Listen to ENCHANTED!!!


GREAT NEWS!
YOU CAN FINALLY LISTEN TO THE FULL SOUNDTRACK FROM WALT DISNEY PICTURES ENCHANTED! WHICH OPENS IN MOVIE THEATERS NOVEMBER 21st. MUSIC BY STEVEN SCHWARTZ! I LOVE THE OPENING SONG! AND CARRIE UNDERWOOD SINGS THE POP VERSION OF EVER AFTER WHICH IS THE MAIN THEME FOR THE FILM. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS HAVE AN ACCOUNT ON MYSPACE AND CLICK ON THE ENCHANTED SOUNDTRACK BOX.

http://myspace.com/enchantedmovie
 

tcsnwhite

Member
Anyone outside of Menken's 12 disciples care to comment?

12 disciples? haha, ok... I guess that's why most if not all of Menken's songs and melodies have become the literal backbone of Disney animated film music for nearly the past two decades. I bet if you ask the masses the around the world what are their favorite or most recognizable Disney songs/melodies from the last couple decades or so, I bet you Alan's work will make up most of the list if not all.
And I'm not simply stating that because I'm a fan...
 

Dr. Know

Member
Bill,

I do enjoy the music from ENCHANTED, but I agree that it isn't on a par with Menken's best work. It took a few listens for it to sink in.
 

tcsnwhite

Member
You're on a first name basis with "Alan"...impressive.

I wasn't saying that all of Menken's work for Disney has been crap...I'm only saying that his music for "Enchanted" is crap. Indeed, most of my favorite Disney music is Menken's...so it's not like I have anything against him or his music. I polled the world's masses and, believe it or not, they were more concerned with obtaining food and basic human rights but those who did respond think he's a genius...go figure. But, I'm sure Alan would be grateful that you defended his virtue.

haha ::)
 
I haven't seen the film yet, but I listened to the soundtrack for the first time last night driving home from work. Always being partial to the villains(one of the reasons I've been interested in this film), the music finally hit home on tracks 12 and 13, featuring some very pleasantly sinister choral themes, very reminiscent of previous work from the good ol' Notre Dame days(and that really wasn't long ago--but there have been some changes since then...)...aaaah, old times, good times. Anyway, that particular part of the score is worth the price of admission for me.

Z
 
Ok Bill? I?m going to be nice and say that Menken is one of the best things that happened to Disney in recent years. If you think about it, it was his movie musicals that brought Disney out of the dark ages of movie animation. With his hits of Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas and his other reasonable successes Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Home on the Range I can?t see how you could say you are not a fan. Anyone who can write that many memorable songs that people around the world hum is a musical genius.

Just think about many of the rides at Disney incorporate his music somehow, almost every single show features his music, every firework show, parade, stage show etc. would not be the same if it was not for the work of Alan Menken. Of course there are other great Disney composers; he is not the only one. But he sure has made a tremendous impact on the Disney repertoire.

Now to Enchanted. I believe that this is not Menken?s greatest work but it is still very lush and very Disney. I love the opening title ?True Love?s Kiss.? It has hints at old Disney and has some great lyrics provided by the lyrical genius Steven Schwartz. The other 4 songs featured in the movie are also very good. ?The Happy Little Working Song? is very reminiscent of ?Whistle while you work? and ?The Work song.? The reason you may not like this soundtrack as much is because it was written to be original for sure but also to be reminiscent with clich? phrases and even clich? songs. I think that Menken and Schwartz achieved what Disney was trying to accomplish and by the looks of it (raking in 50 million dollars in its first 5 days) Enchanted is going to do well for Disney in the box office and I?m sure we will see it in the parks soon.
 

Gurgitoy2

Active Member
For me, the songs were pretty good, but I agree with Bill that the score was not his best. In my opinion, his scores have been hit or miss. He's admitted himself that he had no experience writing score, and The Little Mermaid was his first. I thought that was a great first effort, but after that, he's had his good moments, and not so good ones. For me, Enchanted is mediocre. Not bad, but not great either. Now, the songs, I do like, and feel like they fit in with the rest of the Disney cannon. I also like the fact that they (and the movie in general) don't follow the Dreamworks method of trashing fairy tales. This stuff pokes fun at it in a more loving way.
 

Gurgitoy2

Active Member
"Ben...next time I see you, I'm going to make you sing all of them...

and no "nah nah nah ...something...nah nah...magical....""

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? I'll have to memorize the lyrics then, I guess. I remember the melodies though...
 

Horizons

Playlist Author
Bill - I will admit that I do not actually read what you write. Maybe we should start a poll to see what other members do.
 

X-S Tech

Active Member
I'd have to listen to the Enchanted score a few times to be sure. I think this is the first Menken score I haven't listened to a dozen times before seeing the film, so it's hard to say how it measures up to previous films. I will say that I like the "Menken" sound, and would probably be a bit biased because of my warm feelings for the scores of Pocahontas and Beauty and the Beast. But I wasn't impressed by any of the songs in Enchanted. They weren't bad, but they certainly didn't stand out in any way.

Oh wait, I just reread Bills post, and may have to amend what I just wrote...
 

Gurgitoy2

Active Member
I wonder if some of the "blandness" or "sameness" to this score and songs has to do with it's riffing on past Disney classics? The songs are all derivative of earlier Disney songs, especially "Happy Working Song". It's basically "Whistle While You Work" mixed with "The Work Song". I find them cute for that reason, but no, they are not like a brand new sound from Menken. It's as if he went back and wrote songs for the old "Disney princess" films...and that would be my guess as to why some are not liking it as much as his earlier work.
 

GoodMusician

New Member
You have to see a lot of this against the film which is very cute.

I kinda wish we knew more .

Apparently there is a song that was never used. Wether it was cut or recorded or not finished I don't know but it was written for Idina Menzel but they felt it inappropriate in the end or something... I think a nice song at the end would have DEFINITELY wrapped things up in the film a lot better than the ending in the film currently.

I was hoping for some news on a complete release as this release is kinda lacking.

I actually REALLY hate the mixing in this. The edits are sooo painfully obvious not to mention the guy who mixed everything did it really... oddly...

I checked his Bio and he's mostly only done album releases for artists like Fergie or Avril. Never mixing vocals with orchestral and it shows.

The orchestral alone stuff sounds good but the film mixes vary greatly from whats heard on the album with tons of edits.

The fade outs on all the tracks are horrid (they fade out to actual black, not digital black) which for those of you who aren't quite familiar, it means it sounds like someone literally turned down the volume like one would hear with a "song". Normally with orchestral, however, a small amount of "studio sound" or hiss or digital air-noise is mixed in so that even though it fades out, it sounds natural. This way it feels sudden and unnatural. Like the fade out happened in real life and the recording kept going.

The songs are cute and I DO wish there had been a final one at the end as I said... but it got cut.

What I love most about the film, however, is how most of the disney princess' that Menkin did the scores for did cameos in the film.

Ariel, Belle, the singing voice for Pocahontas... and then Idina of course from Wicked lol

I do wish more of the "score" had been released, however. That's one thing that's always lacking with Menkin are the "score" moments. I love his songs, but I'd love to hear more of the score. It's definitely not the best, but I'd enjoy hearing more of it.
 

Gurgitoy2

Active Member
I did, and I've listened to it more than twice. The thing is, I have listened to only the songs more than twice. The score wasn't interesting enough to warrant too many listens for me.
 

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