Drawgoon

That's what I thought at first. Though it also made me wonder why a score track would be considered a bonus thing. The target audience of this album aren't the type that'd be won over by the addition of one extra "instrumental" track.

To be able to tell if one film composer is better than the other, they need to anonymously score the same film, under similar conditions.

How can one mistake a film with human characters with another one that features anthropomorphic characters?

I know he still has that Horizon thing coming (hopefully it will turn out good). I know he did some work on Orville. And I don't blame the man for not wanting all the headache and hurdles that come with scoring big films these days. But when I see his name attached to stuff like this, and recall the kind of things he is capable of writing, I can't help but sigh and think. dude this stuff is for rookies. You're better than this.

JNH's work captured the fantasy side of this story really well. It's hard to top that "Flying" tune alone. To this day I still can't figure out where he gets his inspiration to write these amazing tunes for scenes that barely have anything truly imaginative to offer. I was also very surprised and impressed by Joel McNeely's "Flight Through Neverland" from his score for the direct-to-video sequel to the original animated flick. Clearly inspired more by Hook and JW than Oliver Wallace. I only wish this wasn't the only cohesive track of the album - the rest is all over the place with the Stalling effect (read: Micky Mousing).

I think Thelma was still better presented on album compared to Menken's work for Disenchanted from the other year.

I can't think of an example where it was the addition of new music deteriorated the listening experience, but there has been releases where it was the new presentation that killed the magic for me - whether it was because of all news mixes (e.g. Lion King), vocals dialed down or eliminated (e.g. Fellowship of the Ring, Batman Returns), instruments-pushed-back (e.g. percs in The Mummy), cues edited together to make lengthier cues even though the original cues really don't blend well together (e.g. Superman Returns, Peter Pan), previously released music suddenly goes missing (e.g. Hunchback of Notre Dame), or key sequences with previously unreleased music remain unreleased (nothing immediately comes to mind but my impression from some comments I read is that some listeners thought of Hellboy 2 that way.)

I don't buy this "not wanting to repeat myself" claim. He seems more than happy to do just that elsewhere. In fact, the only other time I recall hearing him say that was when he was asked why he passed Kingdom of Heaven to HGW. He said he was being asked to write a "Gladiator 2" for that movie and he didn't want to repeat himself. If this is not about him not wanting to work with the director again, I can only think of that copyright infringement lawsuit that was brought upon him for the first Gladiator from the Holst Foundation.

With most of his former Pixar colleagues jumping ship for Skydance animation, it won't surprise me if MG wanted to follow along, all without burning the bridges. Also his ambitions for filmmaking and all that. In any case, I think this will turn out better in Datzman's hands than if MG were to return. No matter what the film's quality may be like, a composer who is new to the scene is more likely to take advantage of the situation and give it their best than one who's already "seen it all".

The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, from Return of the King - the part during Theoden's speech, and when they march to war: The timpani, the march theme on horns, the Rohan theme on solo violin. I would have loved to be on the recording floor when they were playing this snippet (especially if everything would get played in the same room at the same time). Oh my. I remember how disappointed I was when this bit was not included on the regular soundtrack album.

Well, if it helps clear the path for LLLR or other specialty labels to release more titles from the Warner catalog, that'd be great! Otherwise, this could be yet another major blow to... what should I call it... competition scene?

His approach to "Early Man", his previous work for this studio, was pretty much the same. An hour of score would just pass by without leaving any impression on me - other than perhaps this nagging feeling that more time might have been spent on the orchestration side of the work than actual writing. I suppose this is what he is being asked to do on these, and he seems more than happy to comply. Why else would he agree to/be asked to score several films by this studio for the past two decades?

I don't know if it is the glasses or that facial gesture (particularly with the eyes and eyebrows) on the human character in the picture above, but that image instantly reminded me of JP himself.

Mine's are Howard Shore's LotR's - everything he recorded for the films (used/unused), properly mixed (i.e. no pushing the choir all the way back, no pushing some instruments way to the front), meticulously mastered (not brickwalled), without any kind of edits, cross-fades, etc. I do appreciate the CR releases but I am more than certain that they can be done better.

No Lorne Balfe, I see. He was very involved with the previous two. I actually thought this was going to be a solo gig for him.