Long-time Disney composer Alan Menken has spoken out about the next live-action Disney movies we can look forward to – and the classic animations which may be too problematic to remake at all.

The Oscar, Grammy and Tony-winning composer wrote the music for 1992 animated movie Aladdin, and has now written updated new music for the live-action remake of the Disney classic set for release this week.

He also wrote the Academy Award-winning scores to classic Disney movies including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas, as well as composing the music for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tangled and more.

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Speaking at an event to promote Aladdin, Menken was asked about which of his classic Disney films will be given the live action treatment next.

"They all seem to be moving that way! The Little Mermaid's next, with Rob Marshall directing and I'm going to be having lyrics by Lin Manuel Miranda – who I knew since he was a little kid!," he said.

The composer went on to clarify the next Disney live-action remakes which are in the works: "They're developing Hunchback, which will be complicated because there are dark aspects to that which we're going to have to navigate."

Disney

Speaking of complications with updating some of his back catalogue of Disney films, he went on to speak frankly about those which would be problematic to remake for modern audiences.

"I don't know if we'll ever be able to do Pocahontas, I think that story is going to be difficult. With modern sensibilities, it'd be hard – you're going to offend somebody – so I don't know," Menken explained.

"But I'm happy to come back to these films and continue to add to them. Writing 'Speechless' was a surprising benefit," he added of the new song he wrote for the live-action Aladdin movie, which is sung by Princess Jasmine. "It was one of those songs that wouldn't have existed otherwise."

He continued to explain that more of his original 1992 version of Aladdin had to be updated for modern audiences when it came to this big-budget 2019 remake, including the lyrics in the classic song 'Prince Ali', which is performed by Will Smith as the Genie.

“It is no longer 'Sunday salaam'. It's 'Friday salaam'. Things got corrected, certain things got removed. Like, we used to have [in the lyrics to 'Arabian Nights'], 'The heat is intense / It's barbaric / But hey, it's home'," Menken recalled.

"But originally, what Howard [Ashman, Menken's late collaborator] and I wrote actually was, 'Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face / It's barbaric / But hey, it's home'. That went fast. We thought it was funny. But I don't think Arabic people thought it was all that funny, so that got changed.

"Then the word 'barbaric' came out. It's a filter, you have to look at what's happening today. Values go upside-down in a blink. It's inevitable, you have got to take that really seriously."

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Menken added: "First of all, we're dealing with a company like the Disney company, so you're going to have a major filter, because there's always a huge microscope on Disney. I draw the line wherever Disney tells me to draw the line."

And when it comes to editing the lyrics from older Disney movies for modern audiences, he explained that "there are ways to be funny without necessarily having to play with stereotypes".

"And when you're dealing with the music of the heart, the emotion, I think you're on pretty safe ground," he noted.

Aladdin star Mena Massoud recently confirmed that a new duet had been cut from the remake, while Naomi Scott has been talking about Jasmine's "powerful" new song, written by Menken.

Aladdin is released in UK cinemas on May 22 and US cinemas on May 24.

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