The Boys: Disney Legends, Sherman Brothers, Profiled in Upcoming Documentary

It seems that Disney's greatest songwriting team from the time of Uncle Walt usually gets overshadowed now by composer Alan Menken and his lyricist co-writers the late Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Steven Schwartz. But that seems to be because some under 20 years old don't bother to investigate the details of Disney movies and personnel long before "The Little Mermaid" was made in 1989 that took the Disney Company to new animation and music heights through the 90's and 2000's with new hired talent. During the last two decades of Walt Disney's life (1950's and 60's)--two Jewish songwriting brothers were hired as staff songwriters for feature films at the company. At first just writing simple pop songs--they ultimately took their craft to higher levels later and created THE personified sound of Disney movie soundtracks and their theme park rides for two decades.

This is Richard and Robert Sherman I'm talking about here. Those born only in the 80's may not know their names well--or maybe just saw their names in a passing glance when playing a Disney song (i.e. "Chim Chim Cher-ee", "It's a Small World" or "The Bare Necessities") on the piano out of a Disney-produced songbook. These two brothers may be the still-living equivalent of the Gershwins or Rodgers & Hammerstein during the last of the era when a more classic form of songwriting was still alive. And while they're mostly associated with their work at Disney--they've done some other outstanding work outside the Disney realms.

Thanks to their TV and movie producer kids--a new documentary is currently being produced (with no release date announced) that will tell their interesting story going from kids of a Tin Pan Alley songwriter (Al Sherman), starting a music publishing company before they were 30 that was later consolidated with Disney's music publishing arm, to writing some of the most memorable soundtracks in family film history. Yet, it's said on the official website for the documentary at theboysdoc.com that the two never really got along well--despite the synergy of creativity and happiness their songs possessed and generated. That's always the way, isn't it, when you have a brilliant familial collaboration in the creative arts.

A whole line of Shermans...

To prove how music and songwriting talent runs through genetic memory--The Shermans' famous Tin Pan Alley father, Al Sherman, also had a father (Samuel Sherman) who worked as a court composer for Emperor Franz Josef in Prague during the late 1800's. Through his own career later, Al Sherman composed nearly 500 songs--mostly during the Tin Pan Alley heyday. Dozens of legendary singers covered his songs on up to the early 1950's. Maybe because he sensed some sibling rivalry between Richard and Robert (Richard was the younger brother born in 1928--and Robert the oldest, born in 1925)--the story goes that he challenged his sons to put their heads together and write some songs. Since they apparently quarreled a lot, that creative tension obviously produced something rare. Some might say some of their early pop hits are just fluff, however. Even though they were already writing songs together starting in 1951, an early rock ditty called "Tall Paul" that they wrote was given to Annette Funicello in 1958 who was kicking off a recording career through Disney's label and just winding up her time on "The Mickey Mouse Club." It became a #1 hit single for Annette--and Walt (always astute to any talent within ten miles of the studio) called them in for a meeting to possibly do some work for the company.

After writing a couple of minor songs for some Disney features the next couple of years, a new movie for 1960's Disney star Hayley Mills was being produced called "The Parent Trap." Walt hired the Sherman Brothers to do the entire score for the movie, and it produced the cute novelty rock song "Let's Get Together" that Hayley (and her special effect doppelganger in the movie) sang in the film. It also became a big hit, while putting the Brothers Sherman into a better position at the company to do something greater. While they toiled away through the early 60's doing scores for more Hayley Mills movies and doing the score for the animated "Sword and the Stone"--another huge project was being developed at the Disney Studio. While in development for a couple of years--it was going to be a grand-scale production of the popular children's book "Mary Poppins" and utilize all the best aspects of special effects, music and writing that Walt and Ub Iwerks had helped develop or champion at the studio up to that point.

A lot of inside documentaries say that the Shermans developed the initial treatment of the screenplay for the movie adaptation of "Mary Poppins." Based on that, they started composing songs for the score that would utilize a bit of the old English musical hall sensibilities that were around during the time "Mary Poppins" took place. The songs would basically contain the essence of the music you'd hear in that environment: Both merry and subsequently hauntingly moody songs. With that essence in mind, giddy songs such as "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", "Step in Time" grouped with the more bittersweet/somber "Feed the Birds" and "Chim Chim Cher-ee" provided just the right contrast--and ultimately creating a timeless quality that would become the emblem of music for all subsequent family films.

When "Mary Poppins" was released in 1964--the Shermans became superstars and won two Academy Awards for their work on the film. They probably would have done a lot more with Disney (after completing their classic songs for 1967's "Jungle Book") had Walt not have died in 1966. Richard Sherman always tells the tale to this day about how Walt would ask Richard and Robert to come into his office and play the song "Feed the Birds" from "Mary Poppins" for him on the piano. "Yep, that's what it's all about, isn't it?" Walt would always say to them after they finished playing the song. The Shermans created one of the greatest songs ever about giving back...and ended up as the favorite song of one of the most influential Hollywood producers in history.

Of course, the Shermans truly immortalized themselves when they wrote "It's a Small World" for the World's Fair exhibit at Disneyland in 1964. The "It's a Small World" attraction at the Disney theme parks still goes on (as of this writing)--while some people apparently come up to them when they have the chance and either blame them or thank them for the song. The brothers also wrote lots of themes for other attractions at the parks--some of which can still be heard.

Other work beyond Disney and hopes for the new documentary to get a wide release...

You're all familiar with the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and hopefully knowing the Shermans wrote the score for that, too. That film wanted to be "Mary Poppins Part 2"--but was just short of making it there despite starring Dick Van Dyke. Nevertheless, the Shermans' score for the film is fairly implanted in people's consciousness to the point where you start singing along to many of the songs in the film when they (rarely today) show it on TV. After Walt Disney's death--they were forced to be freelance songwriters for other studios who didn't hesitate to hire them considering their successful track record. However, they did do a few more Disney projects in the late 60's: "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" (containing some of my personal favorite children's songs they ever wrote), "The Aristocats" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks." In the early 70's--they managed to get more Oscar nominations for the fun songs from "Bedknobs" that probably doesn't get as many new viewers today that it deserves.

The brothers started getting involved more in Broadway endeavors after that, along with scoring sporadic non-Disney animated family films throughout the 70's and 80's (including one of my childhood TV favorites of 1973's "Tom Sawyer" with Johnny Whitaker). A forgotten live-action musical retelling of Cinderella in 1976 called "The Slipper and the Rose" (starring Richard Chamberlin and Irish actress Gemma Craven) was intended to be a big-deal comeback project for the Shermans. The film did fair at the box office, yet enabled them to gain a lot of awards (including a Golden Globe Award) for the score. Over time, though, it's been relegated as sort of a cult movie that has fan clubs attached to it and the restored DVD that came out a few years ago.

After doing some more sporadic work for Disney (mostly for park themes)--a minor comeback in 2000 to score "The Tigger Movie" didn't get the attention it deserved. But that was during the time when Alan Menken was THE composer for Disney. I've always felt that Disney should have given the Sherman Brothers a chance at scoring at least one of the big release animated film during the 90's or 2000's. They achieved a great comeback later, anyway, when they created Broadway (and West End) musical adaptations of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and "Mary Poppins" within the last four years. Both of those productions have been major hits on the stage--with Broadway opening "Mary Poppins" recently and soon around the world.

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One can only hope the documentary "The Boys"--giving more intimate details than I did here on the life of the Sherman Brothers--will get a wide release when it presumably releases in 2009. Indie films like this usually have trouble getting distribution. It has to be noted, however, that Ben Stiller is one of the executive producers, which means there's some power behind it. A lot of legendary notables have reportedly been interviewed for the project, too.

When you see on the documentary's website that there was more drama attached to the relationship of these two amazing brothers than we obviously ever knew--it puts their songs into a different perspective. Their songs need to be deeply analyzed anyway based on a good majority of them being firmly placed into everybody's subconscious and on continuous replay when you least expect it.