The only one of these that has
> had any artistic value to me and didn't just feel like a straight
> remake/refreshening of the original score is Menken's Beauty and the
> Beast, which is in part because there was a 25 year gap between the
> original and the new one.

I was going to throw in Jungle Book, because that had double Beauty's gap between the original and the remake, but I'm not even sure whether to count it. Perhaps that belongs more in the category of Cinderella, that early phase of Disney live action remakes which at least bothered to reimagine the story a bit, perhaps by returning (as JB did) a little bit more to the original source text (though not as much as Andy Serkis' underrated 'Mowgli' film).

That leads me to say that perhaps if the HTTYD live action film went back to the books rather than pillaging the original film, that might work a bit better - maybe.

Still, my main instinctive response here is that I don't want Powell wasting his precious time on this, when he does so few scores. Give the man Bond 26 or a historical epic or something.

> Also, who could they possibly cast to play Toothless??

Johnny Depp.

> Now if it was a musical...