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"Be Our Guest" is a song written by lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken for Walt Disney Pictures' 30th animated feature film ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1991). Recorded by American actor Jerry Orbach and English actress Angela Lansbury as Lumiere and Mrs. Potts, respectively, "Be Our Guest" is a large-scale Broadway-inspired musical number that takes place during the first half of ''Beauty and the Beast'', performed by the castle's staff of enchanted objects in an elaborate attempt to welcome Belle. Menken initially intended for the melody of "Be Our Guest" to be temporary but was ultimately unable to compose a satisfying one with which to replace it. The song had originally been intended for Belle's father Maurice. However, "Be Our Guest" had to be entirely re-written as the story evolved in order to return its focus to Belle. "Be Our Guest" has garnered universal acclaim from both film and music critics who, in addition to dubbing the song a show-stopper, praised its catchiness and Orbach's vocal performance while applauding the scene's unprecedented use of computer-generated imagery. "Be Our Guest" has since been extolled as one of Disney's most celebrated and popular songs, establishing itself as one of the studio's greatest and most iconic. "Be Our Guest" received nominations for both the Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Original Song, ultimately losing both to the film's title song. "Be Our Guest" has been ranked highly on several "best Disney song" countdown lists, garnering recognition from IGN, ''M ''and the American Film Institute. In addition to appearing in the Broadway musical adaptation of ''Beauty and the Beast'', "Be Our Guest" was performed by Orbach live at the 64th Academy Awards, has been parodied in an episode of ''The Simpsons'' and covered by Alvin and the Chipmunks and The Chipettes. == Background == Originally, ''Beauty and the Beast'', under the direction of Richard Purdum, was not intended to be a musical. Then-studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg made the decision to turn the film into a Broadway-style musical similar to ''The Little Mermaid'' (1989), Disney's previous animated film, after he, displeased with the film's initial story reel, ordered the film scrapped and restarted from scratch. As a result, Purdum resigned, and first-time feature film directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale replaced him. Following the Academy Award-winning success of ''The Little Mermaid'', Katzenberg asked the ''The Little Mermaid'' songwriting duo of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken to write the songs for and score ''Beauty and the Beast''. At first Ashman, who was at the time writing songs with Menken for a recently pitched idea for another Disney film called ''Aladdin'' (1992), was reluctant to join the struggling film project, but eventually agreed. Musically, "Be Our Guest" is based on a simple melody that was composed by Menken, who initially had little intention of using it as anything more than just a "dummy." Upon singing the tune and presenting it to co-writer Ashman, Menken discovered that he was unable to come up with a melody capable of surpassing "that dumb piece of music that I wrote initially because it was just right." Subsequently, Ashman wrote the song's lyrics. Originally, the filmmakers had initially intended for "Be Our Guest" to be performed by Lumiere to Belle's disoriented father Maurice when the character first discovers the Beast's castle. According to co-director Gary Trousdale, "The song had already been recorded and the sequence partially animated when we decided that it would be more meaningful if it was directed towards Belle" because "she is one of the two main characters and the story revolves around her coming to the castle." Consequently, the song had to be re-written and the entire scene re-animated. Trousdale explained, "We had to bring Jerry Orbach and all the other vocal talents back into the studio to change all references to gender that appeared in the original recording."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Be Our Guest」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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