Why "This is The Thanks I Get?" Failed As a Villain Song

if there's one thing everybody can agree on it's that they love a good Disney villain song for some reason these songs always seem to have the best instrumentals the best lyrics and the most memorable visuals my theory is that it's because villain songs fundamentally are all about personality the best animated villain almost always have the strongest personalities of the cast they're flamboyant cunning arrogant dastardly all those good adjectives and that's going to translate into song we really haven't had a True Villain song since mother knows best and Tangled Frozen didn't have one unless you're weird and want to count Let It Go and encanto's villain was generational trauma you can make an argument about shiny and Moana but I don't really count it since Moana didn't have a major villain just an obstacle that had a song attached to it mother knows best is the most recent Disney song where the main villain sings about their particular strain of villainy in mother gothel's case it's about being a manipulative and emotionally abusive mother who wants to keep Rapunzel where she is it lays out not just who mother gothal is as a person but also her motivations and goals that's what makes a great villain song you can see the same thing thing in earlier songs like be prepared and Poor Unfortunate Souls many people consider the best Disney song of all time to be Hellfire from Hunchback in nraam while I personally can't choose a favorite myself I could definitely see why someone would choose Hellfire it's an excellent example of musical storytelling you can tell that every aspect was deeply thought out the religious imagery blankets the entire song emphasized by the famous visual of frolo running through the hooded chanting figures That's The Power of a villain song it encapsulates what the character is all about and since the antagonist is often the main force of the story progress it can also change the story and its themes as a whole a good villain song also progresses the story forward as any good musical number does friends on the other side is where facilier lays down his cursed Poor Unfortunate Souls is where Ariel gets turned into a human be prepared is where scarth the H is for help in his plan exceptions would be mother knows best in Gaston which simply established character but in the case of the latter Mob song provides another sequence for the villain to actively push the story forward mother knows best gets a repre Down the Line later as well you could say this is the thanks I get from wish fits these qualifications it establishes magnifo personality and motivation which are going to play into the story so why has the reception been so poor let's break down the song I know it's only been 3 seconds but I already have an issue and that issue is going to extend through the entire song this is a pop song it's structured like a pop song it's written by a pop song writer it's produced by a pop song producer so naturally the instrumentals sound like a pop song and not a good one either the biggest problem of the song though is the lyrics We see issu starting from the second couplet of the song it's genetics yeah I got these je from out of space this is a redundancy which is my pet peeve in songwriting once you say it's genetics you don't also need to praise your genetics for a second time redundancy bothers me so much because most songs are so short only a couple hundred words so each line needs to count outer space is also just kind of awkward sounding in the rhyme scheme because the first syllable of outer is strong enough to feel like it also warrants rhyme of its own but the previous line doesn't rhyme with with the full phrase outer space that's minor though so let's move on I'm passionate I'm not petulent someone praised me for my benevolence the way that he puts emphasis on I'm passionate I'm not petulent implies that these two adjectives are opposites which they aren't petulent means irritable and rude and a person could easily be both passionate and rude if he said I'm passionate but not petulant the line would make more sense little things can make a difference another thing that makes the stanza sound awkward is that the ear expects a rhyme with omnipotent but gets petulant which is a minor slant rhyme at best I put the eye in omnipotent I'm passionate I'm not petulent it's because of how the words break down the emphases are omnipotent and petulent since the emphases don't rhyme the words don't rhyme even if their last syllables technically do the next line ends with benevolence which does Rhyme better with petulant this just wasn't the place for an a a BB rhyme scheme a straight A A AA where every line rhymes would have been better the next stanza is better I'll give it that it's a cute characterization but then we get the most infamous line of the song I let and I don't even charge you it's redundancy at its worst I saw plenty of people online clowning on this because it literally just States the same thing twice like yeah if they're living here for free then they don't have to pay rent by default you don't need to say it if You' think they'd all be content all I really want is just a little respect the next part has a similar problem to the AABB part after three ENT Rhymes your ear expects a fourth but instead you get the word respect this is another slant rhyme slant Rhymes are okay sometimes but musical numbers tend to use full Rhymes more often than pop music which you know pop songwriter Etc respect here is meant to rhyme with the choruses this is the thanks I get if that's the angle they wanted they should have used rhymes for get leading up to the chorus there's like a lot of those the chorus just repeats this is the thanks I get so it's not like you're going to overload the get Rhymes by using them before the chorus and let's talk about this chorus this is the than I get the little do do do in the background completely take away any intimidation Factor it sounds like a Glee cover derogatory if this is magnifo showing his true colors the instrumentation should reflect that it shouldn't sound like a happy pop song it should sound intimidating and vindictive which is how the writers clearly want magnifo to come off especially at this point in the story this instrumentation could go under almost anything but a villain song you could sing a sappy love song over it without changing anything and it would work people have been saying wish feels AI generated and I can absolutely see that in this chorus the second verse also struggles magnifo continues to Hype himself up but the joke is tired by this point we get that magnifo is arrogant repeating it without any flavor isn't going to enhance the song compare this to Gaston which utilizes comedy more effectively by actually being clever Gaston also establishes how the Village Views the titular character which is important to the plot so the more the marrier there's also this line and you still complain ungrateful much Julia Michaels is only 30 but this light in particular feels like it was written by a man 15 years older such a forced rhyme too it reminds me of how Maui rhym below with yo except without any of the charm the next line rhymes prob with job and there's another really awkward line with the disrespect I just underwent just professional songwriter anyway the second time around there's actually get Rhymes leading up to the chorus and you'll notice this sounds a lot cleaner than the first verse swe since the day you were born and the day that we met and this is the thanks I get of course I still have a lot of issues with that chorus the second chorus sounds identical to the first this is the thanks I get and this is the thanks I get there hasn't been any buildup or sense of scale yet which so many previous villain songs have the bridge is where the buildup is but it's just so out of nowhere that it sounds like a completely different song I didn't want to do this I swore I'd never do this but I I understand what they were going for here magnifico's facade is falling he's breaking down and he's being obviously evil now resorting to Magic he previously didn't want to use if they wanted to do that they should have hinted at it earlier in the song especially in the second verse in chorus use some instrumentation from that bridge in that verse to represent how the facade is cracking with the bridge being where it completely Falls away that would have been a much more natural way to tell the story as opposed to jarringly switching instrumentation it feels like they put in that bridge because they knew that they needed the buildup like other villain songs without understanding why those buildups exist they exist to make those songs feel huge and important as well as progressing the song instrumentally instead of just having a flat song like this is the thanks I get this also isn't even at the end of the song there's another verse in chorus after this which completely deflates the buildup of the bridge compare this to say be prepared though the song starts relatively subdued by the end it feels absolutely massive the way scar basically Roars his final lines to drive home how important the scene is and how motivated scar is it was so intense that Jeremy Irons famously blew out his voice for it be prepared isn't a long song either it's only about 2 and a half minutes when you count the parts with singing Hellfire is also about that long this is the thanks I get would be about 2 and 1/2 minutes if it ended after the bridge I wonder if they added the last verse in chorus because they wanted it to be the length of a typical pop song a musical songwriter might add dialogue or an instrumental break to lengthen the song and add more Dimension but a pop songwriter wouldn't think of this they go the route they're more familiar with so instead of end the song on a high note it ends on a chorus which sounds again the same as the first two with the exception of a yell at the end this is the I get the than I get as a piece of Storytelling the sequence also fails at being especially villainous up until this point in the story magnifo has been pretty much reasonable he won't grant wishes he considers too vague or dangerous and he only gets this upset because he feels like there's a threat against his kingdom and his subjects only care about themselves and their wishes his anger is for the most part Justified he's not not being evil he's being human at least he was until he opens that book and a few minutes later suddenly decides he wants nothing more than power there's no slow descend into madness or a fatal flaw or anything just a sudden turn because the plot demanded that Asha be right this happens an hour into a 90-minute movie by the way a good word for this song would be safe I can really see the AI generated arguments it checks off the boxes for a Disney villain song but does it without any passion or risks just look at the visuals where are the intense colors or imagery even Mother Knows Best around a lot with lighting just compare thanks to something like friends on the other side and it's like night and day friends utilizes its color palette expertly and the visuals are filled with little details like how the pattern on the walls turns into skulls when failer shadow goes over it vs doesn't have any of that the visuals are plain it's it's mostly just magnifo walking around with a little bit of extra lighting later in the song Artistry comes from risk Hellfire will always be remembered for his greatness because it took a massive Risk by throwing Concepts like religious guilt and Vengeance into a kids movie and it didn't hold back at all all challenging your audience even making them uncomfortable is key to driving home important themes Disney shouldn't be concerned with potentially scaring twoe olds in its villain sequence but in this is the thanks I get it felt like they were villains should be frightening it's what makes them memorable they're villains they're evil I'm not saying jigsaw should be the next Disney antagonist but we need someone with an edge to them unless you're doing some thought exercise on morality or making a gritty Action Movie Villains should be as villainous as their heroes are heroic it's what makes them so fun to take down in the end I saw a lot of people complaining that magnifo simply isn't evil enough he's arrogant yes but refusing to Grant everybody's wishes isn't exactly the same as trapping souls or burning down Paris I mean obviously not everybody's deepest wish should be granted there are some horrible people out there not to mention that he provides his people with free living and protection even if he is keeping them complacent the movie is so gutless that it can't even make its villain evil until the plot absolutely demands it even AI wouldn't do that this is the result of people in a boardroom trying to to impress as many other people as possible and it didn't work through its first month wish made well under a third of the domestic box office that Frozen did and they released during the exact same time of year since wish's box office failure Bob Iger has come out and said that Disney movies should focus more on entertainment and less on messages while you can argue that I don't even know what the message of wish is every wish should come true teenagers are always right A lot of people complain about Disney going woke but I argue that they were way too safe in the case of wish AI generated or not something needs to give and something needs to change I hope you enjoyed this video and I hope you had a good holiday season check out my other videos for more analysis on Disney songs have a great day

Channel: Astor Rhymemaster

Views: 1,091,573

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Id: HJOSBiPMQoE

Length: 11min 39sec (699 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 27 2023