: (Alan Menken) By the middle of the
1990's, the Disney animated film franchise was once again a powerhouse
in Hollywood, and some critics argue that the studio's animation was at
its historic peak during that era. After the first trilogy of films
featuring music by Alan Menken dating back to 1989 proved more
successful with each entry, Disney scored another major success with
in 1994. With
on his resume, Menken wasn't yet
to lose his position atop the musical pillar of strength for Disney's
animated features. In 1995,
received the same critical
success as Menken's previous projects, winning Academy Awards for both
the score and the main song, a feat that had become somewhat normal for
the franchise. But
had opened a new door in
Disney's mind, allowing for major Hollywood composers to collaborate
with pop artists for the music in their films. Only two years later,
Menken's reign over the musical scene at Disney fizzled to an inglorious
end (until his resurrection more than a decade later, though still with
diminished popularity), and the studio would consistently rotate between
big name composers for their animated features thereafter. It's not
controversial to say that
represented the beginning of
the end for Menken, although Disney fans would be quick to respond that
that killed the
Menken/Disney collaboration until its revival in the mid-2000's. No
matter the overarching situation,
remains a very
typical example of Menken's style at the time, with trademark songs of
simplistic harmonic construction and a score rich with light orchestral
action and a varied use of slapstick breaks. The overall packaging of
these usual elements, however, was slightly different in
than it had been in either Menken's previous or
following efforts. As a whole,
, emphasizing the
dark coloration of the film with a more serious, dramatic stance in its
demeanor.
The other famous Disney musicals' instrumental scores of
the era had higher bright points, joined typically by a few stunningly
better songs. But those other scores also suffered from greater
disappointments in their lower ends, especially when relating to the
need for mindless comedy relief that pulled heavily from Broadway
musical structures. Since those charming narrative elements in
Pocahontas consist of characters that do not sing (a dog,
raccoon, and hummingbird), the musical isn't interrupted by dancing,
irritating statements of grand comedy. The closest Menken comes to this
material is in the sailing anthem "The Virginia Company" at the outset
of the film and "Mine, Mine, Mine" thereafter. In other words, the white
male characters are the comedic relief in the role of the villains. At
the same time,
Pocahontas, while maintaining itself well with
above average songs of compelling harmony and clever lyrics, doesn't
have its share of show-stopping classics that Menken's more unbalanced
soundtracks contained. If you recall, all of the previous three
Menken/Disney collaborations had multiple songs nominated for Academy
Awards (in the "Best Song" category). With
Pocahontas, and until
Enchanted forced the Academy to change its rules late in the
following decade, Menken only enjoyed a nomination for the end credits
song, showing that the songs advancing the narrative within the film
didn't have the same popular grip. In its favor, though,
Pocahontas holds a steady course, with no irritating single song
and no disappointing score track. In fact the songs as a whole are of
higher quality than the same average in many other Menken efforts, with
some of his best material for vocalized situations not actually making
the picture. Two quite impressive songs featuring the leads, for
instance, were struck from the finish film to better preserve the
narrative's flow. While most fans hold the "Colors of the Wind" and
"Just Around the Riverbend" songs, performed by the phenomenal vocal
range of easily recognizable stage favorite Judy Kuhn, with the highest
regards, the more interesting songs are "Listen With Your Heart," the
spiritual centerpiece of the film (performed by Linda Hunt in all the
gritty mystery you've come to expect from her voice in spoken roles),
and "Savages," the dynamic war call with phenomenal lyrics that brings
back fond memories of the cast ensemble layers of "Mob Song" in
Beauty and the Beast and the ominous tone of "Hellfire" in
The
Hunchback of Notre Dame.
All of the songs in
Pocahontas are engaging and
their performances are strong; there is no weak link in the talent here.
Detractors of Mel Gibson, while certainly justified in blasting the
irony of the man for his extreme bigotry, should be aware, too, that his
singing performance of John Smith's character is excellent all around,
from his triumphant interlude in "Mine, Mine, Mine" to a more impressive
range in the originally rejected love song, "If I Never Knew You." David
Ogden Stiers, the ultimate Disney regular who performed both Cogsworth
in
Beauty and the Beast and the Archdeacon in
The Hunchback of
Notre Dame (among others), is convincing in the role of the evil
Ratcliffe as well, his voice perfectly paired with Menken's European
sensibilities in his sequences. The composer's score is very reflective
of the song melodies, as usual, and is generally light-hearted and
orchestrally pleasant despite heeding the darker tone of the film
throughout. Because of the lack of gravity in their ensemble
performances, his scores rarely capture the same emotional power as the
songs, but in animated musicals, the underscore isn't as vital a
component. Menken does remain extremely loyal to his song melodies in
the score, adding continuity to the whole package. He also ends the film
with his normal, large-scale choral finale. In the favor of this
recording is a better depth to the ensemble and spread across the
soundscape, perhaps a result of superior recording attributes compared
to the composer's earlier efforts. The only disappointing aspect of
Pocahontas, then and now, is that the film moves at an extremely
fast pace, and thus the songs are unable to exist in the form of the
long ballads that they could and probably should have been. An example
of a fine song that was cut too short due to its brief scene was the
vocal performance of "Steady as the Beating Drum" by Jim Cummings (as
the chief). Some of this brevity in general may have been due to the
presence of two other major songs that were removed, and yet the
surviving entries were not lengthened. In 1995,
Pocahontas may
have disappointed fans who had become accustomed to the wildly dynamic
songs of the previous films. And yet, when you examine
Pocahontas
in its place among all of the musicals, it stands the test of time much
better than expected. It has held itself well through the years and is
still an enjoyable experience above its more inconsistent peers to
follow. In the film, it suffers from the problematic pace of the
unfolding story, but on album it remains a worthy effort.
The Academy Award-winning song performance by Vanessa
Williams is a decent pop rendition of the film's main song, however it
could be argued that the melody of "Listen With Your Heart" would have
made a better title song. At the time, the obnoxious and seemingly
unrelated pop song "If I Never Knew You" was a useless, commercial
addition to the end of the album. Eventually, however, it was revealed
that this song was the pop variant of the eliminated love song; the
original performance, as well as related melodic instrumental material,
was reintegrated into the picture upon the film's expanded DVD release.
As was done with all of Menken's Disney scores, a small amount of
instrumental material was inserted into the presentation of the songs at
the start of the original 1995 album product, but the mass of underscore
could be heard in the latter half. When Disney released a complete
presentation of
Pocahontas as part of their "Legacy Collection"
in 2015, the soundtrack finally soared with all its potential. It's a
case in which the additional material in the proper film order really
makes a tremendous difference in the listening experience. It's easy to
argue that the expanded 2-CD version of
Pocahontas is leagues
ahead of the concurrent, similarly expanded release of Randy Newman's
Toy Story for the collector. It's not only a matter of hearing
several new impressive score cues and the totality of the songs in their
natural arrangements; the expanded product also features a seemingly
significant improvement in mastering, both in the score and the vocals.
The only exception is the somewhat awkward vocal spread in the Gibson
and Kuhn interactions in "If I Never Knew You." While the demo songs on
other Menken products are typically throw-away entries for those not
interested in hearing the composer sing away over a piano, these demos
for
Pocahontas are quite well rendered and in some cases feature
Kuhn's voice. It's difficult to realize the full vocal attributes of the
demos because their performances are oddly not credited anywhere on the
product's packaging. Look for an alternate arrangement of "Savages" that
features differing contributions from Kuhn. Overall,
Pocahontas
has aged well, better than many of Menken's other Disney works. Its
balance of melodic grace and dramatic substance from the instrumentals
is more consistent than arguably similar but more powerful singular
moments in
The Hunchback of Notre Dame. If you never knew
Pocahontas upon its debut, the expanded 2-CD set is highly
recommended and will improve your collection of Disney albums.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Alan Menken reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.71
(in 17 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.47
(in 59,664 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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