What's the deal with Disney musical movies? (Voices vs. Singing Voices)

Ok...for some movies...I get it.

For instance, having someone else sing for young Simba in "The Lion King" because Johnathan Taylor Thomas probably wouldn't have been that great.

But with "Pocahontas," "Mulan," and "Aladdin"...why didn't they do the same thing they did with "The Little Mermaid"?

Jodi Benson was a great Ariel, as both the speaking and singing voice.

Why couldn't Lea Salonga be the speaking voice for Jasmine and Mulan? Why was she only the singing voice? She speaks well, as far as I'm concerned.

Same thing with Judy Kuhn. How come she only sang for Pocahontas? Couldn't she speak the role as well?

And why couldn't B.D. Wong sing for Shang in "Mulan"? Did they need to bring in Donny Osmond? I figure if B.D. Wong can star on Broadway in a musical...he can sing well enough for "Mulan."

Just something that I can't seem to figure out.

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it's just one of those things....

Fot The Lion King 2 Simba's Pride they should have had Matthew Broderick sing the song that Simba sings to his daughter. I agree with Foanatic about why Lea Salonga couldn't have been the speaking voice for Mulan or Jasmine. She sang the songs well and speaks well too. Also, why couldn't Roger Bart do the speaking voice of Hercules? He speaks well and sang "Go the Distance" really well. Maybe they needed an actor with a more tough-sounding voice. But Roger Bart could have done the speaking voice of Young Hercules as well as the singing voice. I think they had two different people playing Hercules.

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Updated On: 7/28/05 at 04:26 PM

No offense, but B.D. Wong is an actor who can sing. Donny Osmond is a singer. Why not have someone with a better voice take on the songs? It used to be common even in live action movies- when you are casting simply voices, why not try to get the best?

And Marquise is absolutely right-- Donny Osmond is a much bigger name than B.D. Wong.

Garland girl? Meg claimed she did the singing?! bwaha. now THAT'S funny

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I never understood why Lea Salonga couldn't be the voice of Mulan: both singing and speaking, but I dont' really understand Disney in general...

The adults who take the children and pay for their tickets apparently care.

Well there must be market research studies that indicate that having star names attached to voices significantly improves ticket sales, or else I can't imagine they would pay the salaries.

Plus it's a prestige thing now between rival studios. "You may have Tom Hanks in TOY STORY, but we have Brad Pitt in SINBAD.

I think the "names" thing can be attributed to and started in Aladdin. If you go back to Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, the names they had really were associated with broadway. Jodi Benson, Paige O'Hara I thought did great jobs with Ariel and Belle. Especially in Beauty and the Beast, you also had great theatre actors in Angela Lansbury and Jerry Orbach. I think their first institence of two actors playing one character singing and acting started here w/ Gaston. They wanted a really snotty voice but a really great bass voice, so had two actors do it.

Then came Robin Williams in Aladdin, who I think everyone agrees was amazing. Since then, animated movies have had names do the parts. I don't think anyone has done as great as Robin, though Eddie Murphy did give a very comedic performance in Mulan and even Shrek. And unfortunately the names do bring people in, though I often don't think it's the best artistic choice.

Sorry this post is all over the place, diff. thoughts entering my head. Come to think of it, I remember I think on my Aladdin DVD Scott Weigner essentially being cast of Aladdin but admitted he couldn't sing, so they brought someone in. I think they essentially go after what they want in the voice, and assess their singing talent, and bring in someone to sing if necessary, not start with the singer, so it's not like Lea came to mind as the singer and then they went for the voice.

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I always thought the BD Wong/Donny Osmand combo was interesting, considering you couldn't find two more opposite people.

I don't understand why the "names" make a difference, since I can't remember Disney ever marketing the movies based on the actors behind the singing voices back when they were released. The only hype I remember was about Buddy Hackett in The Little Mermaid and Robin Williams in Aladdin, but it wasn't until years later that I learned of the other instances of using different actors, because it was only mentioned in teeny-tiny print in the credits.

Aladdin was also the first movie where they started using separate speaking/singing voices for the same characters, so I just wonder why they suddenly changed their strategy halfway through the early 90s streak of movies. Interestingly enough, the quality of the movies significantly dropped after The Lion King, and not even the Big Name Voices could help them.

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