@people Composer #AlanMenken breaks down how some of our favorite #Disney songs came to be — including #Aladdin classic, #AWholeNewWorld ♬ chill stylish lofi beats(1535963) - Enokido

🌹 A Tale as Old as Time, Re‑Enchanted

Ariana Grande and John Legend’s duet of “Beauty and the Beast” becomes a perfect modern echo of the themes Alan Menken explores in his reflections on five decades of Disney music — the idea that a song can reveal vulnerability, transformation and emotional truth in a way dialogue never could. Their rendition carries the same gentle swell and timeless warmth Menken originally composed, reminding listeners how his melodies bridge eras, voices and generations. Just as Menken describes music as a “shortcut” to emotion, this version of the classic ballad shows how his work continues to evolve while preserving the heart of the story, proving that the Disney–Menken magical world is endlessly capable of renewal.

🎶 🎻✨🏰🎵🌊🌹🧞‍♂️📜🌟🎬🤝🕯️💫🎹 🔊 Beauty and the Beast - Ariana Grande, John Legend

---

---

“Music has that shortcut,” Alan Menken says — a simple phrase that captures the essence of his five‑decade career.

In a new PEOPLE video, the legendary composer opens his songbook and revisits the melodies that shaped the Disney Renaissance and generations of moviegoers.

🎤 Opening – “Music Has That Shortcut”

“Music has that ability just with a few notes to take you somewhere,” Alan Menken reflects, sitting at the piano in his Upstate New York home. His new PEOPLE video becomes a guided tour through his creative world, where curiosity, collaboration and emotional clarity have fueled some of the most iconic songs in animation history.

🌊 A Lifetime at the Piano

Alan Menken’s five‑decade journey through the heart of Disney animation is, at its core, a story about creative devotion — the daily ritual of sitting at the piano and following musical instinct wherever it leads. In a new PEOPLE video filmed at his Upstate New York home, the EGOT‑winning composer revisits the songs that shaped generations, reflecting on how a few notes can transport an audience instantly. That sense of emotional immediacy, he explains, has always been the engine behind his work — the quiet, persistent joy of exploring musical possibility. His reflections offer a rare window into the craft behind some of the most beloved melodies in modern cinema, each one born from collaboration, curiosity and the willingness to chase an idea until it sings.

🤝 The Ashman Era and the Birth of the “I Want” Song

Much of Menken’s early success is inseparable from his partnership with lyricist Howard Ashman, whose storytelling instincts helped define the modern Disney musical. Together, they created the blueprint for the studio’s now‑iconic “I want” songs — numbers that crystallize a character’s deepest longing. Ariel’s “Part of Your World” emerged from that philosophy, a moment Menken recalls with affection and humor as he describes how they jokingly called it “Somewhere That’s Dry,” a nod to its Little Shop of Horrors cousin. Ashman’s gift, Menken says, was giving classic characters a contemporary emotional voice, allowing audiences to see themselves in a mermaid dreaming of a different life. That yearning became the heartbeat of The Little Mermaid and the spark that ignited the Disney Renaissance.

🌹 Beauty and the Beast and the Weight of Loss

Menken carried that emotional architecture into Beauty and the Beast, where music once again became a storytelling compass. The title song — a gentle lullaby sung by Mrs. Potts — was crafted to feel like time passing, “like a clock ticking,” he explains. That subtle sense of movement mirrors the film’s central transformation: two characters learning to see one another with new eyes. The score’s elegance and emotional clarity helped solidify the film as a landmark in animation history, and it remains one of Menken’s most celebrated achievements. Yet even amid the triumph, the period was marked by profound loss. Ashman died in 1991 before the film’s release, a grief Menken says is forever woven into the music they created together.

✨ Reinvention After Ashman: Aladdin and Beyond

After Ashman’s passing, Menken continued shaping the Disney sound with new collaborators, including lyricist Tim Rice on Aladdin. Their work produced “A Whole New World,” though not without early missteps — Menken laughs as he recalls offering Rice a placeholder lyric built around the phrase “the world at my feet,” only to be gently reminded that “feet” might not be ideal for a love ballad. Similar behind‑the‑scenes stories surface as he discusses later projects like Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, where songs such as “Colors of the Wind” and “Out There” elevated the films’ emotional and thematic scope. Even the songs that didn’t make the final cut — like “Proud of Your Boy” or Hercules’ early version “Shooting Star” — reflect the iterative, intuitive nature of his process.

🎹 A Career Defined by Creation, Not Accolades

Looking back, Menken frames his career not as a collection of awards or milestones but as a lifelong commitment to creation. Whether a song becomes a cultural touchstone or remains a beloved outtake, the joy, he says, lies in the act of writing — in the collaboration, the experimentation, the willingness to let a melody guide the story. “The thing you do every day is what you should be doing with your life,” he reflects. For Menken, that daily act has shaped the sound of Disney for more than fifty years, leaving behind a musical legacy defined not just by its iconic songs but by the passion that brought them into the world.

---

🏰 Become Part of a Magical World and step inside the stories you love at Disneyland Paris.

👉 Plan your next adventure here: https://www.disneylandparis.com

#DisneyMagic ✨ #AlanMenken 🎶 #DisneyMusic 🌟 #AnimationLegends 🎬 #DisneylandParis 🏰