Hischak, Thomas S. . Film it with music : an encyclopedic guide to the American movie musical / Thomas Hischak. [0313315388 (alk. paper) ] Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2001.
Call#: Annenberg Library Reference PN1995.9.M86 H57 2001

This encyclopedia has it all, from Bud Abbott to George Zucco, when it comes to Hollywood musicals. Disney’s animated works are sprinkled throughout the text, and Walter himself is credited for taking the first leap into sound film with his early animated shorts. Hischak notes that all of the nineteen feature animations that the Disney company produced during Walt Disney’s lifetime had songs. Among the movie considered musical masterpieces are his early films Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942) as well as some of his later animated fairytales including Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), and Sleeping Beauty (1959).
    Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first movie musical to produce a best-selling soundtrack album in 1944, and it changed the way audiences and studios alike saw children’s movies and animated movies in general, since it was the first feature length animated movie, at 83 minutes long. (p. 304). Mary Poppins was also one of Disney’s largest successes, with Oscars for Best Song, “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and Best Actress, Julie Andrews. For years afterwards, Disney and other studios attempted to copy the successful formula that went into the making of this movie. (p.209).
    The entry in the encyclopedia for The Walt Disney Company continues the timeline, noting the enormous success of Mary Poppins (1964) as the musical that “rivaled those of Hollywood’s golden age.” (p. 343) Following that movie, though, few were really notable until a major resurgence in the early nineteen nineties with year after year of animated musical hits, featuring: The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Mulan (1998), and Tarzan (1999). Many of the individual entries for each of these later movies compare the scores to Broadway musical scores and credit them for reviving what had been a long stretch of unsuccessful attempts in the Disney feature animation department.
    It’s so wonderful to see the scores and songs of Disney animated musicals get the credit they deserve for first creating the identity of Disney features and then reviving that identity after many years of hiatus.