Manic Expression

Disney Sing Along Songs Vol. 2: Zip a dee doo dah Review 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edofl2MH98I&feature=player_detailpage

Theme Song by Brian Setzer and owned by Walt Disney Records

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGVfc4lMgi8&feature=player_detailpage

Theme Song by Patrick DeRemer and owned by Walt Disney Records  

The next volume of the Disney Sing Along series isvery similar to the original, but in a lot of ways different. This particularvolume like the first doesn’t have a specific theme and is far more random thanvolume 1. Volume1 was united under the concept of the melody while this volumedoesn’t have any of that. The segues are very short to nonexistent. There’s nounifying the songs and Mr. Owl isn’t giving a lesson he’s just introducing thesongs. I find this interesting because it shows Disney’s dedication to theseries because they’re gauging their audience which most likely consists oftoddlers and they’re trying to see what works and what doesn’t. Disney’s NOTtreating their audience like morons and genuinely asking themselves “Are thekids watching this for the presentation of these songs or the songs themselves?”In the end Disney chose that structuring the songs into a theme and to makethis a more legitimate show was the better course. The fact that Disney evenstopped to think about doing this with a show completely comprised of stockfootage and something that they could have easily churned out with no effort isabsolutely incredible and awesome!!!!!! Without any further ado this is Disney’sSing Along Song Volume 2: Zip a Dee Doo Dah!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeFxzcy79Ac&feature=player_detailpage

Mickey Mouse Club March

Mr. Owl introduces the opening number to be interestinglyNOT the title song. This is the first and only time that the Title Song isn’tused as the opening number. It is the classic march to everybody’s favoritemouse. It’s a very solid opening and I find it cool that during the song itcuts to Mr.Owl conducting the class and the class is singing along showing thatthis is like saying their “Pledge of Allegiance” or national anthem. 

Zip a dee doo dah

Mr. Owl then directs us to the state of Georgiawhere the audience is treated to one of the very few scenes from Song of the Souththat Disney feels comfortable releasing. This is the best part of the volume!! Thisis my favorite Disney song ever! I love the optimistic mood and how to confrontand deal with the daily strife of life. And I’d bet you thought Part of YourWorld was my favorite Disney song. The acting and performance from JamesBaskett as Uncle Remus is absolutely flawless!! An excellent song from anexcellent movie (IT’S NOT RACIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT’S A  BEAUTIFUL MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 

Following the Leader

The next song is very random and comes out ofnowhere. The song from Peter Pan is a decent addition and is very average. Iwas never really fond of this song in the movie so I’m indifferent about ithere. Next!

It’s A Small World

Much like Yo Ho in volume 1 the show delves intosongs from the park. It shows great footage of the ride and handles the songvery well, but it still doesn’t come anywhere close to the ballad version. 

The Unbirthday Song

The show goes to Wonderland and delves into the song where every single day is a type of birthday whether it’s the unbirthdayor the real thing. The song is just as wacky and nonsensical as when we firstsaw it. A good song. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go celebrate my unbirthday! 

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo

The next song is that catchy little incantation that can seemingly do everything. A true classic that’s always a crowd pleaser and a big part of the Disney musical heritage. There’s really nothing else to say. 

Casey Junior

This like “A Cowboy Needs A Horse” is an example ofthe highlighting of underrated songs.Now you know where I found a goodpercentage of my picks for underrated songs. I stand by what I said in thatlist it’s a very good song about a overworked locomotive named Casey Jr.

The Ballad of Davy Crockett

This song in some ways is the replacement for theZorro theme song in the last volume. Despite the fact that the lyrics aresensationalized it is still a great song and more than worthy of the lineup onthis list. A great song about one of America’s iconic historical figures. 

Give a Little Whistle

My least favorite song from Pinocchio makes it ontothis lineup of songs. Oh well I think it’s best to get this out of the way soother volumes can have much better songs on it. The interesting thing about itis the fact that they extend the song by repeating it while showing variousclips of cartoons and films that involve whistling. Again it just shows the randomnature of this volume. 

Whistle While You Work

The technically last song in the lineup is anotherwhistling song. I like this song a lot better than Give A Little Whistle so Ihave no problems with this it just feels like a step backwards considering thatthe previous volume’s last song was Let’s Go Fly a Kite so yeah this just doesn’tfeel like a song that should be the last song.

Zip a dee doo dah Reprise

This volume however does continue the tradition ofthe reprise of the title song and this is probably the best one in the entireseries simply because not only does it use the ending to Song of the South, butalso since the song is Disney’s second anthem there is a gathering of all theDisney characters (the ones that were created at that time) to bid us farewelland even Mr. Owl and the class sing along to my favorite Disney song of all time! 

Final Thoughts

Due to the sheer randomness of the song selectionthis was very hard to talk about. I admire the experimentation of just throwingsongs in the line up and presenting them with very rough to no transitions, butit didn’t pay off in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong I like the songs and Iabsolutely love Zip a dee doo dah, but it lacked the semi finesse of volume 1.This was an experimentation to see what was more important: just throwing thesongs out there or the overall presentation of the show as a whole. Luckily theseries would always stick with the overall show and would do their best to havethe presentation of the songs be top notch. Even though this volume is a little off I still love it!

Stay tuned where Professor Ludwig Von Drake joins theseries as a guest lecturer for Mr. Owl’s class in Disney Sing Along SongsVolume 3: You Can Fly!