As the CinemaBlend's resident Disney Adult, I’m a fan of most things that involve the House of Mouse. I visit Disney Parks whenever I can, My Disney+ subscription is the service that gets the most use, and I frequently listen to Disney music while I stand here and write things for the site. As such, while I don’t regularly watch Dancing With the Stars, I do often make an exception for the regular Disney Night the show has when all the performances are done to Disney music.
Disney Night for Season 33 of Dancing With the Stars is coming up next week, and the complete list of who’s dancing to what has been released.
I’m already excited to see U.S. Rugby player Ilona Maher dance to Encanto’s “Surface Pressure,” and as a fan of both Wreck-It Ralph and the (soon to return) Paint the Night Parade at Disneyland, Owl City’s “When Can I See You Again?” is a personal favorite. However, I take issue with a couple of the songs that have been chosen.
“Bye Bye Bye” Is Not A Disney Song, I Don't Care If It Was In A Marvel Movie
We’ll start with the pair of retired NFL wide receiver Danny Amendola and Witney Carson, who will be performing a Jazz dance to NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye.” I hope I don’t even need to specify why this is all wrong.
Yes, “Bye Bye Bye” was recently featured in the opening credits of Deadpool & Wolverine. That’s apparently what qualifies it as a “Disney song.” I don’t have a problem with songs from Marvel movies being included, but they should be limited to music written for, or at least originally appearing in, Marvel movies.
“Bye Bye Bye” predates Deadpool & Wolverine by 24 years. Just because the track happened to be included in it doesn’t make it a Disney song. This must violate the spirit of the theme. By this rationale, any song included in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies would also qualify for Disney Night. However, if everybody picked one of those, it would just be a night of people dancing to '70s pop, not Disney Music.
Honestly, an “Awesome Mix Night” on Dancing with the Stars sounds pretty great but until that happens, forget this noise. There’s nothing Disney about “Bye Bye Bye.”
A Star Of Zombies 2 Dancing To A Song From Zombies 2 Is Clearly An Unfair Advantage
But while using a pop song that happened to make it on a recent Marvel soundtrack bugs me, I think that the song chosen by the pair of Chandler Kinney and Brandon Armstrong might be an even bigger offender.
For those that don’t know, Kinney is an actress whose credits include the popular Zombies musical franchise on the Disney Channel. She debuted in Zombies 2, and she will dance to “We Own the Night," a song that she sings in the film, on the upcoming DWTS episode.
I will grant you that Kinney and her partner are planning to do a pasodoble, which is a fast-paced military march style, and that particular dance form wasn’t used in the Disney Channel movie. Still, she has danced to this song before, and she knows it more intimately than any of her competitors could possibly know theirs.
Also dancing to your own song is a weird sort of flex isn't it?
Anyway, there are so many other Disney Songs out there that I'm sure both teams could have found something similar to these choices that would have worked just as well.
So, while I'll still be irked about these song choices come Tuesday night, I will be sure to tune into the episode as it airs on the 2024 TV schedule at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+.