Saturday, October 16, 2021

A Disney/ABBA Connection

 


First of all, let me tell you, not all is scary and bad in the world when we have a situation like this one appear out of nowhere. Did not see this coming, absolutely thrilled!!

I have never talked about this, so it's kind of an exclusive:  Sometime in the mid 1980s I suggested to Disney Animation's management to consider the guys from ABBA ( Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus) to lend their musical genius for any upcoming Disney animated production. You know what? The studio DID get in touch with them. Unfortunately at that time the guys were busy with their brilliant theatrical musical CHESS, the West End as well as the Broadway production. Bad Timing. 

Don't get me wrong, I am super thrilled with what happened instead. Howard Ashman, Alan Menken, Elton John and Tim Rice. They all did brilliant work for our movies. Actually Tim Rice wrote the lyrics for the London West End version of CHESS. So there is another ABBA connection. 

I can't help but wonder if timing had been different, what musical treasures we could have had with ABBA songs in Disney animated films.

Then again....it's not too late to ask them now.


8 comments:

  1. Wow, thanks for this information! :)

    Yes, I know what you mean!
    "Chiquitita" has always been my favorite! :)

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    1. And I like "I still have faith in you"! It touches me! :)

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  2. And I did not just find this post while listening to Gimme Gimme Gimme :)

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  3. Whoa, what could have been, indeed. Did you bring this up because of ABBA's new album?

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  5. Hey, Andreas, good noon, this is Paul, how are you? I’m fine, how about you.

    You know, I’ve checked out some ABBA tunes today, and I was wondering, would it be nicer if you could apply them to your current passion project or your supposedly forthcoming project? Just asking, and I know and I really do care that you’re totally busy on Mushka. I’ve got my first showreel on my Vimeo if you could check it out. And I actually know that’s in pretty rough shape and I work almost entirely in tradigital. So, please check out this link here. They are almost as great so far and this is how hard I tried to get into the newest drawn animated films.

    Cheers to you, your goal and remember to get Mushka done.

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  6. Actually this was mentioned in the "Pride of the Lion King" documentary on Disney+

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