As the first Black woman in Congress and the first Black woman to run for the Democratic Party’s Presidential nomination, Shirley Chisholm clearly had no shortage of vision. Even so, the glass-ceiling-shattering politician—who was born on Nov. 30, 1924—might not have imagined what would come 100 years after her birth. Her centennial year has seen the first woman of color at the top of a major party ticket, and Chisholm, who died in 2005, has been the subject of a Netflix series and multiple biographies. The New York City Council has declared Nov. 30 as Shirley Chisholm Day, to be celebrated every year. Even so, her impact has not always been recognized to the same extent as that of other Black leaders.
This short documentary by RetroReport examines Chisholm’s legacy—and how she has served as an inspiration to many, even as the reality of a woman being elected President remains unrealized in the United States.
BEIRUT — Thousands of Syrian insurgents fanned out inside Aleppo in vehicles with improvised armor and pickups, deploying to landmarks such as the old citadel on Saturday, a day after they entered Syria’s largest city facing little resistance from government troops, according to residents and fighters.
Witnesses said two airstrikes on the city’s edge late Friday targeted insurgent reinforcements and hit near residential areas. A war monitor said 20 fighters were killed.
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Syria’s armed forces said in a statement Saturday that to absorb the large attack on Aleppo and save lives, it has redeployed and is preparing for a counterattack. The statement acknowledged that insurgents entered large parts of the city but said they have not established bases or checkpoints.
Insurgents were filmed outside police headquarters, in the city center, and outside the Aleppo Citadel. They tore down posters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, stepping on some and burning others.
The surprise takeover is a huge embarrassment for Assad, who managed to regain total control of the city in 2016, after expelling insurgents and thousands of civilians from its eastern neighborhoods following a grueling military campaign in which his forces were backed by Russia, Iran and its allied groups.
Aleppo has not been attacked by opposition forces since then. The 2016 battle for Aleppo was a turning point in the war between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters after 2011 protests against Assad’s rule turned into an all-out war.
The push into Aleppo followed weeks of simmering low-level violence, including government attacks on opposition-held areas. Turkey, which has backed Syrian opposition groups, failed in its diplomatic efforts to prevent the Syrian government attacks, which were seen as a violation of a 2019 agreement sponsored by Russia, Turkey and Iran to freeze the line of the conflict.
The offensive came as Iran-linked groups, primarily Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has backed Syrian government forces since 2015, have been preoccupied with their own battles at home. A ceasefire in Hezbollah’s two-month war with Israel took effect Wednesday, the day the Syrian opposition factions announced their offensive. Israel has also escalated its attacks against Hezbollah and Iran-linked targets in Syria during the last 70 days.
Insurgents raise flag over Aleppo Citadel
A witness in Aleppo said government troops remained in the city’s airport and at a military academy but most of the forces have already filed out of the city from the south. Syrian Kurdish forces remained in two neighborhoods.
The redeployment “is a temporary measure and (the military central command and armed forces) will work to guarantee the security and peace of all our people in Aleppo,” the military statement said.
Speaking from the heart of the city in Saadallah Aljabri square, opposition fighter Mohammad Al Abdo, said it was his first time back in Aleppo in 13 years, when his older brother was killed at the start of the war.
“God willing, the rest of Aleppo province will be liberated” from government forces, he said.
There was light traffic in the city center on Saturday. Opposition fighters fired in the air in celebration but there was no sign of clashes or government troops presence.
Abdulkafi Alhamdo, an teacher who fled Aleppo in 2016 and returned Friday night after hearing the insurgents were inside, described “mixed feelings of pain, sadness and old memories.”
“As I entered Aleppo, I kept telling myself this is impossible! How did this happen?” He said he strolled through the city at night, visiting the citadel, where the insurgents raised their flags, a major square and the university of Aleppo, as well as the last spot he was in before he was forced to leave for the countryside.
“I walked in (the empty) streets of Aleppo, shouting, ‘People, people of Aleppo. We are your sons,’” Alhamdo told The Associated Press in a series of messages.
The insurgents launched their shock offensive in the Aleppo and Idlib countryside on Wednesday and wrestled control of dozens of villages and towns before entering Aleppo on Friday.
The pro-government Al-Watan newspaper reported airstrikes on the edge of Aleppo city targeting rebel supply lines. It posted a video of a missile landing on a gathering of fighters and vehicles, in a street lined with trees and buildings.
City hospitals are full
Twenty fighters were killed in the airstrikes, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Aleppo residents reported clashes and gunfire. Some fled the fighting.
Schools and government offices were closed Saturday as most people stayed indoors, according to Sham FM radio, a pro-government station. Bakeries were open. Witnesses said the insurgents deployed security forces around the city to prevent any acts of violence or looting.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the city’s airport has been shut and all flights suspended. On Friday, Aleppo’s two key public hospitals were reportedly full of patients while many private facilities closed, OCHA said.
In social media posts, the insurgents were pictured outside of Aleppo Citadel, the medieval palace in the old city center, and one of the largest in the world. In cellphone videos, they recorded themselves having conversations with residents they visited at home, seeking to reassure them they will cause no harm.
The Syrian Kurdish-led administration in the country’s east said nearly 3,000 people, most of them students, had arrived in their areas after fleeing the fighting in Aleppo, which has a sizeable Kurdish population.
State media reported that a number of “terrorists,” including sleeper cells, infiltrated parts of the city. Government troops chased them and arrested a number who posed for pictures near city landmarks, state media said.
On a state TV morning show Saturday, commentators said army reinforcements and Russia’s assistance will repel the “terrorist groups,” blaming Turkey for supporting the insurgents’ push into Aleppo and Idlib provinces.
Russia’s state news agency Tass quoted Oleg Ignasyuk, a Russian Defense Ministry official coordinating in Syria, as saying that Russian warplanes targeted and killed 200 militants who launched the offensive in the northwest on Friday. It provided no further details.
On May 1, 1994, at the start of the sixth lap at Italy’s San Marino Grand Prix, 34-year-old Ayrton Senna Da Silva crashed his newly-designed Williams race car into a concrete wall at 145 miles per hour. Later that day, the Formula 1 driver, winner of three championships, would be pronounced dead at a local hospital, sending shockwaves throughout the racing world and his home country of Brazil.
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The event makes up the first brief sequence in Senna, a new six-episode Netflix miniseries, which traces the majority of his adult racing life and his ascent to the top of his sport. In the process of achieving greatness on the track (he finished his 10-year career with 41 victories, 65 pole positions, and 80 podiums), Senna became one of the few drivers to transcend the sport itself—he was both a global superstar and a national hero to Brazilians, who gathered around televisions every time he strapped into his car and flipped down his helmet lid. When he drove, everyone watched.
Across the series, showrunner and co-director Vincente Amorim (Santo, Yakuza Princess) chronicles the creation of his almost-mythic celebrity and the challenging ladder he climbed to reach the sport’s ultimate heights. Like most elite athletes, Senna, played with fierce determination by Gabriel Leone, inherited an early love for racing and paired it with his inflexible determined personality, an unrelenting desire to be the best which shaped his relationships with family, teammates, and competitors. As he graduated from different levels of racing and made his way to F1 in 1984, he possessed extreme command in the driver’s seat, exhibited aggressiveness at every opportunity, and proved he could win at any level, on any surface, against any opponent.
You might already know some of this journey and background if you watched the identically-titled Senna, director Asif Kapadia’s engrossing and award-winning 2010 documentary that’s (conveniently) also available on Netflix. In a break from typical documentary form, Kapadia exclusively used archival home and racing footage, sacrificing talking heads for a more intimate and immediate account of Senna’s driving prowess and quest for greatness as he moved between racing teams and navigated Formula 1’s politics. Though the miniseries dramatizes many of the same moments, it also fills in some of the off-track gaps that Kapadia leaves out, including Senna’s first marriage, his early racing career in the U.K., and the intricacies of his rivalry with French driver Alain Prost (Matt Mella).
Three decades after Senna’s untimely death, the Brazilian driver is still widely considered one of the best (and the fastest) drivers in Formula 1 racing history. Read more about the series, his prolific and influential 10-year career, and the legacy of a life cut short.
Senna’s Rise to F1 Glory
Even as a child, Senna had an irregular thirst for driving and began racing Go-Karts at age 13. Early success motivated him to move to the U.K. in 1981, race with real cars, and pursue Formula motorsports.
As Senna attempted a professional route, his native Brazil was in the midst of a 21-year military dictatorship, which left most of the country in poverty. As unemployment rose, Senna offered many Brazilian residents hope and pride. Amorim and co-director Júlia Rezende occasionally nod to Brazil’s economic and political struggles in various newspaper headlines and television reports, and during a few glimpses of a Brazilian father and son, who flock to the television when Senna races.
The majority of Senna’s first two episodes chronicle his growth as a driver in England. Though his win-first, aggressive tactics didn’t ingratiate him to his team, Senna still won the Formula Ford series championship in his first year. Senna initially retires to appease his wife Lillian and his parents, who want him to take over the family business, but his instant success pulls him back to England. It’s not long before he ditches a life in Brazil, separates from Lillian, and continues his climb up the Formula ladder.
In the midst of Senna’s migration between teams and racing levels, Amorim highlights some of the biases facing Latino athletes. After Senna wins the F3 championship, Formula 1 teams—specifically Lotus—begin taking notice. But no matter his impressive lap times, the majority of executives refuse to give Senna a fair shake. “He’s just not British,” says a higher-up at Imperial Tobacco, a Lotus title sponsor.
Eventually, Senna latched on with Toleman, a smaller racing outfit that didn’t have the car design or engine to compete with the top F1 brands. And yet, during his first year, he proved his skills to the world. “It’s like a drug,” Senna said after finding early success. “Once you experience it you keep searching for it all the time.”
The Rivalry Is Born
It’s difficult to capture the thrill and danger of Formula 1 and condense it onto the small screen, but Amorim effectively translates the feeling inside the cockpit. Leaning on a soundtrack of accelerating engines and gear changes, he deftly drops in archival overhead shots of races with the hyper-focused close-ups of his own camera, blending CGI and real cars to match the sport’s blistering pace and Senna’s stomach-turning corner hugging. At points during his championship runs, the Brazilian describes the experience of driving like he was “in another dimension,” and Senna commits to that out-of-body dimension with abstract, kinetic energy.
As Senna developed into first a feisty driver at Toleman and then a threatening one at Lotus, Prost had become the face of the racing world at McLaren. The pair would soon forge a rivalry, though their frosty relationship didn’t crystalize until they became McLaren teammates in 1988. At one point in the season, Senna shoved Prost towards a pitwall (a tempestuous act not featured in the miniseries), and their rivalry remained contentious as Senna’s star began to outshine Prost en route to the Brazilian’s first F1 championship.
The intensive public battle didn’t start until 1989, when Senna passed Prost at Imola during a restart, breaking what Prost believed to be a gentleman’s agreement. Over the next two years, each engaged in title-deciding crashes by cutting corners (one that earned Senna a disqualification and suspension) and tarnishing F1’s reputation, with Senna calling out Prost’s political maneuvering and Prost griping about Senna’s impulsive driving
The rivals would eventually become friendly once Prost left for a broadcasting role, but their relationship fueled F1 storylines for years and made their races must-watch events.
An End Forshadowed
At the beginning of the 1994 race season, Senna could foresee a tragedy on the horizon.
At the time, he was unhappy with his Williams car (which had recently lost its automatic suspensions and gearboxes thanks to a series-wide ban) and didn’t trust the San Marino track’s asphalt. His concerns before his final race grew during the Friday qualifier, when driver Rubens Barrichello, Senna’s friend and fellow Brazilian, flipped his car and hit a tire barrier, necessitating an airlift to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken nose and bruising. The next day, Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger died instantly after ramming into a concrete barrier due to a front wing failure.
Senna felt the gravity of these moments. In the final episode, he calls for the F1 president to postpone the Grand Prix, one of many occasions that the Brazilian voiced frustrations about safety regulations and questioned Formula 1’s leadership. That same weekend, as depicted in the final episode, Prost urges him to lead the Driver’s Association because of the massive pull he has with other drivers and the leverage he has as the sport’s biggest name.
Ultimately, those tragedies didn’t dissuade Senna from competing. In a pivotal scene before the race, Senna’s doctor, Sid Watkins, asks him why he has to keep racing and can’t just “give it up and go fishing.” Senna responds: “Sid, there are certain things over which we have no control. I cannot quit, I have to go on.” In the wake of his death, Formula 1 made renewed efforts to improve its safety measures, which included limitations placed on the bodywork aerodynamics of cars and a pit lane speed limit. As a result, it was 21 years between Senna’s death and that of Jules Biachi, who died in 2015 from injuries incurred at the Japanese Grand Prix.
But Senna’s legacy extends beyond the track. After his death, his family established the Instituto Ayrton Senna, a charitable foundation he’d wanted to form with his sister, Vivianne, before competing in 1994. Throughout his career, he’d made large donations to aid impoverished Brazilian children and wanted a unified place to focus on education and human development for the next generation. Today, Vivianne is the non-profit’s president and is dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth in the memory of her brother.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is set to create a National Energy Council that he says will establish American “energy dominance” around the world as he seeks to boost U.S. oil and gas drilling and move away from President Joe Biden’s focus on climate change.
The energy council — to be led by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s choice to head the Interior Department — will be key in Trump’s pledge to “drill, drill, drill” and sell more oil and other energy sources to allies in Europe and around the globe.
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The new council will be granted sweeping authority over federal agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, with a mandate to cut bureaucratic red tape, enhance private sector investments and focus on innovation instead of “totally unnecessary regulation,” Trump said.
But Trump’s energy wishes are likely to run into real-world limits. For one, U.S. oil production under Biden is already at record levels. The federal government cannot force companies to drill for more oil, and production increases could lower prices and reduce profits.
A call for energy dominance — a term Trump also used in his first term as president — “is an opportunity, not a requirement,” for the oil industry to move forward on drilling projects under terms that are likely to be more favorable to industry than those offered by Biden, said energy analyst Kevin Book.
Whether Trump achieves energy dominance — however he defines it — “comes down to decisions by private companies, based on how they see supply-demand balances in the global marketplace,” said Book, managing partner at ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington research firm. Don’t expect an immediate influx of new oil rigs dotting the national landscape, he said.
Trump’s bid to boost oil supplies — and lower U.S. prices — is complicated by his threat this week to impose 25% import tariffs on Canada and Mexico, two of the largest sources of U.S. oil imports. The U.S. oil industry warned the tariffs could raise prices and even harm national security.
“Canada and Mexico are our top energy trading partners, and maintaining the free flow of energy products across our borders is critical for North American energy security and U.S. consumers,” said Scott Lauermann, speaking for the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s top lobbying group.
American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, which represents U.S. refineries, also opposes potential tariffs, saying in a statement that “American refiners depend on crude oil from Canada and Mexico to produce the affordable, reliable fuels consumers count on every day.”
Scott Segal, a former Bush administration official, said the idea of centering energy decisions at the White House follows an example set by Biden, who named a trio of White House advisers to lead on climate policy. Segal, a partner at the law and policy law firm Bracewell, called Burgum “a steady hand on the tiller” with experience in fossil fuels and renewables.
And unlike Biden’s climate advisers — Gina McCarthy, John Podesta and Ali Zaidi — Burgum will probably take his White House post as a Senate-confirmed Cabinet member, Segal said.
Dustin Meyer, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs at the American Petroleum Institute, called the new energy council “a good thing” for the U.S. economy and trade. “Conceptually it makes a lot of sense to have as much coordination as possible,” he said.
Still, “market dynamics will always be the key” for any potential increase in energy production, Meyer said.
Jonathan Elkind, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, called energy dominance a “deliberately vague concept,” but said, “It’s hard to see how (Trump) can push more oil into an already saturated market.”
Trump has promised to bring gasoline prices below $2 a gallon, but experts call that highly unlikely, since crude oil prices would need to drop dramatically to achieve that goal. Gas prices averaged $3.07 nationally as of Wednesday, down from $3.25 a year ago.
Elkind and other experts said they hope the new energy council will move beyond oil to focus on renewable energy such as wind, solar and geothermal power, as well as nuclear. None of those energy resources produces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
“Failure to focus on climate change as an existential threat to our planet is a huge concern and translates to a very significant loss of American property and American lives,” said Elkind, a former assistant energy secretary in the Obama administration. He cited federal statistics showing two dozen weather disasters this year that caused more than $1 billion in damage each. A total of 418 people were killed.
Trump has played down risks from climate change and pledged to rescind unspent money in the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s landmark climate and health care bill. He also said he will stop offshore wind development when he returns to the White House in January.
Even so, his Nov. 15 announcement of the energy council says he will “expand ALL forms of energy production to grow our Economy and create good-paying jobs.”
That includes renewables, said Safak Yucel, associate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
“The mandate for the energy council is U.S. dominance globally, but what’s more American than American solar and American wind?” he asked. A report from Ernst & Young last year showed that solar was the cheapest source of new-build electricity in many markets.
Trump, in his statement, said he wants to dramatically increase baseload power to lower electricity costs, avoid brownouts and “WIN the battle for AI superiority.”
In comments to reporters before he was named to the energy post, Burgum cited a similar goal, noting increased demand for electricity from artificial intelligence, commonly known as AI, and fast-growing data centers. “The AI battle affects everything from defense to health care to education to productivity as a country,″ Burgum said.
While Trump mocks the climate law as the “green new scam,” he is unlikely to repeal it, Yucel and other experts said. One reason: Most of its investments and jobs are in Republican congressional districts. GOP members of Congress have urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to retain the law, which passed with only Democratic votes.
“A lot of Southern states are telling Trump, ‘We actually like renewables,'” Yucel said, noting that Republican-led states have added thousands of jobs in recent years in wind, solar and battery power.
If renewables make economic economic sense, he added, “they’ll continue.”
PARIS — After more than five years of frenetic reconstruction work, Notre Dame Cathedral showed its new self to the world Friday, with rebuilt soaring ceilings and creamy good-as-new stonework erasing somber memories of its devastating fire in 2019.
Images broadcast live of a site visit by French President Emmanuel Macron showed the inside of the iconic cathedral as worshippers might have experienced it back in medieval times, its wide, open spaces filled with bright light on a crisp and sunny winter’s day that lit up the vibrant colors of the stained glass windows.
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Outside, the monument is still a construction site, with scaffolding and cranes. But the renovated interior — shown in its full glory Friday for the first time before the public is allowed back in on Dec. 8 — proved to be breathtaking.
Stonemasons fixed the ripped-open ceilings
Gone are the gaping holes that the blaze tore into the vaulted ceilings, leaving charred piles of debris. New stonework has been carefully pieced together to repair and fill the wounds that had left the cathedral’s insides exposed to the elements. Delicate golden angels look on from the centerpiece of one of the rebuilt ceilings, soaring again above the transept.
The cathedral’s bright, cream-colored limestone walls look brand new, cleaned not only of dust from the fire but also of grime that had accumulated for centuries.
The cathedral attracted millions of worshippers and visitors annually before the April 15, 2019, fire forced its closure and turned the monument in the heart of Paris into a no-go zone except to artisans, architects and others mobilized for the reconstruction.
Macron entered via the cathedral’s giant and intricately carved front doors and stared up at the ceilings in wonder. He was accompanied by his wife, Brigitte, the archbishop of Paris and others.
Techniques new and old deployed
Powerful vacuum cleaners were used to first remove toxic dust released when the fire melted the cathedral’s lead roofs.
Fine layers of latex were then sprayed onto the surfaces and removed a few days later, taking dirt away with them. Cleaning gels were also used on some walls that had been painted, removing many years of accumulated dirt and revealing their bright colors once again.
Carpenters worked by hand like their medieval counterparts as they hewed giant oak beams to rebuild the roof and spire that collapsed like a flaming spear into the inferno. The beams show the marks of the carpenters’ handiwork, with dents made on the woodwork by their hand axes.
Some 2,000 oak trees were felled to rebuild roof frameworks so dense and intricate that they are nicknamed “the forest.”
It’s a sneak peak ahead of the reopening
Macron’s visit kicked off a series of events ushering in the reopening of the 12th-century Gothic masterpiece.
Macron will return on Dec. 7 to deliver an address and attend the consecration of the new altar during a solemn Mass the following day.
Macron’s administration is hailing the reconstruction as a symbol of national unity and French can-do.
BEIRUT — The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel’s aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
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The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah militants are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon’s state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese militant group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
Warning: This post contains major spoilers forThe Madness.
Netflix’s new miniseries The Madness isn’t about the events of Jan. 6, 2021. But show creator Stephen Belber explains how the unsettling events of the Capitol insurrection that day had a direct impact on the creation of the conspiracy-tinged thriller.
“The world was a little shaky,” Belber says. “You weren’t exactly sure who to trust. I liked the idea of planting someone with whose perspective we could just sort of sail through the craziness and a lot of different worlds, a lot of different communities, and see where they fracture and where they can possibly eventually coalesce.”
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That “someone” in The Madness is Muncie Daniels, played by Colman Domingo, who is also an executive producer. Muncie is a successful CNN news anchor, whose life turns upside down during a getaway to the Poconos to start writing his new book. It’s there he becomes entangled in a murder case when he is framed for the killing of the leader of a white-supremacist hate group known as the Forge. A mass misinformation campaign then makes Muncie one of the most wanted men in America.
The series is a thrilling journey as Muncie tries to claim his innocence and uncover who framed him for murder—and to learn why he’s been framed for murder. The show is jam-packed with shocking twists and turns, culminating in a dizzying finale that concludes Muncie’s journey. But does he get the answers he’s looking for?
Belber and co-showrunner VJ Boyd explain the finale of The Madness, breaking down the show’s big conspiracy and a crucial showdown.
The climactic showdown
There are a number of enemies invested in Muncie’s downfall. In Episode 7, viewers discover the show’s big bad is Rodney Kraintz (Neal Huff), the silent majority investor of a big tech company called Revitalize, who orchestrated Muncie’s framing. The Madness finale hinges on one pivotal scene: Muncie’s faceoff with Rodney, at his office in a quiet, private warehouse in New York City.
With a gun in hand, Muncie breaks into Rodney’s office. The executive is alone and unarmed, in a room with a giant server farm he uses in service of his mission to spread disinformation like wildfire.
Rodney uses disinformation to fund his quest to influence politics and power, and Muncie stands in his way. Faced with the armed Muncie, Rodney doesn’t seem particularly threatened, nor does he seem worried about Muncie’s presence—a man this good at wide-scale manipulation can’t be thwarted by a single man. “If somebody hurt someone you love, or if you feel wounded by the stretching of some truth, or by the demise of a Neo-Nazi, I would ask you to consider the larger framework. This is a much –” Rodney’s explanation is cut off by Muncie, who, frustrated with Rodney’s dismissive attitude, has had enough.
“Why the fuck did you frame me?” Muncie demands. “You were there,” Rodney answers. It’s an answer that would upset anyone, and Muncie is certainly no exception. Though as Belber explains, it’s not a completely honest answer: “Rodney is being a little disingenuous by simply saying the framing was circumstance. The circumstances were a perfect storm: The fact that Muncie was a well-known figure, the fact that he was black, the fact that he was there, and creating a sort of racial storm out of this was a perfect deflection for what Rodney Kraintz was actually up to.” Still, that was all luck: Muncie wasn’t set up ahead of time.
The wrong place and the wrong time
It just so happened that Muncie appeared to be the perfect person to frame. “It definitely was a wrong-place, wrong-time situation,” Boyd says. The only flaw in Rodney’s plan was that Muncie was far more resourceful than he could have imagined.
The most shocking part of The Madness ending is that the big conspiracy at the heart of Muncie’s problems wasn’t a conspiracy at all. “I think it’s interesting how coincidences, and someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time, that those little things can end up creating conspiracy, creating something that looks like a conspiracy that was set up ahead of time,” Boyd explains. “If you look at something like PizzaGate, if you’re invested into it, you’re going to look at every tweet Hilary Clinton had that has a pizza emoji. What could it possibly mean? But it just means she wanted pizza,” says Boyd. “The conspiracy was what it always is, which is about power.”
Muncie is left with a crucial decision: Kill Rodney, or walk away. Muncie has taken the high road at every opportunity, and in the face of every horrifying thing that’s come his way. And in the most intense moment of his life, face to face with the man who framed him, he continues to take the high road, and decides not to kill Rodney.
“There’s a part of me that felt like, well, this is the predictable way to end it. Of course, he’s not going to kill him,” Boyd tells me. “But the truth is, we pushed him far enough that from a viewer perspective, who’s going to blame him if he does?” It’s that very notion that makes the scene between Muncie and Rodney so intense. You believe that Muncie will stick to his wits and not kill Rodney, but after all he’s been through, it’s hard to say it wouldn’t be justified.
“We thought about versions where Muncie does pull the trigger,” Boyd reveals. “There was actually an early version where we cut to Muncie at the end, and he’s kidnapped Rodney Kraintz, and has him tied up in his basement…He’s forcing him to pull strings to do good.”
Ultimately, the decision was made to stay true to Muncie’s moral compass; “I felt like it was unfair to Muncie to make him that guy…when they stoop low, he goes high,” Belber confirms. “Though we make a nod to the notion that he’ll never be safe—even if you were to eliminate Rodney Kraintz, the web of those seeking to control narratives lives on.”
One last twist
While Muncie walks away, The Madness has one last twist up its sleeve: Rodney is killed, but by someone unexpected. Bobby Woods, who narrowly escaped the FBI raid on The Forge, is seen killing Rodney and his bodyguards moments after a news announcement that he’s been completely acquitted of any wrongdoing. “As Agent Khalil explains earlier to Muncie, ‘When you stir up the madness, sometimes the madness comes back and bites you.’ And Rodney was pulling these strings and riling people up…he was very much hoisted by his own petard,” Boyd explains. Woods falls victim to hysteria, and in an ironic turn, the very hysteria Rodney readily whips up for personal gain proves to be his undoing.
With Muncie free of the madness that threatened to destroy his life, the final scene finds him spending time with his children in the park. But it’s not all peaceful. The sound of a car suddenly pulling away sends a shock down his spine. “Muncie realizes at the end, yes, he’s distressed by the car, frightened even. But he’s also realizing ‘Even if I pulled the trigger, I still wouldn’t feel more peace. I’d still have jumped when that car pulled out,’” Boyd says. He shares a tender moment with his ex-wife, Elena (Marsha Stephanie Blake), and they smile at each other as the show fades to black, leaving a sense of hope for Muncie and his family to be able to move on. But will Muncie ever feel truly safe again?
Muncie may have had his name cleared and put a life-threatening conspiracy behind him, and now he can forge ahead with repairing the family bonds that have been frayed over time. But misinformation still looms large, and the threat of the madness lingers on.
The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.
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The Senate passed the bill 34 votes to 19. The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved the legislation 102 votes to 13.
The House has yet to endorse opposition amendments made in the Senate. But that is a formality since the government has already agreed they will pass.
The platforms will have one year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced.
The amendments bolster privacy protections. Platforms would not be allowed to compel users to provide government-issued identity documents including passports or driver’s licenses, nor could they demand digital identification through a government system.
The House is scheduled to pass the amendments on Friday. Critics of the legislation fear that banning young children from social media will impact the privacy of users who must establish they are older than 16.
While the major parties support the ban, many child welfare and mental health advocates are concerned about unintended consequences.
Sen. David Shoebridge, from the minority Greens party, said mental health experts agreed that the ban could dangerously isolate many children who used social media to find support.
“This policy will hurt vulnerable young people the most, especially in regional communities and especially the LGBTQI community, by cutting them off,” Shoebridge told the Senate.
Opposition Sen. Maria Kovacic said the bill was not radical but necessary.
“The core focus of this legislation is simple: It demands that social media companies take reasonable steps to identify and remove underage users from their platforms,” Kovacic told the Senate.
“This is a responsibility these companies should have been fulfilling long ago, but for too long they have shirked these responsibilities in favor of profit,” she added.
Online safety campaigner Sonya Ryan, whose 15-year-old daughter Carly was murdered by a 50-year-old pedophile who pretended to be a teenager online, described the Senate vote as a “monumental moment in protecting our children from horrendous harms online.”
“It’s too late for my daughter, Carly, and the many other children who have suffered terribly and those who have lost their lives in Australia, but let us stand together on their behalf and embrace this together,” she told the AP in an email.
Wayne Holdsworth, whose teenage son Mac took his own life after falling victim to an online sextortion scam, had advocated for the age restriction and took pride in its passage.
“I have always been a proud Australian, but for me subsequent to today’s Senate decision, I am bursting with pride,” Holdsworth told the AP in an email.
Christopher Stone, executive director of Suicide Prevention Australia, the governing body for the suicide prevention sector, said the legislation failed to consider positive aspects of social media in supporting young people’s mental health and sense of connection.
“The government is running blindfolded into a brick wall by rushing this legislation. Young Australians deserve evidence-based policies, not decisions made in haste,” Stone said in a statement.
The platforms had complained that the law would be unworkable, and had urged the Senate to delay the vote until at least June next year when a government-commissioned evaluation of age assurance technologies made its report on how young children could be excluded.
Critics argue the government is attempting to convince parents it is protecting their children ahead of a general election due by May. The government hopes that voters will reward it for responding to parents’ concerns about their children’s addiction to social media. Some argue the legislation could cause more harm than it prevents.
Criticisms include that the legislation was rushed through Parliament without adequate scrutiny, is ineffective, poses privacy risks for all users, and undermines the authority of parents to make decisions for their children.
Opponents also argue the ban would isolate children, deprive them of the positive aspects of social media, drive them to the dark web, discourage children too young for social media to report harm, and reduce incentives for platforms to improve online safety.
The Kansas City Chiefs have been having a moment for a while, boasting three Super Bowl titles in the last five years.
But the team’s name recognition has leapt to a whole new level since tight end Travis Kelce began dating Taylor Swift. Sales of Kelce jerseys have spiked and Swift boosted viewership for some games. And as the holidays approach, there are two Christmas movies that tackle the Kansas City Chiefs’ stardom, and it’s all because of the new level of popularity that the pop star has brought to the team.
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Lifetime’s Christmas in the Spotlight, which premiered Nov. 23, most literally fantasizes about what Swift’s and Kelce’s relationship is like by starring a blonde pop star named Bowyn (Jessica Lord) and a football player named Drew (Laith Wallschleger) who have very public personas and are trying to navigate dating with as much privacy as possible.
Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, out Nov. 30, exists because of Swift dating a Kansas City Chiefs player, but it’s not about her and Kelce, exactly. Rather, the movie follows Derrick (Tyler Hynes), the team’s director of fan engagement who recently moved to Kansas City, as he falls in love with blonde Kansas City native Alana (Hunter King), who works at a Chiefs memorabilia shop and whose family has a special hat that they say brings good luck to the Chiefs. Kelce’s mom, Donna Kelce, even has a cameo, as a waitress who introduces Derrick to Kansas City BBQ.
Here’s a look at how Swift and Kelce inspired both films and why their relationship, and football games in general, make great material for the Christmas movie genre.
Lifetime’s Christmas in the Spotlight
This film will sound familiar to anyone who followed along as Swift and Kelce began their relationship shortly after Kelce sung her praises on a July 2023 episode of podcast. That month, Kelce went to one of Swift’s Eras Tour shows, hoping to give her a friendship bracelet with his number on it, he explained in an episode of New Heights, the podcast he hosts with his brother Jason Kelce. Similarly, Drew in Christmas in the Spotlight, who plays for a Chiefs-like team called the Bombers, gets to have a brief conversation with the pop star Bowyn when he introduces her to his niece—a fellow Bowyn superfan—backstage. But they are interrupted. Drew, unsure whether he will see Bowyn again, makes a viral video inviting her to a game. Her manager, Mira Vu (Jeannie Mai), a huge fan of Drew’s team, makes sure the conversation continues. Bowyn calls Drew and admits “growing up I was never really the cheerleader, more a bleacher girl,” a play on a line in Swift’s “You Belong to Me” about a girl pining for a guy who has a girlfriend: “She’s cheer Captain, and I’m on the bleachers.”
Later, Drew is surprised and delighted to see Bowyn on the jumbotron at his game, waving pom-poms in the air, just as all cameras are on Swift when she’s cheering Chiefs games. Like Kelce, Drew has a brother who is also a star football player (though Christmas in the Spotlight, the brothers play on the same team, unlike Travis’s brother Jason, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles).
In order to avoid the paparazzi, they have dates on Bowyn’s private plane parked in a garage, the only place where they can find privacy as they snuggle up against each other watching movies on her laptop. Bowyn even messengers Drew a Santa suit to wear when he enters the garage One night, he cooks dinner and they do “sexy puzzling,” doing a jigsaw puzzle while stroking each other with the pieces. Each has found their missing piece, so to speak. Then Drew spills wine on his shirt, so, naturally, his shirt has to come off.
Bowyn’s jealous ex tries to throw a wrench in the new relationship by ambushing her with a camera person at a gala and asking her whether she’s dating Drew for publicity—a nod to the claims that the Swift-Kelce relationship is a PR stunt. Bowyn replies yes, sarcastically, but that gets edited out of context and published online, alienating Drew. To win him back, she composes a song and dedicates it to him. “Drew, if you’re watching the livestream, you were right. I know I promised not to fall in love with you, but I couldn’t help it…As long as I’m holding onto you, I promise I won’t fumble again.”
Eirene Donohue, the screenwriter and a passionate Swiftie, says she does not think that the Swift-Kelce relationship is a PR stunt and that she wrote the film to celebrate the pop star. “People put celebrities on these pedestals, and I understand that, but the reality is they are just human people who are going through their lives,” she says, arguing that the goal of the movie is to inspire more empathy for “what it must be like to try to have a new relationship, to fall in love, when the whole world is watching.” In perhaps the biggest clapback to the people who think the relationship is a PR stunt, Drew tells a team member in the locker room that Bowyn is “the biggest pop star in the world, she’s got like a billion dollars, she doesn’t need football fans.” He adds that he thinks it’s great that “she’s bringing all of these new fans to the game.”
Christmas in the Spotlight is available to stream on mylifetime.com and the Lifetime app and will air on TV on 11/29 at 8p, 12/14 at 6p, and 12/25 at 8p.
Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story
In Holiday Touchdown, Derrick is a new guy in town, who recently joined the Kansas City Chiefs as its director of fan engagement. The department is looking to name a “fan of the year,” and as part of his research, he goes to a local Chief memorabilia shop. There, he meets Alana, whose family runs the store and boasts a Chiefs knit beanie hat that they say brings good luck to the Chiefs. He hits it off with them and tags along with them as they do all of their Christmas traditions, like putting decorations up all around the city
Alana’s family members are desperate for Alana and Derrick to start dating, so much so they even talk about smearing flour on Alana’s face while she’s making gingerbread art so that Derrick will have to lightly brush it off her cheek. That’s when Donna Kelce comes out with a platter of cookies and says, “Don’t force it ladies. Just let it happen, trust me on this one.” That line can be read as a nod to her son’s relationship, but it’s the only allusion to Kelce and Swift in the film.
“Other than that, there’s really no hidden message in there about Travis and Taylor,” says Julie Sherman Wolfe, the screenwriter of Holiday Touchdown.
As Alana and Derrick fall for one another, he takes her to the Chiefs arena and they share a tender moment alone in the stands. When Alana’s family’s lucky hat goes missing at a holiday toy drive, he joins in the search efforts. But the family is not heartbroken. As her Chiefs megafan grandfather played by Ed Begley Jr., decked out in a team jersey, reassures Alana, “Even if the Chiefs lose, I still win—’cause I have everything: family, friends, love.” Alana then tells her grandfather that the lucky hat brought her and Derrick together—what if the lost hat means they aren’t meant to be together? “The magic is not in the hat, it’s in what the hat represents,” says the grandfather, “the belief that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves, knowing that we have each other’s back no matter what.”
Wolfe is actually a San Francisco 49ers fan, who ironically got the assignment to write a Hallmark Christmas movie about the Kansas City Chiefs right after the team defeated her beloved 49ers in the Super Bowl. (Hallmark is also headquartered in Kansas City.) Yet she channeled the grief into a heartwarming script, realizing that no matter the team, football brings friends and families together. Just as Alana’s family’s hat is thought to bring the Chiefs to victory in Holiday Touchdown, Wolfe shared a look at a 49ers jacket that’s thought to bring good luck to that team. A lifelong football fan who knows the rules of the game, Wolfe’s goal was to write a Hallmark Christmas movie that football fans could enjoy, so they will appreciate the references to specific plays.
Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story airs Nov. 30 at 8p on Hallmark’s TV channel and will re-airthroughout December.An extended cut of Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story premieres on Hallmark+ on December 12.
Why football movies make the perfect Christmas movies
While Holiday Touchdown may not be literally about a pop star dating a football player, Wolfe says the Swift-Kelce relationship inevitably led to the Chiefs Hallmark movie. “Obviously their love story was sort of the thing that got people thinking about romance and football together.” Given the news coverage of their romance—and the on-field Swift-Kelce smooches—she argues that the Chief’s 2023-2024 season “felt like a Hallmark Christmas movie.”
So what about the Swift-Kelce relationship makes it prime Christmas movie material?
Christmas time is a season of hope, especially of hope that the impossible could be possible. So the fairy tale of the Chiefs’ rise to dominance after 50 years without winning a Super Bowl, combined with a pop star and football star finding love in their mid-30s is ripe for the Christmas movie genre. Wolfe adds that Christmas is also the season for making family memories, and watching football is such a family affair for many Americans. Having faith in your team even when times are tough is an evergreen lesson that even people who aren’t football fans can appreciate.
Donohue says the Christmas season is a perfect time to put out a movie like Christmas in the Spotlight because of the “faith in magic” that characterizes the season. “I think that’s why people love Christmas movies. They’re a comfort food. You know there’s going to be a happy ending. You want to feel joyful. I am a big believer in the power of joy to uplift, to inspire, to give purpose, and so I just tried to make a movie that has a lot of joyful moments.”
Holiday Touchdown’s Wolfe explains, “I love movies that have actual Christmas magic in them—have a little wink, a bit of the supernatural… Christmas is the best time to show all of that because that’s where there’s extra magic, extra faith, extra fate, extra everything.”
Whether you’ve seen every single Disney animated movie or never seen a single one, you probably haven’t escaped the music that has become a staple of American, and global, culture. Since the first Disney feature animation in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, these songs have taken on a myriad of forms, from silly tunes about cleaning up to dramatic ballads concerning a primal human need for something more. Whether sung by a group of vultures, a menacing sea witch, or a cavalcade of pirates, these Disney songs have made a titanic impact on the All-American songbook. The Nov. 27 theatrical release of Moana 2, the 63rd film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, once again raises the age-old question: What is the greatest Disney song of all time?
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To answer such a debatable question, we considered factors including how the songs move the plot and character development along, musical and lyrical prowess, impact on pop culture, how well they have stood the test of time, and that ineffable earworm factor (we’re looking at you, “Let It Go.”) We also included gems that never got their due and deserve reconsideration. And you’ll find no Pixar or Disney live-action films here. Everything included has come from one of the 63 films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios—you can find the full list right here.
It’s worth noting that there’s not a single bad song on this list. Of the well over 350 Disney songs, these are the 50 finest, with a slew of honorable mentions that nearly made the list at the very end. All have played a considerable part in establishing Disney’s hold on global culture, beyond its role as an animation studio. But only one song can reign supreme as the greatest Disney song of all time. Let’s get into it.
50. Everything is Honey – Winnie the Pooh (2011)
Winnie the Pooh’s honey obsession is one of his key character traits, and it gets a dazzling treatment with this dreamlike number where everything Pooh interacts with is made of honey. Its smooth arrangement puts you in a delightfully dreamlike state, and it’s so great to hear Pooh’s endless joy over infinite honey. The sumptuous animation that accompanies it is just the honey on the cake.
49. Lost in the Woods – Frozen 2 (2019)
“Lost in the Woods” gets lost in the shuffle thanks to the big Elsa-led numbers in Frozen 2, but Kristoff’s big moment is the funniest part of the sequel. It was surprising to cast a vocal talent like Jonathan Groff and not give him a big song in the first Frozen, but this more than makes up for it, delivering a goofy send-up of ‘80s power ballads that’s as catchy as it is silly.
48. Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride – Lilo and Stitch (2002)
“Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride,” performed by Hawaiian artists Mark Kealiʻi Hoʻomalu and the Kamehameha Schools Children’s Chorus perfectly captures the charm and spirit of Lilo & Stitch, an animated Disney film that is not a musical. It’s the kind of song to warm you in the winter months, and to inspire you to grab your surfboard and ride the waves come summertime.
47. I’ve Got a Dream – Tangled (2010)
“I’ve Got a Dream” answers a question you didn’t know you needed the answer to: What are those scary-looking people at this bar dreaming of? It’s a song about how looks can be deceiving—and how everyone has a dream, surprising as it may be. It’s also a turning point for Rapunzel (Mandy Moore, who just sings a short snippet of this tune), who finally feels comfortable with her big decision to leave her tower behind in pursuit of the answers to the questions that have cast a shadow over her life.
46. Heigh-Ho – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
The cultural impact of “Heigh-Ho” can’t be denied—people have been humming the song on their commutes for decades. We all need a song that gets us through those long working days, and it’s a whole lot more bearable with a delightful ditty like “Heigh-Ho” and its cheerful whistling interludes.
45. Best of Friends – The Fox and the Hound (1981)
Pearl Bailey’s warm vocals paint a portrait of a friendship against all odds, tinged with an undercurrent of melancholy that foreshadows the pair’s eventual falling out.
The lyrics are straightforward and poignant: “If only the world wouldn’t get in the way/ If only people would just let you play” speaks not only to the hopes of Tod and Copper but to those of anyone who just wants to feel alive.
44. Strangers Like Me – Tarzan (1999)
Leave it to Phil Collins to elevate an entire film with his wondrous songs, as he did for Disney’s vastly underappreciated Tarzan. Collins’ glorious shout of “I wanna know/ Can you show me” is remarkably fun to sing to (this is an underrated karaoke classic), and the song is more pure pop than most familiar Disney hits (like the rest of the Tarzan soundtrack). Few understand the assignment of creating emotionally hefty pop music better than Collins.
43. You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly! – Peter Pan (1953)
Beautiful male/female harmonies and whimsical and sweet lyrics (“He flew!” shouts Michael Darling in amazement) have helped to sustain the impact of “You Can Fly!” for decades. It doesn’t hurt that this already delightful song is set to one of Disney’s most memorable set pieces as Peter and the Darling kids fly, free of inhibition, through the skies of London, including landing on Big Ben. It’s the stuff kids’ dreams are made of.
42. We Know the Way – Moana (2016)
This collaboration from Lin-Manuel Miranda and Opetaia Foai’i comes at a crucial point for Moana (Auli’i Cravalho), as she discovers boats that her ancestors once used to sail the Pacific Ocean—an unexpected history given the current situation of everyone staying put on the island. The song is rousing as Moana feels more connected with her past than ever before, and the lyrics—in English, Samoan, and Tokelauan—will make you want to set out on an ocean adventure.
41. Out There – The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
A song that’s surprisingly become the basis of a popular meme format on TikTok, “Out There” captures the desperation to be more than you’ve been made out to be, and to belong in a world that’s rejected you. It’s hopeful yet melancholic: “All my life I memorize their faces/
Knowing them as they will never know me” is as heartbreaking as “What I’d dare/
Just to live one day out there” is sanguine. The flurry of drums at the end is enough to put a lump in anyone’s throat.
40. Once Upon a Dream – Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Sleeping Beauty never gives us much of a chance to understand its drowsy protagonist Aurora, but “Once Upon a Dream” highlights her longing, romantic side. The introduction of the prince is as surprising (dancing with his jacket as he appears behind you isn’t the best first impression, but Aurora makes it work) as it is swooning, and the song is every bit as dreamlike and playful as Aurora and Charming’s first interaction.
39. The Family Madrigal – Encanto (2021)
Yes, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” was an unexpected crossover smash hit, but “The Family Madrigal” is a lot more fun. It makes exposition delightful, as Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz) runs through the amazing powers her entire family possesses—all while sidestepping her own lack thereof. The vocal gymnastics and pacing are impressive, the chorus of kids shouting “What about Mirabel?” makes this a certified earworm, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rapid-fire lyrics prove an ideal fit for establishing the world of Encanto.
38. Love is an Open Door – Frozen (2013)
A villain song disguised as a love song, “Love is an Open Door” is a very funny and earnest number that pokes fun at on-screen love stories that develop at alarming speeds. Kristen Bell and Santino Fontana harmonize together flawlessly, and the lyrics (“We finish each other’s/ Sandwiches/ That’s what I was gonna say!”) are as ridiculous as wanting to get married the same night you meet.
37. Mother Knows Best – Tangled (2010)
If being passive-aggressive were a superpower, Mother Gothel (voiced by Donna Murphy) would be the most powerful character in Disney’s history. Disney mainstay Alan Menken’s composition is deliberately soft and soothing, while Glenn Slater’s lyrics deliver Gothel’s manipulative personality to a tee (“Sloppy, underdressed, immature, clumsy/ Please, they’ll eat you up alive” she says cruelly to Rapunzel)—a powerful expression of toxic and unbalanced relationships.
36. Go The Distance – Hercules (1997)
The “I Want” song—a Broadway and Disney Renaissance staple—finds a character singing about what they need from life that they currently don’t have. “Go the Distance” is a classic example of the trope, in which Hercules (Tate Donovan) discovers he’s a descendant of the gods. It’s emotionally stirring, and the horns are tremendous.
35. Cruella De Vil – 101 Dalmatians (1961)
Cruella is such a legendary villain that she’s still the only Disney baddie to get a song before she appears on screen. The lyrics (sung by Bill Lee as Roger), few as they are, are delicious: “You’ve come to realize/ You’ve seen her kind of eyes / Watching you from underneath a rock” is a scorching takedown. But it’s the smooth jazz accompaniment that really makes “Cruella De Vil” sing.
34. Love – Robin Hood (1973)
If you were to guess the Disney songs that have been nominated for an Oscar, “Love” would probably not be on your radar. But the song deserves more, well, love, than it gets. Sung by Nancy Adams (wife of lyricist Floyd Huddleston), the emotional highlight of Robin Hood is buoyed by this swooning, hazy concoction that feels as if you’re floating down a stream. It features especially moving lyrics: “Life is brief/ But when it’s gone/ Love goes on and on.”
33. The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind – The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Speaking of underappreciated, The Great Mouse Detective rarely gets the credit it deserves for rescuing Disney from financial peril in the mid-1980s. It also features a delightful villain song in “The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind.” The lyrics highlight Ratigan’s (Vincent Price) brutality (“Worse than the widows and orphans you drowned”) while his lackeys jovially celebrate his talents. It’s silly, it’s camp, and it deserves to be added to all your Disney playlists.
32. Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat – The Aristocats (1970)
Most Disney songs thrive on a certain level of predictability, but not “Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat,” written and composed by Floyd Huddleston and Al Rinker. Some needless and cheap racial stereotyping takes things down a bit, but the unpredictability of this jazzy, psychedelic number, as catchy as it is surprising, is electrifying. The 1970s wasn’t a great decade for the studio, but songs like this show that Disney was still capable of creative wonder.
31. Can You Feel the Love Tonight – The Lion King (1994)
“Can You Feel the Love Tonight” balances the comedic stylings of Timon and Pumbaa with earnest romanticism, and the result is nothing short of dazzling. Watching Simba and Nala fall in love is one of the most effective emotional moments in The Lion King, a film overflowing with them. The Oscar-winning song from Elton John and Tim Rice radio version became a smash crossover hit (with backing vocals by Rick Astley, Gary Barlow, and Kiki Dee) for good reason.
30. Under the Sea – The Little Mermaid (1989)
Disney hit a bullseye when they brought composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman together, and their work on The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin ranks among the studio’s best. Case in point: Oscar winner “Under the Sea,” in which Sebastian the crab makes the case for Ariel to remain underwater. Most importantly, “Under the Sea” is outrageously fun: “When the Sardine/ Begin the beguine/ It’s music to me” and “What do they got? A lot of sand/ We got a hot crustacean band” are particularly ingenious.
29. Friends on the Other Side – Princess and the Frog (2008)
You might not think Randy Newman and Voodoo would make a natural fit, but “Friends on the Other Side” proves the songwriter is a man of many surprises. The song establishes Dr. Facilier (Keith David) as a master manipulator and cunning linguist (“I got Voodoo/ I got hoodoo/ I got things I ain’t even tried!”). This already excellent song is given a further boost by the astonishing visuals that accompany it, culminating in an explosion of color and Voodoo imagery that ranks amongst the finest work the studio has ever accomplished.
28. The Bare Necessities – The Jungle Book (1967)
This is a song all about using what’s available to you to make the most out of life, and finding that those very things are full of surprises. Phil Harris’ vocals as bear Baloo are soothing and Mowgli learns an oh-so-valuable lesson along the way. Everything about “The Bare Necessities” feels effortless, with trumpets and clarinets crafting a calming and totally joyous atmosphere.. As life gets increasingly stressful, reminders to enjoy the necessities are worth their weight in gold.
27. The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers – The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
This is one of, if not the most, relentlessly upbeat of all Disney songs. It’s a perfect introduction to Tigger (Paul Winchell) and everything he offers, from a top made out of rubber to a bottom made of springs. His description of himself matches the song perfectly: “Bouncey, troucney, ounce, pouncey, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.” Proof that all it takes is half a minute to make magic.
26. How Far I’ll Go – Moana (2016)
Considerably more introspective than most “I Want” songs, (“What is wrong with me?” Moana asks in song) “How Far I’ll Go” explores a Moana torn between her love of family and her unshakable desire to explore beyond her island. Auli’i Cravalho delivers an astonishing vocal performance—alternately wistful, hopeful, and exciting—and always arresting.
25. Gaston – Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Most villain songs are about how evil or powerful said villain is, but “Gaston” distinguishes itself by being entirely an excuse to boast about Gaston’s (Richard White) muscles. An unabashed celebration of unlimited ego, Ashman’s lyrics even make you want to sing at the top of your lungs about spitting: “I’m especially good at expectorating,” Gaston declares.
24. Someday My Prince Will Come – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Disney’s first pure love song is still one of its most successful. Snow White’s (Adriana Caselloti) high-pitch warble is technically impressive and emotionally poignant, and the dwarfs watching her sing in amazement is incredibly touching. Despite nearly being murdered and having to hide away in the forest, she still dreams of the happiness she deserves.
23. Beauty and the Beast – Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Menken and Ashman’s romantic powers peaked with the titular song from Beauty and the Beast. Sung lovingly by Mrs. Potts (a divine Angela Lansbury), “Beauty and the Beast” is a gorgeous, sumptuous ballad about finding love in unexpected places. Some of the most dazzling animation in Disney’s history accompanies the song in the movie, as 2D and 3D elements seamlessly merge and Belle and the Beast dance the night away in the ballroom.
22. Mine, Mine, Mine – Pocahontas (1995)
One of the most unheralded villain songs is also one of the best. Governor Ratcliffe (David Ogden Stiers) worships at the altar of capitalism, and his song is full of ruthless ambition and worship for the almighty dollar. Stiers doesn’t get enough credit for his contributions to Disney (which also include Jumba, Cogsworth, and the Archdeacon), and his performance in “Mine, Mine, Mine” is pitch-perfect: smug, cocky, and ruthless, yet oddly lovable.
21. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo – Cinderella (1950)
This song is almost entirely lyrical nonsense, but it’ll have you singing lines like “Salagadoola menchicka boola” like you’re reciting your all-important wedding vows. Few voice actors had Verna Felton’s (a.k.a. Fairy Godmother) talent, and “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” is a dreamy showcase of her singular charisma and charm.
20. Bella Notte – Lady and the Tramp (1955)
One of Disney’s most memorable scenes happens during “Bella Notte,” as Lady and the Tramp share a bowl of spaghetti. It’s the pivotal moment when the pair falls in love, and it wouldn’t have nearly as much impact without this terrific love song, sung by George Givot and Bill Thompson in the style of Italian pop. The entirety of Lady and the Tramp hinges on making the dogs’ love believable, and how can it not be with this achingly romantic song bellowing around them?
19. Almost There – Princess and the Frog (2008)
Though Disney has largely moved away from traditional animation, The Princess and the Frog builds a strong case that Disney should consider a return to 2D drawings now and again. Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) sings a classic “I Want” song about her dream of opening her own restaurant, which launches into an exquisitely rendered art deco sequence of Tiana living out her fantasies. Randy Newman delivers his finest work here—an optimistic jazz number with tinges of melancholy, as Tiana sings for a goal she knows will be nearly impossible to achieve.
18. I Won’t Say (I’m in Love) – Hercules (1997)
Disney love songs tend to be big, swooning affairs, which makes “I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)” such a welcome surprise. Lyricist David Zippel brilliantly plays Megara’s (Susan Egan) refusal to accept her feelings against the Muses’ exhilaration over her love for Hercules. The arrangement recalls classic doo-wop and may be the closest Disney gets to the wonderful world of Motown.
17. A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes – Cinderella (1950)
Cinderella (Ilene Woods) has no reason to be optimistic. She’s a prisoner in her own home, forced to do the bidding of her wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Her life is marked by endless cruelty—and yet, “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” is bursting at the seams with radical optimism. “No matter how your heart is grieving/ If you keep on believing/ A dream that you wish will come true” are lyrics powerful enough to make anyone believe in a better life. It’s the moment we come to understand how Cinderella is so resilient—she never stops dreaming.
16. Be Prepared – The Lion King (1994)
“Be Prepared” is unsparing in its brutality as Scar (Jeremy Irons) lays out his plan to take down King Mufasa and rule Pride Rock. Manipulating the desperate hyenas with ease, Scar builds an army of followers with nothing but bitter wit. Tim Rice’s lyrics paint a vivid portrait of how vulnerable people can be drawn to an evil that promises them prosperity, no matter how empty that promise may be.
15. Be Our Guest – Beauty and the Beast (1991)
“Be Our Guest” practically begs to be a big-time Broadway number (which came to fruition when the stage show premiered in 1994), and it works perfectly as a juicy ensemble piece. Led by candlestick Lumiere (Jerry Orbach), the lyrics are comical yet complex (“Beef ragout, cheese souffle/ Pie and pudding “en flambe”/ We’ll prepare and serve with flair a culinary cabaret”). The song runs the emotional gamut from overjoyed to miserable and everything in between, and it’s so good you can just about see why Belle is sort of OK with being a prisoner in Beast’s castle.
14. Friend Like Me – Aladdin (1992)
The Disney Renaissance (1989-1999) featured a boom in celebrated comedians getting key sidekick roles—see: Eddie Murphy in Mulan, Jason Alexander in The Hunchback of Notre Dame—and none of those are more universally adored than Robin Williams’ turn as the Genie in Aladdin. His most spectacular moment comes in “Friend Like Me” an extremely funny and plot-vital big-band-style number in which the Genie gives Aladdin the rundown about everything he can do to help the young man rise to the top.
13. Let It Go – Frozen (2013)
If you’re a parent, even reading the words “Let It Go” is probably enough to cause heart palpitations. But even though your children have made you listen to the song approximately 2.3 million times, that does not detract from the truth: Written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, “Let It Go” is one hell of a song. Elsa (Idina Menzel) had been told her whole life to conceal what makes her special, but “Let It Go” represents a sea change for the icy princess as she belts a triumphant song about finally embracing your inner power. It’s beautifully arranged and exquisitely performed by Broadway icon Idina Menzel.
12. Belle – Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Belle (Paige O’Hara) never fit in anywhere, and her thoughts are too big for her quiet provincial town. Ashman’s lyrics cleverly balance a wide ensemble of characters, efficiently setting the scene for Belle’s day-to-day life and why she feels ostracized by just about everyone in town. It’s Broadway with a capital B and infectiously establishes why Belle, a voracious reader and dreamer, has become such a beloved Disney princess. A song that feels extra special to those who dare beyond the dreams of the place they’re born.
11. Love Is A Song – Bambi (1942)
An opening credits song, “Love Is A Song” may be brief, but it perfectly summarizes what makes Bambi an artistic masterpiece. It’s crushing, yes, but it has an unwavering hope at its core (“Hope may die, yet love’s beautiful music/ Comes each day like the dawn”).
10. I’ll Make A Man Out of You – Mulan (1998)
“Let’s get down to business, to defeat the Huns” begins Mulan’s “I’ll Make A Man Out of You,” and the energy only builds from there. Donny Osmond, who provides the singing voice of Li Shang, makes a five-course banquet out of this motivational number. “I’ll Make A Man Out of You” is one of cinema’s most rousing hype songs set to a powerhouse training montage—if Rocky trained to this, he’d never have lost a fight.
9. Baby Mine – Dumbo (1941)
Even in the face of unimaginable cruelty, there’s still opportunities for love: Dumbo finds his mother locked away, but she’s able to fit her trunk through the bars and offer her son some desperately needed comfort. We see so many animals sleeping peacefully with their parents, yet Dumbo has no such luck. Some songs break your heart. This one, nominated for an Oscar in 1942, shatters it.
8. When You Wish Upon A Star – Pinocchio (1940)
Written by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington (the latter of whom also wrote the lyrics for “Baby Mine”), “When You Wish Upon A Star” has become the definitive piece of Disney music: A snippet of it has accompanied the opening of every Disney film since 1985. It’s proudly saccharine, and Cliff Edwards’ (as Jiminy Cricket) vocals are a perfect fit for the earnest lyrics that have come to symbolize Disney’s ethos (“When you wish upon a star/ Makes no difference who you are/ Anything your heart desires/ Will come to you”).
7. Colors of the Wind – Pocahontas (1995)
“Colors of the Wind” represents a significant shift for Disney princesses. While previous characters have been remarkably quick to fall in love, Pocahontas openly questions the ignorance of John Smith, demanding her love be earned: “But still I cannot see/ If the savage one is me/ How can there be so much that you don’t know?” Menken and Stephen Schwartz’s song, sung by Judy Kuhn, is rhapsodic, and breathtaking painterly and experimental visuals accompany this Oscar- and Grammy-winning triumph.
6. A Place Called Slaughter Race – Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
In Ralph Breaks the Internet, Disney’s most meta film, Vanellope Von Schweetz discovers her destiny belongs in the hyper-violent video game called Slaughter Race. How did a parody song wind up being so earnest? The lyrics by Phil Johnston and Tom MacDougall are both wickedly funny and surprisingly moving (“I’m rhyming/ My spirits climbing/ As I’m called through this fog of mace/ To this place called Slaughter Race”). All people long to fit in—and some people just happen to find that in the world of nonstop carnage. “A Place Called Slaughter Race” achieves a stupendously tricky balance, simultaneously working as a powerful “I Want” song while mocking the trope relentlessly.
5. Poor Unfortunate Souls – The Little Mermaid (1989)
Pat Carroll delivered the performance of her career as the sea witch Ursula, a vicious, conniving lady who’ll say anything to anyone to get what she wants. “Poor Unfortunate Souls” sets everything in The Little Mermaid in motion as Ursula convinces Ariel (Jodi Benson) to give up her voice for a chance to become human. Carroll goes into overdrive delivering practically unfathomable charisma as Ursula—it might seem crazy that Ariel would agree to the contract, but if a sea witch sang this compellingly to me, I’d find it hard to resist. “Don’t underestimate the importance of body language!” is the most exhilarating line to sing in any context (Karaoke especially). It’s campy, vampy, sinister, and addictive. Evil hasn’t been this fun since.
4. Circle of Life – The Lion King (1994)
Has the image of a sunrise ever conjured more magic than in The Lion King? That’s the opening image of the film, and of “Circle of Life,” composed by Elton John and Tim Rice and performed by Lebo M. and Carmen Twillie. In many ways, it has become the definitive song of contemporary Disney, a persistent earworm that makes for a very welcome takeover. The combination of the music and animation sends a chill down the spine, and “Circle of Life” is much more than a hugely enticing palate cleanser: It’s a sensational, transportive experience that brings you straight into the heart of the animal kingdom.
3. Hellfire – The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is Disney’s darkest film by a solid margin, and “Hellfire” is pitch black. It’s a vital moment in the film as we come to understand Judge Frollo’s (Tom Hulce) motivations—he’s overcome by an inescapable lust, which is certainly atypical subject matter for the House of Mouse. Frollo laments his desire for Esmeralda (“This burning desire/ Is turning me to sin”). Disney often deals with love, but “Hellfire” is an explosive, operatic examination of pure, seething hatred and a savage exposé of religious hypocrisy. There’s nothing else like it in Disney history, and the studio has never come close to being this dark again. “Choose me or your pyre/ Be mine or you will burn” may be the bleakest couplet in Disney’s songbook.
2. Part of Your World – The Little Mermaid (1989)
“I don’t see how a world that makes such wonderful things could be bad,” Ariel muses before singing “Part of Your World,” an expresive song about the endless yearning to belong. Material goods may provide Ariel with surface-level pleasures, but she longs for a deeper connection that mere objects cannot provide. Ashman’s lyrics have never felt more emotional or impactful than they do here, and he likely brought himself to “Part of Your World” (Ashman was a gay man who died of complications from AIDS). A song that gives a big, powerful voice to the ostracized, “Part of Your World” is a rallying cry for those who long to belong: “When’s it my turn/ Wouldn’t I love, love to explore that shore up above?/ Out of the sea/ Wish I could be/ Part of that world.” No pair’s body of work has defined the Disney Renaissance—and frankly, many people’s Disney memories—better than Menken and Ashman.
1. You’ll Be In My Heart – Tarzan (1999)
This Phil Collins ballad became a crossover sensation, winning the Oscar for Best Original Song, and charting on the Billboard Hot 100. Collins’ vocals are achingly emotional (he wrote the song as a lullaby for his daughter Lily), and the song’s raw vulnerability and unwavering sentimentality make it an emotional powerhouse. Collins’ shout of “You’ll be here in my heart” will empty whatever was left in your tear ducts, but it is the bridge, which includes “When destiny calls you/ You must be strong/ I may not be with you/ But you’ve got to hold on” that’s the most heartbreaking. For anyone who’s ever had a special bond—with a parent, a friend, a pet, a lover—and had that bond shift, “You’ll Be In My Heart” goes straight for the jugular and never relents. It’s sweet, sincere, emotional, and hugely affecting. In short, it’s a microcosm of everything that makes Disney, Disney.
Honorable mentions: A Whole New World (Aladdin, 1992), Into the Unknown (Frozen II, 2019), Little Wonders (Meet the Robinsons, 2007), Savages (Pocahontas, 1995), Why Should I Worry (Oliver and Company, 1986), He’s A Tramp (Lady and the Tramp, 1955), Little April Shower (Bambi, 1942), In A World of My Own (Alice in Wonderland, 1951), So This Is Love (Cinderella, 1950), Son of Man (Tarzan, 1999).
