In recent years, it surprises no one when a song from a Disney animated feature film is awarded an Academy Award for Best Original Song. “Let It Go” from Frozen, “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King, “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, and “Remember Me” from Coco were all Oscar winners. But this legacy began in 1940 when Walt Disney’s second full-length animated feature film, Pinocchio, became the first Disney movie to strike gold with a critically acclaimed theme song. Let’s take a closer look at the toon tune that started the trend, “When You Wish Upon a Star.”
Walt Disney Studios was bolstered by the success of their first full-length animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was released in 1937, when they selected the subject for their second film. They secured the rights to The Adventures of Pinocchio, an 1883 children’s storybook by Carlo Collodi. The plot focused on a lonely Italian woodworker named Geppetto who carves a wooden puppet that magically transforms into a real boy named Pinocchio. Since Pinocchio has a habit of getting into sticky situations, he has a character, Jiminy Cricket, who personifies his conscience.
Disney Studios tapped a team of composers and lyricists to create the soundtrack for Pinocchio. Leigh Harline, Paul J. Smith, and Edward H. Plumb composed the songs for the film, and Ned Washington served as lyricists. It was Harline and Washington that wrote “When You Wish Upon a Star.”
According to Disney legends, Harline and Washington penned “When You Wish Upon a Star” in the fall of 1938 and showed their song to the executives at Disney. They immediately realized that they had something special. “When You Wish Upon a Star” was given a prominent place as the spotlight song in Pinocchio and the melody was used as a common thread throughout the movie. It was also decided that the song would be sung by the Jiminy Cricket character.
At this point, however, Jiminy Cricket’s role in the film was minimal. But it didn’t make sense for either Pinocchio or Geppetto to sing the song. To give the song the importance it needed in the film, the character singing it had to be a major character. So, the scriptwriters when back to the drawing board to beef up his role and make Jiminy Cricket the narrator of Pinocchio.
Singer and actor Cliff Edwards was cast in the role of Jiminy Cricket. He recorded “When You Wish Upon a Star” with a chorus of singers backing him up. The recording was used in the opening credits and continues into the first scene in Pinocchio.
Upon its release in 1940, Pinocchio earned critical praise, however it was not an immediate box office success. Part of the reason was the outbreak of World War II. When Disney re-released Pinocchio in 1945, it did well enough for the film to be profitable.
At the 1941 Academy Awards presentation, Pinocchio became the first Disney animated feature to win an Oscar. Actually, it won two. “When You Wish Upon a Star” won the Best Original Song honors and the film also won in the Best Original Score category.
The success and popularity of “When You Wish Upon a Star” has turned this tune into the Walt Disney Company’s signature song. It is used for Disney promotional and corporate events and has been used as a brand jingle in Disney movies, commercials, and more. For the last 90 years, “When You Wish Upon a Star” has been indelibly linked to Disney.