During the awards ceremony, Disney legend, Chris Montan allowed himself to joke: “Does anyone remember any Paramount songs?”, he told those present at the theater and hundreds of spectators who followed the event through his official page. The joke has remained a model of his humor. Perhaps at short distances he is someone sarcastic. But besides that, it was a summary tradition inside The Walt Disney Company: Creating Memorable Songs.
For most of the last thirty years, one of the company’s key names in this department has been Chris Montan. Hence his recognition as a Disney legend is due to the fact that directing various musical production teams resulting in iconic themes and unforgettable soundtracks.. However, the award suggests something else: it is a celebration of the school, the way of writing songs and the treatment of chords and melodies that accompany stories on the big screen.
When you think of your favorite movies, it’s normal for titles to go in either direction. In the case of The Walt Disney Company, in the animated films section, this search can be even more specific: calling out the name of the production is where the peculiarity comes in – the memory can be accompanied by a series of melodies. Not one wondered “What if we make a snowman?”
That’s why Chris Montana’s joke about Paramount is very funny, yes, but also true. Part of the collective memory remembers Disney with its music. In this area, the former president of Walt Disney Music was one of the most visible individuals and led projects with the greatest responsibility.
Chris Montana story
His relationship with Disney began in 1984., writing different songs and working together with other people in the music section. Since then, he has risen through the ranks to become Senior Vice President of Music and, beginning in 1995, has entered into an exclusive agreement with the company. It was a context in which the music industry moved in different directions. genres that seemed to be dying while others were advancing with force and distortion. Chris Montan, who had been composing music on his own for about ten years and worked for some record labels, did not find a place for himself in that environment.
So he thought of a chance to get closer The Walt Disney Company, in which work was carried out on character albums and films. What Chris Montan did not anticipate when he became interested in this kind of project is that the man in charge of this area at the time, in the mid-1980s, would leave his post and will give way to a kind of revival of the sector, and Montand will become one of the participants in this process..
This is a coincidence, as he recalled in Soundtrack show, it was the start of a new era when he took direct responsibility as songwriter while the department was being reorganized. These tasks were not as difficult as understanding the dynamics of the business and the desires of the leaders. Despite the possible conflict with the head of the company, natural in a creative environment, Chris Montand is one of his codenames..
Musical productions by Chris Montana
- Mermaid (1989)
- The Lion King (1994)
- Pocahontas (1995)
- toy story (one thousand nine hundred ninety-six)
- Jim and the Giant Peach (one thousand nine hundred ninety-six)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1997)
- Hercules (1998)
- mulan (1998)
- Mistakes (1999)
- Tarzan (1999)
- toy story 2 (2000)
- dinosaurs (as executive producer) (2000)
- Emperor and his madness (2006)
- Family of the future (2007)
- Ratatouille (2007)
- Glad to meet you (2008)
- WALL-E (2008)
- Up (2009)
They, along with an extensive list of productions including contemporary classics such as frozen, Inside out D moana. Part of Chris Montana’s working method was to understand the concept of the production in order to move forward with it. What may be just a song for the viewer, for him it is a fragment of a work of a larger scale.
Disney and Reading Context
In the 90s, from Chris Montana’s point of view, the industry didn’t take musicals into account. Other types of stories have been developed in various genres. The use of music as a medium through which to tell a story became relevant to Walt Disney.. According to the producer, “in Hollywood, no one thought about them. They have been forgotten since the sixties. They seemed old-fashioned and artificial.”
What changed? According to Montana in the aforementioned podcast, the impact groupings such as The Beatleswhich little by little changed the collective imagination. Melodies and themes were gradually updated. So, there were a number of creatives who, according to Montana, “knew the past with the language of the present.” It could have been a sort of renewal of the genre along with adaptations of plots taken from various mythological or literary tales.
The influence of pop music of the time, 70s, 80s and 90s, soaked the imagination. Those that will then be reflected in different productions. Something that the Walt Disney Company has used like no other company, hand in hand with Chris Montana over time. According to the World Soundtrack Awards, the list of awards the company has received for its work is as follows:
“(Chris Montand) has been nominated for several Grammy® awards and won Best Original Cast Recording for Aida and Best Visual Media Soundtrack for frozen. under his leadership The Walt Disney Studios has received 42 Academy of Music Award nominations. an unprecedented 16 Academy Awards for Best Song, Best Original Score and Best Musical.
Disney’s Emotional Value
Through his musicals, Disney has not only created blockbusters or film adaptations through which old myths and stories are presented to new generations. In this huge series of animated productions and their songs, there is a kind of personal refuge in which everyone will find a layer of their life through which they connect through the melodies of one theme or another.
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This causes these stories to last longer than the viewing time. The emotions that each of them have can persist over time, remaining somewhere in the memory until they are activated by the song or the aesthetic of these films. “Who invented the gladiators? Hercules!” or “Victory! We must be like a swift stream to win!” it can be phrases that evoke more than the title of a movie, it’s the magic of cinema, an area in which Chris Montand has been one of the most important figures for many years and in which he still consults on some projects.
