Exploring Disney's Animated Musicals

Ages: 18+
Session Length: Four-Part Series

What makes an animated musical sing?

Come explore that question in our four-part series on the history and development of Walt Disney Animation Studios' musicals. Explore the evolution of the genre from its feature-length debut, Snow White, to the most recent output, Moana 2.

This four-part lecture series for adults uses film clips, historical context, and song excepts to examine the visual and artistic processes, studio staffing practices, and the relationship between song and score.

(Note: This series is restricted to adult participants ages 18+. Full films will not be screened.)

Session Dates:

• Thursday, October 2nd - The "Golden Age"
  • This first session will trace Disney's earliest animated musical shorts to their first feature-length works, Snow White (1937), Pinocchio (1940), and Dumbo (1941), through World War II and the conclusion of the decade. Learn how the company utilized a distinct musical world created to complement the animation and drama, fusing each artistic element through the score and songs.
    
    
• Thursday, October 16th - The "Silver Age"
  • The second session will begin with Disney's return to the feature-length musical, Cinderella (1950), through Walt Disney's death in 1966 and the stylistic and musical changes in the decade following. Learn more about Tin Pan Alley's influence on Disney and what led to the birth of the "Renaissance."
    
    
• Thursday, October 30th - The "Renaissance"
  • The films of the Disney Renaissance represent a diverse body of musical works that dominated the cultural landscape of their time. They would soon influence the trajectory of the Broadway musical and popular culture in decades to follow. Explore this period of industrial growth that we are still living in today.
    
    
• Thursday, November 6th - 1999 to Today
  • The final session explores the Disney musical from 1999 through the present day, including the advances in animation technology and a new era of Broadway-influenced sound with the hiring of composers (e.g. Lin-Manuel Miranda), as audiences continue to search for a magical world of story and song.
    

This program is free of charge, but donations are welcome! All donations will support the mission of The Music Settlement and the talented team who coordinates these events.

This program is made possible by support from the Cleveland Foundation.

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Faculty

Kelli Minelli

Donor & Database Manager

Dr. Kelli Minelli is a musicologist and scholar, serving as the Donor & Database Manager at The Music Settlement. Kelli comes to TMS from Piano Cleveland where she began her career in advancement and fundraising as their Development Officer. Kelli holds a B.A. in Vocal Performance from the Uni... Expand

Dr. Kelli Minelli is a musicologist and scholar, serving as the Donor & Database Manager at The Music Settlement. Kelli comes to TMS from Piano Cleveland where she began her career in advancement and fundraising as their Development Officer.

Kelli holds a B.A. in Vocal Performance from the University of New Hampshire and a Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from Case Western Reserve University. During her time at CWRU, she was a Research Fellow at the Library of Congress in 2018, where she later completed her dissertation archival research. Her work focuses on the relationships between singing, narrative, and agency in films and musicals, with a specialty in animation. Her doctoral dissertation is titled, “The Whole Other World of Ashman and Menken: Broadway Conventions in Disney’s ‘Renaissance’ Musicals” and is accessible via OhioLINK. She has presented her research at regional and national conferences, including the Society for American Music and the American Musicological Society, and has a chapter in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook to the Television Musical.

Kelli is an avid educator; she has taught private and group voice lessons, undergraduate courses at CWRU, and most recently, has presented musical theatre programming at the Cuyahoga Country Public Libraries in partnership with Playhouse Square. She is a lifelong crafter and may be recognized from her work and teaching at The Artful Yarn in Chagrin Falls.

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