Part of Your World - Miley Cyrus



I saw Bolt over the weekend and was quite happy with what I saw. While I enjoyed Chicken Little, I really didn't like Meet the Robinsons and both movies are not nearly as good as even the worst Pixar films.

Bolt is the third animated feature from Disney Animation since they made the switch from traditional 2D animation to 3D CGI. And it is certainly their best effort to date. The animation is really good with much improvement over facial animation and the movements of the animals. The backgrounds have this beautiful pseudo-realism to them using a stylized painted look that takes us back to the olden days of painted background.

The story, however cliché it may be, was still fun and engaging. The characters are lovable and a welcome addition to Disney's cast of characters, especially the scene-stealing Rhino the Hamster!

The voice work of the film's top billing actors is also really good. John Travolta delivers a great performance as Bolt, altering his voice just enough so that the viewer isn't saying "I can't believe Travolta's voice is coming out of this dog". Cyrus doesn't do much to change her voice so it is the same raspy sounding teen squeak that you may be used to if you are a fan of Hanna Montana. But it fits the character and I guess that's all you can really ask for. Her acting was pretty good especially since it was the animation that did most of the acting for her.

And it is MILEY CYRUS that ties in our cover song today. Here she sings Ariel's ballad Part of Your World, but reworks it into a rock ballad for DISNEYMANIA 5.

Labels: disneymania 5, little mermaid, miley cyrus, Part of Your World, pop

  ¶ 11:09 AM 3 Comments Links to this post

  Kiss the Girl - Ashley Tisdale
Happy birthday to ASHELY TISDALE who is celebrating her 23rd birthday today. Tisdale, who started her career as the girl whose head turns into a giant orange in the Gushers commercials, is best known for her roles as Maddie Fitzpatrick on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and Sharpay Evans High School Musical.

Ashley will reprise her role as Sharpay Evans in the upcoming High School Musical 3: Senior Year which is actually getting a theatrical release rather than premiering on the Disney Channel like the last two.

While Ashley hasn't really branched out of the Disney world since becoming famous, she has branched out into other areas of media. She has released her own pop/rock record and has provided the voices of a few Disney characters including Candace Flynn in Phineas and Ferb, Camille Leon in Kim Possible and the Lead Blueberry Scout in A Bug's Life.

Kiss the Girl is a small sample of her music. While most of her stuff falls in the ultra-cheesy pop catagory, this song is a fun, high-energy version of the Little Mermaid ballad. I actually kind of like it a lot.

Kiss the Girl Ashley Tisdale 2007

Labels: ashley tisdale, disneymania 5, kiss the girl, little mermaid, pop, rock

  ¶ 11:03 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Two Worlds - Corbin Bleu
The star of High School Musical and Jump In! turns 19 today! CORBIN BLEU, the Disney Channel star, is a year older. Aside from staring in the mega popular High School Musical and other various Disney Channel TV movies and guest appearances on various Disney Channel TV shows, Corbin has also released one album of Disney pop (which I like to call D-pop). It was a huge success with tweens everywhere.

For DISNEYMANIA 5, Corbin took a shot at singing Two Worlds, the other Phil Collins single from Tarzan. It's not bad. I kinda like the funk groove that is used in the chorus, but then the chorus doesn't really fit in when it reverts back to that Phil Collins style. Oh well, a least it doesn't suck.

Two Worlds Corbin Bleu 2007

Labels: corbin bleu, disneymania 5, pop, tarzan, two worlds

  ¶ 7:24 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  I Wan'na Be Like You - Jonas Brothers
The Jungle Book arrives on DVD today and to celebrate I have turned this week into a Jungle Book week! And to celebrate I have chosen a song that you find on the DVD as music video bonus feature.

THE JONAS BROTHERS are one of those 'Disney Channel' bands, having done music for various different Disney Channel shows and Disney movies. And they are not strangers to covering Disney songs. Their covers have already been on a few DISNEYMANIA cds and Special Edition DVDs.

I really like their treatments. They blend their pop/punk style with the tunes so well that I would imagine they actually wrote the song. Whether or not you are a fan of this genre, you have to admit that they do a good job. If the Jungle Book was made today I bet King Louie would be into punk rock like this rather than jazz.

I Wan'na Be Like You Jonas Brothers 2007

Labels: disneymania 5, i wan'na be like you, jonas brothers, jungle book, pop, rock

  ¶ 7:22 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Cruella De Vil - Hayden Panettiere
Hi there. I'm Jamie from over at Fong Songs, a music blog devoted mostly to cover songs and other music I'm interested in. Kurtis invited me to guest post over here and I eagerly accepted since I'm a Disney cover lover myself. With the 2nd season of Heroes starting this week, I thought it'd be apropos to discuss a Disney cover by Heroes star Hayden Panettiere.

The cute-as-a-button HAYDEN PANETTIERE plays the cheerleader Claire Bennet whose special power is "spontaneous regeneration", or alternatively, Wolverine's super-healing on steroids. Panettiere has provided voiceovers for several Disney projects. These include Dot, the little princess ant, in Pixar's A Bug's Life; Suri, a lemur, in Disney's 2000 computer animated film (non-Pixar) Dinosaur; and even the voice of Kairi in the Disney/Final Fantasy mash-up video game Kingdom Hearts and its sequel. She was also in the Disney Channel original movie Tiger Cruise... so as you can see, she is no stranger to the Disney empire. Let us all hope she doesn't become the next Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan, though her upcoming debut album due this year or next is setting off warning bells. This bit of trivia surprised me: she was nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for A Bug's Life Read-Along, but lost to something read by Kate Winslet.

Here, Hayden tackles the song Cruella De Vil from Disney's 101 Dalmatians. As with most songs from the DISNEYMANIA series, it suffers from being a wee bit overproduced. But it's not that bad and it's catchy. I'm quite partial to Dr. John's version, but let's leave that for another day. Thanks very much Kurtis for letting me be a guest on your blog. Swing by my blog to check out some Heroes-themed tracks. See you next time, folks!

Cruella De Vil Hayden Panettiere 2007

Labels: 101 dalmatians, cruella de vil, disneymania 5, hayden panettiere, pop

  ¶ 2:55 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Colors of the Wind - Vanessa Hudgens
VANESSA HUDGENS has been making quite a name for herself here on the internet. So I decided to post a song that the Disney Channel and High School Musical star recorded a few years back for DISNEYMANIA VOLUME 5.

This is what I like to call a karaoke cover. There really is nothing special about this version of Colors of the Wind. The music is plain and ordinary. Whoever reworked the music didn't really out any effort into making it special. And Hudgens doesn't go out of her way to do anything with her vocals to make this version better than the Pocahontas original.

I do like that she included the 'You think I'm an ignorant savage' part at the beginning. It shows that this is actually a cover of the movie version of the song and not the radio version. But other than that, the song is pretty drab. But that is my opinion. What do you think?

Colors of the Wind Vanessa Hudgens 2007

Labels: colors of the wind, disneymania 5, pocahontas, pop, vanessa hudgens

  ¶ 9:32 AM 1 Comments Links to this post