ThePenitentMan1

That petition failed because it was targeting Disney. Can you imagine how many fan petitions involving Disney properties people create every single day? The ONLY way it would gather any kind of attention from a Disney employee is if, like, dozens of millions of people signed it. And even then it's not guaranteed that they would listen.
 
The way I see it, Disney and Lucasfilm won't listen to a few film score diehards on the internet. But they MAY listen to Matessino, because they already know him, they know he works in the industry and have contacts, he even (hopefully) has the blessing of John Williams himself.
 
It's up to Matessino to pitch his vision to Disney and try to make it happen. I'm pretty confident he can get at least one meeting with higher ups at Lucasfilm and Disney Records. If he convinces them of how valuable those albums can be (and not only in financial terms), then we may have a chance.
 
Anyone else knows what he thinks about Disney letting him work on SW and Indy scores? Because if he's waiting for Disney to call him, I'm sorry to break the bad news but that won't happen. It's HIM that has the power and leverage to convince them. And it's us, who consume his work, who can convince him to make a pitch at Disney.

I always try to stay positive. I'm sure someday Williams will ask Mike and Disney to put out complete releases and it will happen.
After all, we know Williams already requested specific titles to be expanded, Dracula comes to mind, and it happened.
 
Or maybe Mike will convince Disney to do something, just like he convinced Craft Recordings to do the definitive Sound Of Music. And JW won't be an issue at all, the recent amazing expansions we've been having lately shows us how Williams trusts Mike, so I'm sure they will be approved easily.

At this point, I think the best option for us the fans is not to wait the idiots at Disney to do a proper Indy and Star Wars release. They won't, and if it's up to them they most likely will keep insisting in re-releasing older programs.
 
The best strategy is to convince Matessino himself to pitch a new release for the higher ups at Disney Records, Lucasfilm, etc. He would bring his credentials ("I've been working with John Williams to create the best presentation possible for his music over the last 3 decades, etc"), his connections with JW and convince them that such project would be financially interesting for The Walt Disney Co.
 
If he's able to bring a message from John Williams himself ("I've known Mike for the last 2/3 decades and he's the right man to produce the definitive presentation of my beloved Indy and Star Wars scores...") then his pitch would be even more significant.
 
Also, it's not like he's a completely unknown at Lucasfilm. Didn't he work on the SEs from 97 and the recent James Horner Willow expansion?
 
In other words: we can't keep waiting for Disney to do what's right, because they won't. One of "our team" should take the initiative and keep knocking at their door until they say yes.

I kind of get it. It shows you that Sallah and Marcus are back, shows you the girl, shows you the nazi villain. No more corners left, the essentials that everyone going in blind knows will be in there are covered. Donovan's of not that much interest until the surprise twist that he's with the nazis, the poster doesn't give away his centralness.

Here's an edit I made just for fun (Or for those who like both versions of the Prologue but only want to keep one of them and can't decide which):
 
 
 
I like to imagine this as more or less the version of the Prologue that Williams might've done if he were able to edit it for the OST back in 1991.
 
This edit uses the more refined performance from the trailer version, but cuts to the alternate extended version from 0:25-0:47.  (I let the alternate go all the way to 0:47 instead of cutting it at 0:37 because I like the brass in the alternate take better.)
 
The premature percussion from the end of the alternate, I wrote off as a performance error, so it's not included here.

Ah. It took me some time to see if "wtf are you kidding me" came out as positive or negative. (Positive, apparently.) Sometimes when I'm navel gazing and thinking "How would I make the Animated Series into live action?" I realize the I would know what the sets would look like, I'd know how the actors would act. But I would be utterly out of my depth with the cinematography.
 
Balance of Terror stands apart a little bit even in first season TOS. It's very moody. This was a great quote from X: "Early TOS was like noir in color."
 
 
Oh heavens, yes. I love SNW. It's my second favorite Star Trek. But when they went back to Balance of Terror they went with the common conception of "Kirk is a cowboy who shoots from the hip". (I have since come to adore Paul Wesley in other episodes.) HOW can you do that Kirk in the very episode that has him going full Hamlet with Bones? "What if I'm wrong?" He's never a cowboy. Although he does decide that the Romulan vessel has to be stopped.
 
I always say that the two sides of the Star Trek coin are Balance of Terror and The Corbomite Maneuver. Or put another way The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
 

The more I read about Cutthroat Island, the more I want to try it out!

I knew this would come. The old cop-out. "It's too smart for you. You just want action. You hate exposition." This could not be further from the truth. My favorite Star Wars story by far, is Knights of the Old Republic 2. And I hate the action gameplay of the game. But I love the story, the exposition, the characters, the acting, the music, the atmosphere, and above all, the philosophy and the gorgeous dialogue. And that game is at least 15 times the length of The Phantom Menace. If anyone's got time for exposition when it comes to Star Wars, it's me.
 
My problems with the TPM, is it doesn't delve into any of what you speak of. It doesn't set up the state of the galaxy. It's called the Republic but it seems to function more like the UN. I don't know what the Trade Federation want besides something about taxation that is never specified in favor of action. I don't know what threat the Trade Federation pose because we never see or hear of them doing anything truly horrific. Yes they unlawfully invade, and they say Naboo's people are dying, but we don't know why or how, besides some vague notion of a blockade maybe causing starvation, or maybe the droids are murdering citizens. 
 
It doesn't set up the Sith/Jedi conflict. Palpatine and Maul talk about wanting revenge but we are never told what the revenge is for. We don't even know if the revenge is history related or personal for Palpatine and Maul. We don't even know what the Sith are besides an assumption that they're the Jedi but bad! Oh and they were extinct for whatever reason. It doesn't lead directly into the clone wars, end of the Republic (whatever the Republic actually is) and the Jedi. It takes 10 years of set up and events off-screen that set up all of that. It's as much a philosophical thesis as Batman v. Superman is. Ideas are hinted at but never explored. 

Holko:

 
 Jay:

I would say one of my biggest issues with the prequels is how disconnected each of them feel. There is a disconnect between A New Hope and Empire, but there's still a strong connection in that our characters are more or less the same people as they were from the last film (their introduction), and A New Hope sets up Luke's hatred for Vader in Empire, his connection to Obi-Wan, and how he already knows of the force and the Jedi. 
 
Whereas you don't need TPM as Maul is barely (if ever) mentioned again, Qui-Gon is only alluded to in the latter two, and even then Yoda was originally written as Obi-Wan's only master anyway, and Anakin (and even Obi-Wan to a certain extent) is a completely different person by the second movie so his introduction was worthless. All it showed that sets up the second film is Anakin's connection with his mother which isn't even that convincing in my eyes anyway in TPM. Plus everyone's kind of introduced in the second film anyway. 
 
Even the third film has the same problem. It has a bit more connection to the previous with the same villain (dying immediately), and Anakin being more similar than from 1 to 2, but considering how the context from the second film makes the third film worse, the movie works better overall as its own thing, separated from the other two. 

I'll be honest, with most scores, I tend to be perfectly fine with dropping the score's associated songs.
 
NIMH, though, is the exception.  Flying Dreams is as beautiful as the rest of the score, and I can't see myself ever listening to the score and skipping either of its iterations.  (It probably helps that I really only listen to it on special occasions.  I have plenty of other "comfort food" scores...  NIMH's a special treat that I don't want to over-listen to!)

Right. I mean, I have my musical taste and might not like this or that composers work, especially when it is filmmusic. But basically these musicians do what they do and what they are probably good at and what they like. I don't blame them for that. It is their right as a musician and an artist, and it would be wrong to say, this or that composer pulled down the quality of blockbuster film scores. I might consider his or her work as low quality movie score. But the damage is done by those hiring them to do what they do and not by the composers who do the best they can to fulfill the job under the conditions that are given to them by the producers.

i dunno i'm making this up as i go
 

We should create a thread: Top 10 scores for movies you didn't grow up on and only fell in love with it after you were out of your formative years

The Raiders March has that covered though if ya ever want to change your mind!
 
 
 
 
 
 

Don't forget the film version of Keeping up with the Joneses

Here's an edit I made just for fun (Or for those who like both versions of the Prologue but only want to keep one of them and can't decide which):
 
 
 
I like to imagine this as more or less the version of the Prologue that Williams might've done if he were able to edit it for the OST back in 1991.
 
This edit uses the more refined performance from the trailer version, but cuts to the alternate extended version from 0:25-0:47.  (I let the alternate go all the way to 0:47 instead of cutting it at 0:37 because I like the brass in the alternate take better.)
 
The premature percussion from the end of the alternate, I wrote off as a performance error, so it's not included here.

I feel like its much, much, MUCH more detrimental in Star Wars, and while the prequels do give some stuff back, I feel like in that case the scales are tipped way too far in the direction of detracting from the original film, as opposed to enriching it.

I get your point indeed. Those scenes in the various prequels tend to rob the original scenes of much of their power, especially, I imagine for a first time viewer who foolishly chose to watch the films in in-universe "chronological" order.
 
Of course, the same can be said for The Hobbit trilogy, which has many callbacks to images and sequences to those done (better) in The Lord of the Rings.  Seeing dark Gandalf say "I am not trying to rob you" isn't as powerful and shocking once you've seen the same bit done with the "If I say Bilbo Baggins is a burglar..." in the prequel.
 
Anyone who watches Star Wars or Middle-Earth for the first time in "sequence" is robbing themselves of something very special that they can never get back.

Kitchen Knife Safety Lesson
9m5 Cutting The Coconut (0:00-57) + 5m3 Slicing The Hand (ALL)
 
The funny thing is, it actually kinda works:
Kitchen Knife Safety Lesson 2.mp3
 
[Old Version:
9m5 Cutting The Coconut + 5m3 Slicing The Hand]
Kitchen Knife Safety Lesson.mp3
 

The Arrival of Tink was actually the first cue recorded for the picture (after the pre-records and trailer cue).  It was initially recorded as originally written, which had Tink's theme played at a high octave giving it a more ethereal quality.  A few days later, they came back and did pick-up takes that started with deeper and more resonant arpeggios that lead into Tink’s theme on celesta now being performed at a lower octave.
 
The final performance edit that went into the picture (and original soundtrack album) uses take 122 (from day 1) for the beginning and end, with the lower-octave Tink's theme (but NOT the lower intro part) taken from take 202 (from a few days later) in the middle.
 
For the new bonus track, Mike wanted to showcase both unused bits: the newer intro from the pick-up recording, and the original celeste section from the original recording.  So he made a new performance edit that begins and ends with take 122 as normal, but now the middle has the pick-up intro (from take 201) and the original lower-octave celeste section (from take 123) in the middle.
 
 
For Hook's Entrance, there is no early or later versions, just a bunch of different takes recorded back to back to back on the same day.  For takes 295 and 296 they recorded the full cue as originally written, with the fanfare.  Take 297 was another take of the entire cue, but now with the fanfare taceted out.  Take 298 is a pickup take starting with the harp glissando as Hook begins to walk down the stairs.  Both tracks on the LLL CD use all 4 of these takes, including the harp glissandro from take 298 in both tracks.  The only difference between the tracks  is the section for the stairs unveiling, which uses the fanfare version in the main program and the tacet version in the disc 3 version.
 
Basically you can extrapolate from this that Spielberg thought the unveiling of the "red carpet" stairs was overscored, so first had him tacet out the fanfare, then made sure to record an option to resume the music once his foot hits the top step if he decided to dial out the music entirely.  And that's what he does in the final cut of the film, the music dials out right after the first phrase of Low Below for all of Dustin's monologue, and only comes back in with that harp glissando from the pick-up take as begins to put his foot down on the top of the stairs.

That's only the comeback because it's true. Technically Darth Vader didn't kill Luke Skywalker, he only cut off his hand.
 
Alderaan's destruction is physically not very dramatic. It's a popping balloon. Even from the surface it would be a flash and then nothing.
 
Jedha was horrific devastation. But it was devastation that could be run from and escaped. If you watch Rogue One before Star Wars then, well, you need better friends who wouldn't let you do that. But if you did, then Alderaan is what is teased at in Rogue One. There's a whole planet left in Rogue One. In Star Wars it's just rubble. In an instant.
 
"The entire star fleet couldn't destroy the whole planet..." But I bet the entire star fleet could paste the hell out of a good chunk of it. What happens to Alderaan is unique.
 
Also we're told from the first moments of Star Wars that the Death Star can destroy a planet. That's not the drama. The drama is that this is the Princess' home planet.
 
Of course all of this is done away with if you accept the simple truth that the first Star Wars movie that one should ever watch is Star Wars. No one has made a film that could naturally be seen before it.

Yeah, but then we got Rogue One, Solo, Obi Wan etc...
 
Imagine watching all that stuff and then seeing the original for the first time:
 
Vader's entrance? Meh. Seen him plenty for that to maintain its drama.
The Droids wandering through the dunes? Meh, we've seen endless amounts of far-more-impressively-framed desert shots AND we know Tatooine so its no longer about the Droids venturing into the unknown.
The cantina? Pfft, we've seen more weird aliens than stars in the sky.
The Death Star blowing up Leia's home? Pfft, please! We've seen the Death Star blow up several planets by this point.
The lightsaber battle? Pfft, we've seen people - including Vader and Obi Wan - slash and jump and throw objects at each other, so these two geezers gently poking at each other? NEXT!
 
etc... You get my point.

George could've taken more care to preserve ANH and ESB's original appeal while making the prequels.  But, we've got Tatooine, R2, 3PO, Yoda, and Anakin's fall to the Dark Side all onscreen with significant focus in the prequels.
 
But, at least he never showed the cockpit view of the Hyperspace jump until ANH.