The Story and Songs of the Orange Bird is an album centered around the Orange Bird from the Magic Kingdom park. The album consists of a storybook as well as narration by Anita Bryant and contains songs written by the Sherman Brothers who were known for writing songs for Disney projects, like The Jungle Book, Mary Poppins, "It's a Small World", and many other Disney inputs.
Plot[]
The story begins with an opening song that focuses on the Orange Bird, a misfit bird who was different from other birds due to his inability to speak or sing like other birds do. Instead, the Orange Bird communicates through the use of orange thoughts to which other folks think the Orange Bird was peculiar than ever. One day, the Orange Bird flies around the world around him and amongst the stops he arrives at is the spot where the other birds are singing ("Sing All Day"). The Orange Bird tried to sing, but couldn't say a word. All the other birds laughed at him and the Orange Bird could not make any friends. Feeling very sad, the Orange Bird started using his thoughts to fly south where it would be warm and sunny so that he could make new friends there ("I'll Fly the Skyway"). The Orange Bird leaves the Picnic Park and decides to fly south where he would find some friends who would treat him kindly.
The Orange Bird then flies to a big city where he would find some friends, but suddenly becomes tired while exploring the city so he decides to sleep in a box in an alley. However, when the Orange Bird woke up, a cat approaches him whom he thinks he is a friend ("A Cat Don't Like...") but it turns out that the cat doesn't seem friendly which the Orange Bird thinks the cat is confusing him for a mouse. The Orange Bird manages to escape from the cat in time as he flew away from him. Still lonely without a friend, the Orange Bird attempts to find another friend but all he found was a traffic light. He then flies far behind the city just as he ends up at the Picnic Park again. Back at the Picnic Park, the Orange Bird sees a family of humans having picnic whom the he thinks they would be friendly to him ("The Perfect Picnic").
Upon arriving at the area where the family is having picnic, two children ask their parents to know if they can make friends with the Orange Bird to which their father tells them that they had a long drive, telling them that they wouldn't want to take a bird like that on the car. As the family drove down the highway, the Orange Bird flew ahead of the family and lands on a bridge which was washed away by a winter storm to which he uses his thought to show an image of a stop sign to stop the family from driving on the bridge, causing the family to stop. The Orange Bird finally makes friends with the family just as they happily observe his heroic deeds as the story ends with the song "Orange Tree".
Track listing[]
Side I[]
- "The Orange Bird Song" - Performed by Anita Bryant with the Mike Sammes Singers
- "Sing All Day" - Performed by The Birdsville Choir
- "I'll Fly the Skyway" - Performed by Anita Bryant with the Mike Sammes Singers
- "A Cat Don't Like..." - Performed by Mike Sammes
Side II[]
- "The Perfect Picnic" - Performed by Anita Bryant and the Mike Sammes Singers
- "Orange Tree" - Performed by Anita Bryant with the Mike Sammes Singers
Credits[]
- Music and Lyrics by: Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman
- Produced and Conducted by: Camarata