Like so many Australians, some of my earliest musical memories came from watching Disney movies. Songs like “We Are Siamese” and “Once Upon a Dream” became early favourites. My parents bought my sister and I the read-a-long books with cassettes, and while the stories were fun, it was always the bonus songs at the end that got us dancing. When music makes such an early impression on you, I don’t think it ever really leaves your heart. So when I heard of the Disney Under the Stars concert, I snapped up tickets.
I expected my husband and I would be one of the few childless couples. However, most of the people in our immediate area were in the same boat, adults unashamed of their passion for Disney. We discussed our favourite movies and characters until Chong Lim and his orchestra took to the stage and treated us to an instrumental medley of some of Disney’s most beloved songs, complete with an animated background of movie moments.
David Campbell, Ricki Lee, Lucy Durack, and Harrison Craig soon joined the musicians for “Part of Your World” from Aladdin. It was a wonderful start to a night that combined nostalgia, magic, and fun, all of the essential Disney elements.
There were so many highlights that took me back to some of my favourite film memories. Ricki Lee might have looked more like Ariel than Lucy Durack, but the blonde stage star carried off the animated mermaid’s signature song “Part of Your World” beautifully. Ricki Lee did her part playing the princess roles too, with superb solo performances of “Colours of the Wind” and “Let it Go.” I’d heard David Campbell sing “I Wanna Be Like You” from The Jungle Book at his shows before, but it lost nothing despite the familiarity. Speaking of David, his performance of one of the songs from The Hunchback of Notre Dame was one of the true showstoppers. I also loved seeing him pal around with Harrison Craig in “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.” A rambunctious group performance of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” had everyone clapping and singing along. The good versus evil dichotomy of Lucy Durack and Ricki Lee’s performance of “Once Upon a Dream” was really inventive, although I can’t help thinking it was a little dark for those little girls dressed as princesses in the crowd.
It’s very hard on a night like this to please everybody. As an older concert goer, I could have done without the three (or was it four?) songs from Frozen played. While I enjoyed “Mother Knows Best” from Tangled and “Touch the Sky” from Brave, I could have easily given them up for a few older Disney tracks. I felt for the woman sitting in front of me who adored Cinderella, yet didn’t get to hear one song from this film. Some of my personal favourites, Dumbo and Robin Hood, were also neglected. But for the younger crowd, there’s never enough Frozen, and those new movies are the one they have fond childhood memories of. While big kids like me could have fun on a night like this, it’s perhaps more important the smallest members of the audience are not left feeling short-changed. Sometimes tells me it’s what Walt would have wanted.
Image source: own photos