It’s understandable if you haven’t played the 2023 game Disney Speedstorm. It is a free-to-play Disney-themed kart racer made by Gameloft, and you can be forgiven if that combination of words does not sound particularly appealing. But it is, by all accounts, pretty solid. What is more important than the game itself, however, is the soundtrack, which is one of the strangest things I have ever heard in my life.
Every song on the Disney Speestorm soundtrack is, for better or worse, a maximal club mix of an existing Disney theme. The Nightmare Before Christmas, Inside Out, Frozen , Wreck-It Ralph, The Little Mermaid, Lilo and Stitch, Aladdin, Toy Story, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hercules, and Monsters Inc. are all represented. Some of the tracks are so confusing as to be simply disorienting. There are not one or two, but three separate versions of the Randy Newman song “You’ve Got A Friend In Me”. Others, like “Zero To Hero” from Hercules and “Trust In Me” from The Jungle Book, are better than they have any right to be.
This is not typically electronic music that I enjoy, but the sheer amount of fun the composers are having here is incredible to behold and appropriate for a goofy kart racer. There is clearly a lot of love here. In no particular order, here are some of the more beguiling and/or compelling tracks. Please enjoy.
