WDW Daily News

Disney Interactive and Harmonix today announce the official release date for the award-winning music and motion video game, “Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved,” along with new content to be revealed at this year’s E3.   The breakthrough musical motion video game inspired by Disney’s classic animated film “Fantasia,” will be available worldwide for Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft and Kinect for Xbox 360 on October 21, 2014.

At E3, the team will follow last year’s standout performance where it received awards from Game Critics for ‘Best Social/Casual Game,’ GameSpot for ‘Best of E3,’ Polygon for ‘Editor’s Choice,’ and Game Informer for ‘Best Music/Rhythm Game.’ This year’s show will set the stage for new multiplayer gameplay and reveal the latest musical additions, along with a vibrant city realm, “The Neighborhood.”

In “The Neighborhood,” players will work their way through a restrained 2D urban cityscape, using music and magic to unleash a vibrant and magical 3D environment by interacting with billboards, rooftops, trains and other surprises hidden within the city landscape.  Through this mind-bending experience, players will watch and listen as their movements create bold colors and whimsical music that make “The Neighborhood” a fantastical adventure.

Read more

Walt Disney Records’ newly created line of collectible CDs, Walt Disney Records The Legacy Collection, will celebrate the anniversaries of Disney’s most cherished and classic properties that have been enchanting audiences for generations.  Through 2015, Walt Disney Records will celebrate 12 anniversaries including “Pinocchio” (75th), “Fantasia” (75^th), “Cinderella” (65^th), “Lady and the Tramp” (60^th), “Sleeping Beauty” (55^th), “Mary Poppins” (50^th), “The Lion King” (20^th) and “Toy Story”  (20^th), among others.

To honor these musical landmarks, Walt Disney Records The Legacy Collection will feature the beloved original soundtracks, plus valuable documentary content that tells the story behind the music.  Each album will feature newly created artwork from Lorelay Bove, a visual development artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios (“Tangled,” “Winnie the Pooh,” “Wreck-It Ralph”).  The illustrations, inspired by the original properties, will celebrate Disney’s rich heritage and create a unified look for the entire collection.

The first release in the series is The Lion King, a two-disc set featuring the original motion picture soundtrack, 30 minutes of previously unreleased score, plus liner notes by Don Hahn (producer) and Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.  Track list follows:

Disc One

1. “Circle of Life/Nants’ Ingonyama” Performed by Carmen Twillie, African Vocals Performed by Lebo M
2. “Didn’t Your Mother Tell You Not to Play With Your Food” Score
3. “We Are All Connected” Score
4. “Hyenas in the Pride Land” Score
5. “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” Performed by Jason Weaver with Rowan Atkinson and Laura Williams
6. “Elephant Graveyard” Score
7. “I Was Just Trying to Be Brave” Score
8. “Be Prepared” Performed by Jeremy Irons with Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin and Jim Cummings
9. “Simba, It’s to Die For” Score
10. “Stampede” Score
11. “Mufasa Dies” Score
12. “If You Ever Come Back We’ll Kill You” Score
13. “Bowling for Buzzards” Score
14. “Hakuna Matata“ Performed by Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella with Jason Weaver and Joseph Williams
15. “We Gotta Bone to Pick With You” Score
16. “Kings of the Past” Score
17. “Nala, Is It Really You?” Score
18. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” Performed by Joseph Williams and Sally Dworsky with Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella and Kristle Edwards
19. “Remember Who You Are” Score
20. “This Is My Home“ Score
21. “The Rightful King” Score

Disc Two

1. “The Morning Report” Performed by James Earl Jones, Jeff Bennett and Evan Saucedo
2. “Warthog Rhapsody” Performed by Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella
3. “We Are All Connected” Score Demo
4. “I Was Just Trying to Be Brave” Score Demo
5. “Stampede” Score Demo
6. “Mufasa Dies” Score Demo
7. “This Is My Home” Score Demo
8. “The Rightful King” Score Demo
9. “Circle of Life” Instrumental Demo
10. “Circle of Life” Performed by Elton John
11. “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” Performed by Elton John
12. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (End Title) Performed by Elton John

Members of D23: The Official Disney Fan Club will get a chance to hear some of the music before it’s released during the D23 Disney Fanniversary Celebration roadshow, which will tour the country later this year, and D23 Members have the opportunity to purchase the complete collection with a special set of exclusive lithographs at a special price.

The release schedule for Walt Disney The Legacy Collection follows:

HitFix staffers put their heads together and ranked their Top 20 Disney Songs Of All Time, and just maybe “Let It Go” made the cut.   Let us know on twitter what your favorite Disney songs of all time is.

Full List

The Platinum-certified Frozen soundtrack maintains the No. 1 slot on the Billboard Top 200 album chart spending nine non-consecutive weeks in the top position according to Nielsen SoundScan.  Selling 149,000 copies in the week ending April 6, the soundtrack has sold 1.9 million copies and 5.9 million combined digital tracks in its 19^th week of release.  Frozen is the first album to sell a million units in 2014 and is expected to cross 2M sales later this week.

The Oscar-winning song “Let It Go,” performed by Idina Menzel, has sold over 3 million copies and has been certified triple Platinum.  The track is in the Top 15 (*12) at Mainstream AC radio and is #26* and climbing at Adult Top 40 radio.  “Let It Go” is currently the #4 song on the iTunes singles chart and #3 on Billboard’s Digital Song chart.  The film video version of Idina’s “Let It Go” has been viewed more than 178M times on YouTube and Demi Lovato’s  “Let It Go” music video has surpassed 125M views.  Lovato’s version of “Let It Go” has sold over 1M copies and has been certified Platinum.

The album maintains its No. 1 position on Billboard’s Soundtrack Chart, peaked at No. 1 on the iTunes Overall Chart (and in 35 countries), plus Amazon’s Overall Music Category, Pop, Soundtrack, MP3 Soundtrack and Overall MP3 charts.  The Frozen album has held the #1 position for 7 non-consecutive weeks at Spotify, and worldwide has exceeded 135M album streams.  In the UK, the album is the #1 overall best-selling album this week.

The soundtrack features eight original songs from Oscar-winning songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and songwriter Robert Lopez plus score by the composer of last year’s Oscar-winning short “Paperman,” Christophe Beck.

The Frozen soundtrack, the Frozen two-disc deluxe edition and the digital deluxe edition soundtrack (featuring 23 and 27 additional tracks respectively, including demos, outtakes and a “Let It Go” instrumental karaoke track) are available at physical and online retail.

The Disney Karaoke Series: Frozen album will be available in physical and digital formats on April 15.  The physical album will feature all 8 songs from the film with CD + Graphics (CD + G) technology which allows the song lyrics to appear on a television screen when played in a CD + G machine.

For more information on Walt Disney Records’ releases, please visit Disney.com/music, become a fan at Facebook.com/disneymusic or follow us at Twitter.com/disneymusic.  To purchase Disney music, visit the online store at www.disneymusicstore.com.

The cast of the new Broadway smash, Disney’s Aladdin is currently in the studio laying down tracks for the Original Cast Recording of the show, to be released by Walt Disney Records digitally on Tuesday, May 27th.  The physical album is set for release on Tuesday, June 17th and will also be available for purchase in-theater.  The Aladdin Original Broadway Cast Recording will be produced by Alan Menken, Michael Kosarin, Frank Filipetti and Chris Montan and executive produced by Kurt Deutsch.

Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, Aladdin features music by Tony Award® and eight-time Oscar® winner Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Sister Act), lyrics by two-time Oscar winner Howard Ashman (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid), three-time Tony Award and three-time Oscar winner Tim Rice (Evita, Aida) and two-time Tony Award nominee Chad Beguelin (The Wedding Singer), with a book by Beguelin, and is directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon).   This new production features a full score, including the Oscar and Grammy® winning hit “A Whole New World,” and four other cherished songs from the film and multi Grammy-winning original motion picture soundtrack.  The cast album also includes four Menken/Beguelin songs written especially for the stage and three Menken/Ashman songs that were cut from the original film, plus exclusive bonus content created especially for the album.

Disney’s Aladdin, the new musical comedy based on the Academy Award®-winning animated film, opened to critical acclaim on March 20^th, 2014 at Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre. USA Today raves, “Pure GENIE-US! Aladdin delivers a rush that will surprise you.” The Associated Press exclaims, “Disney hits magic again…a wonder to behold!” while The New York Times hails the show as “Fabulous… Extravagant!” and the Daily News declares, “Seriously, it’s amazing!”

Aladdin stars Adam Jacobs (Les Miserables, The Lion King) in the title role, Courtney Reed (In the Heights, Mamma Mia) as Jasmine, James Monroe Iglehart (Memphis, The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) as Genie, and, as Jafar, Tony Award nominee Jonathan Freeman (Mary Poppins, The Producers, She Loves Me) brings to the stage the role he indelibly created in the animated film.  The show also stars Brian Gonzales, Brandon O’Neill and Jonathan Schwartz as Aladdin’s sidekicks Babkak, Kassim and Omar, Clifton Davis as Sultan and Don Darryl Rivera as Iago.

The Aladdin Original Broadway Cast Recording is available in theater and for pre-order at http://www.aladdinthemusicalstore.com and Amazon.com.

For more information on Walt Disney Records’ releases, please visit Disney.com/music, become a fan at Facebook.com/disneymusic or follow us at Twitter.com/disneymusic.

For more information on Aladdin, visit AladdinTheMusical.com.  Connect with Aladdin on Facebook.com/Aladdin and Twitter.com/Aladdin.

The week-long Music In Our Schools national bus tour, sponsored by Disney Performing Arts, was a collaboration with the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and Big Machine Label Group. Read more on the Disney Parks Blog: http://bit.ly/1i9Ntm

)