewhere of the Original Broadway Cast, or make a Newsies-style production where you record a live performance and do the other shots you need on a soundstage. Gather an all-star cast a la the Les Miserables anniversary shows or just use whoever is on Broadway right now, because I’m sure they’re amazing.
But we wants it, precious. So much. Give the world the experience of the majesty that is The Lion King, live.
Fantasia 2020
One of the first things I put on after subscribing to Disney+ was Fantasia, followed by Fantasia 2000. I love putting it on in the background, and sometimes I even watch it with my full attention. One of the things that got said attention during my first watch of Fantasia 2000 in almost 20 years was Steve Martin talking about the original idea for Fantasia: that every time you saw it in theaters, there would be something new.
That stuck with me for more than one reason, but the primary one is obvious: actual diversity. It’s amazing to watch Fantasia and then watch the newer one, just for representation in the orchestra alone. There are women who aren’t playing the harp, and there are people of color who aren’t cartoons. It’s gorgeous. But they’re still playing music by white people, white men, and while I haven’t done as much research about the animations, I’ll bet the same can be said for those. So here’s what I want:
An ongoing Fantasia project (I’ll take full credit for the title Fantasia 2020, even if it’s not produced in 2020—Fantastia 2000 didn’t come out in 2000 either) that, while still giving us the option to watch “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and “Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria”, also directly commissions new pieces by women and composers of color, in both music and visual arts. Expose the wildly enormous platform you have to contemporary classical music and give someone with a vision a voice.
Aida 2.0
Remember back in the early 2000s, when there were only three Disney stage plays on Broadway? Beauty and the Beast, the OG one. The Lion King, which made Disney gobs of money and is still running. And Aida, Elton John and Tim Rice’s next project that is still the only Disney stage play that isn’t a reimagining of a previously existing Disney property.
We’ve seen from High School Musical The Musical The Series that the people producing content for Disney+ did not get the short end of the stick. So let’s have a complete film version of Aida—go full out Cleopatra on that shit. Hundreds of singers and dancers, giant sets, brilliant costumes. Get a blend of up and coming and big-name singers and actors. Hell, see what Heather Headley is up to.
Maybe update the script a little bit. It was written before Intersectionality became a mainstream conversation, after all.
Even if I’m the only one who watches it, the number of streams would be astronomical. No lie.
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There is so much I’d like to see come through the Disney+ lens. There are projects that people are dreaming up right now that would have the best life there. There are novels and other properties that Disney might even be the best fit for. I want all of them to have homes, and Disney has the means to get them developed well and produced. I just hope they make good choices, for everyone’s sake.
These ideas are drops in the bucket for Disney, costwise. So let’s see it. Put your Diversity Money where your mouth is.
Meanwhile, I’m gonna go sob over Gargoyles.