FAMILY : The Mouse That Roared : A sure-to-be-classic 78-song box set shows how the Disney magic has tickled the ears as well as the eyes for more than 60 years

Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo--has it only been 60 years that Walt Disney Studios has been defining the dreams of Middle America, and especially the innocence and wonder of pre-adolescence, in song?

Some of the standards in this just-released three-disc or three-cassette box set of Disney tunes seem as old and venerable as the national anthem itself, or at least as historical as “O Susanna.”

George Bruns, a longtime Disney staff composer, is quoted in the 60-page book that accompanies the set remembering how his original composition “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” spent six months on the charts and sold 10 million records in 1955, even while widely assumed to be vintage: “The irony of it was that most people thought it was an authentic folk song that we had uncovered and updated,” Bruns recalls.

“Davy Crockett” isn’t the only tune in this 78-song collection ($35.98 list for cassettes, $49.98 for CDs) of which that misperception might be true.

For those who weren’t born--or of “Your Hit Parade” age--when such songs as “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,” “Whistle While You Work,” “Someday My Prince Will Come,” “When You Wish Upon a Star” and “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” were first released, it may seem easier to assume they were campfire songs or lullabies passed down through many, many decades of oral tradition, like the time-honored fairy tales they enhance, than show tunes that became actual pop chart hits upon their initial issuance in the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Times have changed for Disney and the culture, and nowadays “DuckTails Theme” doesn’t stand much chance of duking it out with the dance hits in Billboard; “Beauty and the Beast,” which did make the Top 10 in a pop duet version last year, is the modern exception, not the rule.

But theatrical numbers have had a hard time of it in general in the rock era. If anyone, however, is likely to produce a renaissance there, it’s Disney. And some see signs of it in the success of “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast.” In fact, many adult aficionados of the musical comedy consider the revitalized Disney not just a kid-song factory but the last true thriving vestige of the show tune. As the late lyricist Howard Ashman said, “Animation is the last great place to do Broadway musicals”--Broadway itself, apparently, notwithstanding.

It’s a tribute to Walt Disney’s anthropomorphic vision that the best of the tracks in this sprawling set-- especially those culled from the animated films--transcend cartoonishness. It’s a paradox that as a producer, Disney gave orders to songwriters to make their compositions specific to the stories and characters they flowed out of, but that so many of these very tunes have lodged themselves in the popular lexicon independent of the pictures that introduced them.

Tunesmith Alan Menken calls the title song of “Beauty and the Beast” the result of his desire to achieve the ideal “liftable ballad,” appropriate to--but detachable from--hairy monsters in tuxes. Likewise, it’s easy to listen to the 51-year-old “Baby Mine” and be struck by the flush of palpable human emotions first, the nostalgia of singing maternal elephants second.

The songs from Disney’s six decades of animated movies are the core of what makes “The Music of Disney: A Legacy in Song” an essential collection. But that’s only half--if, decidedly, the important half--of what’s here.

The box set (which runs slightly more than three hours) also includes songs from the live-action pictures that Disney Studios began turning out to supplement its animation in the early ‘50s, from the TV shows that became such a significant part of the franchise starting in the late ‘50s and even a few choice selections from the corporation’s theme parks of the ‘60s and later.

*

A comprehensive collection like this was inevitable but long in coming. Many noted the absence of such a set when in 1988 producer Hal Willner put together “Stay Awake,” a collection of new and rather adventurous renditions of Disney classics by rock artists. At the time, some fans mused that revisionist Willner seemed to have more regard for Disney’s considerable musical legacy than did the Disney company itself.

Harold J. Kleiner, who served as executive producer of “The Music of Disney,” says the critical attention afforded “Stay Awake” wasn’t a factor in inspiring this new collection. Rather, he says, it stemmed from his own personal regard for the box-set trend and its profitability.

“I realized the value that the various record companies were putting on their catalogues,” says Kleiner, who is also Disney Records’ director of product development. “And although most of the (other) releases were rock, I thought, ‘Why not reissue the Walt Disney catalogue, which has much more depth--60 years’ worth--in terms of repertoire?’

” . . . I had the Led Zeppelin box like everyone else, and Bruce Springsteen’s. So when I was reviewing the catalogue, it struck me that we could package Disney’s music in the boxed set much like the pop labels were doing, with rare or never-before- released tracks, and a book that would include many of the superb visuals available.”

The handsome 60-page book is indeed a boon to the set, not just for its wealth of film stills and reproductions of sheet music and album covers, but also for a fascinating text that provides a short history of Disney as well as anecdotes about the writers, singers and actors involved.

*

And the rarities are undeniably fun. Among the 23 tracks not currently available on any other recording: the previously unreleased original cast version of “I’m Late” from “Alice in Wonderland”; an unreleased tape of Sean Connery demo-ing a ditty from “Darby O’Gill and the Little People”; the out-of-print singing debut of Kirk Douglas, warbling “A Whale of a Tale” in “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”; and Leslie Nielsen, also an unlikely crooner, singing “The Swamp Fox.”

But while those selections offer plenty of kitschy delight, the heart of the collection is less goofy (no pun intended). Disc 1 of this three-part compilation collects songs from the Disney cartoons of 1928-1963, once again giving voice to the matinee-idol inkblots that made us cry, cower and swoon.

The booklet, with text by David J. Fisher, provides background on the writers who made the musical legacy possible. Some were staff, but for quite some time in the Golden Age of the ‘40s and ‘50s, Walt Disney brought in some of Broadway’s and Hollywood’s top craftsmen, from Sammy Cahn and Sammy Fain (“You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!”) to Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston (“A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes”) to Peggy Lee (“Bella Notte”)--and, not necessarily willingly, Tchaikovsky, represented here by adaptations from both “Fantasia” and “Sleeping Beauty.”

Not everything subsequent does Walt’s memory proud. Some of the ballads from the latter-day animated films on Disc 2, like Helen Reddy’s vocal contribution to “Pete’s Dragon,” are particularly gloppy. And the live-action family films and TV shows produced by Disney--represented on Disc 3--leave a mixed legacy at best. Aside from the hit-packed “Mary Poppins” (which for some reason is grouped on this set with the animated films), the studio historically had little success coming up with a strong musical for three-dimensional actors or even a classic theme song for a non-animated picture.

But boomers won’t be swayed away by the fact that themes from “The Parent Trap,” “Old Yeller” and “That Darn Cat” are notable only for nostalgic appeal. “The Monkey’s Uncle” is one of the cutest of the lot, with Annette Funicello singing lead and the Beach Boys providing backup on a rare 1965 Disney foray into rock ‘n’ roll, penned by staff hands Richard and Robert Sherman. Regardless of varying musical merit, the Nick at Night demographic will be in seventh heaven with “Zorro,” “Mickey Mouse Club Alma Mater” and “Wonderful World of Color (Main Title)” available in one place in glorious mono.

*

Not to leave out actual juveniles --obviously part of the limitless target demographic for this set but likely to be overwhelmed at first by the sheer volume of oldies to be absorbed. Today’s young ‘uns get their due with the recent “DuckTails Theme” and “Tail Spin Theme”--synthesized, negligible additions to the canon--and will surely recognize with mom and pop at least a few of the amusement-park anthems, like “It’s a Small World” and “Yo, Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me).”

The older you are, the better this package may go down: All those long-ago stars wished upon, princes hoped for, consciences called upon may pull on the heartstrings even more poignantly with a few of the disappointments of maturity under the belt. But with or without baggage, there’s no medicine here--just a spoonful of sugar, 78 times over.