I love Disney completely and utterly. I can recite whole scenes from The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. My phone is full of Disney songs, and I find these songs stuck in my head daily. I have quite the library of movies, and have visited Disney World on two separate family vacations.

The movies are my favorite things to learn about, especially the writing and voice acting aspects. Alan Menken and Howard Ashman have interested me ever since I learned about them. The lyricist of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and multiple songs in Aladdin. He and Alan Menken practically wrote my childhood. Their first best-selling project was Little Shop of Horrors, a musical about a man-eating plant, a flower shop employee, and his beautiful coworker.

During my freshman year of high school, I wrote a speech about Howard Ashman, a man who inspired me to work toward my dreams. As a child, Howard Ashman was a fan of Disney movies, and would often create and perform plays in his neighborhood with his friends. I loved reading about the passion and excitement that he would include in his work. In writing for The Little Mermaid, he helped save Disney’s animation studios. He would slip in lyrics for adults, even though they were not the target audience. Howard Ashman performed the songs he wrote on demo tracks in order to assist the actors in performing the character to the best of their ability.

Pat Carroll, the voice of Ursula stole his ad-libs in “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” and channeled Howard Ashman’s demo while she sang the song. Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel also relied on Howard Ashman to portray Ariel to the best of the ability. Jodi Benson followed in his footsteps, and sang the song with the lights off in the recording studio in order to simulate being underwater. She imagined being surrounded by treasures, and became Ariel in that moment. I love thinking about that story when I listen to “Part of Your World.”

Unfortunately, Howard Ashman’s success from The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast was short-lived. Soon after, he and Alan Menken won the Oscar for Best Song for “Under the Sea” and Best Score for the film, but Howard Ashman told Alan Menken that he was sick.

Howard Ashman had been diagnosed with AIDS, a devastating epidemic in the United States in the 1980’s and 1990’s, especially in the gay community. His health began to take a turn for the worse while he was working on Beauty and the Beast. He was able to listen to the voice recording sessions through a phone, and everyone in the room had to become completely silent, as his voice was barely above a whisper. Howard Ashman passed away in March of 1991, before he was able to see Beauty and the Beast in the film’s finished state.

I am heartbroken that Howard Ashman passed away before his promise and genius was fully appreciated. I am so glad that I am able to listen to his original demos of many of his songs, and I recommend any fan of these Disney movies does the same. Beauty and the Beast is dedicated in his memory, the dedication reading: "To our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul, we will be forever grateful." I can only hope that I am able to achieve as my dreams in a way that Howard Ashman was not fully able to do.