Yep, I'm a little bit early, technically the voting is still open for two days, but there was barely any movement in the polls for ages, my day opened up, and I'm sure that I'll be very busy towards december (who isn't), so you get the first part of the series now.

Before I begin, I want to explain something: I’m not just looking at the songs itself, I’ll also take in account the way it gets utilized in the movie and if it works with the score overall. Because of this, a song which has a wonderful tune might end up further down at the list, simply because it doesn’t work as well in the movie as another song, which might not as great, but does exactly what it’s supposed to do.

Also, for this first category, I took the narrations into account – they are not always on the official soundtrack, but I think they should.



10. Pocahontas: I like the idea behind this one. Putting “Virginia Company” in contrast to “Steady as the Beating Drums” sends exactly the right message for the start of the movie, underlining the different view on life those two groups of people have, by pining two very different music styles against each other. But the execution is lacking. First of all, it takes ages until they finally show the title character. Second, the scene on the ship is just strange. John Smith leaping in armor into the water to rescue Thomas is already quite a stretch (he would never find him in that storm). But then Ratcliff turns up and the whole crew begins to sing and to dance – in the middle of the storm. Which conveniently decided to take a small rest. Right.

Fanpop says: Seems like I’m in trend with my first ranking. The sequence was voted to be one of the worst, and nobody bothered to argue against it.



9. Snow White: This opening is just terrible. The first strike is the credits at the start of the movie. I know that at this time it was usual to credit at the start of the movie (until movies making became more and more difficult and everyone and their dog got mentioned – hurray for end credits), but this is a fairly long list, and the design isn’t even particular creative, being a simple golden background. Next we get the title card. And then the storybook beginning. Which is the second strike, because there is no narrator who tells us what’s written there – not that I’m too lazy to read, but children can’t, and they are part of the intended audience (in the foreign dubbings they tend to add a narrator for this reason). The third strike is the design of said book – it looks just strange with some random letters being written in colorful capitals. I originally thought that they used the German spelling rules to decide which letters should be written in capitals, but if that was the intention, they missed some words. I love the overture which includes elements of “One Song” and “Someday my prince will come”, but even the best music can’t rescue this one.

Fanpop says: The voting for this one was all over the place. It got voted as third worst and second best at the same time. Although the voting for the “best” was below the first place so close together, nearly every starting sequence had a chance to get it. I suspect it depends on if you take the visuals into account or if you just pay attention to the beautiful music. Ladyhadhafang remarked: "I still quite like it, though. Despite the cheese factor. :)"



8. Sleeping Beauty: My main beef with this opening is that it lacks creativity. That’s already book number four which opened at the beginning of the movie, and there is nothing really new to it. The music on the credit and the part with the narrator works, but I think the “Hail, Princess Aurora” sequence is a tad too long and becomes annoying towards the end.

Fanpop says: Not much. This one was in the middle of the voting in both cases, and nobody commented on it.



7. Aladdin: “Arabian Nights” it’s a very atmospheric song which has the vibe of something mysterious and exotic. And for the record, I think it sucks that they changed the line in the song. What’s done is done, and now the following line “it’s barbaric” doesn’t really make any sense any longer. The introduction into the story by the street vendor is (for a Disney movie) a new idea, but I’m not too happy about the part when the camera seems to touch the face of him. It’s funny, but it destroys the mood the song before established to nicely, pulling me out of the mysterious atmosphere. “Arabian Nights” is a great tune, but it makes a promise the movie doesn’t really live up too, since it’s overall more cartoony than mysterious.

Fanpop says: Again, not much. Another one which stayed in the middle.



6. The Princess and the Frog: Another one which takes ages to come to the point. “Down in New Orleans” is perfect to get a feel for the town and the time the story is set in. But before that we have all this scenes with little Tiana. I don’t mind them, because they are important for the plot later on, but they take away from the impact of the song. Not that the song has that much of an impact. The tune is okay, but the text disregards the old rule of “show, don’t tell”. I also don’t get why they called the very first song about wishing to a star “Down in New Orleans” as well. I hear the relation to the main-song, but the text and the mood is so different, it could be a stand-alone song, too.

Fanpop says: Well, I went slightly against the trend here. This one was the other to be voted as the worst, but at least it had some people who spoke out for it, although their arguments were along the line that little Tiana is cute, and not about the song itself or the way it’s used.



5. Mulan Opening: I have searched up and down, but I haven’t found this one as stand-alone track. It doesn’t look like the sequence has a name, but it’s basically an instrumental version of “Honor to us all”, played by a chinese flute. The watercolor drawings are very pretty to look at, and set the style for the whole movie. The same is true for the music, beautiful and very fitting, since the whole movie is about Mulan’s search for honor. But it’s not exactly a beginning with a big impact, just pretty to look at. Although the mood whiplash when the Huns turn up in the first scene works very well; it’s like something very sinister intrudes into this peaceful world seen in the watercolor drawings.

Fanpop says: Another one which slips under the radar, although it was mentioned as a runner-up.



4. The little Mermaid: This is how the beginning of Pocahontas should have started. The way the ship suddenly breaks out of the mist demands the attention of the audience immediately. To the tune of “Fathoms below”, we follow a fish from Eric’s world down to Ariel’s in just a few scenes (with the title card and theme in-between). There is nothing to criticize and a lot to love about this one, simply because there are no long explanations and one gets pulled immediately into the story. The only reason why it isn’t placed higher is the fact that “Fathoms below” isn’t the best tune imaginable. I like it, it fits, but it’s nothing special.

Fanpop says: Well, at least this one got commented on by Darkshine: “I honestly like them all, but this one is just... meh. I never though anything special about it.” Overall it was stuck somewhere in the middle.



3. Tangled: “This is the story how I died” – Do I need to say more? It’s a perfect start, underlined by a perfect score. Especially the parts with the healing incarnation are very well done, first creepy, when Mother Gothel sings it, later heartbreaking when Rapunzel as a child does. The only reason it isn’t a place higher is the fact that I’m always wondering how Eugene is supposed to know all the details about Mother Gothel. But then, he certainly is an unreliable narrator (he says that the story is not really about him, but about Rapunzel, but in fact, the story is about both of them). It’s a “new” idea (again, for Disney), which, after 50 Disney movies, isn’t an easy feat.

Fanpop says: Well, one negative vote, from founten who remarked that all of the openings work well. Some positive votes, and once mentioned as runner-up.



2. Cinderella: From all the classic storybook beginnings, this is the most perfect. I love the details on the cover of the book. I love how the first scenes look more like pictures, until everything becomes more real – it’s like we are slowly diving into the book. I love how this one ties in with the ending of the movie. And I love the title song – it’s nothing I would sing just for fun, but again, this is a tune which sets the mood perfectly.

Fanpop says: I suspect I’m going a little bit against popular opinion here, because this was the only one which didn’t get a “best”-vote. But it also didn’t seem to be overly disliked.



1. The Beauty and the Beast: This is basically a variant of the storybook beginning (pictures and a narrator who explains the basic setting), but a very effective one. The score has a hunting tune, which immediately demands attention. The stained glass windows are so iconic that I’m reminded of this movie every time I see some. Thus, the well deserved place one.

Fanpop agrees with me. This opening skyrocketed immediately, scoring nearly half of the votes. I think Mongoose09 said it the best: “Epic!”