17. Kiss the Girl (The Little Mermaid) – Nominated by DoctorBIind
There is something amusing about Ariel not being able to talk here being both an upside and downside. I love her voice, but that girl sure says some dumb stuff at times. Anyway if you couldn't tell from my previous write ups I actually really love this movie, it is just sometimes hard to like Ariel when she is so shortsighted. Part of the reason this movie is so great is that Sebastian has two absolutely stellar songs to go along with Ariel's classic. I miss the days when songs were used heavily to tell the story of Disney movies instead of just being songs. Not every song has to have such a purpose to be awesome, of course, but this is the perfect example of such a song. The scene is set for us by the great sounds we hear and the subtle sights in front of our eyes and the song is just very mood setting, which is fitting as that is Sebastian's stated goal in the song itself. And then the last forty five seconds kicks in and the song just blows me away every time. Twenty years after the first time I saw this on a VHS I still own this scene is just remarkably special. With that boat slowly spinning it just slays me every time. I guess with two such songs in the top seventeen I am a bit of a sucker for a guy and a gal in a boat about to kiss only to be interrupted. Mark me down for that trope!
The way Ariel emotes in this scene and Eric speaks just shows how good Disney animators and voice actors are. You can really feel the raw excitement between the two when only one of them is speaking. Ariel pouts, then she smiles wide when she feels the kiss coming, it is just a very complete scene.
I didn't mean to go on a killing spree of romantic songs after I eliminated A Whole New World, but well let the slaughter continue I guess. That is how it breaks down sometimes when I listen to a song ten or twelve times and try to rank my absolute favorites, it gets so brutal. In a year this song could be top ten for me and I wouldn't be too surprised. To talk about A Whole New World some more because I think that is Gen's favorite subject now I don't know why I placed it below these other romantic songs. I understand how popular it is and I love it as well but while I have no critique I just felt like something wasn't quite there for me. It's not a criticism, honestly, I love the song a bunch but it might be the difference between 9.9 and 10.0. I have no complaints, I just knew after listening to these songs a bunch of times that I just didn't like it quite as much Kiss the Girl and others. I guess my opinions can't always be popular, oh well I am a special snowflake.
At any rate Kiss the Girl is yet another song I could listen to all day and be perfectly content, if only for those final forty-five seconds which are some of the best forty-five in any Disney song period. It is epic, it is completely enchanting, and dare I say glorious. I really can't say enough about the big end to this song, it just captures my heart without fail every time I hear it, refusing to let go until the music ends and I have to remember where I am.
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The Cult of Personality.