Matthew Roulette
‘Snuff Out the Light,’ ‘The Emperor’s New Groove’ — Disney Songs You’ve Never Heard
An underrated cut song from an underrated film, 'Snuff Out the Light' is actually rooted in the aborted proto-'Emperor's New Groove' film 'Kingdom of the Sun.' In it, the villain, Yzma (voiced by Eartha Kitt), plots to literally blot out the sun, which she blames for aging her and destroying her beauty...
‘Be Prepared (Reprise),’ ‘The Lion King’ — Disney Songs You’ve Never Heard
Another cheat, but you'll thank us. In an earlier draft of 'The Lion King', Scar, now king, has let the Pridelands sink into despair and desolation as he himself sinks deeper and deeper into insanity. Obsessed with immortality he desires an heir and chooses Nala as his queen, who promptly rejects him...
‘Poor Unfortunate Souls (Alternate Version),’ ‘The Little Mermaid’ — Disney Songs You’ve Never Heard
Okay, we're cheating here a little bit. 'Poor Unfortunate Souls' was left in the final film, thankfully, however there was a verse cut out, presumably for time. Virtually everything else is the same, although this scene does shed light on exactly why Ursula was banished by Ariel's father...
‘Proud of Your Boy,’ ‘Aladdin’ — Disney Songs You’ve Never Heard
As mentioned earlier, 'Aladdin' went through a number of rewrites and eliminated some characters entirely. One unfortunate who got the axe was Aladdin's mother, who was seen as somewhat superfluous. However, songwriter Howard Ashman was attached to the character and wrote a touching ballad called 'Proud of Your Boy,' where Aladdin laments his past screw-ups and promises to find some way to make it
‘To Be King,’ ‘The Lion King’ — Disney Songs You’ve Never Heard
Mufasa had a song? Why was it cut? Well, perhaps it's a little too...jolly for the stoic, straight-faced King of the Jungle we all grew up with. Still, it's a nice little ditty where Mufasa emphasizes that being the king is something not to be taken lightly, only to be countered by Zazu...
‘I Can’t Believe My Heart,’ ‘Hercules’ — Disney Songs You’ve Never Heard
'Hercules' was one of the few films made during the Disney Renaissance of the '90s that wasn't structured in a musical format. Most of the songs were sung by a Gospel chorus who also provided backup to Megara's one song 'I Won't Say I'm in Love...
‘Keep ‘Em Guessing,’ ‘Mulan’ — Disney Songs You’ve Never Heard
As Tony Bancroft reveals in the clip below, this song was supposed to be Mushu's introduction to Mulan but ultimately was cut and replaced by spoken dialogue. Too bad since it had a real catchy beat and a smooth voice ("smoother than ginseng") that may or may not have been Eddie Murphy's, we're not really sure...
‘Why Me?,’ ‘Aladdin’ — Disney Songs You’ve Never Heard
The creative team of 'Aladdin' had to make numerous changes to the film, including cutting many songs, characters and trimming the plot. Thankfully, several songs that were cut from the film ended up on the special edition DVD. One such song is a tune performed by Jafar, which the crew loved for Jonathan Freeman's vocal performance...
5 Weird Facts About Kim Jong II
Kim Jong II may have been a brutal, totalitarian dictator, but none of his contemporaries could approach him in terms of sheer strangeness. (Well, maybe Gaddafi.) But Jong II was in a league of his own in terms of weird. As North Korea buries its Dear Leader, here's a few odd things that made the late Kim Jong Il who he was....
7 Christmas Movies That Have Nothing to Do With Christmas [VIDEOS]
The industry, er, holiday known as Christmas dominates not only the last two months of each year, but has also spawned its own genre of film. There are good holiday flicks (‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’), mediocre ones ('Jingle All the Way') and ones so awful, we'd rather drink expired egg nog than be forced to sit through them ('Christmas With the Kranks'). And then there are the films
5 Tips For Conducting a Successful Black Friday Operation
Black Friday is not a casual shopping day, but rather it is the closet thing civilians will ever get to tasting real combat. As such, one should treat it like a military mission, with objectives, casualties and above all, strategies.
For all the brave souls who are enticed by great "deals" like 5% off a plasma screen, study and memorize these basic survival tips
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The 10 Strangest Draculas in Pop Culture [VIDEOS]
Few monsters have appeared more on TV and film than Dracula. The character, who first appeared in Bram Stoker's novel way back in 1897, has long lapsed into the public domain. Thus, pretty much anyone can do whatever they want with The Count.
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