HOWARD ASHMAN:
Howard Elliot Ashman was an American playwright, lyricist, and stage director. In May 1950, he was born into a Jewish family in Baltimore, Maryland. His father, Raymond Albert Ashman, was an ice cream cone manufacturer.
After his graduation from Indiana University, he moved to New York City, where he worked as an editor. Later, he collaborated with Alan Menken (one of his old classmates) on more than one musical, including Little Shop of Horrors, for which he received a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics and a Grammy Award nomination (he ultimately did not receive a Grammy).
In 1986, Ashman started writing song lyrics for Disney. He was a big influence and was one of the reasons why Disney movies became so musical-like. Together with Menken, Ashman wrote all the songs for The Little Mermaid. He also worked on Beauty and the Beast, and he pitched the idea of an animated musical adaptation of Aladdin to Disney; for this, he and Alan Menken wrote a few songs and a screenplay. At the end, out of the sixteen songs he and Menken wrote for Aladdin, only three made it to the final piece. For all his work, Howard Elliot Ashman received seven nominations for the Academy Awards, of which he won two; nine nominations for Grammy Awards, of which he won four; and six Golden Globe Award nominations, of which he won two. His most famous work is the song Under the Sea, which he and Menken created for The Little Mermaid.
THE DISNEY RENAISSANCE:
The Disney Renaissance happened in 1998 and 1999, when Disney fell back to where it originally started; making animated musicals. All of these animations were well reviewed, also by critics, and were overall a hit.Some movies were re-creations of old stories, and some new ones. The Little Mermaid, a well known animation about a mermaid wanting to experience life as a human, started The Disney Renaissance. The larger part of Disney’s movies before this were perceived as mediocre. The word “renaissance” has been adopted to mean “rebirth”, so this time marked a new era for Disney. The 1970s and 1980s were rough for Disney, Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, had recently died (Walt in 1966, Roy 1971). On top of that Don Bluth (a prestigious animator at Disney, and later CEO) left, taking 15 fellow animators with him. This led Disney into bad times, bringing out mediocre movie after mediocre movie, until the Little Mermaid, which was the first of many well reviewed movies, such as Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Hercules, and others, all within just one year. Many of these movies would go on to receive musical stage adaptations as well. After the Renaissance era, the Experimental era started, from 1999 ranging until this very day.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- Why did Ashman have such a positive impact on Disney’s popularity? What appeal did musicals have?
- What were the effects of Ashman and Menken’s consistent collaboration? Would the Renaissance have had the same effect had Ashman been working alone?
CREATIVE IDEA: Write one or more songs for a classic Disney movie in the style of the Disney Renaissance. Consider the changes necessary to turn the movie into a musical.
the pva creative writing review 