alainmayrand 22 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 What do you guys think of John Debney?I have my own opinion, of course, but I will reserve it for the moment. I am curious.Alain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koray Savas 2,251 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 He's got a couple good scores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wojo 2,453 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Cutthroat Island is fantastic. The score, either complete or abridged, is definitely worth listening to every once in a while.seaQuest DSV had a great main theme that stuck with me for years after the show sank into the abyss crappy TV sci-fi.That's all the Debney I've got. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Decent, dependable, nice guy.Not a groundbreaking composer by any means, but he's occasionally done some fantastic stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wycket 36 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Let's see what he does with Iron Man 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alainmayrand 22 Posted November 11, 2009 Author Share Posted November 11, 2009 I agree. He is a very good, solid film composer. His scores always seem to follow the film very well.I do find that he tends to be sort of unmemorable, generally. I often end a film with a Debney score with little or no sense of what the music was.I also find that his orchestrations tend to be sort of opaque. They lack colour. Although once in a while he does something that has more colour, more transparency. Like "Dreamer" and even "Cats and Dogs", but his score to Zathura I found to be watered-down "Empire Strikes Back". (I think they must have temped with a lot of that score, and my impression is that he just took some part and removed the tune or something along those lines...)I like his scores generally, bought some CDs and realized that they left me unfulfilled. The CD is over and I feel like I haven't really been listening to anything. It's almost there, but not quite, and I must admit I am not 100% sure what is missing.I have "Cuthroat Island" as a movie, and even after having seen it a bunch of times, I couldn't sing you the tune. And I pay attention to those things!!! Alain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henry B 50 Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 Meh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckM 1 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Every single score I've heard from him has been a pastiche of someone else's style. However, he does those pastiches so well, that I still enjoy listening to them. My favorites from him are Cutthroat Island (even though it sounds like a David Arnold space/alien score) and Lair (even though half of it sounds like like Star Wars). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datameister 2,042 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Cutthroat Island leaves me surprisingly cold...I expected to really like it, but something about its enthusiasm tends to annoy me rather than captivate me. Not really sure why. The main theme is pretty solid, though, at least in moderation.However, I'm utterly in love with his work on Disneyland Paris's Phantom Manor, France's Old West version of the classic Haunted Mansion. Debney took Buddy Baker's "Grim Grinning Ghosts" and arranged it for a variety of ensembles and instruments in the attraction. It truly stands alongside the original in the list of all-time greatest original theme park ride scores, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Crichton 4 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 I like his arrangement of the Doctor Who theme for the '96 TV movie. Not too familiar other than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Lately, he's been Hollywood's favourite "additional composer". Anyhow, I like his music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 I like him. When I was younger I recorded the opening titles to Seaquest on my Talkboy. My favorite work of his is the WDW SpectroMagic parade score. I never did get around to listening to his various re-recordings of JW scores... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Penna 3,684 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 I like some of his stuff, but there's nothing really unique about him to me. He's dependable to providing good music in a short period, but he's rarely wowed me beyond that.The fact that he keeps scoring stupid comedies isn't helping his career I think. Iron Man 2 could be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisAfonso 186 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 It helps his career in scoring stupid comedies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romão 2,274 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 I like some of the stuff he did for Passion of the Christ, specially the tracks that don't suffer as much from "temp trackitis" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg1138 3 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 A purveyer of muical wallpaper, spattered with the occasional moment of genius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Penna 3,684 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 I'd go with that definition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morlock 11 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 He's fine, but hasn't an original bone in his body. Quite irritating in that way...everything about him, good or bad, sounds like someone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin 22 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 He's fine, but hasn't an original bone in his body. Quite irritating in that way...everything about him, good or bad, sounds like someone else.Couldn't you say that for alot of film composers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koray Savas 2,251 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 For a lot of the minor less talented ones, maybe. But for the high prolific ones, not really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musica42 0 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Call it a sign of the time but if a composer can actually write, even if it isn't the most inspired at all times, he's got my respect.Of all the embarrasing things in my iTunes library the majority are from John Debney. I don't mean that as an insult, rather he is one of only a few artists I've decided to go 'completist' with and this results in things like Hannah Montana: The Movie and Barnyard being in my collection. Not all of his scores are great but he's on more than one occasion batted it out of the park. Cutthroat Island, LAIR, and Hocus Pocus are some of my favorite scores by anyone. And his score to ELF is one of my favorite seasonal scores. And more for the novelty than anything I enjoy his efforts on such movies as Inspector Gadget and The Jetsons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent B 337 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 I think John Debney is a pretty good composer. I love his score for The Scorpion King and the few SeaQuest DSV episodes he's done, particularly the pilot episode score.He's score for Inspector Gadget isn't that bad either. He's obviously done other scores too which aren't that bad. He definitely is Hollywood's favorite "additional composer". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datameister 2,042 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Ah, yes. I don't own the score to Inspector Gadget, but I was entertained by his variations on the theme heard in the film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alainmayrand 22 Posted November 12, 2009 Author Share Posted November 12, 2009 Well, with Inspector Gadget, he was using a good theme to start and build with.I heard some of the music for Iron Man 2 on Debney's Facebook, he had a video with Tina Guo playing the electric cello. It has the right mood and energy, but again, it was missing that something that gave it a memorable character.Writing a good metal or hard rock riff is not about just being heavy and repeating notes, but there needs to be musical substance. Perhaps that is the problem with Debney, he has the right moods, the right effects and really knows how to spot a film, but it is just a bit too light in the musical structure department.And his orchestrations, in general, are really vanilla for my taste.When I saw the movie "Dreamer" I didn't even realize there was a featured violin soloist. We saw "Aliens in the Attic" the other night with my two sons, and again, couldn't even tell if there was a theme in there. It was generic, safe music.Also, have you ever noticed that his scores are pretty much always mixed very low in the film? Greg 1138 got it right: purveyor of musical wallpaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ollie 1,059 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Decent, dependable, nice guy.Not a groundbreaking composer by any means, but he's occasionally done some fantastic stuff.I agree.I would add Lair to the list of good scores by him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datameister 2,042 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Well, with Inspector Gadget, he was using a good theme to start and build with.Same with Phantom Manor. Apparently, he's quite good at that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacck 23 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 I think he's a very efficient, effective Hollywood composer. He's able to produce scores that hold a very high production value, therefore making a film feel more expensive. Perhaps not the most original composer out there. Some of his stuff I love, but mostly it's 'just film music' really.I had the 'love' theme (or whatever it's supposed to be referred to as) from Bruce Almighty in my head for a while, but then realised it was a massive rip-off of Silvestri's heart-warming theme from Castaway.I thought what he did on Sin City was great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckM 1 Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 One theme of his that I really wouldn't have expected to like as much as I do is the Waltz from Princess Diaries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alainmayrand 22 Posted November 13, 2009 Author Share Posted November 13, 2009 One theme of his that I really wouldn't have expected to like as much as I do is the Waltz from Princess Diaries.Really, heh? I'll have to check that one out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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