Poor Unfortunate Souls - Jonas Brothers
The Little Mermaid was one of the first movies I saw in the theatre and the first Disney movies I saw in the theatre. So imagine being eight years old and seeing Ursula, an octopus sea-witch, casting evil magic spells, turning merpeople into little plants and growing several stories high! She was frightening!
But looking at her character now, I can see even more evil in the form of sneaky deception. Her true goal is taking down King Triton for banishing her from the kingdom many years earlier but this is not revealed until the climax of the film. The whole movie makes you think that she is playing with Ariel's mind for no reason other than to have fun, but then -BAM!- she reveals that she has had a plan all along! That's my kind of villain!
Poor Unfortunate Souls is a song from which I never thought we'd hear a good rock cover. I thought it to be too 'showtuney'. Too much starting and stopping and playing with tempo. But the JONAS BROTHERS proved me wrong with the amazing cover! They cut a bit of the 'showtuney' parts out of the middle but the rest is there and it rocks!
A few of the lyrics are changed to remove any mention of magic. I'm not sure why.
ORIGINAL: They weren't kidding when they called me, well, a witch.
COVER: They weren't kidding when they called me kinda strange.
ORIGINAL: And I fortunately know a little magic.
COVER: And I fortunately know a little secret.
ORIGINAL: They come flocking to my cauldron, crying "Spells, Ursula, please!"
COVER: They come flocking to me, crying "Will you help us, will you please?"
I can only assume that Disney wanted to make the song a little more kid friendly. Or maybe the Jonas Brothers don't believe in magic and only agreed to the song if they could change the lyrics. Who knows?
A cover of Poor Unfortunate Souls was one of the earliest request I got so I am happy to be able to finally fill it. Have a great weekend!
 | Poor Unfortunate Souls Jonas Brothers 2006   |
Labels: jonas brothers, little mermaid, little mermaid soundtrack, poor unfortunate souls, rock
posted by Kurtis at
11:59 AM
Stumble It!
6 Comments:
I believe I read that they changed it because of the really big "magic is bad" thing that Christians are inforcing and the Jonas Brothers besides being the pet Disney band are mainly considered Christian music. Oh well I still like this!
I must say that this is one of the worst of the Disney covers in my opinion, and I usually like the Jonas Brothers. I unfortunately(no pun intended) think they butchered the song.
I think tink is right on this one...the Jonas Brothers, being Christians, probably didn't want to record a song that mentioned magic. Although I'm a Christian, yet don't see anything wrong with it. *shrugs*
My parents didn't let me see The Little Mermaid in the theatre because they thought it was "New Age." Same with Aladdin. It took convincing from other people (mainly our friends at church) to finally get my parents to let me see them.
Magic aside, it sounds like they were trying to sing it as themselves. They also change "I'm a very busy woman" to "I'm a very busy person" and "Flotsam, Jetsam" to "Nick and Kevin."
They probably changed the words to suit them. Creative freedom. For example, they really couldn't play "Stand By Your Man" without changing many words, otherwise it would be weird. Many peole have done, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Just seems like you either forget the words to a song or you just change it to what makes you most comfortable. But all-in-all, they’re amazing, I can’t wait to go to one of their shows on the upcoming Summer tour. Hey, guys, did you know that the Jonas Bros are currently nominated for Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards? I just voted for the guys over at http://www.nick.com/shows/specials/kca they’re nominated for FAVORITE MUSIC GROUP. Will you guys help me vote? Please? Also, check out the site, you can even download this really cool widget, (hint: play around with it and watch what happens). They have a video mixer on there. featuring funnyman JACK BLACK (he’s hosting again, yessss!!) I’m working with Nick right now to spread the word out, pass this message along if you get a chance. Oh, btw, the awards air on MARCH 29th @ 8PM
WHO DO YOU GUYS WANT SEE GETTING SLIMED?
(All three brothers, I think that would be soooo hot. Hehehe)
Wow. That last comment started out as a legitimate comment until it turned into spam. Please don't leave spam on my site.
I'm happy to see the debate going strong! This isn't the only Jonas Brothers song to change the word to suit a PG audience. I'll talk about that more when I post the song.
Also, to comment on coolshades comment, my wife, who came from a very, very legalistic Christian background, was not allowed to see Little Mermaid as a kid, not because of the magic, but because Ariel defied her father and got rewarded for it in the end.
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