It is, for more than thirty years, one of the shadow hands of Disney animated films. Unknown to the general public, Alan Menken plays in the big leagues. Cinema and childhood owe him the music and songs of Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Aladdin and Pocahontas. In 1989, his first collaboration with Disney, on The Little Mermaid, crowned him with two Oscars. Thirty years later, the child prodigy revisits his former triumphs with live-action adaptations of Disney classics. Despite the consensual material of the stories, the new version of The Little Mermaid has nevertheless managed to arouse controversy related to its distribution and the reworking of the text of two songs. Interview with the maestro of American animation.
LE FIGARO. - The new version of The Little Mermaid has been described as "wokiste" because of its cast and the alterations of two cult songs you wrote 34 years ago. How do you explain these choices?
Alan MENKEN. - There was a funny and mischievous side to these songs whose lyrics, at the time, did not offend anyone. For Kiss her, sung by the crab Sébastien (discreet matchmaker of an evening between Prince Erik and Ariel, the mermaid humanized and rendered mute by a spell, Editor's note.), our idea, Howard Ashman (the lyricist of the songs of the film) and I had been to make a rather romantic scene, embroidered around the desire to kiss the other. Then the criticism came on; We were accused of writing an ode to the assault. Ditto with the second problem song, Poor Souls in Perdition, sung by the sea witch, Ursula, who carried an awkward vision of human women (the original song mentioned that "when a woman knows how to hold her tongue, she is always much more charming"). But social norms and people's sensibilities are changing, and these texts can now offend part of the public. It is a reality. And that's not inherently serious; It is common for ideas to change over time. So we decided to rewrite these pieces, to better take into account the evolution of society. It was important to do that. Finally, we did not destroy these songs either, but simply took their text at the margins.
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Was this nineteenth-century Danish tale reinvented by Disney in 1989 already in need of a facelift? How did you approach it?
To have signed the music of these Disney films, with Howard Ashman (died in 1991, Editor's note.) is both a blessing and a curse. I realize this in concert, where I sometimes have the impression of reliving the past over and over again. It's wonderful, and it's a weight I carry with joy, but I'm getting older and I also enjoy working on new projects. For the new adaptation of The Little Mermaid, director Rob Marshall, was very respectful of the original material. He's someone who comes from the music hall world, from Broadway, so everything went very well. However, I didn't want to just copy and paste. On the contrary, I held a ridge line, embodying both the role of guardian of the temple of the original film, while remaining open to new approaches. The film marks my first collaboration with Lin-Manuel Miranda (the new child prodigy of music in Hollywood, composer of the musical Hamilton as well as animated films Vaiana or Encanto). We signed the new songs together. It takes a truly fantastic new look.
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Do you regret having composed certain songs today?
No, I don't think so. At least not in Disney animation classics. There are other projects in which I have been involved that perhaps would have been better off never seeing the light of day, such as La ferme se rebel, in 2004. The scenario was not very clever, it must be admitted. There are also songs that I don't like, but that work because of their place in the story where they appear, for their dramatic function. A good song, like Partir là-bas in The Little Mermaid, has to strike a balance between emotion and story.