2018 documentary film “Howard”, which is currently available on Disney+, looks into the life and career of Howard Ashman (1950 ~ 1991), a legendary American lyricist who played a crucial part in the success of several Disney animation films such as “The Little Mermaid” (1989). Although it is a shame that he died too early when he was beginning to have his biggest career success, many of his significant achievements have been cherished for many years since his death, and the documentary did a respectful job on presenting the overview on his life and career.

After opening with an archival footage clip Ashman working in the middle of the recording session for the songs for “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) in 1990, the documentary presents his early years in Baltimore, Maryland during the 1950-60s. Even when he was young, Ashman showed considerable artistic interest and talent, and then he actively pursued his growing artistic aspiration during his subsequent college years. Around that time, he was already quite aware of his homosexuality, and we hear about how he and his first partner Stewart White shared a lot of their common hope and dream as frequently participating together in many different artistic activities.

In the end, just like many other young artists in theater field, Ashman and White eventually moved to New York City in the late 1970s, though they had to begin from the very bottom for starting their career there. Mainly because there was no particular connection or figure to help them, they decided to found their own little independent theater company together, and that was how Ashman met his frequent collaborator Alan Menken.

As showing more potential as a lyricist, Ashman eventually tried on his first musical, which is incidentally based on Kurt Vonnegut Jr.s novel “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater”. After receiving a little indirect blessing from Vonnegut himself, Ashman and his colleagues were all the more motivated, and the result was their first critical success, though it unfortunately became a commercial failure when their production was subsequently moved to Broadway.

Nevertheless, Ashman moved onto his second musical project, which was based on Roger Corman’s low-budget 1960 black comedy film “The Little Shop of Horrors”. Although many people around him were not sure about whether that could be possible, Ashman went all the way along with Menken as his composer, and, what do you know, the result was one of the most enduring works in the Broadway history. In fact, the original production of the musical was so successful that it was later adapted into the equally famous 1986 musical film of the same name, which incidentally garnered the first Best Song Oscar nomination for Ashman and Menken.

After this point, Ashman attempted to work along with Marvin Hamlisch on the next musical project, but the following production process frustrated him a lot from the beginning to the end, and he was all the more daunted by the negative reviews which came right after the opening night on Broadway. Fortunately, he was soon approached by Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was working in Disney at that time and happened to need a good lyricist to give some input to his ambitious Disney animation project. Ashman was quite excited by working for Disney, but Disney was going through the lowest moment in its history around that time, and he was quite surprised by how its animation department had been nearly abandoned for a while.

Nevertheless, he enthusiastically approached to that animation project in question, which turned out to be, yes, “The Little Mermaid”. After bringing in Menken as his composer again, Ashman closely collaborated with Disney animators for more creative feedbacks, and some of these animators gladly tell us how much Ashman influenced their production in one way or another. Besides providing all those lovely songs with Menken, he firmly stuck to his artistic integrity to the end, and that was how one of those key songs in the film, “Part of Your World”, avoided getting deleted despite Katzenberg’s insistence.

However, when “The Little Mermaid” eventually opened a new era for Disney animation and then Ashman received his first Best Song Oscar along with Menken, Ashman was already dying after receiving HIV/AIDS positive diagnosis some time ago. He and his second partner Bill Lauch, who became very close to him not long after Ashman and White got separated in 1983, were naturally quite devastated, but they initially could not tell this sad fact to many of others around them. In fact, Menken came to learn about that only a few days after he and Ashman received that Oscar, and then a small number of figures including Katzenberg also came to learn about that.

Ashman was understandably quite concerned about whether Disney would fire him because of his terminal illness, but Katzenberg and many others in Disney stood by him to the end with a lot of help and support. Besides quickly moving onto “Beauty and the Beast”, he also worked on several songs for “Aladdin” (1992), and he became all the more passionate and diligent than before, though he eventually passed away several months before “Beauty and the Beast” was released. 

In conclusion, “Howard”, directed by Don Hahn (He was the producer of “Beauty and the Beast” and several other subsequent Disney animation films, by the way), is a fairly engaging documentary which also works as a sincere tribute to Ashman’s short but distinguished life and career. While mainly driven by the archival footage clips and photographs and the excerpts from the audio interview recordings, Ashman’s artistry and humanity vividly come to us and then move us a lot on the whole, and the overall result is certainly recommendable especially if you love and admire not only the aforementioned Disney animation films but also their excellent songs from Ashman. Yes, we can only imagine how much he could have achieved more if it had not been for his unfortunate terminal illness, but his legacy will certainly live on just like it did during last 35 years.