Before the 'Huntsman': Snow White's life in pop songs

Kristen Stewart's Snow White re-imagines the character as an unbreakable warrior in "Snow White and the Huntsman." Yet as resilient as Stewart's White may be, chances are she won't ever inspire a song written by a Beatle. 

The Brothers Grimm tale remains a durable one, evidenced not just by "Snow White and the Huntsman" but this year's "Mirror Mirror." Snow White has endured cultural shifts. She's been animated, she's been the center of a romantic comedy and she's been romanticized by indie rockers and Snoop Dogg alike. 

Snow White's musical history may not be as rich as her lineage in literature or film, but it exists. 

"Snow White and the Huntsman" has a signature song of its own, and it's safe to say Florence + the Machine's "Breath of Life" is no "Whistle While You Work," its beat a soldier's march and its backing vocals a monk-like chant. "Breath of Life" puts belter Florence Welch in Stewart's fighting role, with the singer channelling an optimistic heroine looking for reasons to carry on. 

There are no seven dwarfs in Florence + the Machine's song, and it definitely is not set in a world named after a male appendage. Wait ... what? As the examples below will show, musicians have had some rather colorful interpretations of the fairy tale. 

Oscar winner 'Man or Muppet' goes where no Muppet has gone before

The Bret McKenzie-penned "Man or Muppet," an identity crisis ballad that's the musical centerpiece of Walt Disney Pictures' 2011 film "The Muppets," has made Muppet history. Previous Muppet-related songs have been nominated for an Academy Award, but "Man or Muppet" marks the first-ever Oscar win for a Muppet film. Of course, "Man or Muppet" had solid odds, as it was competing against only one other song. 

Last year, four songs were nominated, and the winning track was Randy Newman’s “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3.”  McKenzie was asked backstage for his thoughts on this year's svelte original song Oscar category. "Man or Muppet" was competing against “Real in Rio,” from the animated film “Rio.”

"Well, I am not sure how [or] why they only nominated two songs, but I was very happy with that situation," McKenzie said, dodging the question with a little humor. "I think the system, you know, leads itself toward musicals instead of songs."

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Qualifying songs (there were 39 this year) are screened to voting members of the Film Academy’s music branch, who rate them according to a point system. Nominees were determined by averaged points, and there could be a maximum of five. McKenzie acknowledged that "Muppets" director James Bobin and star Jason Segel shared in the credit, if not the songwriting.

"To be honest, I think it was one of those musical numbers where everyone did a great job," he said. "James Bobin, the director, did such a cool video. Jason Segel just channeled his -- I don't know -- he went really deep in his performance, both in the recording and on the screen."

'The Secret World of Arrietty' has a fairytale in its music

American audiences will first hear the music of French composer Cécile Corbel in "The Secret World of Arrietty," the latest fairy tale from Studio Ghibli. Yet the story of how Japan's revered animation house plucked the harpist from near-obscurity is one ripe for motion-picture folklore itself. 

Corbel packed her music with a letter and mailed the package on an inter-continental journey to Ghibli headquarters and awaited a response that she knew likely wouldn't come. "I wrote a letter to the head producers over there and I was not expecting much," said Corbel, who spoke to Pop & Hiss via a translator. The artist has released multiple albums in her native country, and said she was drawn to the works of Studio Ghibli -- "Ponyo" and "Howl's Moving Castle," among them -- for the way in which they blend ecological themes with fanciful storytelling that pulls from ancient, mythical beliefs.  

"I sent them my latest album as a sort of a fan thing," she said. "I never thought I'd be working for the studio. I truly expected nothing in return."

What's more, the composer continued to be surprised at how the music remained untouched as the film was released around the globe. "The Secret World of Arrietty" opens in the U.S. Friday, brought to these shores courtesy of Walt Disney Studios. The latter added a song from Bridgit Mendler, the Disney Channel star who is the U.S. voice of Arrietty, but the new song appears in the credits and doesn't supplant any of Corbel's more delicate, airy work.

"We talked about Bridgit resinging one of the songs but we ultimately decided that wasn't that good of an idea," said veteran producer Frank Marshall, who also had a production credit on the English-language edition of "Ponyo." "Cécile's songs are so unique and we wanted to keep the film as it was. We've done two of these now and we've very respectful of what Ghibli has created. Our job is to tweak it a bit for the North American audience, but the music is so universal that it works wonderfully in the film."

Corbel's harp work draws on Celtic and folk traditions, and it gives "The Secret World of Arrietty," the directorial debut of Hiromasa Yonebayashi, a far more subtle backdrop than the traditional orchestral score. It's also very exact and tiny, reflecting the world of the film, which is based on “The Borrowers,” Mary Norton’s 1952 children’s book about the minuscule people who live in the nooks and crannies of big people's homes.

"When I first saw the movie I was kind of surprised," Marshall said of the music. "It's so unusual for the movie. It's not Japanese instruments, yet it completely works because this world that we're watching could be anywhere."

Mickey Mouse and Joy Division: The mash-up T-shirt

Pitchfork is frothing at the mouth over this unholy repurposing of the Joy Division pulse-wave cover of "Unknown Pleasures." It seems to be real -- it's listed in the Disney store's online catalog, and unless this is a masterstroke of a website hack, it appears you can purchase one today. 

There are all sorts of reasons to give pause to such a concept: from the rich, rich irony of Disney's frequent lawsuits against trademark infringers; to the insane disconnect between the Happiest Place on Earth and a band that took its name from a Nazi sex-slave program and whose frontman hanged himself; to the blatant pandering to a musical subculture that should probably see right through this kind of thing; to the stratospherically curious explanatory note, "Inspired by the iconic sleeve of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures album, this Waves Mickey Mouse Tee incorporates Mickey's image within the graphic of the pulse of a star. That's appropriate given few stars have made bigger waves than Mickey!"