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Review of Winnie the Pooh (Henry Jackman/Robert Lopez/Kristen Anderson-Lopez)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
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.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 46:33
NOTES & QUOTES:
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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