43. The Little Mermaid (1989) with Jamie Roderick

Welcome to Big Bad Elephants Month, where we cover movie musicals our listeners suggested would be Big White Elephants, aka bad movie musicals! Randomly selected by the Omni-Wheel, we're kicking off the month with The Little Mermaid! No, not the live action one...the original!

It was suggest by our friend and theatrical lighting designer Jamie Roderick! And it was such a bold suggestion that we had to get him on the podcast to defend his rationale! We talk a lot about what makes a musical work, what the function of a song should be, how best to cater to children's sensibility, and more while going deep on the movie that kickstarted the Disney Renaissance, The Little Mermaid (1989). Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements with music and lyrics by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, starring Jodi Benson, Pat Caroll, and Buddy Hacket.

Connect with us on Instagram @bigwhiteelephantspod and send emails or voicemails to bigwhiteelephantspod@gmail.com so we can share them on future episodes!

 

Big White Elephants is a podcast where two friends, Grace and Scott, dissect movie musicals: Everything from DCOMs to MGM Classics, Japanese Punk Rock films to modern Jukebox Musicals, and all kinds of things in between! We talk about what works and what doesn't, and whether a film is a 'Big White Elephant', based on director Rob Marshall's quote ”The thing about movie musicals is that there have been some brilliant ones, but when they’re bad, they’re really bad - big white elephants.” Join us every Thursday to discuss a new musical film wherever you get your podcasts