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Winnie the Pooh
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Score Composed and Produced by:
Score Conducted by:
Nick Glennie-Smith
Score Orchestrated by:
John Thomas
Songs Co-Composed and Co-Produced by:
Robert Lopez Kristen Anderson-Lopez
Songs Co-Composed and Co-Performed by:
Zooey Deschanel
Songs Co-Produced and Co-Performed by:
Matthew Ward
Songs Arranged, Orchestrated, Conducted, and Co- Produced by:
Doug Besterman
Original Theme by:
Robert B. Sherman Richard M. Sherman
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LABEL & RELEASE DATE
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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Regular U.S. release.
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AWARDS
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The song "So Long" was nominated for a Grammy Award.
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Buy it... if you value the original sound of the Sherman brothers'
music for the concept, a style of carefree innocence largely emulated by
Henry Jackman in his score and in the breezy modernization of the title
song.
Avoid it... if you demand the cohesive integration of songs and
score that existed in the vintage featurettes, because while the new
songs and score are adequate at the very least and mildly entertaining
at their best, they don't share many narrative connections.
BUY IT
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Winnie the Pooh: (Henry Jackman/Robert
Lopez/Kristen Anderson-Lopez) The beloved "Winnie the Pooh" franchise
marches on in 2011 with a renewed return to three of author A.A. Milne's
original stories. Following the basic storybook format made famous all
the way back to the original "featurettes" of the 1960's and 1970's,
Winnie the Pooh is Disney's continuation of a concept that has
remained relatively active since its popular origins. The original
featurettes debuted from 1966 to 1983, followed by an animated
television series from 1988 to 1991. In the 2000's, the famous
characters of young boy Christopher Robin's troop of animated stuffed
animals in the Hundred Acre Wood branched out into movies focused on
sub-characters. For the 2011 entry, however, a more retro styling is
revisited as a foundation, with a few alterations to the musical
approach to give the concept a touch of contemporary appeal. The story
involves a search for Eeyore's missing tail that leads to a mistaken
belief that Robin has been abducted and thus turns into a larger rescue
effort. Fans of the concept will rejoice in the return of voice actor
Jim Cummings to the roles of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger that he has
filled since the 1980's. The music for the franchise was long the domain
of the acclaimed brother tandem of Robert B. Sherman and Richard M.
Sherman. As Disney staff composers, they provided some of the most
famous tunes in the history of the studio and its theme parks, including
Mary Poppins in the former and "It's a Small World" in the
latter. They remained active with the Winnie the Pooh franchise all the
way up to The Tigger Movie in 2000, and the primary song of the
concept, "Winnie the Pooh," has remained a staple of everything relating
to these A.A. Milne's stories and characters. The most recent movie in
the franchise, Pooh's Heffalump Movie (arguably the weakest of
the lot), featured a score by Joel McNeely that adapted the Sherman
brothers' sound into his familiar style. For the 2011 movie, the studio
turned to its usual collection of Hans Zimmer-associated composers for
the task, enlisting Henry Jackman for the underscore portion of the
soundtrack. Jackman branched off from his collaborative scores with
Zimmer for Monsters vs. Aliens in 2009, a predictably mundane
animation score that nonetheless proved the composer's chops in the
genre. For the original songs in Winnie the Pooh, Disney turned
to the husband and wife team of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez,
the former the multi-Tony Award-winning co-composer of the 2011 hit
Broadway musical "The Book of Mormon."
The Lopez duo's association with Disney goes back a few
years with adaptation material for the company's theme parks. Meanwhile,
performing the primary vocal roles and writing the end credits song, "So
Long," is Zooey Deschanel, actress and singer who is part of the duo
"She & Him" (with Matthew Ward, who also contributed to Winnie the
Pooh). While Deschanel and Ward's influence on the movie gives it
the slightly more contemporary angle sought by the studio, there is
still a fair amount of respect paid to the Sherman brothers' original
style of fluffy orchestral and choral innocence, extending out of the
familiar title song and largely dominating Jackman's score. The famed
"Winnie the Pooh" song is always welcome in these films, its performance
here combining acoustic guitar and snare accompaniment for the modern
side of its appeal with cooing choral backing and a wholesome spirit to
resurrect its vintage tone. Deschanel's voice has some similarities to
k.d. lang's, though with much softer inflection, and the voice and
general demeanor here will remind some listeners of Home on the
Range. The end title song, "So Long," is the only disparate entry
amongst the original works in this musical, its happy clapping rhythms
and standard band elements easy to stomach but too bright in its glowing
retro-rock enthusiasm to match anything else in Winnie the Pooh.
Like all movies in the franchise, songs are integral to the narrative,
and fortunately, the remainder of those in the 2011 movie is
appropriately matched to the Sherman mould. The Lopez duo does well
enough to suffice in the majority of their contributions, highlighted by
vibrant and lovable songs involving Cummings as Pooh (and, to a slightly
lesser degree, his song as Tigger, "It's Gonna Be Great," a title
perhaps a poke at another famous animated tiger). The pair of
"Everything is Honey" and "Pooh's Finale" is extremely familiar to the
lasting Sherman style, the latter even relying upon the old ensemble
choral approach with progressions that will instantly recall the 1960's
and 1970's featurettes. Perhaps the one miscue from the Lopez duo is
"The Backson Song," a wild cast discussion about the phantom villain of
the story in a format that owes way too much to Danny Elfman's The
Nightmare Before Christmas (including its funny lyrics conveyed in
rapid succession by members of the cast). The score by Jackman doesn't
seem to directly develop the songs into the narrative, with no bridge
sequences evident to connect the two halves of the soundtrack. The wild
rhythms of "Get You Tiggerized!," for instance, don't really expand upon
the personality or structure of the character's song, "It's Gonna Be
Great."
Jackman's original ideas in the underscore are
congregated in "Winnie the Pooh Suite" (stick around at the end for a
hidden cue after some silence), and in this summary and elsewhere, he
seems to rely far more heavily upon the Sherman brothers than the Lopez
tandem does. You can hear fragments of Sherman's music directly
incorporated into parts of the score, and the rendering by a rather
restrained and intimate orchestra remains extremely faithful to the
concept's earliest days. Vibrant woodwind solos, whimsical string
passages, muted brass tones, and a very lighthearted personality in
almost every cue makes for a familiar and smooth extension of the
Sherman sound. In fact, the score is almost too loyal to that template,
for it really doesn't accomplish much to progress the soundtrack in the
way the studio may have wished for on a larger scale. The "Main Title
Sequence" is a straight adaptation of Sherman material, segueing into
the title song. The only score track that substantially deviates from
that familiarity is "Hundred Acre Spy Game," with more robust
militaristic rhythms, deep male chorus, and theremin/ondes martenot
suspense at the end that suddenly infuse some outward personality in an
comparatively conservative score. The classical parody closing to
"Balloon Chase" is a deviation as well. The rather weak "Winner Song" is
inserted directly into the otherwise segregated original score portion
of the album. That Disney album would likely have been better served if
the narrative had been preserved by putting the songs and score into
their chronological order, though the label rarely does this.
Ultimately, most listeners (even score collectors) may find themselves
gravitating towards the songs rather than the score. Deschanel's breezy
performances and Robert Lopez's humorous vocal contributions contain the
laid back but still engaging personality that Jackman's score takes most
of its length to finally generate. On a technical note, it should be
mentioned that the orchestral backing for the songs is far more vibrant
than what you hear in the actual underscore; for some reason, the
instrumental performances behind the songs contain more flair and sound
infinitely better, perhaps in part due to the mixing process. Overall,
some loyalists to the original "Winnie the Pooh" concept will wrinkle
their noses at this 2011 soundtrack, and indeed the score and songs
don't integrate that well and neither will linger as long as the Sherman
brothers' classic tune for the titular bear. But there's nothing really
offensive about any of it, and you have to appreciate the care that
especially Jackman exhibits in his maintenance of the franchise's core
sound. It's the kind of situation that will likely require a viewing of
the film by concept enthusiasts for most listeners to decide where they
stand. *** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check: |
For Henry Jackman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.74
(in 19 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.71
(in 5,409 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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Winnie the what?? Expand >> Yamaguchi Ikue - July 14, 2011, at 5:56 p.m. |
4 comments (2120 views) Newest: July 24, 2011, at 3:16 a.m. by Jimbo |
Total Time: 46:33
1. Winnie the Pooh - performed by Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward (2:32)
2. The Tummy Song - performed by Jim Cummings and Robert Lopez (1:07)
3. A Very Important Thing to Do - performed by Zooey Deschanel (0:47)
4. The Backson Song - performed by Craig Ferguson and the cast (2:56)
5. It's Gonna Be Great - performed by Jim Cummings and Bud Luckey (2:05)
6. Everything is Honey - performed by Jim Cummings, Zooey Deschanel, Robert Lopez, and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (2:01)
7. Pooh's Finale - performed by Zooey Deschanel, Robert Lopez, and the cast (1:05)
8. So Long - performed by Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward (3:29)
9. Main Title Sequence/Winnie the Pooh - performed by Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward (2:24)
10. Pooh Greets the Day (2:46)
11. Get You Tiggerized! (2:09)
12. Woods and Words/Backson Tracks (3:41)
13. Eeyore Needs His Tail/Winner Song - performed by the cast (2:09)
14. Picnic and Beehive Chase (2:27)
15. Hundred Acre Spy Game (3:34)
16. Stuck in the Pit/Balloon Chase (4:05)
17. A Honey Happy Ending (2:45)
18. Winnie the Pooh Suite (4:39)
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The insert includes lyrics and extensive credits, but no extra information
about the score or film. It also lacks, curiously, the customary "thank you"
section.
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