F/X (Bill Conti, 1986): I remember really liking this mid-80s thriller about a special effects artist that gets caught up in real life intrigue, but I also admit that I don’t really remember very much about it.  While Varese Sarabande released a soundtrack LP at the time of the film’s release, I never bought it and the score didn’t particularly stick with me after seeing the film.  As a result, I ended up essentially re-discovering this score with the 2007 Varese Sarabande CD Club release.

Bill Conti provides a moody, vaguely noir-inspired mixed orchestral and electronic score with several melodic main themes as well as fair amount of suspenseful, string-dominated music.  The "Main Title" cue actually opens with a bit of suspense-driven piano and string music before shifting into a brassy, percussive fanfare.  About a minute and a half in, it then transitions into the score’s main theme, which features a string melody overlaid with a repetitive piano motif.

The more melodic aspect of the score first comes into play in the cue "Rollie’s Diversion", which is primarily a piano-driven version of the main theme, although with some strings joining in towards the latter half of the cue.  The theme continues to provide a melodic line throughout the score, although the darker, more-suspenseful music tends to dominate the soundtrack.  Conti does occasionally provide some of the brassy, fanfare type music that is often his trademark.  In addition to the brief fanfare during the main title, the cue "No Loose Ends" also is a very brassy, action-oriented cue and is very recognizably Conti.  Horns are used more sparingly here than in most of Conti’s scores, but that just tends to make them a bit more impacting when they do appear.

The score is primarily orchestral, but Conti does make sparing use of electronics, such as in the cue "The Wrong Hit".  The electronic elements are typically used to ratchet up the suspense a bit.  Another change of pace comes with an extended militaristic drum solo during the late cue "Lipton’s Last Ride".

Fahrenheit 451 (Bernard Herrmann, 1966): The CD that I have of this classic Bernard Herrmann score is not actually the original soundtrack recording.  Instead, it is an excellent re-recording of the score by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, conducted by William Stromberg.  This re-recording was released by Tribute Film Classics in late 2007 and also includes music from Herrman’s score to the "Twilight Zone" TV episode entitled "Walking Distance".  The music from Fahrenheit 451 runs a little over an hour in length and is billed as being complete.

Herrmann’s score uses an interesting mix of fairly light-touch, vaguely fantasy-inspired melodies along with some darker, fairly oppressive music.  The lighter portions are dominated by piano as well as frequent use of xylophone and harp.  The darker material features aggressive, lower-register strings as well as some slower, vaguely-sad melodies.  The two styles of music are often presented side-by-side, reflecting Ray Bradbury’s story’s depiction of a society that is characterized by a surface happiness masking an underlying oppression.

There are some faster paced, action-oriented cues as well.  Herrmann makes especially effective use of very fast paced violins in these segments of the score.  Really good examples of this aspect of the score can be found in the cues "Fire Alarm" and "The Hose".  Occasional bits of xylophone and harp overlaying the strings add an especially appealing bit of color to these cues.  Herrmann also includes some emotional, melodic material, particularly in the later part of the score.  "The Reading" is a particularly emotional cue.

The score is presented as 47, generally very short cues.  The longest cues run a little over 3 minutes while many are well below a minute in length.  Despite this, the score does not seem choppy or disjointed.  The music is arranged so that the cues typically flow cleanly into one another, making for a very effective listening experience.  The large number of cues mainly makes it very easy to connect each bit of music directly to the appropriate part of the film.

Family Plot (John Williams, 1976): Family Plot is an historically significant film as it was the final movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  It is also significant to movie score fans as the score was written by John Williams, the first and only collaborator between arguably the most popular director of the movies’ golden age and arguably the most popular film composer of the modern age.  This collaboration also came at the start of Williams’ rise to fame, sandwiched between his scores for Jaws in 1975 and Star Wars in 1977.  Despite this pedigree, surprisingly the score to Family Plot remained unavailable (except for short excerpts on a few compilation albums) until it was released by the Varese Sarabande CD Club in late 2010.

The score is very recognizably in Williams’ distinctive style.  The album opens with a cue called "The First Séance", which has a mystical sound complete with choir.  It is reminiscent of some of the music that Williams would provide for Close Encounters of the Third Kind a year later and, especially, themes he would write years later for Empire of the Sun and A.I., although those later scores certainly present this style in a more serious light than here.  Williams provides a fairly simple, but distinctive main theme melody which is prominently presented in the second cue,  "Blanche’s Challenge", prominently featuring both harpsichord and synthesizer in order to give it an unusual flavor.

The entire score has a whimsical, offbeat nature to it, although intermixed with Williams usual strong melodies and distinctive brass and strings.  Both the harpsichord and a number of synthesizer elements help to give it this tone.  Williams also occasionally incorporates some dark, crashing piano to further provide a little bit of thematic darkness to the score.  These aspects of the score pre-shadow a style that the composer would more fully develop a decade later with The Witches of Eastwick.

One thing that is interesting about Williams’ one and only score for Hitchcock is that there is really no attempt to really even give a nod to Bernard Herrmann’s iconic scores for Hitchcock’s earlier classics. Just two years later, Williams would jump pretty much full force into his take on that style with his score to Brian DePalma’s The Fury, but the Family Plot score remains much more distinctively Williams’ style.

The CD ends with two bonus tracks.  The first is "Family Plot Theme", which is a pop-instrumental variation on the film’s primary theme.  This was created for a planned soundtrack album that was never released back in 1976.  It definitely has a 70s pop feel to it, but is a reasonably good presentation of the main melody and not an unwelcome addition to the album.  The last cue is a source music cue entitled "The Stonecutter" and it has a jazz/disco style that was very much of its time.  It is fun to hear this somewhat different side of Williams, although at 6 1/2 minutes the cue kind of wears out its welcome.

Varese Sarabande was, unfortunately, only able to locate masters of the score that were somewhat limited in quality.  The material is monaural, although the mixing makes a best effort to create a semi-stereo depth of field to the score.  The result is more flat sounding than other better preserved recordings from the era, although I do believe that they did the best they could with the elements available.  Still, I would consider this CD to be a must for any serious fans of Williams or film music in general.

Fantasia (Various, 1940): For his third animated feature (following Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio), Walt Disney shifted in a markedly experimental direction.  Fantasia used eight familiar works of classical music as accompaniment to animation in order to tell dialog-free stories via the melding of music and visuals.  The result was Disney’s first box-office failure, but one that has ultimately become highly appreciated due to its tremendous artistic merit.

To record the music for Fantasia, Disney teamed up with conductor Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra.  At the time, Stokowski was among the most popular classical conductors, with a style and personality that helped to bring a lot of public attention to the art of classical music.  Reportedly, he was very instrumental in convincing Disney to take on this project to begin with and was a major collaborator throughout.

As you would expect, the 2-CD soundtrack album to the film contains the recordings used in the film.  The pieces used in the film were Bach’s "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", Tchaikovsky’s "The Nutcracker Suite",  Paul Dukas’ "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice" (featuring Mickey Mouse in the film’s best known sequence), Stravinsky’s "The Rite of Spring", Beethoven’s Symphony Number 6 ("Pastoral"), Ponchielli’s "Dance of the Hours", Mussorgsky’s "A Night on Bald Mountain", and Schubert’s "Ave Maria".  Of course, some of these are presented as excerpts, particularly "Nutcracker" and Beethoven’s symphony.  The finale’s pairing of "A Night on Bald Mountain" and "Ave Maria" is probably the most striking arrangement for the film.

Certainly, other recordings of every one of these pieces are readily available.  In most cases, one or more recording of each is probably pretty likely to be in most substantial classical music collections.  My own collection contains other recordings of pretty much all of these as well.  The actual recordings from Fantasia certainly do have a personality of their own, though, making the soundtrack a worthwhile purchase for fans of the film.

One notable aspect of Fantasia was that it was the first major motion picture to be recorded in stereo sound.  A specially designed surround sound system called "Fantasound" was installed into theaters showing the film in its initial road show release.  These presentations were the very first time that audiences experienced the kind of dynamic, multi-channel sound that we come to expect in movie theaters today.

Because of this, the music was recorded with extremely active and prominent stereo effects, all of which are reflected on the soundtrack.  This can make the playback of the score a bit disconcerting, particularly through headphones, although it also can be pretty impressive on home surround sound systems.  These stereo effects are definitely a reason why some may prefer other recordings of these pieces, but they also provide the soundtrack an original personality.

In the early 1980s, Disney commissioned a new digital recording of the music under conductor Irwin Kostal.  At the time the original recordings were thought to have aged too badly for an acceptable restoration and Disney felt that they were better off doing a new recording.  This was never well received by purists and even general audiences seemed to have a bit of a sense that something was a bit off.  They reverted to the original recordings with the film’s next re-issue and all subsequent releases.  This re-recording was released on LP at the time of the film’s re-release in the early 1980s and was briefly available on CD in the early 90s. It is somewhat difficult to find now.

Fantasia 2000 (Various, 2000): Walt Disney’s original idea for Fantasia was to regularly update the film for re-issues, replacing some segments with new ones.  After the relatively poor reception of the original film, it took 60 years for a version of that vision to become a reality.  The follow up was first released with great fanfare as an Imax-exclusive on January 1, 2000, serving as Disney’s celebration of the new millennium.  The film featured seven new segments, plus a reprise of "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice."

The new pieces featured in the film were the opening to Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Respighi’s "The Pines of Rome", Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue", Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto #2, the finale from Saint-Saens’ "Carnival of the Animals", Elgar’s "Pomp and Circumstances", and Stravinsky’s "Firebird Suite".  Most of the new segments were performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under conductor James Levine.  The one exception was "Rhapsody in Blue", which was performed by The Philharmonia Orchestra under Bruce Broughton and featuring soloist Ralph Grierson.

As with the soundtrack for the original film, the Fantasia 2000 soundtrack doesn’t contain any music that can’t be found elsewhere.  In fact, "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice" is the exact same recording that is found on the original Fantasia soundtrack.  Still, these recordings are crisp and lively and are generally top-notch performances of an excellent selection of classical works.  Being newer recordings, these recordings do not have the showy stereophonic effects that were included in the original.  Even the mix on "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice" has been toned down for this version.

Once again, some of the pieces are abbreviated versions of longer works, especially the Beethoven piece which is only the 3 minute introduction to the full symphony.  I certainly would recommend seeking out more complete versions of the works that are abbreviated here, but this is still a fine collection of music.  The original film’s limited popularity (even as its reputation has grown) was often thought to have at least something to do with its length.  As a result, Fantasia 2000 was designed to be a shorter film (by more than 1/2 hour) with each segment generally shorter as well.  The Beethoven segment is only 3 minutes long while the Saint-Saens is only 2 minutes.  This probably was a right decision, as the new film does have a faster pace and is somewhat easier to absorb in one sitting.

Another nod towards accessibility was the use of some selections that are very familiar even to those that otherwise aren’t overly interested in classical music.  This kind of applied with both "Nutcracker Suite" and Beethoven’s "Pastoral" symphony in the first film, but even those may not be as instantly familiar to most as the opening to Beethoven’s 5th, "Rhapsody in Blue", and "Pomp and Circumstances".  The last was an especially interesting choice, since it took a piece widely known in a specific context (graduation ceremonies) and adapted it to a new context (Noah’s Ark) in a generally impressive manner.

Disney released two different versions of the soundtrack CD, a standard version and a collector’s edition (shown above), which was exclusively available at The Disney Store.  The musical contents of both versions is identical, with the collector’s edition coming in fancier packaging.  Some may prefer the standard edition as it comes in a regular jewel case instead of the oddly folding, thin plastic cover used for the collector’s edition.

Fantastic 4 (John Ottman, 2005): John Ottman uses a traditional, predominantly orchestral and choral-based approach to scoring the financially successful but not especially well-regarded adaptation of the Fantastic 4 comic book series.  The result is a very bombastic, typically energetic score.

It is a style that is pretty obviously inspired by John Williams’ landmark Superman score, which Ottman would directly adapt for Superman Returns a year later.  While he obviously didn’t have direct access to Williams’ themes with this score, many of Ottman’s compositions here pretty closely resemble the original music that he would later contribute to the Superman sequel.

The soundtrack opens with a main title march that is rousing, although a bit darkly shaded.  Choral material is mixed in with the central brass and percussion, giving it a touch of added grandeur.  I don’t really find it to be an especially memorable theme, although I have a hard time placing exactly why that is.  It could be that it is just a bit too derivative or it could come from the lack of a memorable film to associate it with.

The score is dominated by very bombastic action scoring, although Ottman does provide a few quieter, nicely-melodic moments.  The main theme of this type is introduced right after the main title in the second cue “Cosmic Storm” and is also particularly well used in the early part of “Changing”.  Some more playful bits figure occasionally, such as in the cue “Unlikely Saviors”.  Even here, the Williams’ influence is pretty evident with some obvious stylistic nods to the theme for Ned Beatty’s Superman character.

The Varese Sarabande soundtrack album for the film runs about 45 minutes and is probably a sufficient representation of this score.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (John Ottman, 2007): The soundtrack to the sequel to Fantastic 4 immediately opens with the “Silver Surfer Theme”, the most prominent new theme introduced in the sequel.  This theme is stylistically very much in keeping with the themes from the first film, with a mix of some march-like bombast with stately, grandiose brass and string melodies.  Its immediate introduction in a concert arrangement right at the start of the CD works well as a quick intro to the most important new element to this score.

The rest of the score largely sounds like an extension of the first film’s score, although electronic elements did seem a bit more prominent this time in cues such as “Chasing the Surfer”.  I generally consider musical consistency in a sequel to be a positive, although this score doesn’t really feel like it expands the material all that much.

I think part of the problem here is that Ottman took a more repetitive approach to the music this time.  There isn’t as much thematic variation, with the new Silver Surfer theme and the main Fantastic 4 theme as the only real stand-outs among a lot of fairly anonymous action scoring.  The new theme is certainly nice, but otherwise there really isn’t much to latch onto with this score.

Dragonheart (Randy Edelman, 1996): Randy Edelman’s main theme to Dragonheart has been used in so many trailers for other movies that it is likely to be instantly familiar to most people even if they have no idea what it is from.

The theme is introduced during the opening cue, entitled  “World of the Heart (Main Title)”.  It is a primarily string-driven theme with a warmly noble quality to it.  The theme has a definite grandeur and sense of importance, which is obviously the reason why it has become so popular to re-purpose it.  In some parts of the score, starting with the album’s 2nd cue “To the Stars”, Edelman adds a wordless choir to the theme as well, giving it an even broader scope.  Much of the score continues in the same vein as the theme, usually strongly melodic with strings generally in the forefront.

The score does have occasional darker patches, such as the very prominent percussion and chant-like vocals found in the cues “Einon” and “Bowen’s Decoy”.  The former cue also introduces some distinctive ethnic elements to the score, with some old-European styling to some of the melodies. This includes some prominent use of acoustic guitar in this and a number of other cues.

Despite the highly melodic, fairly large-sound to the score, Edelman actually makes pretty extensive use of synthesizers during much of the score.  During some of the bigger orchestral segments, synthesizers are used to enhance the percussion and give the score a bit more active bass.  Some of the lighter, more comedic sections of the score place the synthesizers more up-front, as in the cue “The Last Dragon Slayer”.

The soundtrack to Dragonheart was released on CD at the time of the film’s release and is still readily available.  The album contains a relatively generous 45 minutes of score and is generally a solid representation of the score, although I suspect there would be plenty of material for an expanded release.

Dragonslayer (Alex North, 1981): This big-budget Disney/Paramount co-production (unusual at that time) wasn’t a big hit at the time of its release, but it has increased somewhat in stature over the years.  It isn’t considered a classic by any means, but it is now generally fairly well-regarded as one of the better entries in the sword & sorcery genre.

The score to Dragonslayer came fairly late in Alex North’s distinguished career and it was really his last score for this type of epic, action-oriented period piece, the type of film in which the composer often exceled.  He delivered a dark, minimally-thematic score that is often a bit difficult to listen to separate from the film, despite the score’s obvious artistry.  North’s score is an avant-garde, often biting effort that lacks the generally upbeat sense of fun that is usually associated with this genre.  It isn’t for everybody and has long been a controversial score among fans, but it is a complex and always interesting score.

While North never really establishes much in the way of strong, distinctive themes that carry through the score, he does introduce melodic material, although it is often surrounded by very active, often dissonant music.  For example, the cue “Maiden Sacrifice” introduces a distinctive, tender melody, but generally overwhelms it with intense strings, brass, and percussion.  This type of approach is repeated fairly often throughout the score.

It is fairly well known that North repurposed portions of his rejected score to 2001: A Space Odyssey for Dragonslayer and those familiar with the either or both of the recordings of that score will certainly recognize its echoes here.  In particular, the waltz that North wrote for the space station docking sequence is clearly reproduced in the cues “Burning Village” and “Dragon Sore-ing” as well as during the finale and over the end credits.   It becomes the most thematic part of this score, although I’m not sure I would think that had I not heard the 2001 score.  In each cue, North builds on his already existing music to build something distinct to this score.  The two scores really make for interesting companion pieces.

While the score did receive a fairly limited LP release as well as an earlier CD release (of dubious legitimacy), the first truly official CD release came from La La Land Records in 2010.  It is a limited edition of 3,000 copies, although still readily available at the time I’m writing this.

Dreamer (Bill Conti, 1979): This fairly obscure Bill Conti score opens with a “Main Title” cue featuring a pleasantly old-fashioned Americana swing-music style, which figures prominently in other parts of the score as well.  Towards the end of the cue, it transitions into more of the late-70s pop style that is more typical of Conti’s scores during that time period.

The score is kind of all over the place stylistically, with some cues featuring the old-fashioned style, others in the more pop style, such as the romantic pop cues “Double Image”, “Blurry” and “Alley Cat”.  The cue “Pool Room” even has a country instrumental style while “Waitress Walking” is pretty much pure disco and “Racking Pins” has a bit of a Mexican mariachi style.

The soundtrack also includes a catchy, 70s pop song entitled “Reach for the Top”.  The song was written by Conti and performed by Pablo Cruise.  It certainly isn’t as memorable as Conti’s famous “Gonna Fly Now” which was written for Rocky just a year earlier, but it still has the same triumphant, anthem style.

The score for Dreamer was released by Varese Sarabande paired with Conti’s The Scout on a 1,000 copy limited edition “CD Club” release, which is now sold out.  The music from Dreamer runs around 40 minutes.  Note that the above image is poster art from the film as there was no Dreamer cover art with the CD.

Duel at Diablo (Neal Hefti, 1966): Neal Hefti was a composer best known for contemporary films, particularly comedies, and Duel at Diablo was his only western.  He mostly avoided the common western conventions of the era, instead going for a smaller-scale, somewhat more pop oriented style.  There are certainly parts of this score that do suggest a western score, but the genre isn’t immediately evident if listening blindly.

The score opens with a “Main Title” cue that establishes a catchy main theme.  This theme really doesn’t sound like a western at all and, in fact, would probably seem fairly at home in a 1960s contemporary comedy.  A vocal version of the theme (simply called “Duel at Diablo on the soundtrack) was performed by Ernie Sheldon.  According to the liner notes, it was not used in the film.

Other parts of the score do have a more rustic feel, such as the fairly lush melodies introduced in the cue “The Earth Runs Red”.  Some parts of the score suggest a bit of a Mexican ethnic influence as well.  While the main theme has an upbeat quality, many other parts of the score are much darker and more menacing, particularly during the “Prologue” cue.

A soundtrack LP containing a re-recording of the score was released with the film and was later included by Film Score Monthly as part of their now sold-out (and very expensive to obtain) “MGM Soundtrack Treasury”.  The soundtrack runs a little under half an hour in length.

Dumbo (Frank Churchill, Oliver Wallace, 1941): Disney released an excellent CD of the songs and score from the classic animated feature Dumbo as part of their “Classic Soundtrack Series”.  As is the case with most of those releases, the CD is now out of print, but still pretty easily available.   It is also available as a download from Amazon or iTunes (and probably other stores as well).

The film is, of course, the story of a circus elephant who learns how to fly using his oversized ears as wings.  The circus setting mostly sets the musical style of the score with lots of brass and cymbals, whistle, and the appropriate use of a calliope.  As you would expect, most of the score has a very upbeat, cherry quality, although the film has some darker passages towards the middle and the composers provide appropriately melancholy melodies when needed.

There were a number of songs included in Dumbo and on the soundtrack they are often presented in the same cues alongside relevant score.  Probably the most famous song from the film is the very emotionally-driven lullaby “Baby Mine”, sung by Dumbo’s mother to her son after she has been imprisoned in a cage.  The song has a huge emotional impact in the film.  On the soundtrack album, the song is presented at the end of the generally sad score cues that precede it in the film, which results in more of the song’s emotional impact being retained than is the case with the stand-alone version of the song typically heard on compilation albums.

Other well-known songs from the film include “Casey Junior”, ““Pink Elephants” and “When I See an Elephant Fly”.  The first of those is very effective at musically capturing the familiar sound of a train.  The second accompanies probably the film’s oddest sequence, a borderline psychedelic dream sequence after Dumbo has accidentally become intoxicated.  It is a highly entertaining sequence, although one that probably wouldn’t be too likely to make it into a current children’s film.

The second is possibly the most prominent show-stopper number in the film, performed by a quintet of crows, voiced by Cliff Edwards (well-known to Disney fans as the voice of Jiminy Cricket) and the Hall Johnson Choir.   This sequence has become controversial as many critics have noted that the crow characters are portrayed with African American stereotypes.  The criticism does have merit, although it is important to also keep in mind the time period when the film was made and the stylistic similarity of the song to others from the period.

Other songs on the album include “Look Out for Mr. Stork”, “Song of the Roustabouts” and “Clown Song”.  These certainly aren’t as well known as the others from the film, as they each generally are more focused on establishing atmosphere than advancing the story.  They play well on the CD, though, as they all blend well with the surrounding instrumentals.

The soundtrack album ends with a demo version of an unused song entitled “Spread Your Wings”.

Dune (Toto, 1984): The score to David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of the classic science fiction novel Dune was the only film score created by the popular pop/rock band Toto.  The all-instrumental score features a hybrid of the band’s usual pop/rock with orchestral portions performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.  In the film, the score is credited to the band as a whole and the individual cues on the soundtrack are all credited to some combination of the band’s members at the time: Jeff Porcaro, Mike Porcaro, Steve Porcaro, David Paich, and Steve Lukather.

The film was one of the bigger box-office bombs of that time and suffered from such substantial editing that the story was nearly impossible to follow for anyone that didn’t have the novel essentially memorized.  The score was also pretty drastically edited in the film, with the sound mix and construction varying quite a bit between the film, the original 1984 soundtrack album release, and the 1997 expanded soundtrack CD.   The original release contained a reasonable sampling of the score, but did omit quite a bit of music and also had bits of dialog over a couple cues.  The expanded release added back a lot of the missing music and removed the dialog, but had some sound quality problems and mistakes in the cue listings.  Both releases are out of print now and this still a score that could use a definitive re-issue.

The soundtracks open with a short “Prologue” piece that segues directly into the “Main Title” featuring the  score’s anthem-like opening theme.  On the 1984 album, the film’s opening narration is played over the prologue while the 1997 version is music-only.  The opening theme is a dark, but sweeping melody featuring electric guitar accompanied by the full orchestra and a wordless choir.  This theme quickly establishes the rock/orchestral hybrid approach.  An orchestra-only version of the melody is later presented as “Leto’s Theme” and variations of the tune are used throughout.

The other most prominent theme is noble theme for the titular planet itself, which is built around a distinctive, descending progression.  Excerpts from the theme are heard in “The Fremen” before it is given a powerful, largely electronic rock presentation in “Riding the Sandworm”.  A concert arrangement of the theme is featured in the cue “Dune (Desert Theme”) and it also figures prominently during the score’s end credits cue, entitled “Take My Hand”.  Interestingly, a kind of warped, electronic presentation of the desert theme is also used as the villain’s theme in the early cue “The Floating Fat Man (The Baron)”, which is the other cue on the 1984 album release to feature dialog.

The chorus is most prominently used with the “Destiny” theme, which is used to underscore the more religious aspects of the story.  This is a grand, fairly large scale theme and the one aspect of the score where the composers chose to pretty fully suppress the rock and electronics in favor of a fairly old-fashioned epic style orchestral approach.  This theme isn’t used frequently in the score, but tends to make a pretty strong impression when it does appear.

Composer Brian Eno contributed one theme that was used periodically in the film and is credited as the “Prophecy Theme”.  There is some uncertainty about whether Eno originally composed a rejected score for the film or, if not, how he came to contribute that one theme.  I don’t think it is a particularly distinctive or interesting composition.  Eno’s theme was included as a stand-alone cue on the 1984 album, but is completely absent from the 1997 release.

Dutch (Alan Silvestri, 1991): Although Alan Silvestri’s most popular scores tend to be for big action and/or adventure films (like Predator or Back to the Future) or for large-scope dramatic films (like Forrest Gump or Contact), he also has done some very good, smaller-scale scores for comedies.  One of his lesser-known scores in that genre was for the 1991 John Hughes production Dutch, which featured Ed O’Neill as an ill-tempered step-dad bonding with kids during a road trip.

Silvestri’s approach to the score starts off more jazz/pop oriented before eventually picking up his more familiar orchestral sound.  The “Main Title” cue has a catchy main theme with a small jazz ensemble sound, dominated by piano.  The second cue, entitled “Party”, then presents a lengthy instrumental that is primarily dominated by solo piano, with only occasional small ensemble accompaniment.

The full orchestra finally kicks in with the 4th cue on the CD, entitled “Trouble on the Home Front”.  The orchestral cues on the soundtrack are recognizably Silvestri’s style, including his typical aggressively dynamic strings as well as the tender piano melodies that are common to his scores for less action-oriented films.  Some of the cues are surprisingly short, including several that are under 2 minutes and even one (“Dad!”) that is only 16 seconds long.  The longest orchestral cue, “The Shelter” clocks in at 4:38.  This approach gives the score a bit of a choppy quality, although this is far from a fatal flaw.

Sprinkled throughout the CD are several source cues, including a solo violin version of a Brandenburg Concerto, a couple brief choral pieces (each identified as alternates of “Campus Choral”), and a lengthy unused “Fireworks” cue that basically is brassy circus music.  These cues are interesting, although I think the CD might have played better had these source cues all been grouped together at the end.

Silvestri’s score to Dutch remained unavailable commercially until 2010, when La La Land Records released a 1200 copy limited edition CD of the score.  At the time that I’m writing this, the CD is still available from their website.  While this is really a minor Silvestri score, it is still worth getting for fans of the composer, particularly if you have a fondness for his smaller scope scores.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Harry Gregson-Williams, 2005): Obviously inspired by the enormous success of the Lord of the Rings films, Walden Media and Disney saw adapting C.S. Lewis’ classic Chronicle of Narnia book series as an obvious opportunity to create a similar, but more family-friendly, franchise.  Shrek co-director Andrew Adamson was a somewhat surprising choice to helm the first film in the series.  Adamson brought along Shrek composer Harry Gregson-Williams, giving him a welcome opportunity to stretch his talents quite a bit beyond the animation and contemporary action scores for which he was mainly known.

The film cranked up the intensity and scope of the action and battle sequences quite a bit compared to the books, which gave Gregson-Williams the opportunity to create some fairly intense action music.  The soundtrack gets off to a very fast-paced start with the opening cue, “The Blitz, 1940”, a percussion and brass driven action cue that accompanies the film’s surprisingly intense opening sequence.  This type of action music again will later dominate the final portions of the score, particularly the lengthy finale cue simply entitled “The Battle”.

The majority of the score has a more melancholy and moody quality, which is introduced in the second cue, entitled “Evacuating London”.  The first half of the cue introduces some simple piano-driven melodies before transitioning to an otherworldly, largely electronic theme accompanied by vocals by Lisbeth Scott.   A more gentle, traditionally orchestral version of the same basic theme is central to the next cue, “The Wardrobe”. Later, Gregson-Williams provides an appropriately regal main theme for Aslan the lion, heard particularly prominently in the opening to the cue “To Aslan’s Camp”.  That is the theme that eventually serves as essentially the primary theme for the film, with some fairly frequent statements during the battle music late in the score.

The entire score has a somewhat surprisingly modernistic sound to it, generally forgoing the more traditional British classical scoring approach to this kind of fantasy that Howard Shore had used for The Lord of the Rings.  Gregson-Williams introduces a number of ethnic elements and also uses a fair amount of electronic instruments as well as frequent choral and solo vocal elements.  I find it to be an effective score, although probably not what a lot of people expected for this material and, thus, it has tended to be a somewhat controversial one.

The album ends with four songs, all of which are very atmospheric and moody in style, with a somewhat modern electronica-ballad style.  “Can’t Take It In”, performed by Imogen Heap, and “Where” by Lisbeth Scott were both co-written by Gregson-Williams and are based on themes used in the film.  “Wunderkind” by Alanis Morrisette and “Winter Light” by Tim Finn are not connected with the rest of the film’s music.  With the exception of “Where”, the songs are each pretty long (4-5 minutes+) and they kind of wear out their welcome.

Note that there were quite a few different soundtrack albums for the film.  Two score albums were released, a standard and a special edition.The musical content is identical on both releases, with the special edition simply offering fancier packaging.  I have the special edition because I was able to get it at a decent price, but there is little reason to spend much extra for it.  There also were at least two song compilation albums released which were really just “inspired by” the movie.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Harry Gregson-Williams, 2008): Composer Harry Gregson-Williams returned to the world of Narnia for Prince Caspian, the second entry in the series.  The score maintains stylistic continuity with the first one, including reprising a couple main themes, but it does also take a more action-oriented approach while downplaying some of the more otherworldly elements from the original.  The result is a score that is in the same family as the first one, but perhaps a bit more conventional.  While less of a creative leap, I also think it is a somewhat more listenable score.

Just like with the first score, this one opens with a driving, percussion and brass action cue.  The cue this time is called “Prince Caspian Flees” and it perhaps demonstrates Gregson-Williams’ background in Hans Zimmer’s scoring company more than any of the cues in the previous score.  The piece definitely has a quality that reflects Zimmer’s driving, orchestral/electronic approach to action scoring.  This cue sets the tone for the kind of action scoring that dominates a lot of this score.  This opening cue does also introduce a new theme for the title character, although it is only sparingly used during the rest of the score and feels a bit underdeveloped.

The key themes from the original film are reprised here, with the primary theme for the siblings that are the story’s central character first making an appearance in the second cue, “The Kings and Queens of Old”.  The regal theme for Aslan is used very frequently in this score, initially making its re-appearance in the cue “Arrival at Aslan’s How”.  As in the first score, that theme tends to serve as a victory theme in the battle cues which, as noted earlier, dominate this score much more than the original.

As with the previous soundtrack, several songs are included at the end of the album.  Once again, they are generally in that modernistic, electronic folk ballad style and really aren’t exceptionally interesting.  This time, Gregson-Williams is not credited as a writer on any of the songs and the performers, Regina Spekter, Oren Lavie, Switchfoot, and Hanne Hukkelberg, are all unfamiliar to me.

Prince Caspian was the last released film in this series at the time that I’m writing this.  As of this point, this will be the last film in the series for Disney, Gregson-Williams, and director Andrew Adamson.  The third film in the series, The Voyage of the Dawn Trader, is scheduled for release (by Twentieth Century Fox) later this year with Michael Apted taking over as director and David Arnold taking over the scoring.  It will be interesting to hear whether Arnold chooses to retain any of Gregson-Williams’ themes.  I tend to hope that he at least retains the Aslan theme in order to keep some musical continuity to the series.

Cimarron (Franz Waxman, 1960): The big, epic widescreen epics of the 1950s and 1960s were probably among the most dramatic users of music as a critical component of their story telling.  These films often had big, very bold scores with lush melodies played by large orchestras, often supplemented by choir.  Franz Waxman’s score to the 1960 version of Cimarron is one of the more impressive examples of this kind of scoring.  Film Score Monthly’s Golden Age Classics release of the score provides a beautiful, fully-stereo restoration of the score in a program with a generous 1 hour and 20 minute running time.

The score’s main theme is introduced right away in the “Main Title” cue, which features a vocal performance by the Roger Wagner Chorale performing lyrics written by Paul Francis Webster.  Instrumental versions of this theme are woven throughout the score, in fully orchestral versions as well as on a variety of instruments.  The theme is an infectious melody that sticks with you for a while after listening to the album.

Much of the score is characterized by brassy, exciting action music, including a thrilling 6 minute cue entitled “The Land Rush”, which contains pretty much the type of fast paced, kinetic music that you would expect from a cue with that title.  The score has some quieter, more melancholy segments as well, such as the early cue “Goodbye Father” and, later, “A Son Is Born”.  Darker music is included where needed, such as in the amusingly bluntly titled cue “The Villain”, which is characterized by some low, menacing strings.

The album ends with a 5 minute “Outtakes Suite”, which contains some alternate versions of some of the music used in the film.  The liner notes also mention that a number of the cues on the CD contain bits of music that was trimmed for the movie but are presented as recorded on the album.

Cinderella (Mack David, Al Hoffman, Jerry Livingston, Oliver Wallace, Paul J. Smith, 1950): Disney’s second (after Snow White) princess-based fairy tale remains one of their most famous and beloved animated features.  Musically, the film contains several of Disney’s most famous songs as well as an effective orchestral score, largely built around the song melodies.

The music credits for the film are a bit vague, making it a little difficult to tell who really composed what part of the music.  Although not listed in the film’s credits, the songs are generally accepted to have been written by Mack David, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston.  The film also credits Oliver Wallace and Paul J. Smith as music directors and it is generally accepted that they wrote at least some portion of the film’s score.  Despite the fairly large group of composers, the music is remarkably cohesive and, of course, fits the film wonderfully.

Several of the songs have a very romantic quality to them, particularly the title song (which plays over the film’s main title), “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes”, and the romantic waltz “So This Is Love”.  On a personal note, “So This Is Love” was the song that my wife and I used for our first dance at our wedding reception, which makes it pretty special to me.

Several of the songs have an entertainingly playful quality as well.  The Fairy Godmother’s song “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” is one of the catchiest songs in the Disney canon while the mice chorus perform a fun song called “The Working Song”.  Another amusing song is “Oh Sing Sweet Nightingale”, which is bookended by humorously off-key performances by the evil stepsisters, contrasted with a sweetly on-key version performed by Ilene Woods as Cinderella.

Disney first released a full soundtrack CD to the movie back in 1997. This contains all the songs as well as a fairly complete presentation of the score.  The disc also ends with a demo version of an unused song entitled “I’m in the Middle of a Muddle”.  In 2005, they released a new “Special Edition” of the soundtrack that adds one more demo song, entitled “Dancing On a Cloud”, as well as a cover version of “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” performed by Kimberley Locke.  It also includes a performance of a song called “Beautiful” performed by Jim Brickman.  I’m not sure of the origin of that song.  I never picked up the 2005 version, so I can’t comment on the quality of these additional tracks.

Two years before releasing the actual soundtrack CD, Disney released a “The Music from Cinderella” concept album that contained cover versions of the songs as well as a re-recording of 25 minutes of the score under conductor J.A.C. Redford.  The covers included “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” by Linda Rondstadt (both in English and in Spanish), “So This Is Love” by James Ingram, “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” by Bobby McFarrin (this cue opens with the original soundtrack version of the song), “The Work Song” by Take 6, and an instrumental medley of the songs from the film by David Benoit and David Sanborn.  This concept album is an interesting collection of alternate versions, although definitely not a substitute for the original soundtrack.  Even if the covers don’t interest you, though, the CD is probably worth tracking down simply for the excellent stereo re-recordings of the score cues.

Cinderella (Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein III, 1957 & 1965): A few years after Disney’s hit version of Cinderella, CBS staged a live television broadcast of a new musical version featuring songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein and starring a young Julie Andrews, 7 years before she made her big movie debut in Mary Poppins.  Two other TV productions of the musical were done in 1965 starring Leslie Ann Warren and in 1997 starring Brandy.  Soundtrack CDs are available for the 1957 and 1965 productions, but surprisingly none was ever released for the 1997 version.

This is one of the very few Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals that didn’t originate as a stage production and, thus, the songs are probably not as well known as those from their various shows that get regularly revived.  That isn’t to say that there aren’t some very familiar songs in this show.  In particular, Cinderella’s opening solo entitled “In My Own Little Corner” and the romantic duet “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful?” are pretty recognizable and get covered pretty frequently on various compilation albums.  The songs are all very much in the familiar, melodic Rodgers & Hammerstein style.  There is also some very clever word play, particularly in the Fairy Godmother’s number “Impossible/It’s Possible” and in the very amusing “The Stepsisters’ Lament”.

While both of the available soundtracks contain excellent performances and are worthwhile, I would say that the 1957 version is the one to get if you are only going to get one.  The obvious reason for that is the simple fact that it features Julie Andrews.  As good as Leslie Ann Warren was in the role, she can’t quite equal Andrews’ gorgeous voice and crystal clear diction.  The sound quality on both recordings is very good as well, particularly impressive considering the age of the 1957 version and the fact that the show itself now only exists as a black & white kinescope.  Note that the 1965 version did add one additional song, an opening ballad entitled “Loneliness of Evening” performed by Stuart Damon as the prince.

Cinderella Liberty (John Williams, 1973): This John Williams score came right around the start of his long streak of 1970s hits that shifted him to the top of the film composing industry.  It was a more intimate, dramatic score than the big disaster movies and other blockbusters that he took on around that era and, thus, isn’t as well remembered.  Intrada released a good, limited edition soundtrack CD that is still available from their website.

The score’s central theme, introduced during the first instrumental cue entitled “Nice To Be Around”,  features a solo harmonica played by Jean "Toots" Thielemans, an approach that Williams would more famously repeat a year later with The Sugarland Express, his first score for Steven Spielberg.  This theme has a bit of a soulfully dramatic quality that contrasts interestingly with the rural quality that is lent by the harmonica.   The album later contains a version of this theme with vocals written and performed by Paul Williams and the theme is also given a full concert presentation in the cue “Cinderella Liberty Love Theme.

Some of the cues are not fully orchestral and have a very 70s, kind of disco/jazz quality to them.  Cues such as “New Shooter”, “Maggie Shoots Pool” and “Neptune’s Bar” are melodic, but with a bit of an improvisational, small jazz-ensemble quality to them.  These cues appear to likely be source cues, but the “Boxing Montage” cue also has some similarity in style while heavily incorporating the score’s main themes.

The soundtrack opens and closes with the jazzy song “Wednesday Special” which was co-written and performed by Paul Williams and plays over the main and end titles.

City of Angels (Gabriel Yared & various, 1998): When I saw City of Angels, I was sufficiently impressed by Gabriel Yared’s score that I purchased the soundtrack album, despite the fact that more than 2/3 of the CD contained songs that were of little interest to me.  Yared’s score is featured on the last 4 cues on the CD, which add up to a little over 20 minutes of music.

Yared’s score has a very moody, ethereal quality to it and is also, at times, very lush and romantic.  The opening cue “An Angel Falls” is dominated by strings and angelic chorus.  As the film’s subject matter would suggest, there is definitely a vaguely religious aura to the music as well.  Later cues continue this style, with solo piano often added to the mix for the more romantic passages.  Woodwinds are used sparingly and brass is mostly absent.  The piano melody is the most distinctive theme that Yared establishes in the score.

The second score cue, “The Unfeeling Kiss”, stands out as a stylistic deviation with a light, pop/country melody featuring solo guitar and electronic instruments, before transitioning during the last part of the cue back to the ethereal orchestral style heard through most of the rest of the score.  There is also some acoustic guitar solo during the lengthy finale cue, which is simply entitled “City of Angels”.

The collection of songs on the album did have a fairly substantial popular appeal and the soundtrack even reached #1 on the pop charts for a time.  The performers featured on the album include U2, Alanis Morissette, Jimi Hendrix, Paul Cole, John Lee Hooker, Sarah McLachlin, The Goo Goo Dolls, Peter Gabriel, Jude, and Eric Clapton.  “Iris” by The Goo Goo Dolls and “Uninvited” by Morissette were written for the film and became hit singles.

Although most of the songs were not original to the film, the list of artists featured is pretty impressive, but there is not a lot of consistency in style making it seem a lot like a marketing-driven song album.  Admittedly, the songs chosen do have some connection with the film’s plot (several are about angels), but I still find the manufactured quality of the compilation to be hard to overlook.

A Civil Action (Danny Elfman, 1998): This courtroom drama was one of the earlier examples of Danny Elfman moving away from his comfort zone of fantasies and comedies.  Unlike some of his other drama scores from that time period, this one is pretty instantly recognizable as an Elfman score, including many of his trademark stylistic touches.

The score is heavily electronic, often with a pop-styled approach.  The melodies are frequently drum machine backed, which provides a lot of the pop rhythm to the music.  In this respect, quite a few of the cues have a noticeable resemblance to Elfman’s better known score to Men In Black, which came out a year earlier. Choral elements are included very frequently and the approach to using these wordless vocals is the aspect that most clearly identifies the score as Elfman’s.  The sensitive cue “Why?” is particularly effective in its use of vocals.

While most of the score is more moody and dramatic, there are occasional hints of more action-oriented scoring.  The cue “First Landing” contains some brassy action music that actually has a bit of a resemblance to the type of music that Elfman usually provides for his superhero scores.

Beauty and the Beast (Alan Menken & Howard Ashman, 1991): Beauty and the Beast is my favorite of Disney’s animated films and on my short list of favorite movies in general.  The film’s music is absolutely critical to its success.  At the time, it was the closest that an animated film had come to duplicating the style of a modern Broadway musical and, thus, it was no big surprise when several years later an adaptation of the movie became Disney’s first Broadway show.

The film featured six songs, and two reprises, by the songwriting team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, who had written songs for Disney’s The Little Mermaid a couple years earlier.  One previously deleted song, entitled “Human Again”, was added back in to the film for the 2002 re-issue of the film in Imax.  Menken also wrote the film’s score, which is largely based around the song melodies, but also introduces a couple additional themes.

The film and soundtrack albums open with a “Prologue” with David Ogden Stiers reading narration that sets up the story.  Alan Menken’s musical accompaniment to this is essentially an (unfortunately) uncredited adaptation of Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Aquarium” from “Carnival of the Animals”.  The music fits wonderfully, although its pretty obvious source should have been credited.

The opening number is entitled “Belle” and serves as an introduction for both the film’s heroine and, late in the song, the villain Gaston.  This is an impressively-scoped number featuring an entire ensemble, led by Paige O’Hara as Belle.  During my first viewing of the film, I remember realizing during this sequence that my jaw was pretty much hanging open from the amazement that they had pulled off such a sweeping, Broadway-style number.  This really felt like something very new and unexpected for this medium and the song and sequence continues to impress even after numerous viewings.

“Gaston” remains one of the best villain songs from a Disney film.  It also has some of the most clever wordplay of Howard Ashman’s impressive career, even managing to work in the word “expectorating”, which may have been a first for a song lyric.  The song really captures Gaston’s distinctive traits while also being exceptionally funny, with Richard White’s (Gaston) and Jessi Corti’s (La Fou) contributing highly to that.  Probably because it really doesn’t mean much out of context, the song isn’t as well known as the others from the film, but it may actually be the most complex and accomplished.

The two best known songs from the film are “Be Our Guest” and the title song.  The former is presented in a big, Busby Berkley style showstopper.  The sequence is probably the most traditional for an animated music number, but it still is tremendous fun and aided greatly by the great vocals by Jerry Orbach (Lumiere) and David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth).

The Oscar winning title song is, of course, performed by Angela Lansbury and accompanies the romantic dance sequence late in the film.  The song has already become something of a standard and is easily one of the most beautiful songs in the Disney catalog.  The end credits’ duet version of the song performed by Peabo Bryson and Celine Dion became a huge hit on the pop chart, but pales in comparison to Lansbury’s version.

The other two songs in the film, “Something There” and “The Mob Song” are both used essentially as short cuts to progress the story.  The former depicts scenes of Belle and the Beast getting to know each other (and falling in love) and includes some impressive musical parallels to “Belle”, particularly one repeated musical passage to underline the fact that Belle is now living the story she described from her favorite book in the earlier song.  “Something There” is also the only song that contains sung vocals by Robbie Benson as the Beast, something that has always seemed like the one gap in the film’s music.  “The Mob Song” musically depicts the villagers preparing for their assault on the Beast’s castle.  The use of a song for this was a bold and very effective element of the film.

There have been 3 different editions of the soundtrack album to the film.  The original release that came out with the film contained the songs as well as about 20 minutes of the score. 

The second release was part of Disney’s The Music Behind the Magic boxed set (which also included music from The Little Mermaid and Aladdin) and contained the full contents of the original release (except for, oddly, the full version of the prologue) as well as demo versions of all the songs.  It also contained a bit more score.

Finally, a special edition soundtrack release came out at the same time as the 2002 re-issue.  This added in “Human Again”, a new production number that took place after “Something There” as the enchanted objects all expressed their hopes of being restored to their human state.  The song is very good, although the film is probably better without it as it does affect the pacing somewhat.  A demo version of that song was also on the “Music Behind the Magic” release and the song had been featured in the Broadway musical, but this was the first release of a completed version with the original cast.  The special edition CD also includes demo versions of “Be Our Guest” and “Beauty and the Beast” (both of which were also in the boxed set release) as well as one short, additional score cue.

The Broadway cast album should also be mentioned in any discussion of the music from Beauty and the Beast.  The cast album was recorded with the show’s original cast and released by Disney Records shortly after the show’s debut.  The cover on the left above was used for the original pressing (the CD that I have), but was replaced with the one on the right for later pressings.  I don’t think there is any difference in the content, although I’ve never heard the newer editions and can’t say for certain.

In addition to using all the songs from the film (including “Human Again”), the show featured 9 additional songs (plus some reprises) written by Alan Menken and lyricist Tim Rice (sadly, Howard Ashman died during the making of the film).  Some of the new songs were built around previously instrumental-only melodies from the film’s score.  The new songs are very good and do a lot to flesh out the score, taking good advantage of the longer running time available for the stage show.

The new songs for the stage musical included a couple new solos for Belle (“Home”, which is my favorite of the new additions, and “A Change In Me”) as well as new songs that featured Belle’s father (“No Matter What”) and a couple solos for the Beast (“How Long Must This Go On” and “If I Can’t Love Her”).  Songs were also created for a few key sequences that were instrumental only in the film, most notably “The Transformation” at the film’s finale.  Note that “A Change In Me” was added to the show a few years into its run and is not on the cast album.  Susan Egan, who played Belle in the original cast, did record it for her solo album entitled So Far…

There are also some key expansions to a few of the songs from the movie.  The stage version of “Be Our Guest” contains an extended dance sequence in the mid-section that significantly adds to the song’s length.  The running time on the stage version is just under 7 minutes, as opposed to the under 4 minute film version.  Even more significant is the addition of a section in “Something There” where Belle is teaching the Beast how to read, a sequence that later pays off during “Human Again”.  These segments add some intimacy to the growing relationship between the two characters which is a big help.  A little bit of this is included in the version of “Human Again” added to the special edition of the film, but it works much better in the stage show.

The Broadway cast was uniformly excellent, led by the wonderful Susan Egan as Belle.  Egan’s voice somewhat resembles Paige O’Hara’s, but Egan does a good job of allowing her own personality to shine through and making the role her own.  Both actresses created very effective and memorable versions of the character and it is great that both are available.  Other excellent contributors to the cast album include Terrance Mann as the Beast, Gary Beach as Lumierre, Tom Bosley as Maurice (Belle’s father) and Burke Moses as Gaston.  The only performance that falls a bit short is Beth Fowler, who’s performance of “Beauty and the Beast” can’t really live up to Angela Lansbury’s, although that was probably a nearly impossible act to follow.

I saw the show in Los Angeles in late 1996.  The original Broadway cast transferred to the L.A. production when it first started, so I did see a number of the original cast members, including Gary Beach and Tom Bosley.  I saw the show fairly late in its run and, unfortunately, Susan Egan and Terrance Mann had already left the show.  James Barbour had taken over the role of Beast and did an excellent job.  He eventually moved to the Broadway production as well. 

I don’t recall the name of the actress that had taken over the role of Belle, but I didn’t really care for her performance.  She played the character with too much of a “little girl” vocal style that would have been better suited to Snow White than to Belle.  Even with the weaker lead, it was still an extremely enjoyable production.  I saw the show one more time in Pasadena a couple years ago and still enjoyed it, even though the touring production was scaled down quite a bit compared to the longer run.

Not too long after I saw the show in 1996, Disney produced a TV special called “Beauty and the Beast: A Concert on Ice”.  This show featured Susan Egan plus the current (at the time) L.A. cast performing the songs as accompaniment for ice skating routines.  I ended up recording the audio from that show and was able to create a revised version of the cast album featuring James Barbour and some of the other performers that I had seen in L.A. 

The performances on the TV show also included several revisions that had been made to some of the songs after the original cast album was recorded.  Minor changes were made to “Home” and “The Transformation” while the lyrics for “Maison De Lune” and the reprise of “If I Can’t Love Her” were almost entirely re-written.  While the original cast album certainly has better sound quality than my music transfer from VHS tape, it is nice to have the revisions and, especially, Barbour’s versions of the Beast’s songs.

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (Rachel Portman, 1997): The direct-to-video sequel to Beauty and the Beast was typically in the mediocre-to-bad category, but the soundtrack album is actually quite good.  While Alan Menken wasn’t involved, the original voice cast did return.  Rachel Portman was brought on board to score the film and co-write the songs (with lyricist Don Black).  Portman was a surprisingly distinguished choice to take on this kind of project and the results, while not close to matching the quality of the Menken & Ashman songs from the original, are still pretty decent.

Portman and Black contributed four new songs to the film.  “Stories” and “As Long as There’s Christmas” are holiday-themed ballads performed by Paige O’Hara as Belle.  Both are catchy and generally pleasant songs, helped quite a bit by O’Hara’s winning delivery.   There is also a nice reprise of the latter song which is performed as a duet with Bernadette Peters, who voiced a new character.  That song is also featured in an end credits duet version performed by Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack.

The villain of the film (an enchanted piano) is voiced by Tim Curry, who has a fun song entitled “Don’t Fall In Love”.  Curry is pretty much always an entertaining performer and the song is performed in his typically over-the-top style and is apt to appeal to any of his fans.  Finally, the song “A Cut Above the Rest” is a catchy little song primarily featuring Jerry Orbach as Lumierre and David Ogden Stiers as Cogsworth.

Portman’s score is given very little attention on the album, with only about 3 minutes featured over 3 very short cues.  The score cues mainly derived from the song melodies and don’t really give more than just a small taste of what is offered.

The real highlight of the album, and the primary reason to buy it, is actually a set of cues that aren’t actually in the movie.  The album includes 8 traditional Christmas carols performed, in character, by Page O’Hara.  These are simply wonderful and, in fact, it has become one of our most frequently played albums during the holiday season.  I especially love O’Hara’s absolutely delightful rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, which she performs with a great deal of personality and charm.  Her versions of more reverent songs like “Silent Night”, “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and “What Child Is This?” are rendered with great emotion.

Backdraft (Hans Zimmer, 1991): I’m pretty sure that Backdraft was the first film in which I really noticed a Hans Zimmer score enough to purchase the soundtrack album.  Of course, Zimmer has become one of the most successful working composers in subsequent years, but his distinctive style was something of a fresh discovery back in 1991.

The score features Zimmer’s usual mix of orchestra and synthesizer, with a rock beat behind the main theme.  While this musical sound is now pretty ubiquitous, largely because of Zimmer and his protégées, it felt very new when this film first came out and I remember being very excited to get the soundtrack album.  While it isn’t nearly as distinctive today, the score still holds up as one of the best examples of this style of scoring. 

While there are some action-oriented portions to the score, especially during the cue “Burn It All”, the majority reflects more of a dramatic intensity.  Strings and synths dominate, with a pretty ever present percussion backing.  Occasional choral elements come into play as well, particularly during some of the more action-oriented sections.

The soundtrack CD opens and closes with the Bruce Hornsby songs “Set Me In Motion” and “The Show Goes On”.  Hornsby has a very recognizable style to his songs and both of these are easily recognizable as his.  Generally, I think they fit reasonably well with this score.

Bad Boys (Mark Mancina, 1995): This film was the first pairing of director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer and was essentially the first instance of the heavily rock-influenced instrumentals that film score enthusiasts often refer to simply as the “Bruckheimer sound”.  There is a lot of room for debate as to whether or not that should be considered a positive milestone.  The scores to Bruckheimer’s films from 1995 onward are most widely associated with Hans Zimmer and his influence is evident.  While Zimmer didn’t score the film, Mancina was employed by his company (at the time known as Media Ventures) and another Mancina protégé, Nick Glennie-Smith, also contributed to the score. 

Mancina was likely hired to score the film largely on the strength of his generally acclaimed score to Speed the year before and the similarities are obvious, particularly in the main theme.  The score is generally driven by synthesizer, keyboards, and electric guitar, with orchestral components generally given a backseat.  Acoustic guitar is occasionally used to score the film’s rare quieter moments, as in the cue “You’re Going to Leave Me Alone?”  The score also has some appealing reggae influences, first given significant play during the cue “JoJo, What You Know?”, and revisited periodically afterward.  Even the score’s main theme has a reggae influenced melody, which becomes more evident as the score continues on.  Fairly intense wordless vocals are also used periodically.

The soundtrack album released with the film was primarily a song album and only included one 4 minute score cue featuring an arrangement of Mancina’s main theme.   In 2007, La-La Land Records released a limited edition 70-minute CD of the complete score.  This edition is still available at their site and is currently priced at just $9.98.  It is very much worth getting at that price.

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Jerry Goldsmith, 1970):  This Goldsmith score to a Sam Peckinpah western is very song oriented, with vocalist/songwriter Richard Gillis playing a very substantial role on the soundtrack.  The main theme is based on a Goldsmith-composed song entitled “Tomorrow Is the Song I Sing”, which Gillis performed and served as lyricist. 

Gillis himself wrote two other songs that are performed in full on the soundtrack (including the end credits cue) and occasionally incorporated into the score.  His involvement is sufficient that he probably could be considered a co-composer on the film.  One of Gillis’ songs is entitled “Butterfly Mornin’” and is performed by Jason Robards and Stella Stevens on the soundtrack.  Likely due to the available source elements, some sound effects are heard during the song.

The instrumental score is a pretty traditional western score, complete with harmonica, banjo, harp, and even organ, although portions are much more orchestral.  The score is very lively and often melodic.  The western style is very prominent in cues such as “Hasty Exit”, while the more melodic, orchestral side is well represented in “A Soothing Hand”.  The cue entitled “The Rattlesnakes” is a good example of one that blends the two aspects very well, eventually also introducing some sound effects to represent the titular creatures.

The fairly short (37 minutes) soundtrack CD was released as a limited edition by the Varese Sarabande CD Club.  It is sold out now and very difficult, and typically very expensive, to find now.  The one copy currently being offered by a seller on Amazon.com is priced at $189.

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple (Bruce Broughton, 2001): In the 1980s, it looked like Bruce Broughton was going to be one of the industry’s top film composers but, almost inexplicably, he has instead somehow ended up almost exclusively scoring TV or direct-to-video movies and the occasional theme park attractions.  He hasn’t scored a major theatrical release since 1998’s film version of Lost In Space.  His TV projects have often been pretty prominent ones and, thanks to a close working relationship with Intrada, a surprising large percentage of his TV scores have still generated soundtrack releases.

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple was a CBS western starring Glenn Close.  Broughton provided a pretty traditional western sound for the score, although on a fairly small scale.  The ensemble that performed the score is pretty small and only features instruments that would have existed during the period when the film was set.  These include fiddle, cello, acoustic guitar, tin whistle and period horns and percussion.  The result is a mostly intimate sounding score, although Broughton does occasionally manage to wring a fairly big sound out of the small ensemble, such as in the action music contained in the cue “Jake’s No Buck”.

Those expecting a big-scale western score like Broughton famously provided for Silverado and Tombstone are apt to be disappointed by the much smaller scale of this one.  The music is very good, though, and a nice demonstration of Broughton’s skill for melody.

Bambi (Edward Plumb, Frank Churchill, Larry Morey, 1942): Bambi generally set a new high water mark for the level of the drama in a Disney animated film, particularly with the famous and extremely moving death scene for the title character’s mother.  The excellent soundtrack CD put out by Walt Disney Records very effectively conveys the charming and often dramatically rich music for the film.

The score by Edward Plumb emphasizes woodwind and string melodies that pretty effectively reflect the rustic, wildlife settings of the film.  The musical mood shifts effortlessly from playful to romantic to dramatic intensity as needed.  The score introduces some brass for the fairly majestic “Gallop of the Stags/The Great Prince of the Forest/Man” with choir joining in to emphasize the title character’s royal lineage and finally giving way to some harsher strings and brass during the last minute or so of the cue to introduce a touch of menace.  I emphasize that particular cue as it represents a bit of a turning point where the music shifts from the more playful tones of the title character’s early childhood towards a more dramatic scoring eventually culminating in the very dark “Man Returns”.

The songs by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey are all performed by choir and blend extremely well with the score to give the film a distinctive musical character.  “Love Is a Song” plays over the film’s opening titles and nicely establishes the musical style for the film.  “Little April Showers” is the most creative and interesting song from the film.  It very convincingly evokes a rain storm musically, including bringing to mind the raindrops via individual notes presented at varying tempos as well as using percussion to represent thunder.  “Let’s Sing a Gay Little Spring Song” captures the optimistic mood of the season while “I Bring You a Song” is a nice romantic ballad.  The CD also includes “Rain Drops”, a demo recording of an alternate song to “Little April Showers”.

Bambi II (Bruce Broughton, 2006): In the late 90s and the 2000s, Disney released a whole series of direct-to-video sequels to their classic films.  These generally were of very questionable artistic merit and didn’t come close to equaling the quality of the originals, but they did sometimes involve some decent talent.  Bambi II featured a score by Bruce Broughton.

The soundtrack CD released by Walt Disney Records only contains about 10 minutes of Broughton’s score.  It is unfortunate that there isn’t more of it there, but it is a bit of an unusual treat that any of the score was made available at all.  The rest of the CD includes a few pop songs that were used in the movie and, oddly, the songs from the original Bambi, which probably were added mainly to fill up a disc.  The new songs from the movie are fairly generic light pop songs from Alison Krauss, Michelle Lewis, Martina McBride, and Anthony Callea.  None are particularly bad, but none are particularly memorable either.

Broughton’s score is, not surprisingly, inspired by the music from the original film.  He incorporates “Love is a Song” at several points in the score and the rest is stylistically in line with Edward Plumb’s compositions.  Woodwinds and strings dominate again, although Broughton definitely uses brass a lot more frequently, often in a less menacing manner.  The cue “Being Brave (Part 2)” is a particularly lively, brassy cue.  The relatively short length of the score on the soundtrack makes it a bit hard to tell the degree to which Broughton develops themes, although there is a central melody to the cue “Bambi and the Great Prince” that sounds like a primary theme for the title character.

Bandolero! (Jerry Goldsmith, 1968): Goldsmith’s score to this western is especially colorful.  It features a full orchestra, but supplemented by a wide variety of less common instruments.  Among those used include harmonica, banjo, xylophone, wood blocks, castanets, marimbas, guitar (both acoustic and electric), and even a whistler. 

The score is built around a fairly simple, but infectious, main theme that is played on many different instruments throughout the score.  The album’s first cue, called “The Saloon”, instantly establishes the unusual style of the score by introducing the main theme in a version that sounds like a saloon piano.  Over the main title, the theme is initially presented by a solo whistler.  In addition to the variations of the main theme, Goldsmith introduces one strong secondary theme for the film’s female lead.  This gets an especially strong statement in the cue “Dee’s Proposal” and figures in other parts of the score as well.  There is also some good action and suspense material peppered throughout the score as well.

I have the expanded, limited edition version of the soundtrack that was released by Intrada in 2004.  Unfortunately, this release is long out of print and now very difficult (and expensive) to obtain.  This edition includes the complete score (about 44 minutes), plus about 3 minutes of early demo versions of both main themes.  The CD ends with the original 1968 soundtrack album program, which runs another 30 minutes.  The original album is an interesting inclusion on this one as the mixes are pretty dramatically different.  Many of the unusual instruments were removed from the mix for some reason.  It is an interesting alternate take to the score.

Fortunately, the work load was such that I was really busy (and a bit stressed) while at the office last week, but it didn’t result in overly late schedules at the office or anything much in the way of weekend work.  I was typically pretty tired when I got home from work last week, but I still made it home in time to have dinner and help get my son off to bed each night.  I don’t really mind being very busy at work in cases like this where it doesn’t really interfere too much with my own time.

While I was a little concerned late last week that I would have to put in some time for work over the weekend, that turned out not to be the case allowing us to have quite a bit of time for family activities.  On Saturday afternoon, we took our son to see Bolt, Disney’s new animated feature which opened on Friday.  We have been pretty conservative when it comes to taking our son to the movies and this was only the third that he had seen in a theater (the two previous were Horton Hears a Who and a revival showing of The Muppet Movie).  So far, we have been very proud of his behavior at movies.  He did get a little fidgety around the hour mark, but we were able to settle him down very quickly.  He stayed very quiet throughout the movie, having taken very seriously our repeated reminders beforehand that a movie theater is a quiet place.  He seemed to enjoy the movie, although his attention did wander a little bit  The movie was targeted perhaps a bit older than we had expected.

I enjoyed the movie a lot, finding it to be fun, charming, and very funny.  The action sequences were surprisingly good for this kind of animated film as well.  I thought the voice cast was well selected and the character designs were appealing.  The film had some genuine heart as well, with the character of Mittens the cat being particularly effective in this regard.  On the downside, though, the film did have a pretty conventional look and style to it and the story line was almost entirely predictable.  My reaction was that this was a very good film, but not a particularly inventive one.  The end result was a fun movie, but one that is on a somewhat lower tier among Disney’s animated films.

Like The Emperor’s New Groove a few years ago, I think that Bolt is going to remain a film that I enjoy and admire, but where I also can’t help but wonder what might have been.  Both films evolved from projects that seemed much more ambitious than the final versions, but were halted when Disney management felt that they weren’t coming together in a commercially viable way.  In the case of Bolt, the film evolved from American Dog, which was to be director Chris Sanders’ follow up to Lilo and Stitch, which I believe to be Disney’s best, and most creative, animated feature since Beauty and the Beast.  Sanders was ultimately fired from the project and is now making films for Dreamworks.  As much as I enjoyed the final version of Bolt, I can’t help wonder if this fairly conventional film could have been something much more.

Shifting topics again (yes, these "week in review" posts can’t help being a bit rambling), yesterday’s main activity was a somewhat more intimate continuation of our celebration of our son Andy’s birthday.  For the big party last weekend on his actual birthday, we had to kind of go against his wishes in our choice of venue.  For his last two birthdays, we had taken him to Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour for dinner/dessert with a few of our adult friends.  He remembered last year’s party and really wanted to go back there again this year.  That isn’t really the best venue for a party with a large group of pre-schoolers, so we ended up promising him that we would take him to Farrell’s the following week instead.

The Farrell’s chain is one that I remember well from my childhood.  They have a very boisterous, celebratory atmosphere, with sirens and a big drum used to regularly announce birthdays and other special occasions as well as to herald the delivery of such large and elaborate ice cream concoctions as "The Zoo" or the "Pig Trough".  The chain all but disappeared about 15-20 years ago, but a new set of owners are now trying to revive it.  One of the only three current locations is up in Santa Clarita, only about 20 miles from our house (the other two are in Hawaii).  The Santa Clarita location is inside of Mountasia Fun Center, an amusement facility featuring various video and carnival games as well as miniature golf, batting cages, go-karts, and other similar items. 

Yesterday afternoon, we drove up there around mid-afternoon and spent an hour and half or so playing some of the various games while waiting for a few friends to arrive.  They have a small merry-go-round (basically one of the miniature coin-operated type) which Andy especially enjoys and was, in fact, one of his main reasons for wanting to go back there.  He spent a lot of time playing that, while my wife and I took turns wandering around playing some of the various carnival and ticket-vending games.  Andy did take a bit of an interest in a couple of the other games this time, particularly enjoying a basketball game (it was cool that that they had a child-sized one in addition to the full-sized adult game) as well as a race-car video game.

After our friends arrived, we went into Farrell’s for dinner and ice cream.  My wife and I both had pizza slices for dinner, which were pretty greasy, but still not too bad.  I was particularly surprised by how generous they were with the toppings.  They, of course, have a good variety of ice cream sundaes available for dessert.  I selected one called the "Hot Caramel Nutty Nutty", which pretty much is what it sounds like: vanilla ice cream covered in hot caramel with lots of pecans and Spanish peanuts.  My wife had an Oreo sundae and Andy had the kid’s "clown sundae", which was a scoop of ice cream with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and sprinkles and then a sugar cone placed on top such that it looks like a clown’s hat.

It was a fun evening that provided a chance to spend some time with a few good friends as well as to enjoy some family time.  It made for a good supplement to the bigger, more chaotic party of the week before.

I do see a distinction between a list of "favorites" and "best" when discussing works of art or entertainment and this list is going to be favorites.  What that means is that the order is based more on how much I enjoy the movies and am apt to return to them.  Essentially, this is based more on the "fun" factor than on the full collection of merits.  Finally, the rankings can’t help but be a bit arbitrary and I openly admit that the order could easily change, especially based on how recently I’ve seen each movie.

1. Monsters, Inc.  - Of all the Pixar films, this is the one that I am most apt to stop and watch if I come across it airing on TV or cable.  The film succeeds due to great casting, humor that hits the mark with an amazing consistency, truly exciting action sequences, and a story that takes place in a fully-realized and unique world of its own.  Finally, the closing shot of this movie is right up there towards the top of the list of the all time best endings.  While all of this is in service of a somewhat conventional buddy-movie plot, the whole package simply works.

2. Toy Story 2 – Pixar’s only sequel to date brilliantly expanded on the great characters and concept of the company’s first feature to create a more fully-realized film.  The movie is uproariously funny (it has the most out-loud laughs of any Pixar film) and it also quite touching at times.  The new characters created for the sequel (Jessie, Stinky Pete, and Bullseye) are not extraneous in any way, instead greatly expanding the overall storytelling.  The movie also contains the single best musical sequence of any Pixar film with the highly moving "When She Loved Me". This is a very rare case of a sequel that surpassed the original, largely through the careful application of the experience that the Pixar artists had gained with their first two films.

3. Wall-E – If I were putting together a "best" list instead of a "favorites" list, I’m pretty sure this would top it.   Pixar’s newest film is also their most bold an most creative.  I’ve seen some online debate about whether the film (especially the first 20 minutes or so) is mainly charming and funny or if it is mostly dark and sad.  The brilliance of the film is that it is all of those.  They were able to take a fairly downbeat scenario and present it in a way that is both palatable and, ultimately, even optimistic.  Much of this is accomplished thanks to the title character being Pixar’s most instantly endearing and sympathetic creation to date.  The film’s use of visual storytelling and incredibly detailed sound effects design gives it an exhilaratingly unconventional feel.  I can see the possibility that this one could move up on my favorites list as well with additional viewing and the passage of time.

4. Ratatouille – This one has the sharpest writing and most sophisticated story of all of the Pixar films to date.  While all of Pixar’s films have appealed to a fairly broad age range, this one does seem to skew a bit older than their other films, probably because the appreciation for fine food that is at the heart of the story really has to come with age and experience.  The film does still contain its fair share of visual gags and punch-lines, but it also contains a great deal of wit and character-driven humor.  This one would likely be a close 2nd on my "best" list.

5. Toy Story – Pixar’s first film was a milestone not just because it was the first CGI-animated feature, but also because it still would have been an exceptionally good film even if it hadn’t been the first of its kind.  In this way, it largely echoed Walt Disney’s accomplishment with "Snow White" many years before.  While the technology of the film was obviously an accomplishment, the filmmakers realized that it was every bit as important to focus on providing top-notch stories and characters.  With a clever concept and a well-chosen celebrity cast voicing memorable characters (Woody and Buzz Lightyear are now pretty much cultural icons), the end result was a film that succeeded as way more than just a technical novelty.  While it has been eclipsed in many ways by some of the later Pixar films (including its own sequel), this is a film that is pretty much ensured to remain a classic work.

6. The Incredibles – Brad Bird’s first effort after joining Pixar provided a welcome change of pace at a time when their films were just starting to feel a bit formulaic.  Of all of Pixar’s films, this is the one that most seems like pretty much the same film could have been made as live-action (probably with a huge special effects budget), but I felt that actually helped to demonstrate the flexibility of the medium.  The film itself is a lot of fun and includes some very clever action sequences.  I don’t think the characters are quite as memorable as in most of the other Pixar films, although that is alleviated by a somewhat larger, more ensemble cast as well.

7. Cars - I think this is probably the most formulaic of the Pixar films to date (the plot is essentially identical to the 90s Michael J. Fox movie "Doc Hollywood"), but it is redeemed quite a bit by setting the story in an exceptionally well-defined, internally-consistent, and generally interesting alternate reality.  I also admit to a certain affection towards this film because it is the one Pixar film that my 4-year-old son has pretty fully taken to, both the film itself (which he has seen quite a few times on DVD) and the merchandise.  As an adult male, it is not at all hard for me to understand, and even somewhat share, the fondness that a young boy is apt to have for an entire world of cars.

8. A Bug’s Life – It is hard not to see a bit of a sophomore slump in Pixar’s second film.  The movie is absolutely beautiful visually and it has some appealing characters, but the whole endeavor just isn’t exceptionally memorable.  I don’t think it was helped by its release being in such close proximity to Dreamworks’ similarly-themed "Antz", another good but not overly memorable film.  I can’t help getting the two movies a bit jumbled in my mind, often having a hard time remembering what scenes or characters actually go with which movie.  The movie is still a lot of fun, though, and on occasions when I’ve re-watched it I have found myself thinking that it is better than I remembered it.

9. Finding Nemo – Yes, I am ranking Pixar’s most financially successful film to date as my least favorite.  To be clear, I like the film overall and can even see its appeal, but this is the only one of Pixar’s movies that I think is over-long and even tends to drag at times.  As is typical for them, the film is an absolute treat visually, creating an underwater world that is both beautiful and convincing.  The characters are memorable and well-defined, even more so than in some of the other films that I rank higher on this list.  In fact, my son knows and likes the characters (and merchandise…) very much, despite the fact that he has shown very little interest in the movie itself.   I feel like putting this one in last place on my list drives home for me how much this really is an exercising in ranking a group where all the members are top-notch.  Even though it is last here, I certainly would never want anyone to think that it is even remotely a bad movie.