Disney Acapella

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Last night a friend and I went to see Disney Acapella ("D-Capella" for short) at the Warner Theatre. She and I grew up together, and we have fond memories of watching Disney movies. Because the show didn't sell out (and that's putting it nicely), our balcony seats were upgraded to middle orchestra seats. So we had a great view of the show!

I was very impressed by the whole group. I especially liked the beat-boxer Antonio Fernandez and the soprano Morgan Keene. And Orlando Dixon, the baritone, is from DC, so that was cool to have him perform in his home town! Click here to read their bios. 

Here's a medley of many of the songs the group sings:

Here are some full songs they performed:

"The World Es Mi Familia" from Coco (go to 1:30 in the video)

"Friend Like Me" from Aladdin

"I Wanna Be Like You" from The Jungle Book

"I Won't Say I'm in Love" from Hercules (probably my favorite from the whole night)

"Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid

"How Far I'll Go" from Moana

"Remember Me" from Coco

They had some interest mash-ups, too:

The group did a villain mash-up like this one (actually, I think this one is better!):

"Part of Your World"/"A Whole New World" (from The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, respectively)

Frozen's "Let It Go"/"Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" (While I'm not a huge fan of the movie, I really liked this part of the show.)

They performed "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast in multiple languages, similar to the following video. I never thought about how many ways these movies have been translated!

I did not love all of their arrangements, though. Some of these songs are so pure; you can't change them! The group made the songs too complicated to the point that the music lost its original wonder. Like Elton John's "Circle of Life" from The Lion King. Don't mess with that!

Here's what I mean about "You'll Be in My Heart" :

Compared to the original Phil Collins version:

While I didn't know some of the songs, I thought the group did a wonderful job singing them. Like these:

"When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2

"The Place Where Lost Things Go" from Mary Poppins Returns

"The Glory Days" from Incredibles 2

And some of these songs are so mainstream that I had forgotten they were from Disney movies!

"Immortals" (originally by Fall Out Boy) from Big Hero 6

Shakira's Try Everything (which I thought was from Moana, not Zootopia...Oops!)

Sometimes the group went way old-school. They performed Disney's "Big Bad Wolf" nearly in its entirety (go 'til about 8:15 in the following video).

And they did a mash-up of Disney Land songs, like "In the Tiki Room" and "It's a Small World." So that was fun, especially for the older crowd in the audience.

BUT...What do you notice about the current list? That's right: the group did not perform ANY songs from some of the most iconic Disney Princess movies, including Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, or Pocahontas. WHAT?!?!?! How can something be branded "Disney" while excluding these incredible masterpieces?! WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT.

So for your viewing pleasure (and mine to make up for last night), here are some of my favorite Disney songs that should have been performed. I would have even accepted a medley!

Maybe they should have two separate shows when they tour: one for the younger generation (like this performance), and one for those of us who know that the 1990's were the hay-day of Disney movies, and anything afterward is just "meh."