Docteur Qui

It boggles my mind that better piano arrangements haven't been commissioned by publishers for these scores. Some of them are absolutely terrible; either far too simplistic, riddled with transcription errors, or otherwise completely unpianistic. I'd love to hear actual piano arrangements - idiomatically made with the instrument in mind instead of being a basic orchestral reduction (like the piano part in the violin/piano "Devils Dance" arrangement). I suppose that would eat into the publishers' profit margins, and it's unlikely to happen unless Williams arranged them personally.

Here's a couple from some arrangements I've been writing: 1. 2.

I highly recommend them, they're tremendously fun. They do have a tendency to waffle on a bit with the character dialogue, but as it's frequently very charming and humorous it's not the worst. I just finished playing Paper Mario 64 on Switch when the Thousand Year Door remake was announced - couldn't have been better timing. I'd never played the original on 64 - glad I played it now, it's fun - but I loved TTYD back when it came out and was wondering how I'd be able to play it again. Lo and behold here it comes (albeit next year, but still). Interesting how many remasters/remakes are currently in the works - and not insignificant ones either - but not many major first party releases on the horizon. People are speculating that we're likely very near the end point of the Switch and they're saving a few big guns for the successor next year. I'd handily bet on a 3D Mario as a launch release; the gap since Odyssey is their largest ever for a mainline Mario game so I imagine whatever they've got cooking is nearly done. I'm looking forward to Super Mario Wonder - the 2D format's last major refresh was far too long ago - but there's something truly special about 3D Mario games.

He's writing stream-of-consciousness. As someone with ADHD I find it extremely relatable. He's watching and writing as a fan, as a producer, as a writer, all at the same time. Loved his little comments about the series 10 soundtrack, lol. And the swipe at David's hair in the 50th (it really was awful, the only bad thing about it really).

Ah yep, that's fair enough, and as we saw with Bohemian Rhapsody a very real concern. Hopefully it's not the case here.

Why box him in like that? He had relationships with both men and women. At any rate, even if he was exclusively only attracted to men he still married and had children with a woman, and that relationship is the central focus of this film. I imagine that in the 27 years they were married they had some kind of close friendship.

Minish Cap is fun from what I remember (all the 2D Zeldas are really). It's included in the Nintendo Switch Online expansion pass if you want to check it out, I'll be playing it after I finish Oracle of Seasons. I'm holding out hope that they'll release DS/3DS games for the Switch. I know they're probably a lot harder to port because of the dual screen/touch thing, but there's some really stellar games that I'd love to replay, plus a bunch I never got round to (like Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks). Also it's been 10 years since Wind Waker HD was released for Wii-U, it's an absolute crime that they haven't ported it to Switch yet. What's the holdup?!

Yes I'm absolutely loving the music. Nayru's song is so eerie and beautiful. So literally hours after writing this I unlocked the fast travel item (Gale Seeds), and now my only main criticism isn't really much of an issue anymore.

I'm a couple of dungeons into Ages and I'm really hooked! I wish I'd played this as a kid, but better late than never. I forgot how enjoyable the traditional Zelda dungeons are and how satisfying it is solving those puzzles. It's definitely showing its age though - there's quite a lot of tedious backtracking that is taking the fun out of things a little; it's the kind of thing you wouldn't see in a modern take on the 2D Adventure genre, at least not with this frequency. I'm looking forward to playing Seasons after I finish.

I haven't heard the main title, I'm just basing what I said on the clips in the spreadsheet.

ROTS timpani is awful IMO. All the raw power of it is completely neutralised by the dry and distant mixing. I'm not inherently opposed to a drier mix for percussion - I think it sounds great in DoD - but ROTS was unforgivable for me.

Having listened to the samples linked in that spreadsheet I can't say I'm terribly impressed. Firstly it's a sample library orchestra, and while there's nothing inherently wrong with that - and it's executed fairly well - to my ear it will always be inferior to the real thing. The compositions themselves aren't particularly memorable or original either in my view, and sounded fairly generic. That's just me though 🤷🏻‍♂️

I never played the Oracle games, I'll definitely be checking them out. I'm a little surprised they didn't give these the Links Awakening treatment and remake them - from what I hear they're great games and beloved by fans. Still, they look good, and I forgot how vibrant and impressive Gameboy Color games were back in the day.

It's still surprisingly very sharp, if there was executive meddling at any stage they've done a great job at hiding it. Barbie was written and directed by genuinely talented people with interesting styles (Gerwig and Baumbach as writers, Gerwig directing), and with a marketing budget comparable to the The Force Awakens. DoD's marketing was pretty poor IMO and definitely contributed to its wet-blanket reception (that and the Cannes debacle) - it's clear Disney are pulling back in a major way. The whole Barbenheimer meme was also a tremendous - and crucially, organic - push for Barbie; you can't compete with the zeitgeist.

Saw Barbie yesterday, what a rollicking good time that movie is. Endlessly charming and hilarious, and chock-full of reverent cinematic references. I particularly loved the classic Hollywood sound-stage musical numbers, they were a real visual treat. Gerwig knocked it out of the park and, while not perfect, it was wonderful to see a movie that has captured the cultural moment with such confidence and clarity. The auditorium was full in my session, with pink as far as the eye could see. Clearly many "casual" moviegoers unfamiliar with Gerwig - when the credits rolled all I could hear were murmurs of "that was actually really good", "I was surprised at how good it was" etc. I'm happy for her, Robbie et al. for the critical and commercial reaction. It's good to see movies appealing to huge (i.e. not niche or franchise) audiences are still around.