Ed's Review Dot Com

Crescendo Productions, Red Hour Films, Travelling Light Partners

Julie Andrews, Jim Dale, Roy E Disney, Micky Dolenz, Karen Dotrice, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., Bruce Gordon, Sheldon Harnick, James Jensen, Jeff Kurtti, John Landis, Angela Lansbury, John Lasseter, Gavin Lee

The Sherman Brothers had an office in the animation building in the Disney Studios, Burbank.  Everyone called them, “The Boys” even when they were very old.  They wrote songs for Walt.  Their first major hit was, of course, Mary Poppins, and a great deal of time of the story deals with that period of their lives.  But they wrote lots of other big hits for Walt’s films.  Then came the Worlds Fair, and some great hits for theme park attractions.  It’s a Small World After All, and the theme of the very first Audioanimatronic show in the world, “In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room”!  But this film, designed and put together  by the sons of Dick and Bob Sherman as a chance to get their dad’s together in their elder years, shows their lives from a little boy, until the present.  These boys were exact opposites from the time they were little.  Richard is outgoing, impulsive, funny, and always high spirited.  Robert is calm, slow, careful, quiet, and sometimes very dark.  But the two as a pair turned out some of the greatest music of all time.  They were the only musicians Walt had on his staff full time.  They were very close to him.   But not only was their relationship strained, but their families had not spoken for nearly 40 years, even though they lived only blocks apart for all those years.

This film is stunning in it’s depth and close insight into the lives of these great men.  I loved every moment of it.  And on the bonus features are some great special treats.  It includes additional insights and interviews that were not in the film.  Anyone who knows them, loves them, and the music that they wrote.  Like Bob says,  We didn’t write Kiddie Songs……we wrote  songs for kiddies.  I am a fan of Disney, as you probably know, and have been in the Animation building hundreds of times.  But most of the nuances of this fabulous film I never knew.  It was wonderful to learn the stories of how the most loved songs came about, and how many almost never happened.  How these geniuses write is an amazing story in itself.  So next time you hum the songs from Winnie the Pooh, you’ll think of this wonderful documentary and the men who made it all happen.  No wonder Walt loved them so much.

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