Trailers for Tim Burton's Dumbo have featured the track "Baby Mine," and now it has been revealed that the classic lullaby from the animated film has been covered by indie rock band Arcade Fire for the upcoming live-action remake. As announced by Disney, the cover will play during the film's end credits scene.
With a director as creative as Tim Burton helming the film, Mitchell Leib, president of music & soundtracks for Walt Disney Studios, sought to work with a band that could create a version of the classic lullaby that was equally as "interesting" and "artistic."
With Arcade Fire's Win Butler actually having a personal connection with the 1941 animated classic, it seemed like a perfect match.
“There is a scene with a locomotive in the original ‘Dumbo’ that uses an instrument called the Sonovox that my grandpa Alvino Rey made famous in the 1930s,” explained Butler. “Every time I saw the film I thought it was him."
Turns out, Arcade Fire's cover of "Baby Mine" was actually a family project for Butler, whose mom, brother, wife, and son all contributed.
"When we were asked to do the [end credit version of ‘Baby Mine’], I immediately got all of my grandfather’s old guitars and wanted to play them in the song," he revealed. "My mom plays the harp on the track, my brother the theremin, my wife [Régine Chassagne] sings and plays drums, and our son even plays the triangle, as well as the rest of our ‘family’ in Arcade Fire. I will forever relate to the song thinking about the people I hold so dear that are ‘so precious to me.’ Listen for the cameo of my grandpa Alvino’s famous Sonovox at the end.”
While we'll have to wait until Dumbo flies into theaters later this month to hear the full version, Disney has released a preview of the song.
With music by composer Frank Churchill and lyrics by Ned Washington, the Oscar-nominated "Baby Mine" is perhaps one of Disney's most iconic songs, accompanying the touching moment between Dumbo and his mother, who is locked away in a train car. The scene is both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time and is easily one of the most memorable moments in the 1941 classic film.
While Arcade Fire's version of "Baby Mine" will play during the end credits, Sharon Rooney, who portrays Miss Atlantis, will perform it in the actual film.
This isn't the first time Disney has sought out a major rock band for help with its end credits scene. For Ralph Breaks the Internet, Walt Disney Animation Studios teamed up with Imagine Dragons for the original song "Zero."
Dumbo flies into theaters on March 29, 2019.