PG, 94m, 2018

Directed by Don Hahn. Produced by Lori Korngiebel and Jonathan Polenz, Screenplay by Don Hahn. Music by Alan Menken and Chris Bacon.

“To our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul, we will be forever grateful.” These words appear at the end of Beauty and the Beast, during the end credits as a dedication to the great late Howard Ashman. Howard Ashman was a songwriter and lyrist, who played a major part in igniting the Disney Renaissance. During the production of The Little Mermaid, Ashman would hold story meetings, because he believed that a song in a movie should move the story forward, and he believed that animation and musicals were made for each other. I first learned of Howard Ashman while watching a fourteen-part documentary series called Animation Lookback: Walt Disney Animation Studios, created by Mat Brunet. Upon doing some additional research, and after watching Waking Sleeping Beauty, I came to be fascinated by Howard Ashman and I found it to be a great tragedy that he died in the middle of his prime. I also thought that the story of Howard Ashman could make a great movie or a great documentary, and I wondered why this project wasn’t being made. The people that knew Howard Ashman were mostly still alive, and many of them are still creating content to this day. Fast forward to several years later, I hear that a documentary based on the life of Howard Ashman was in the works. I was ecstatic, since I knew and respected the work of the people involved. Don Hahn was set to direct the film, and as the director of Waking Sleeping Beauty, which is my favorite documentary on the subject of animation, I felt the film was in safe hands. He was also close to Howard, so I knew that would add a more personal touch that made Waking Sleeping Beauty as good as it was. Soon after it launched on Disney+ I sat down and watched it, and for the most part the film met and at times exceeded my expectations.

Howard documents the life and career of songwriter Howard Ashman, who wrote the lyrics for the songs in The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, as well as the songs in the stage musical Little Shop of Horrors. Howard Ashman would continue to write musical lyrics until his death in March 1991, due to complications from AIDS at the age of 40.

The driving force behind the enjoyability of biographical documentaries is how interesting the person being discussed is, and how the filmmakers tell their life story. I have seen quite a few biographical documentaries where the subject leads an interesting life, but the filmmakers made the film into a borefest. To the point where an event that, should evoke great interest or wonder, left me staving off falling asleep. This documentary, as well as the man Howard Ashman suffers none of these setbacks. Throughout Howard, Howard Ashman could be viewed as a proverbial Walt Disney. After Walt Disney’s death in 1966, the Disney Company entered into a downward spiral that almost cost the company its independence, as several companies were attempting to buy out the Disney Studio during this turbulent time. During the late 1980s, there was a revitalization in the Disney Studio that would eventually lead to the Disney Renaissance. One of the people at the forefront of leading Disney’s animation department into the Disney Renaissance was Howard Ashman. Howard Ashman helped create the Disney song formula that dominated the Disney Renaissance. The intro song, the I want song, the villain song, the love song that can double as a pop song and the big number, are all musical staples that can be found in most of the films released during the Disney Renaissance. Howard Ashman had a background in musical theater, so he knew the importance of progressing the story through music. This is a lesson that Howard drilled into the people who worked on the films of the early Disney Renaissance. This lesson would pay off the songs of the Disney Renaissance either progress the story along, reveal something about a character or introduce the audience to the world in which the characters inhabit.

The final part of the documentary covers Howard Ashman’s struggles with aids behind the scenes of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. This sequence initially had me a little worried, as it could easily come off as melodramatic or it could drag the documentary down. Instead, what we got was a very touching tribute to a man, made by people who loved him tremendously. Several times throughout the documentary, you can see the lumps in people’s throats forming, and they pause for a bit to conduct themselves, this makes the events being discussed seem all the more real. When Alan Menken recounted the story of learning about Howard’s illness, the day after they both won Oscars for their work on The Little Mermaid, a lump formed in my throat for a minute, which is a rare occurrence for me as I rarely tear up during movies. Part of the tragedy of Howard’s death is due to the abruptness of his death. Howard knew when he started writing the lyrics for the songs of Beauty and the Beast, that he was not going to live to see the completed film. Instead of moping about and feeling sorry for himself, like so many of us might do, Howard gathered the rest of his strength and set out to make Beauty and the Beast as good as he possibly could. He succeeded in this endeavor, which makes it all the more tragic that he never got to see the completed film.

Similarly, to Waking Sleeping Beauty,the film utilizes archival videos and stock photos, rather than modern interviews. However, unlike Waking Sleeping Beauty, Howard does something new. Throughout the documentary, whenever a song plays that was written by Howard Ashman, lyrics appear on the screen, and I feel this is a nice little touch, that lets the audience bask in the witty lyrics of songs that many people in my generation brew up singing. When I first sat down to watch this movie, I was a bit concerned that it would just be a repeat of Waking Sleeping Beauty, instead Howard acts more like a companion piece to Waking Sleeping Beauty. Now this doesn’t mean that one has to watch Waking Sleeping Beauty (although I’d certainly recommend it from an entertainment perspective) in order appreciate Howard. A person could go into Howard, having never heard of the principal characters, or Waking Sleeping Beauty. It would certainly help if the viewer knew a bit about the principal characters or had seen Waking Sleeping Beauty as the initiated viewer would receive a deep understanding of the events and people being portrayed on screen.

For me, this documentary succeeds at everything a documentary should set out to do. It was entertaining, I learned something new while watching it and I felt something while watching. I majored in history in college, and as such I have seen some documentaries that were not only boring, but were generic with their presentation of the facts, this documentary suffers from none of these flaws. While I still prefer Waking Sleeping Beauty to this film, Howard is still a highly enjoyable film that fans of music, animation and Disney should all watch. If these things don’t excite you, I’d still recommend the film, as the film is highly enjoyable, and it focuses on an interesting individual who pursed his passions and gave the world some of the most memorable songs to grace the silver screen.