Lopez Team Collaborates on Songs for Disney's WINNIE THE POOH Film Set for 7/15 Release
Tony Award winner Robert Lopez stopped by Sirius/XM's Live On Broadway Radio show on Wednesday and shared some exciting news with the live audience about his upcoming projects. Lopez revealed that he and collaborator/wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez have composed several songs for an all new film version of Disney's WINNIE THE POOH. "We have a movie coming out this summer from Disney which we wrote the songs for," Lopez explained. "And then we have another show that we are doing that we are really excited about that we wrote for too."
The new Disney animated feature, "Winnie the Pooh" is set to be released in theaters on July 15. John Cleese and Craig Ferguson are among the stars lending their voices to the film, which includes a new version of The Sherman Brothers classic, "Winnie the Pooh", sung by actress Zooey Deschanel. Anderson-Lopez also voices the character of 'Kanga' in the film. Lopez and Anderson-Lopez previously collaborated on a live Disney musical version of the film "Finding Nemo," which is currently running at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom Theme Park in Orlando.
The couple met at the BMI Workshop, and began their writing collaborations shortly after getting married. They currently have two children. Lopez jokingly compared his two children to his two "musical" children, referring to his long running show AVENUE Q and his current Broadway smash hit, BOOK OF MORMON. "The shows feel like they're your kids when you're actively working on them," explained Lopez. "Once they're up and you're not writing them anymore it's kind of like they're off to college. You don't really hear from them, you worry about them, but you really can't do anything about it." Reflecting on the analogy Lopez mused, "I'm really much more concerned about my actual kids these days!"
