Hey guys! Welcome to my next Disney Sing-Along Songs review. My idea was to go by wave and just talk about each release in that wave. But I decided to just review the three tapes that I had when I was a kid. And since I've already reviewed The Bare Necessities, I thought it was high time that I reviewed the second Sing-Along Songs tape I had as a kid which was Heigh-Ho. So let's get into it.
Heigh-Ho, the second tape to be released in the series, was released on May 19th, 1987 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original theatrical release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I loved this tape when I was a kid. It was the second of three that I owned as well as the second Sing-Along Songs tape I ever watched. While I didn't watch it as often as The Bare Necessities and Disneyland Fun I still watched it quite a bit. My favourite song on this tape is a tie between "Up, Down, Touch the Ground" from Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree and "Let's Go Fly a Kite" from Mary Poppins. My least favourite songs are probably "The Siamese Cat Song" from Lady and the Tramp and "Yo-Ho" from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Which is interesting because when Heigh-Ho was re-released in 1994 both songs were removed from the tape. Also, the weakest song on this tape would have to be "A Cowboy Needs a Horse" from the 1956 cartoon of the same name. I don't like or dislike it, it's just a weak song compared to the others.
This tape is hosted by Professor Owl, voiced by Corey Burton, with footage from two 1953 short cartoons, Adventures in Music: Melody and Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom being used. I think this footage is probably my favourite part of the tape. I guess just the classroom setting, with birds as the students and teacher, intrigued me. I'm not a huge bird person, but cartoon birds always entertained me for whatever reason. Probably because of Kessie, the baby bird from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh that Rabbit took care of in the episode "Newfound Friends". I dunno, I just liked the characters in the host segments, they seemed more fun than just Jiminy Cricket, who sounds more like a teacher than Professor Owl does, which is weird. I also enjoyed the tapes where Ludwig von Drake is the host. Just because of the whole crazy professor thing he's got going on.
Aside from Zorro, this tape was my first exposure to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, The Three Caballeros, Lady and the Tramp, A Cowboy Needs a Horse, Pirates of the Caribbean (the Disneyland ride), and Mary Poppins as I hadn't had the opportunity to see the five movies represented here yet since they either weren't on home video yet, or I just hadn't seen them yet. It's a good tape, but as much as I loved it, it's my least favourite of the three that I owned as a kid. And I think that's because some of the songs on the tape were from "darker" Disney films and rides (like Pirates of the Caribbean) and so they scared me more than they entertained me. I still watched it and loved it, obviously, but the darker nature of the tape just kind of threw me off as a kid.
Overall Heigh-Ho is a great tape, though definitely a bit scarier than your average Sing-Along Songs tape. I guess it's just one of those things. I would still recommend it though, because there are some fun songs on it like "Heigh-Ho", "Up, Down, Touch the Ground" and "Let's Go Fly a Kite". Sadly, this tape isn't one of the ones that was released on DVD in the 2000s like The Bare Necessities was, so the only way you can watch it is either YouTube (it's in parts), or finding one of the VHS releases.
Alright guys that's it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow with a look at some of my childhood comic books that I no longer own. There aren't any DC Comics titles in this bunch, nor are there any Marvel superhero titles. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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