The Disney Song Encyclopedia - fieldi

162 “POSITOOVITY”
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). Professor Emelius Brown (David Tomlinson),
the friendly witch Miss Eglantine Price (Angela Lansbury), and her
three young evacuees (Ian Weighill, Cindy O’Callaghan, and Roy Snart)
go to the Portobello market to find a rare book of spells, and the professor
sings about the fabled street where treasures, both true and false, can
be found. Various vendors join in the song and soon it turns into a lengthy
and elaborate production number, with dancing customers and sections of
swing, calypso, and folk dancing.
“Positoovity” is the optimistic nonsense song that opens the second act
of the 2008 Broadway version of The Little Mermaid. The seagull Scuttle
(Eddie Korbich) leads the other gulls in having a positive attitude in life,
the lame-brained bird making up words and destroying other words in the
process. Alan Menken composed the jaunty music and Glenn Slater wrote
the glittering lyric, which is in the tradition of such Disney songs as “Fortuosity”
and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
“Practically Perfect” is the straightforward “I am” song written by
George Stiles and Anthony Drewe for the stage version of Mary Poppins,
which opened in London in 2004. The newly arrived nanny Mary Poppins
(Laura Michelle Kelly) explains to her two young charges that she is just
about perfect in character, appearance, and abilities. Like the character
of the mysterious nanny, the number comes across as honest and not conceited.
The song title also has a double meaning, because Mary is indeed
practical, even when she uses her magic. Ashley Brown played Mary and
sang the song in the 2006 Broadway production.
“Pretty Irish Girl” is the pastiche of an Irish ballad used throughout the
film Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959) for the blossoming romance
between the old caretaker’s daughter Katie O’Gill (Janet Munro) and the
new caretaker Michael McBride (Sean Connery). The sprightly love song
about a beloved lassie is sung by Michael and then later reprised by Katie,
the two of them singing it together at the end of the film. Oliver Wallace
(music) and Lawrence E. Watkin (lyric) wrote the simple and authenticsounding
Irish number.
“Prince Ali” is the silly and tuneful production number in the animated
film Aladdin (1992) in which the “street rat” Aladdin, disguised as a prince,
arrives in Agrabah with a massive singing and dancing entourage. The Genie
(voice of Robin Williams) leads the song and the parade (which spoofs