Hey there, Hi there, Ho there,
some might remember the recent topic of the latest "Disney on Classic" releases in Japan. Well, in the meantime I got my copies from hmv.co.jp and can comment more profoundly:
1. Disney on Classic - a Magical Night 2008 - Dream, Dream, Dream
This is the regular release. It used to be - up till the 2006 release - that it contained new instrumental recordings or at least instrumental recordings from various prior releases (such as OSTs as e.g. "The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe"), with just the odd song with vocal performance mixed in between. However, last year the number of songs taken strait from the soundtrack releases of various Disney classics suddenly filled the majority of the CD. So how did they fare this year?
Unfortunately I have to report that once again - for the second time - a major number of tracks has been lifted straight from OST (or other) releases and contains vocal performances as well. Tracks 1 to 9 are Disney theme park music tracks - most probably due to the 25th anniversary of TDL this year.
Track 1 is a version of "The Dream Goes On" (the official anniversary theme song) which is not labeled as "new recording" on the CD but which I hadn't heared before. It is performed in English by a female and a male singer with a prominent choir, similiar in style to the version of "Jubilation" but not as "poppy". While it was a new version for me I have to disappoint anybody who had hoped to find the all English duet version as palyed right after "Legend of Mythica". It is not. While the version played as "play off" of "LoM" is very "majestic" (similar to "Swept Away" played after "Braviseamo!"), the version here is more lively, poppy.
Track 2 is an edited version of Dreamlights which ends rather abrupt (however, I never had heared any version on a CD ending that abrupt, so it might be deemed at least a new cut of an already known mix).
Track 3 is once again "The Enchanted Fairy Garden" from "Fantillusion!" (how often are they going to include it in this CD series??).
Tracks 4 and 5 are the latest mixes from the OA of Disneyland Anaheim of Haunted Mansion as well as Pirates of the Caribbean. So nothing new for most of us. Track 6 is "it's a small world [New York World's Fair]" running 1:37.
Tracks 7, 8 and 9 are lifted from prior TDS releases:
- Porto Paradiso Port Theme Song
- Stormrider Suite
- Tokyo DisneySea Medled "Come With Me".
But tracks 10 to 12 are REALLY new tracks:
- Someone's Waiting For You
- La La Lu / Bella Notte
- Some Day My Prince Will Come
These three tracks form the latest edition of the popular "Disney Love & Ballad Acoustic Selection". They have been newly recorded featuring Takashi Aoki and Kenichi Tsujimoto performing the violin respectively the trumpet as main soloist and lead instruments. These are the only tracks labeled as "New Recording" on the back cover of the CD and are - as the tracks of the "Love & Ballad Acoustic Selection" of past years - really beautiful.
The final tracks 13 to 18 are labeled as "Alan Menken Special Program" and contain the original OST-versions (in English) of
- Go The Distance
- Colors of the Wind
- True Love's Kiss
- Part Of Your World
- A Whole New World
- God Help The Outcast
Note the absence of anything from Beauty and the Beast which seems strange for an "Alan Menken Special Program". But then this could be due to the fact that "Belle", "Be Our Guest", "Something There" as well as "Beauty and the Beast" in the original OST-versions were included in last year's release.
So for the collector who already owns the classic OSTs and maybe even the Disneyland Anaheim and TDS releases of the past the three tracks of the "Disney Love & Acoustic Ballad" selection and (maybe?) the "The Dream Goes On" version are the only new tracks to be found on the release. Whether that is worth paying the money for the import is up to everybody him-/herself. Me personally, I got the CD ... but I continue to be annoyed how they have changed the concept from a (mostly) "instrumental versions of Disney music" release to "another sampler of various Disney songs" with only a few new recordings sprinkled in between. But then there is still the release of the live performance ....
Disney on Classic - a Magical Night 2007 - featuring Disney Princess - The Live
A live, 2-disc recording of last year's program was released and features more material of interest to music fans looking for instrumental recordings - at least on disc one.
As the 2005 live recording it starts out with a version of "The Enchanted Fairy Garden" from "Fantillusion", followed (after a short Japanese MC announcement) by an all new medley titled "The Memories of Walt Disney II 1950s-1960s" featuring mostly instrumental renditions of
- Alice in Wonderland
- I'm Late
- Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
- The Bare Necessities
- Bella Notte
- Winnie the Pooh
- You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!
- it's a small world
- Mickey Mouse Club March
The new medley is the follow up to a similar medley from the 2006 program ("The Memories of Walt Disney - The Prologue 1928 - 1953") once again arranged by Brad Kelley who is directing the "Never Land Orchestra" for these programs.
The medley is - for me - the highlight of the release, even so the live versions of
- Colors of the Wind
- Love is a Song
- Love will find a Way
following as tracks 4 to 6 and fomring the "Disney Love & Ballad Acoustic Section" performed by Takashi Aoki and Kenichi Tsujimoto as soloists with the orchestra are beautiful as well.
The final track of the first disc (after another short MC track) is titled "Special Digest from "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End". This is basically a new suite based on the movie's score. Really good material and an interesting version, at times giving the material new depth and new color due to the "missing" electronic elements. Another good track.
However, after this (for my liking) strong first disc, the second disc follows the concept of the prior live recording releases of the series. Just this time we are not treated to a full live performance of an OST-CD-release but selected songs (the main songs) from Snow White, Cinderelaa, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. The performances range from OK to good, but none of them is really that astonishing that I would deem them "must haves".
Considering the Japanese CD pricing the 2 disc set isn't much more expensive than a one disc release. Therefore, I would consider the release worth getting for the first disc alone (with the second disc than functioning as "bonus" disc).
To bring this overview to an end just two short notes regarding the booklet of the live release: it contains on the first page a photo of a castle in the clouds ... but neither from any of the animated classics nor the parks ... it is a photo of the original Neuschwanstein castle in Germany which helped inspire Disney ... I wonder whether the Japanese text explains that. The second note: unfortunately at least to me as someone not able to reade or understand Japanese it is not possible to discern whom of the cast sings which part. The straneg thing is, that the "minor" cast members (everybody by the four Disney princess) are at least listed with their names in latin letters as well as Japanese, but the for the four princess they decided to give only the role name (Snow White, ...) next to the photo of the singers in latin letters. If anyone here would be able to tell me what are the names of the female singers that would be great.
I hope this report about the content of the two releases and my thoughts about them was of interest to some of you ... to everybody (still) interested in the series: the live recording of the current 2008 program is supposed to be released in early 2009 (January 28 according hmv.co.jp) - so it might be an option to delay the order till then...
Dirk
some might remember the recent topic of the latest "Disney on Classic" releases in Japan. Well, in the meantime I got my copies from hmv.co.jp and can comment more profoundly:
1. Disney on Classic - a Magical Night 2008 - Dream, Dream, Dream
This is the regular release. It used to be - up till the 2006 release - that it contained new instrumental recordings or at least instrumental recordings from various prior releases (such as OSTs as e.g. "The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe"), with just the odd song with vocal performance mixed in between. However, last year the number of songs taken strait from the soundtrack releases of various Disney classics suddenly filled the majority of the CD. So how did they fare this year?
Unfortunately I have to report that once again - for the second time - a major number of tracks has been lifted straight from OST (or other) releases and contains vocal performances as well. Tracks 1 to 9 are Disney theme park music tracks - most probably due to the 25th anniversary of TDL this year.
Track 1 is a version of "The Dream Goes On" (the official anniversary theme song) which is not labeled as "new recording" on the CD but which I hadn't heared before. It is performed in English by a female and a male singer with a prominent choir, similiar in style to the version of "Jubilation" but not as "poppy". While it was a new version for me I have to disappoint anybody who had hoped to find the all English duet version as palyed right after "Legend of Mythica". It is not. While the version played as "play off" of "LoM" is very "majestic" (similar to "Swept Away" played after "Braviseamo!"), the version here is more lively, poppy.
Track 2 is an edited version of Dreamlights which ends rather abrupt (however, I never had heared any version on a CD ending that abrupt, so it might be deemed at least a new cut of an already known mix).
Track 3 is once again "The Enchanted Fairy Garden" from "Fantillusion!" (how often are they going to include it in this CD series??).
Tracks 4 and 5 are the latest mixes from the OA of Disneyland Anaheim of Haunted Mansion as well as Pirates of the Caribbean. So nothing new for most of us. Track 6 is "it's a small world [New York World's Fair]" running 1:37.
Tracks 7, 8 and 9 are lifted from prior TDS releases:
- Porto Paradiso Port Theme Song
- Stormrider Suite
- Tokyo DisneySea Medled "Come With Me".
But tracks 10 to 12 are REALLY new tracks:
- Someone's Waiting For You
- La La Lu / Bella Notte
- Some Day My Prince Will Come
These three tracks form the latest edition of the popular "Disney Love & Ballad Acoustic Selection". They have been newly recorded featuring Takashi Aoki and Kenichi Tsujimoto performing the violin respectively the trumpet as main soloist and lead instruments. These are the only tracks labeled as "New Recording" on the back cover of the CD and are - as the tracks of the "Love & Ballad Acoustic Selection" of past years - really beautiful.
The final tracks 13 to 18 are labeled as "Alan Menken Special Program" and contain the original OST-versions (in English) of
- Go The Distance
- Colors of the Wind
- True Love's Kiss
- Part Of Your World
- A Whole New World
- God Help The Outcast
Note the absence of anything from Beauty and the Beast which seems strange for an "Alan Menken Special Program". But then this could be due to the fact that "Belle", "Be Our Guest", "Something There" as well as "Beauty and the Beast" in the original OST-versions were included in last year's release.
So for the collector who already owns the classic OSTs and maybe even the Disneyland Anaheim and TDS releases of the past the three tracks of the "Disney Love & Acoustic Ballad" selection and (maybe?) the "The Dream Goes On" version are the only new tracks to be found on the release. Whether that is worth paying the money for the import is up to everybody him-/herself. Me personally, I got the CD ... but I continue to be annoyed how they have changed the concept from a (mostly) "instrumental versions of Disney music" release to "another sampler of various Disney songs" with only a few new recordings sprinkled in between. But then there is still the release of the live performance ....
Disney on Classic - a Magical Night 2007 - featuring Disney Princess - The Live
A live, 2-disc recording of last year's program was released and features more material of interest to music fans looking for instrumental recordings - at least on disc one.
As the 2005 live recording it starts out with a version of "The Enchanted Fairy Garden" from "Fantillusion", followed (after a short Japanese MC announcement) by an all new medley titled "The Memories of Walt Disney II 1950s-1960s" featuring mostly instrumental renditions of
- Alice in Wonderland
- I'm Late
- Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
- The Bare Necessities
- Bella Notte
- Winnie the Pooh
- You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!
- it's a small world
- Mickey Mouse Club March
The new medley is the follow up to a similar medley from the 2006 program ("The Memories of Walt Disney - The Prologue 1928 - 1953") once again arranged by Brad Kelley who is directing the "Never Land Orchestra" for these programs.
The medley is - for me - the highlight of the release, even so the live versions of
- Colors of the Wind
- Love is a Song
- Love will find a Way
following as tracks 4 to 6 and fomring the "Disney Love & Ballad Acoustic Section" performed by Takashi Aoki and Kenichi Tsujimoto as soloists with the orchestra are beautiful as well.
The final track of the first disc (after another short MC track) is titled "Special Digest from "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End". This is basically a new suite based on the movie's score. Really good material and an interesting version, at times giving the material new depth and new color due to the "missing" electronic elements. Another good track.
However, after this (for my liking) strong first disc, the second disc follows the concept of the prior live recording releases of the series. Just this time we are not treated to a full live performance of an OST-CD-release but selected songs (the main songs) from Snow White, Cinderelaa, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast. The performances range from OK to good, but none of them is really that astonishing that I would deem them "must haves".
Considering the Japanese CD pricing the 2 disc set isn't much more expensive than a one disc release. Therefore, I would consider the release worth getting for the first disc alone (with the second disc than functioning as "bonus" disc).
To bring this overview to an end just two short notes regarding the booklet of the live release: it contains on the first page a photo of a castle in the clouds ... but neither from any of the animated classics nor the parks ... it is a photo of the original Neuschwanstein castle in Germany which helped inspire Disney ... I wonder whether the Japanese text explains that. The second note: unfortunately at least to me as someone not able to reade or understand Japanese it is not possible to discern whom of the cast sings which part. The straneg thing is, that the "minor" cast members (everybody by the four Disney princess) are at least listed with their names in latin letters as well as Japanese, but the for the four princess they decided to give only the role name (Snow White, ...) next to the photo of the singers in latin letters. If anyone here would be able to tell me what are the names of the female singers that would be great.
I hope this report about the content of the two releases and my thoughts about them was of interest to some of you ... to everybody (still) interested in the series: the live recording of the current 2008 program is supposed to be released in early 2009 (January 28 according hmv.co.jp) - so it might be an option to delay the order till then...
Dirk
