Happy Working Song
"Happy Working Song" takes place in Robert's untidy apartment in Manhattan, New York, in which Giselle spends her first night in the city after having been magically transported there from the fictional Andalasia.
"[4] Troob decided to alter and deliberately steer the song away from Menken and Schwartz's original 1970s-inspired musical arrangement in an attempt to "make it feel like the 1950s"[4] by "manipulating instruments [sic] textures.
[7] Having just recently arrived in New York City after having been magically transported there from her fantastical world of Andalasia, a lost and hopelessly confused Giselle is discovered wandering around by Robert, a single father and divorce attorney, and his daughter Morgan.
[16] Demonstrating and suggesting "that Giselle really does have some magical power, even in [the real world]",[17] – according to Sean Axmaker of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "When she breaks into song ... sewer rats and cockroaches arrive to help with the housework"[18] – the aria is immediately responded to by several animals,[19] creatures and "vermin"[12] typically associated with New York City,[20] including rats, pigeons, roaches,[21] and flies[22] – visually meant to represent "makeshift 'forest friends'"[23] – "as opposed to the woodland critters of the movie's opening animated segment.
[12] Several professional film critics have allotted a variety of different terms and nicknames to the animals who appear during the "Happy Working Song" sequence.
Neil Smith of BBC Online described the animals who appear during the scene as "a grotesque menagerie of CG vermin",[11] while the Orlando Sentinel's Roger Moore jokingly referred to them as New York's own "woodland creatures", writing, "the rats and pigeons are merely the cuddlier ones".
[4] Written in the key of D major in alla breve cut common time, "Happy Working Song" is structured around a "lilting",[9] Broadway musical-inspired melody.
[14] Sun Media's Kevin Williamson hailed the musical number as one of the film's "stand-outs", elaborating, "[']Happy Working Song[' is] a crowd-pleaser.
"[21] The Mountain Xpress' Ken Hanke allotted particular praise to Adams', writing that when the actress is "singing her 'Happy Working Song' with her makeshift 'forest friends' ... she is the perfect cartoon heroine made flesh".
[23] Kerry Lengel of The Arizona Republic jokingly lauded "Happy Working Song" as "the funniest - and grossest - set piece in the film.
"[43] Calling the sequence the "film's highlight", Carrie Rickey of The Philadelphia Inquirer commented, "The song, like the movie, is cheerfully gross enough to get boys - and their fathers - into theater seats for a story every tween and her mother will love."
Additionally, Bradshaw drew similarities between the musical number and scenes from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Disney's Mary Poppins (1964).
[44] One of the song's few negative reviews was written by Mary F. Pols of the Contra Costa Times, who opined, "a cleaning crew of vermin and cockroaches is just real enough to be crass rather than funny".
[49][50][51] According to a poll conducted by Billboard in anticipation of the ceremony, when the magazine asked 155 of its readers "Who gets your vote for best original song in a motion picture at the Academy Awards?
"[62] The Boston Globe's Wesley Morris wrote, "Watching Amy Adams sing ... makes you appreciated [sic] the magic of the movies.
[64] When questioned about this, Disney executives told the Los Angeles Times that "it's best [Adams] sing 'Happy Working Song' because it has so many parallels to Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins".
[65] However, some critics and journalists have argued that the decision stemmed from Disney and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' belief that Adams, predominantly a film actress, would ultimately not be able to perform "That's How You Know" as adequately as the more experienced Chenoweth.
