From Frozen breakdowns to Mulan metal — welcome to the happiest pit on Earth

Right, who gave Mickey Mouse a distortion pedal?

Disney songs have been drilled into our collective consciousness for decades. You might claim you’re far too metal for all that princess-and-talking-crab nonsense, but stick “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” on after three pints and suddenly half the room knows every bloody word.

Don’t lie.

We’ve seen you. 👀

And over the years, rock, punk, alternative and metal musicians have discovered something rather wonderful:

Disney songs absolutely SLAP when you chuck massive guitars at them.

Some become pop-punk anthems. Others turn into full-blown metal tracks. Some sound suspiciously like they were secretly written for Download Festival in the first place.

Disney itself even embraced the madness in 2024 with A Whole New Sound, an official album featuring Disney favourites reimagined by bands including New Found Glory, Simple Plan, Yellowcard, Bowling For Soup, Magnolia Park, Tokio Hotel and Boys Like Girls. (The Walt Disney Company)

Then there are bands and musicians such as Welsh outfit Punk Rock Factory and metal-cover wizard Jonathan Young, who’ve spent years proving that Disney + riffs = ridiculously good fun.

So grab your Mickey ears, lace up your pit boots and prepare to question everything you thought you knew about children’s film soundtracks.

Here are The Riff Report’s 25 Best Rock + Metal Disney Covers of All Time.

25. Tokio Hotel — “Colors of the Wind”

Originally from: Pocahontas

We’re kicking things off with one of Disney’s more emotional numbers.

Tokio Hotel tackled “Colors of the Wind” for Disney’s A Whole New Sound, taking the sweeping Pocahontas classic into alternative-rock territory. (The Walt Disney Company)

Rather than completely battering the song with guitars, they keep its emotional core intact while giving it a darker modern edge.

It’s dramatic.

It’s atmospheric.

And yes, we’re already imagining Pocahontas standing on a cliff with a wind machine while somebody unleashes a guitar solo.

🎸 Riff Rating: 7/10

24. Plain White T’s — “Surface Pressure”

Originally from: Encanto

Luisa’s anxiety anthem was already one of the heaviest Disney songs emotionally.

Then Plain White T’s turned up.

Their A Whole New Sound rendition gives “Surface Pressure” a rockier backbone, pushing the song towards guitar-driven territory without losing the gigantic chorus that made the Encanto original such an earworm. (The Walt Disney Company)

Turns out existential pressure sounds surprisingly good with guitars.

Who knew?

🎸 Riff Rating: 7/10

23. Meet Me @ The Altar — “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”

Originally from: Toy Story

Randy Newman probably wasn’t imagining pop-punk when he wrote Woody and Buzz’s friendship anthem.

But here we are.

Meet Me @ The Altar inject youthful alternative energy into “You’ve Got a Friend in Me”, turning Pixar nostalgia into something that wouldn’t feel remotely out of place blasting through the speakers between bands at a festival. (The Walt Disney Company)

Friendship.

Power chords.

Talking toys.

Proper job.

🎸 Riff Rating: 7.5/10

22. Punk Rock Factory — “Under the Sea”

Originally from: The Little Mermaid

Sebastian wanted Ariel to remain underwater.

Punk Rock Factory apparently wanted Sebastian to start a circle pit.

The Welsh pop-punk lunatics included “Under the Sea” on their 2020 Disney covers album A Whole New Wurst, alongside versions of songs from Frozen, Aladdin, The Lion King and more. (Spotify)

The original Caribbean bounce translates ridiculously well into fast guitars and punk energy.

Suddenly Atlantica feels less like an underwater kingdom and more like the smallest, sweatiest venue in Cardiff.

🐠🤘

🎸 Riff Rating: 7.5/10

21. LØLØ — “Let It Go”

Originally from: Frozen

Yes.

That song.

The song every parent heard approximately 847 million times between 2013 and 2016.

LØLØ’s contribution to A Whole New Sound drags Elsa’s gigantic power ballad into alternative/pop-punk territory. (The Walt Disney Company)

And here’s the annoying thing:

It works.

Really bloody well.

Apparently all “Let It Go” needed was more attitude.

Elsa with a Warped Tour phase?

We’re listening.

🎸 Riff Rating: 7.5/10

20. Punk Rock Factory — “You’re Welcome”

Originally from: Moana

Dwayne Johnson’s ridiculously catchy Maui number receives the Punk Rock Factory treatment here.

And because subtlety isn’t exactly their speciality, everything gets turned up.

Guitars?

Yep.

Drums?

Yep.

Massive singalong chorus?

Obviously.

The track appears on A Whole New Wurst, where the band enlisted Protest the Hero vocalist Rody Walker for the song. (Spotify)

You’re welcome indeed, butt.

🎸 Riff Rating: 8/10

19. We The Kings — “Go the Distance”

Originally from: Hercules

Let’s be fair.

“Go the Distance” was basically begging to become a rock song.

It’s inspirational.

It’s dramatic.

It’s got a massive chorus.

It has enough emotional uplift to power an entire arena.

We The Kings took the Hercules favourite for A Whole New Sound and leaned into exactly those qualities. (The Walt Disney Company)

It’s the sort of track that makes you want to climb a mountain.

Or at least make it from the festival campsite to the arena without complaining about your knees.

Same thing after 40.

🎸 Riff Rating: 8/10

18. Punk Rock Factory — “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”

Originally from: The Lion King

Young Simba’s enormous showstopper already bounced like a lunatic.

Now add pop-punk.

Exactly.

Punk Rock Factory transform the colourful Disney classic into a rapid-fire guitar anthem on A Whole New Wurst. (Spotify)

And frankly, we’re disappointed Disney never included a wall of death between Simba and Scar.

Cowards.

🦁🔥

🎸 Riff Rating: 8/10

17. Boys Like Girls — “You’ll Be in My Heart”

Originally from: Tarzan

Phil Collins went absurdly hard on the Tarzan soundtrack.

We will accept no arguments.

So taking on “You’ll Be in My Heart” isn’t exactly an easy assignment.

Boys Like Girls stepped up for A Whole New Sound, delivering their own rock-flavoured rendition of the emotional Disney favourite. (The Walt Disney Company)

It’s heartfelt without becoming sickly sweet and enormous without trampling all over what made the original special.

Phil would approve.

Probably.

🎸 Riff Rating: 8/10

16. Punk Rock Factory — “Beauty and the Beast”

Featuring Spencer Charnas

Originally from: Beauty and the Beast

Now we’re getting spicy.

Punk Rock Factory recruited Ice Nine Kills frontman Spencer Charnas for their version of “Beauty and the Beast”, included on A Whole New Wurst. (Spotify)

Yes.

The bloke from Ice Nine Kills.

Singing Beauty and the Beast.

What a timeline.

The theatrical nature of the original lends itself brilliantly to the bigger guitars, and Charnas knows a thing or two about bringing theatre into heavy music.

Somewhere, Gaston has just discovered breakdowns.

We’re doomed.

🎸 Riff Rating: 8/10

15. Bowling For Soup — “Friend Like Me”

Originally from: Aladdin

If you’re going to transform Robin Williams’ manic Genie showstopper into pop-punk, you need a band that understands silliness.

Enter Bowling For Soup.

Their A Whole New Sound contribution takes “Friend Like Me” and gives it exactly the sort of bouncy, cheeky energy you’d expect. (The Walt Disney Company)

It’s big.

It’s daft.

It’s ridiculously catchy.

In other words:

It’s Bowling For Soup doing Disney.

Perfect.

🎸 Riff Rating: 8/10

14. Mayday Parade — “Remember Me”

Originally from: Coco

Oh no.

Disney’s gone emo.

Everybody run.

😭🤘

Taking one of Coco’s most emotionally devastating songs and handing it to Mayday Parade feels almost unfair.

Their version appeared on A Whole New Sound, placing the song firmly inside the band’s emotionally charged alternative-rock world. (The Walt Disney Company)

If the original made you cry, congratulations:

Now you can cry while wearing Vans.

🎸 Riff Rating: 8/10

13. Simple Plan — “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”

Originally from: The Lion King

Elton John.

Tim Rice.

The Lion King.

One of Disney’s biggest ballads ever.

No pressure, lads.

Simple Plan were given the job of reworking “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and released it as the first single from A Whole New Sound. The band said they wanted to honour Elton John’s original while adding their own energetic style. (People.com)

Mission accomplished.

It’s nostalgic enough for Disney fans but carries enough guitar-driven energy for anyone who spent the 2000s shouting pop-punk choruses at questionable volumes.

🎸 Riff Rating: 8.5/10

12. Punk Rock Factory — “How Far I’ll Go”

Originally from: Moana

Another song seemingly engineered for a massive rock chorus.

Punk Rock Factory take Moana’s yearning anthem and turn the guitars up until Maui can probably hear them from the other side of the ocean.

Their version appeared on A Whole New Wurst, and it’s exactly the sort of Disney-rock crossover these Welsh nutters excel at. (Spotify)

Big melody.

Bigger guitars.

Absolute festival-singalong material.

🌊🤘

🎸 Riff Rating: 8.5/10

11. Yellowcard feat. Chrissy Costanza — “A Whole New World”

Originally from: Aladdin

This shouldn’t work.

A romantic Disney duet turned into a modern rock/pop-punk track?

Yet Yellowcard and Chrissy Costanza make “A Whole New World” feel surprisingly natural.

The collaboration appeared on Disney’s A Whole New Sound. (Spotify)

The melodies remain enormous, the nostalgia remains intact, but everything receives a glorious alternative-rock makeover.

Flying carpet optional.

Air guitar mandatory.

🎸 Riff Rating: 8.5/10

🔥 INTO THE TOP TEN…

Right then.

Mickey ears tightened?

Battle jacket zipped?

Because things are about to get considerably heavier.

10. Punk Rock Factory — “Let It Go”

Featuring Jaret Reddick

Originally from: Frozen

Before Disney’s official pop-punk experiment, Punk Rock Factory were already causing absolute carnage with Disney songs.

Their “Let It Go” featured Bowling For Soup’s Jaret Reddick and opened A Whole New Wurst. (Spotify)

It takes one of the biggest Disney songs of the modern era and launches it head-first into a pop-punk club night.

And somehow, after years of hearing the original everywhere…

…it makes the song fun again.

That deserves some kind of medal.

🎸 Riff Rating: 9/10

9. Jonathan Young — “Shiny”

Originally from: Moana

Tamatoa was already one of Disney’s most flamboyant villains.

Jonathan Young decided what he really needed was METAL.

Young has become hugely associated online with heavy Disney reinterpretations, and his take on “Shiny” is among the covers regularly highlighted from his catalogue. (Pólvora)

The theatrical villain energy translates wonderfully into metal.

Big vocals.

Big guitars.

Big evil crab.

That’s rock journalism, folks.

🦀🤘

🎸 Riff Rating: 9/10

8. New Found Glory — “Part of Your World”

Originally from: The Little Mermaid

Ariel just discovered pop-punk.

New Found Glory’s version was released as part of A Whole New Sound, with Disney describing it as an electrifying reimagining of the 1989 classic. (The Walt Disney Company)

And this pairing makes complete sense.

The original is essentially about wanting something more from life, escaping where you’re stuck and discovering where you belong.

Mate…

That’s practically the emotional blueprint for half the pop-punk records ever made.

🎸 Riff Rating: 9/10

7. Magnolia Park — “I2I”

Originally from: A Goofy Movie

Now THIS is a tune.

If you grew up with A Goofy Movie, you’ll already understand the cult status surrounding “I2I.”

Magnolia Park’s version was one of the early releases from A Whole New Sound, and it takes that already gigantic Powerline number into modern alternative/pop-punk territory. (The Walt Disney Company)

The original already sounded like Disney accidentally booked a rock star.

Magnolia Park simply finished the job.

Goofy in the pit?

Absolutely.

🎸 Riff Rating: 9/10

6. Punk Rock Factory — “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”

Originally from: Mulan

COME ON.

You knew this was coming.

“I’ll Make a Man Out of You” has always been suspiciously metal.

Military drums.

Huge chorus.

Training montage.

People climbing poles.

Somebody nearly dying every four minutes.

That’s basically a festival weekend.

Punk Rock Factory’s A Whole New Wurst version gives the song the fast guitars and pop-punk punch it was always waiting for. (Spotify)

Try listening without singing along.

Impossible.

🎸 Riff Rating: 9.5/10

5. Dan Vasc — “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”

Originally from: Mulan

Yes, the song appears twice.

No, we’re not apologising.

Because Dan Vasc approaches “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from the METAL end of the spectrum.

His version has become one of the better-known heavy reinterpretations of the Mulan anthem and has been highlighted alongside other notable Disney metal covers. (Pólvora)

That heroic melody combined with huge metal vocals feels ridiculously natural.

This isn’t Captain Li Shang training recruits anymore.

This is Li Shang preparing an army to headline Bloodstock.

🔥⚔️🤘

🎸 Riff Rating: 9.5/10

4. Fall Out Boy — “What’s This?”

Originally from: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Now we’re talking.

Disney’s The Nightmare Before Christmas has always lived remarkably close to alternative culture anyway, and its music proved perfect for rock reinterpretation.

Fall Out Boy tackled “What’s This?” as part of the expanded world surrounding the soundtrack, bringing pop-punk energy into Jack Skellington’s discovery of Christmas Town.

Suddenly Jack sounds less like the Pumpkin King and more like he’s about to headline an emo festival.

And we’re completely fine with that.

🎸 Riff Rating: 9.5/10

🥉 3. Rise Against — “Making Christmas”

Originally from: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Rise Against doing Danny Elfman?

YES PLEASE.

Their rendition of “Making Christmas” appeared on Nightmare Revisited, the collection that invited alternative artists to reinterpret music from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

And the punk urgency of Rise Against suits the frantic nature of the song beautifully.

Christmas music usually makes us think of Slade, mince pies and somebody fighting over the last Quality Street.

This one makes us want a circle pit around the Christmas tree.

🎄🔥

Much healthier.

Probably.

🎸 Riff Rating: 9.5/10

🥈 2. Jonathan Young — “Poor Unfortunate Souls”

Originally from: The Little Mermaid

Ursula was metal before metal Disney was even a thing.

Look at her.

The drama.

The darkness.

The enormous theatrical vocals.

She’s basically one festival booking away from getting her own pyro budget.

Jonathan Young’s metal version of “Poor Unfortunate Souls” transforms the villain anthem into something huge, sinister and gloriously over-the-top. His arrangement and performance has racked up millions of YouTube views since its 2016 release. (YouTube)

This is precisely what a Disney metal cover should do.

It doesn’t simply add distorted guitars.

It reveals the heavy song that was hiding underneath all along.

Absolutely monstrous.

😈🐙🤘

🎸 Riff Rating: 10/10

🥇 1. Marilyn Manson — “This Is Halloween”

Originally from: The Nightmare Before Christmas

There could only be one winner.

Danny Elfman’s “This Is Halloween” was already creepy, theatrical, strange and wonderfully gothic.

Then Marilyn Manson got hold of it.

His version first appeared in connection with the 2006 special-edition reissue of The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack and was subsequently included on 2008’s Nightmare Revisited. (Wikipedia)

And bloody hell, did the song fit.

The industrial guitars, sinister atmosphere and twisted carnival energy make it feel less like somebody covering a Disney song and more like the song wandered into the wrong dressing room backstage and emerged wearing platform boots.

It is dark.

It is theatrical.

It is unmistakably rock.

And crucially, it never loses the weird brilliance of Danny Elfman’s original composition.

Disney gave us Halloween Town.

Rock music gave it an amplifier.

🎃🔥🤘

THE RIFF REPORT VERDICT: THE ULTIMATE ROCK/METAL DISNEY COVER.

🎸 Riff Rating: 10/10

🏰 DISNEY + DISTORTION = A MATCH MADE IN RIFF HEAVEN

Who would have thought it?

Disney’s catalogue is absolutely packed with songs ready-made for the rock and metal treatment.

The melodies are enormous.

The choruses are designed for thousands of people to sing.

The villains are theatrical as hell.

And half the songs already contain enough drama to fill three Iron Maiden albums.

The official A Whole New Sound project proved just how naturally Disney material can translate into alternative and pop-punk territory, bringing together acts including New Found Glory, Mayday Parade, Simple Plan, Magnolia Park, Yellowcard, We The Kings, Plain White T’s, Meet Me @ The Altar, Boys Like Girls, Tokio Hotel, LØLØ and Bowling For Soup. (The Walt Disney Company)

Meanwhile, Punk Rock Factory have practically built a cottage industry out of taking childhood favourites and chucking power chords underneath them. Their 2020 album A Whole New Wurst alone tackled everything from Frozen and Moana to The Lion King, Mulan, The Little Mermaid and even DuckTales. (Spotify)

And metal musicians such as Jonathan Young have demonstrated that Disney’s darker theatrical numbers can become genuinely convincing heavy tracks rather than simple novelty covers.

That’s the key.

The best versions aren’t funny because Disney songs shouldn’t work as metal.

They’re brilliant because you suddenly realise…

THEY ALWAYS COULD.

Give “Hellfire” the full symphonic-metal treatment.

Turn “Be Prepared” into doom metal.

Give “Friends on the Other Side” to a gothic metal band.

Get “Zero to Hero” onto a power-metal album immediately.

And somebody, somewhere, please give “The Imperial March” to Meshuggah.

Yes, we know that’s technically Star Wars.

We don’t care.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0… DARTH VADER BREAKDOWN.

😂🤘

🎸 YOUR TURN, RIFFERS!

Which Disney song deserves to be thrown through a distortion pedal next?

Would you have Marilyn Manson’s “This Is Halloween” at Number One?

Should “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” be declared an honorary metal anthem?

And most importantly…

WHO’S STARTING THE CIRCLE PIT WHEN “UNDER THE SEA” DROPS?! 🐠🔥

Get involved and tell us your favourite.

Proudly Welsh. Proudly Loud. Zero apologies. 🐉🤘

The Riff Report Blog
Where even the House of Mouse gets a breakdown.