'Mermaid' men back in Dis net

Alan Menken
The future of Walt Disney Feature Animation under Disney CEO Robert Iger, Walt Disney Studios chairman Cook and Pixar Animation Studios' John Lasseter and Ed Catmull might lie in the future of CG, but the studio said Tuesday that as it moves forward, it also is returning to its past.

Disney has signed composer Alan Menken, an eight-time Oscar winner and one of the driving forces behind "The Little Mermaid" -- which helped resuscitate Disney animation in the '80s -- to a nonexclusive, multipicture deal.

Highly regarded feature animation directors John Musker and Ron Clements, the team behind such animated hits as "Mermaid" and "Aladdin," also are returning to the Disney fold.

Menken, whose deal also involves live-action films, is developing the feature animated musical "The Frog Princess," based on the classic Grimm fairy tale.

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Menken is great at making the music, every melody he makes is beautiful. But it was Howard Ashman who made the music of Mermaid, Beauty, and Aladdin so memorable. Menken isn't really as good in coming up with songs without Ashman. Both together just knew how to really make music not a part of the story but the story itself. I think that's what Disney has been lacking since Ashman's death.