Howard, a documentary on the life and career of musical writer Howard Ashman, premiered this week on Disney+ (watch here). The film originally debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018 and began a limited theatrical run that December. The creative team includes Don Hahn (director, screenwriter), Lori Korngiebel and Jonathan Polenz (producers), Alan Menken (composer), and Stephen Yao (editor). In addition to Hahn and Menken, the film features interviews with actors Jodi Benson and Paige O’Hara, Disney execs Jeffrey Katzenberg and Peter Schneider, and Ashman family members Sarah Gillespie and Bill Lauch.
Chicago Tribune (Michael Phillips): “Hahn and company handle the rougher edges and volatile contradictions of Ashman’s life and personality with discretion. … Ashman wanted success, of course, on his creative terms. In the film Ashman speaks eloquently on the topic of the “I want” song — a number sung early in a show (or a movie), usually by the heroine, expressing what’s in her heart and her vision of happiness and fulfillment. Ashman poured that concept into his life’s work. … Ashman cemented his own legacy on the musical stage and on the Disney animated musical soundstage, just in time. Three and a half stars (out of four)”
The Daily Beast (Melissa Leon): “The film is riddled with gems from the production of now-iconic films … and insight into the life and legacy of a man whose lyrics everyone knows, yet whose premature death fewer are familiar with. … Howard begins by highlighting early work from Ashman, stretching back to his childhood, that testifies to his preternatural capacity as a writer and storyteller … the man who reinvigorated Disney’s animation studios and inspired a new era of musicals — one now coming full circle back to the stories he and Menken told through song.”
The Guardian (Peter Bradshaw): “There’s something exciting about a film that immerses you in the life of a creative artist, and so it proves with this documentary about Howard Ashman. He was the fiercely talented lyricist and musical-theatre wizard. … Ashman set a standard of flair, invention and Broadway-style showmanship in Disney lyrics that continues to this day. Where I disagree (heretically) with the film is suspecting that Disney wasn’t necessarily a great career move for Ashman. … A sacrilegious thought. Four stars (out of five)”
The Hollywood Reporter (Frank Scheck): “The film delivers an extremely personal portrait of its subject. It’s not surprising, considering that longtime Disney veteran Hahn produced 1991’s Beauty and the Beast, Ashman’s final project. … Besides its insightful commentary, the documentary offers a wealth of fascinating archival footage. … Paying suitable tribute without resorting to hagiography, Howard provides a thoughtful, warts-and-all profile of its subject. It succeeds beautifully in inducing both joy and sorrow: joy at the remarkable work Ashman produced, and sorrow that he left us so early and deprived us of the talent that still had so much to give.”
Rolling Stone (Peter Travers): “There is nothing Disneyfied about this frankly intimate documentary on the late Howard Ashman, the brilliant lyricist behind such animated Mouse House musicals as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. … Directed by veteran Disney producer Don Hahn, Howard is a labor of love that shows admirable restraint about using spoonful of sugars to make the medicine go down. … Blunt honesty and rare introspection sets Howard apart from the usual cut-and-paste trips down memory lane. … Think of Ashman and the talent he showed that, as Lauch tell us, was “just the tip of the iceberg.” It’s hard to argue.”
Variety (Daniel D’Addario): “There’s stuff there to appeal to anyone who’s ever hummed along to “Under the Sea” or “Be Our Guest,” too. … Many children live in fantasy worlds of their making; few grow up to bring them to bear on quite so grand a stage. That wit as well as that rock-solid adherence to the traditions of American popular culture (all the better to subvert them) ported in a fragrant camp sensibility to animated films remembered, and frequently re-adapted, still today. Ashman’s legacy is secure; this film exists to share it, as well as biographical detail that, for its audience and context, feels happily refreshing, a tie to the recent past that keeps it from slipping away too quickly.”