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Spellbound
(2024)
Album Cover Art
Songs and Score Composed and Co-Produced by:

Song Lyrics by:
Glenn Slater

Additional Music, Songs and Score Arranged, Co-Orchestrated, Conducted, and Co-Produced by:
Michael Kosarin

Songs Co-Orchestrated and Score Orchestrated by:
Kevin Kliesch

Songs Co-Orchestrated by:
David Metzler
Aaron Kenny
Christopher Benstead
Doug Besterman
Tim Davies
Danny Troob

Songs and Score Co-Produced by:
Chris Montan
Frank Wolf
Aaron Kenny
Labels Icon
LABEL & RELEASE DATE
Republic Records
(November 22nd, 2024)
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
Digital commercial release only.
Awards
AWARDS
None.
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   Availability | Viewer Ratings | Comments | Track Listings | Notes
Buy it... for a journey back to Alan Menken's heyday in animated musicals, Spellbound featuring the best set of songs to come from the composer in decades.

Avoid it... if you require the score material to match the catchiness of the songs, Menken's instrumentals melodically faithful and occasionally robust but not as strong as some of his contemporary Disney remake scores.
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EDITORIAL REVIEW
FILMTRACKS TRAFFIC RANK: #2,262
WRITTEN 1/14/25
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Menken
Menken
Spellbound: (Alan Menken) Having been forced from his perch at Disney and Pixar, famed animation producer John Lasseter used his own fledgling studio, Skydance Animation, to produce similarly-styled movies. Following Luck a few years prior, the studio's 2024 animated musical, Spellbound, was a long time in the making, a five-year production headache that bounced around between distributors before finding a home on Netflix. Skydance hasn't shied away from hiring top talent for its films, and Spellbound is no different, but its subject matter put it at a distinct disadvantage from the start. Although it's a princess story, it's primarily a tale about the effects of parental fighting and divorce on a teenage girl, and the seriousness of that topic is so daunting on its own that this film didn't need a conventional villain as an adversary. The magical element takes the form of a mysterious, tornado-like cloud of evil that turns people into monsters if their negative energy comes to dominate them. The teenage girl's parents, the king and queen, are already monsters at the outset of Spellbound, the ministers and servants of the castle trying to contain the misbehaving beasts while keeping everything under wraps. The girl, longing for the love she once received from her parents in human form before the adults turned on each other, goes on a journey to find the power to transform them back to themselves. The movie's cast is admirable, and the concept has some genuinely funny and compelling aspects to it. Critical and popular consensus was muted at best for the streaming picture, the concept a bit too real in a fairytale realm to truly escape into. Lost in the poor reception to Spellbound is a very strong soundtrack by Disney veteran Alan Menken. The composer and songwriter's style will forever be rooted in the 1990's, and he has at times struggled to rediscover his own magic in this genre despite cranking out a few impressive musicals in the years since his award-winning heyday. Since Tangled, he has been collaborating with stage lyricist Glenn Slater, and the two have come to form an increasingly impressive team.

Menken, by this point in his mid-70's, has managed to maintain his trademark style of writing for better or worse, his songwriting and underscores reminding of the lasting, 1990's-nostalgic gravity that also continued to guide Marc Shaiman's work. When approaching a Menken musical in the 2010's and 2020's, you're really evaluating how well he managed to capture the spark of catchiness that launched him through The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Some of his sets of songs achieve resonance while others sound proforma. That said, his ability to write robust underscores has improved greatly over his career, with everything from The Shaggy Dog to the new score material in the Disney remakes thereafter showing off an underappreciated side of the composer. In Spellbound, Menken provided no less than eight songs along with the score, crafting the musical's identity from start to finish as one of those involved with the project during the entirety of its production journey. Because the movie was a tough nut for the whole team to crack, Menken admits to having moved through several iterations of his songs on his way to finding success. He and Slater nailed the primary "yearning" ballad of the movie, "The Way It Was Before," early in that process, but other entries, like the introductory "My Parents are Monsters," took much longer to find. Originally, there was no villain song or even a comedic one, making the assignment more dramatic from the get-go despite otherwise sticking true to the princess formula. After all the other songs were completed, Menken devised one showstopper piece, "I Could Get Used to This," to add pure Broadway coloration close to his heart, allowing the animators to match with a vivacious, otherworldly blast of light and color. The vocalists in the songs are led by the vivacious Rachel Zegler as Princess Ellian, and she extends her wits from the recent West Side Story remake to absolutely shine in her performances in this role. Her inflection is spectacular in each entry in this musical, building empathy while infusing humor, balancing singing with spoken emphasis, and hitting all the most important notes with perfection.

The secondary cast in Spellbound also suits the story well. Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman are fleeting as the monstrous parents (the characters don't speak for some of the story), but their heartfelt tandem performance in "What About Us" is excellent. (Moulin Rouge enthusiasts will always appreciate another opportunity to hear Kidman sing.) The duo of Nathan Lane and Tituss Burgess as the oracles leading the princess on her journey lend compelling Broadway experience to their songs. For the two ministers supporting the princess in the castle, veteran character actors and accomplished singers Jenifer Lewis and John Lithgow supply much of spirited pizazz to the lighter songs. Lithgow's performance may be the only point of contention for some listeners; although he's a perfect fit for the tone of the stuffy minister and servant who is transformed accidentally into a rodent-like creature in place of the princess' pet, he ultimately speaks a few too many of his lines for comfort. (He's actually quite good when he outright sings his lines.) The songs in Spellbound are not only numerous but they are of substantial length. Slater's lyrics are appropriately pithy ("larva-less!") and conversational at the same time, allowing Ellian to sound like a normal teenager throughout. These numbers espouse pure Menken characteristics in their style and progressions, definitely throwbacks to the 1990's in ways that will appeal to his longtime enthusiasts. The quality of the songwriting and lyrics in these numbers aren't as uniquely catchy as those in the concurrent Wicked, but they run circles around the songs in Disney's two late 2024 musicals, Moana 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King. The instrumental tone of the songs follows Menken's usual fairy tale mould and thus contains a predictably diverse orchestral presence that applies brass for the fanfare aspect of the castle. Few contemporary accents exist. The true distinction of Spellbound is Menken's infusion of Brazilian samba personality into the two songs for the supporting ministers. This acoustic guitar and castanet influence suggests that the kingdom is actually in South America, which is a nice change of pace for a princess story even if it's a bit of a shock when you first encounter this aspect in the music.

The soundtrack concentrates its emotional focus on a pair of songs, and one of them opens Spellbound with the princess telling the audience about this weird situation the castle faces with her parents as monsters. Around secondary passages for the two ministers, "My Parents are Monsters" is a fantastic expression of range for Zegler. A particularly tough song for Menken to coin, this opening is a qualified success, and collectors of the composer's works will notice components of the "Beauty and the Beast" song's instrumental lines in its structure. The ministers commiserate and plan to deal with the monsters in "Step by Step" with a blend of samba and tango elements lending humor to the highly attractive vocals, particularly by Lewis. The song provides its own reprise after an instrumental section, letting Zegler join the plotting to install herself as queen with zeal as the orchestra explodes with Latin flair. The brief "How to Break the Spell" extends a palace fanfare and brief reprise of the Latin elements to introduce the two oracles for a rising figure that ends in a humorous conclusion. The heart of the film follows in "The Way It Was Before," the longstanding anchor of the soundtrack during its creation and featuring chord progressions that will remind of Pocahontas. Among Menken's longing songs, this one competes favorably and is one his loveliest dramatic ballads. It may not be as catchy as "Part of Your World" or the interlude of "Belle," but "The Way It Was Before" isn't far behind. The piano is a vital part of this song, as raindrops fall on the strings of the abandoned instrument on screen in the shattered castle. (Menken's use of that instrument in this and the later "Remembering" reinforces the core element of family.) The soaring final statement of the main melody features Menken's most robust orchestral resonance, and the song finishes with a series of three-note phrases that plays an important role in the score. The oracles' main song, "Look for the Light," is a more contemporary and upbeat piece with the acoustic guitar and slight Mediterranean accents. The Burgess and Lane performances might suggest humor at the start, but the song sticks to more aspirational purposes, even after carefree whistling joins in its second half. The descending interlude section in this song captures the fantasy of the princess' journey, keeping it serious, and Zegler joins as counterpoint for the final passage just as she did in "Step by Step."


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VIEWER RATINGS
127 TOTAL VOTES
Average: 3.7 Stars
***** 35 5 Stars
**** 45 4 Stars
*** 27 3 Stars
** 14 2 Stars
* 6 1 Stars
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Alan Menken and your girlfriend   Expand >>
Mr. Jingle Jangles - January 16, 2025, at 8:03 a.m.
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Newest: January 24, 2025, at 3:38 p.m. by
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Track Listings Icon
TRACK LISTINGS
Total Time: 60:13
• 1. My Parents are Monsters - performed by Rachel Zegler, John Lithgow, and Jenifer Lewis (4:11)
• 2. Step by Step - performed by John Lithgow, Jenifer Lewis, and Rachel Zegler (3:25)
• 3. How to Break the Spell - performed by Nathan Lane and Tituss Burgess (0:40)
• 4. The Way It Was Before - performed by Rachel Zegler (3:43)
• 5. Look for the Light - performed by Nathan Lane, Tituss Burgess, and Rachel Zegler (3:50)
• 6. Remembering - performed by Rachel Zegler, Javier Bardem, and Nicole Kidman (2:50)
• 7. I Could Get Used to This - performed by John Lithgow (3:06)
• 8. What About Me - performed by Rachel Zegler (2:10)
• 9. What About Us/The Way It Was Before (Reprise) - performed by Rachel Zegler, Javier Bardem, and Nicole Kidman (4:04)
• 10. My Monsters are Parents - performed by Rachel Zegler (1:09)
• 11. The Way It Was Before (End Credits Version) - performed by Lauren Spencer Smith (3:46)
• 12. Ellian and Her Parents Suite (9:02)
• 13. Journey Suite (8:38)
• 14. Lord Candypants (2:12)
• 15. Oracles Suite (4:43)
• 16. Flinks Suite (2:51)

Notes Icon
NOTES AND QUOTES
There exists no official packaging for this album.
Copyright © 2025, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten
or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Spellbound are Copyright © 2024, Republic Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 1/14/25 (and not updated significantly since).
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