Another Arabian Night: Alan Menken’s Sindbad at Tokyo DisneySea
Location
Rosen Classroom 111
Start Date
21-6-2024 2:30 PM
Description
In 2001, Tokyo DisneySea opened as the first water-based Disney theme park. Central to the concept was seven “ports of call,” including the Arabian Coast which featured theming combining the worlds of Disney’s Aladdin and the world from the 1901 French version of 1001 Arabian Nights. “Sindbad’s Seven Voyages,” a musical boat dark ride, opened to mixed reviews from attendants.
The ride was refurbished and the narrative dramatically altered in 2007. Renamed to “Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage,” the new version of the ride featured a song with lyrics by Glenn Slater and music by Alan Menken. The song features striking resemblance in form to “It’s a Small World.” Likewise, Menken’s music incorporates topics signaling Arabic origins while occasionally featuring mechanical puppet performers on Arabic instruments: rebab, riq, arghul, and darbuka. Sindbad carries an oud throughout the ride’s narrative and performs near the end. However, the timbres of the song draw heavily from a Western orchestra that functions as the underpinning throughout. Near the beginning of the ride, low bowed strings supplant a puppet playing the rebab. Nevertheless, the ride and song remain popular among the primarily Asian visitors to the park with many Japanese artists virally covering the song on YouTube.
This paper will examine the layers of colonial intersections by examining the Arabian Coast at Tokyo DisneySea, the adaptation of 1001 Arabian Nights, the American composers Menken and Slater, and the inspirations from the Sherman brothers’ “It’s a Small World” and its associated rides at DisneyLand and beyond.
Recommended Citation
Wilson, Thomas L., "Another Arabian Night: Alan Menken’s Sindbad at Tokyo DisneySea" (2024). Theme Park Music and Sound. 8.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/tpms/2024/friday/8
Another Arabian Night: Alan Menken’s Sindbad at Tokyo DisneySea
Rosen Classroom 111
In 2001, Tokyo DisneySea opened as the first water-based Disney theme park. Central to the concept was seven “ports of call,” including the Arabian Coast which featured theming combining the worlds of Disney’s Aladdin and the world from the 1901 French version of 1001 Arabian Nights. “Sindbad’s Seven Voyages,” a musical boat dark ride, opened to mixed reviews from attendants.
The ride was refurbished and the narrative dramatically altered in 2007. Renamed to “Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage,” the new version of the ride featured a song with lyrics by Glenn Slater and music by Alan Menken. The song features striking resemblance in form to “It’s a Small World.” Likewise, Menken’s music incorporates topics signaling Arabic origins while occasionally featuring mechanical puppet performers on Arabic instruments: rebab, riq, arghul, and darbuka. Sindbad carries an oud throughout the ride’s narrative and performs near the end. However, the timbres of the song draw heavily from a Western orchestra that functions as the underpinning throughout. Near the beginning of the ride, low bowed strings supplant a puppet playing the rebab. Nevertheless, the ride and song remain popular among the primarily Asian visitors to the park with many Japanese artists virally covering the song on YouTube.
This paper will examine the layers of colonial intersections by examining the Arabian Coast at Tokyo DisneySea, the adaptation of 1001 Arabian Nights, the American composers Menken and Slater, and the inspirations from the Sherman brothers’ “It’s a Small World” and its associated rides at DisneyLand and beyond.