'Little Mermaid' songwriter Alan Menken says he's needed to work by 'a little bit resistance' to being generally known as a only a 'Disney composer'

• “Little Mermaid” songwriter Alan Menken says he is immune to being generally known as a “Disney composer.”
• Menken is understood for his work on Disney movies together with “Hercules,” “Aladdin,” and “Pocahontas.”
• He advised the New York Occasions he’d wish to be identified for his “many different exterior initiatives” as properly.

Alan Menken could also be virtually synonymous with Disney musicals, however even he admits he is immune to being identified solely as a “Disney composer.”

Along with his work on the unique “Little Mermaid,” for which he received the Oscar for finest authentic rating in 1990, Menken is understood for iconic Disney songs like “A Entire New World” from “Aladdin,” “Go the Distance” from “Hercules,” and “Colours of the Wind” from “Pocahontas.”

Menken collaborated with fellow Disney songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda on new songs for “The Little Mermaid” live-action remake, launched Friday.

Nevertheless, Menken advised the New York Occasions he is had difficult emotions about being generally known as “Disney composer Alan Menken” when he has numerous non-Disney initiatives beneath his belt.

“I typically would have a little bit resistance to easily being characterised as ‘Disney composer Alan Menken’ as a result of I already had an enormous hit with ‘Little Store of Horrors’ earlier than I went to Disney,” Menken advised the Occasions’ Sarah Bahr. “And whereas I used to be at Disney, I wrote so many different exterior initiatives.”

Menken’s non-Disney musical credit embody composing for “Christmas Carol,” “Sister Act,” and “A Bronx Story.”

Nevertheless, Menken did admit that whereas he is labored on different movies, exhibits, and sequence through the years, “there is no such thing as a musical alternative that’s on the degree of writing a musical for Disney.”

“In the event you do your work proper, you should have an expertise that nothing else can match,” he advised the Occasions.

For the 2023 reimagining of “The Little Mermaid,” Menken collaborated with Miranda on three new songs: “Wild Uncharted Waters,” a ballad carried out by Jonah Hauer-King; “For the First Time,” sung by Halle Bailey; and “The Scuttlebutt,” a comedy quantity sung by Awkwafina and Daveed Diggs. 

“A part of Your World,” “Kiss the Lady,” and “Below the Sea,” which Menken composed for the unique 1989 “Little Mermaid” film, had been additionally included within the remake.