A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes

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"A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" is a song written and composed by Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston for the Walt Disney film Cinderella (1950). In the song Cinderella (as sung by Ilene Woods) encourages her animal friends to never stop dreaming, and that theme continues throughout the entire story.

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[edit] "Dreams" as a recurring theme in Disney

Thematically, the lyrics recall the sentiments expressed in "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Pinocchio (1940). In equating a dream with a wish, the song establishes that Cinderella is using the word "dream" in the metaphorical sense of desires that can, as the lyric promises, "come true." "When You Wish Upon a Star" makes this same promise, as does other Disney material, such as the fireworks show Remember... Dreams Come True and related promotions[1]. The literal meaning of the word, as something that happens "when you're fast asleep", reappears in another Disney song, "Once Upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty (1959).

[edit] Recordings

The original version appears on a CD of the original soundtrack, as well as several compilations. It has also been recorded by a number of other artists, including Julie Andrews, Perry Como, Kimberley Locke, Bette Midler and Linda Ronstadt. One studio compilation, Cinderella: Songs from the Classic Fairy Tale (1998) places the song in context with other musical treatments of the Cinderella story, including songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sergey Prokofiev, Stephen Sondheim and the Sherman Brothers.

[edit] Disney Channel Circle of Stars

"A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" has also been recorded by the Disney "Disney Channel Circle of Stars," a group consisting of performers from a number of Disney Channel television series. The roster for the Circle of Stars varies from session to session, but for this particular recording included the following actors, grouped according to the series with which they are most closely associated:

Music sample:

Stars from That's So Raven

Stars from Phil of the Future

Stars from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

Stars from The Proud Family

Stars from American Dragon Jake Long

(Note that some of these actors are associated with more than one series.)

Amanda Michalka of the band Aly & AJ also sang vocals in the Disney Channel edit of "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes", having appeared in the Disney Channel Original Movie Cow Belles.

[edit] Book and TV Movie

Former Mouseketeer Annette Funicello's 1994 autobiography is named after this song from Cinderella. The full title of the book, which was co-written by Patricia Romanowski, is A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes: My Story (ISBN 0-786-88092-9). An abridged version of the book on audio cassette was released the same year. A made-for-TV movie based on the book, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story, was made in 1995.

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