The Singles Jukebox

brb lobbying for estblishment “Best Scoring Movie Song At Jukebox” Academy Award

[Video][Website]
[5.14]

Rebecca A. Gowns: I have mixed feelings about letting my kids watch Disney movies. On one hand, Disney is demonstrably insidious, infecting people of all ages with a dizzy sort of consumerism, warped ideas about romance, and a shallow appreciation of world cultures that often only goes as deep as the river in “It’s a Small World.” On the other hand, Disney is so ubiquitous that it’s almost a bad parenting move to limit their exposure to Disney, all but ensuring that your kids will be social pariahs throughout grade school. On the other other hand, maybe it’s good to be out of step with the rest of society; it’ll build character. On the other other other hand, Moana was the best time I had in a movie theater last year, and I’m almost positive that Coco will be a great time, too. This song is pandering and slick and oozing with corn, like so much Disney stuff, and I want to hate it… but sometimes it feels good to be on the receiving end of a hard sell.
[6]

Josh Langhoff: Oscar season is going to be exhausting yet also bittersweet!
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Iain Mew: Sounds like just the thing to raise a smile and gentle glow over some end credits. For the time it takes to shuffle out, anyway; it’s not enough to want to sit for. 
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Katherine St Asaph: The big glissando-and-belting-and-strings balladry, exceedingly and untrendily late-’90s, reminded me of “Hero” and “Reflection” even before I knew it was a Pixar tie-in.
[5]

Stephen Eisermann: Carlos Rivera has a terrific voice and does great service to this spruced up version of this soundtrack gem. Although I much prefer the film version (and oh what a beautiful, powerful, important film), the trumpets, the percussion, and Carlos’ voice combine to provide us with power ballad magic. It’s as lovely as these types of songs can be and if there was any justice in the word this song and its parent movie would have the same success as “Let It Go” and Frozen.
[7]

Ian Mathers: The other versions of this are either brisk and professionally efficient or tentative, late-night plucks at the theme, but this is the Big Disney Ballad version (strings come standard, regionally appropriate instrumental flourishes included). Your affection for it will pretty much depend on your affection for those in general, but Rivera does elevate things a bit with a lovely voice and a clearly committed performance (although I can’t be the only listener who prefers his huskier tones to the bit where he really belts it out).
[6]

Alfred Soto: Just think: in the ’90s, Jose Feliciano or Placido Domingo would have performed it at the Oscars!
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