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John Powell kicks ass


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Just to be clear, Powell's HTTYD could very well be the score of the year. The more I listen to it, the more cohesion in its architecture is present. Almost every cue has some overt or minute variation of the principles themes. This kind of attention to detail and the development of major theme groups is, frankly, unprecedented in any MV-RC scores I have heard up until now. The level of writing on this score is pretty darn close to Goldsmith or Williams I'd wager- not necessarily in its sound palette or chord schemes but how the music follows the narrative but plays so well away from its filmic counterpart. I love the music where Hiccup and Astrid fly into the dragon's lair where Powell infuses a sense of wonderment into the cue which is a drawn out variation of the Toothless Theme. In fact, every cue has something interesting to offer. There is a certain Goldsmithian muscularity to the Viking's Theme that recalls The 13th Warrior but doesn't reference it directly. I like that.

I have watched this film over 20 times paying particular attention to the music and it just keeps amazing and dazzling me. I love Desplat's Harry Potter music but honestly don't care to watch the film. I never liked the series to be honest. So in this capacity, I think Powell would get my vote for Best Composer for 2010 and I do hope he picks up an Oscar for How To Train Your Dragon. The music is such a prominent character in the film. It's a superb achievement.

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Is the OST complete?

I saw the film last year and didn't notice anything missing. Pretty much perfect release - what makes Varese do stuff like this, but short-change Star Trek?

And agreed, this is the score of the year for me. Powell was born to do movies like this.

I'll bet that Inception wins though.

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The score is not complete. I believe there is less than 10 minutes of missing music from the OST. While most of it are reprises of music already covered on the soundtrack, there are some very cool moments that were left out of the album. For example, "You're Not a Viking", which is the most emotional track from the soundtrack, was left out, probably because it could stop the flow of the listening experience. Amazing bith nonetheless.

And I just wanna see Powell nominated. I don't care if he doens't win, but I will be pissed off as hell if "Inception" or "The Social Network" win... For a couple of days. Then I'll move on.

My only fear is that HTTYD won't win because they already gave a Best Score award last year to an animated film. But it should win. Best score of the year hands down. Powell worked so much on this he really deserves it. Just read this:

BTL: When did you choose composer John Powell?

DeBlois: John had been approached prior to us taking over the film, but there was no official deal. We had an opportunity to meet with him and pitch our take on the story to see if he was still interested. He was really excited and had great ideas. John is a lover of all kinds of music. He wanted us to think about musicians and music that we respond to – stuff we listened to while writing, anything that we found inspiring along the way. John’s very collaborative. He would play rough demos of ideas that he had, then hone and find themes that were going to stick with people. That was our directive, coming up with iconic bits of music that felt like they would be playing at the theme park pavilion for dragons. I think he’s created his best soundtrack.

Sanders: An amazing job. It’s one thing to ask somebody to create muscular, memorable powerful themes, another to actually create them, and he did.

DeBlois: He did some delicate, beautiful sweeping pieces too.

Sanders: We love this part of the process when you go to scoring sessions. The orchestra doesn’t see the music ahead of time, so they play it cold. We were there the first time they played the Romantic Flight. After they went through it, they all applauded. That’s a genuine tribute to what John accomplished. This is by far my favorite score that he’s done.

DeBlois: John is extremely meticulous with the way he records music. We recorded the score for Dragon in London at a studio called Air, which is an old converted church. In the morning, it would be the woodwinds and the strings, then in the afternoon it would be the brass section. Another day it would be the male choir, then the female choir. His percussionists came at a different time. He records the elements separately, so that he can control how they fit together in the mix. He wants very precise control.

Sanders: John has an amazing ear. He’d kick off one of his giant themes. They’d play it through then stop. John would be looking over his music and he’d get on the mic and say, “Third bassoon, you were off by half a note on this one part.” He is not only in tune with what he wrote, but his ability to hear detail was astonishing. He’d make little adjustments on things that we didn’t even hear.

We learned from Alan Silvestri, who we worked with on Lilo and Stich, about how much storytelling you can hand to music. That was a huge learning curve. Alan said, “If there’s something you haven’t told the people on screen, hand it to me and I’ll get it across.” When we were writing Dragon, we recognized areas that were best handled by music and wrote those into the script. Music is the closest thing to magic that you’ll ever get. You can’t put your finger on what it does, but it does it powerfully and perfectly, so we recognized story turns that were best accomplished with the character’s mouth shut and music speaking.

http://www.btlnews.com/commentary/director-series/chris-sanders-and-dean-deblois-show-how-to-train-your-dragon/

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short-change Star Trek?

You mean the Star Trek that got a near-complete score release quicker than almost any other film score in history?

That's not what I meant.

And anyway, my question was answered by the interview above - I didn't realise HTTYD was recorded in London, which explains album length.

Great to read about the orchestra applauding after playing Romantic Flight. The cue dominates the mix in the film and makes a quite astonishing minute or so.

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Deathly Hallows nominated? Pff, like that'll happen. There are still 2 months worth of films coming out.

Well, Desplat does seem to be an Oscar darling although always the bridesmaid never the bride in his case. HP shouldn't garner anything else mind you so perhaps you're right. I disagree that Powell's HTTYD will go unnoticed. Rotten tomatoes gave the film 98% (one of the all time highest ratings) and the music is so prominently incorporated into the film that almost every viewer, musically inclined or not, loved Powell's score. Giacchino won his Oscar last year largely because of the 5 minute montage "Married Life" for UP!. Can anyone really remember a whole lot of the rest of the score? Powell has more than one standout track where the music is so integral to the scene- "Forbidden Friendship" and "Test Flight" are two prime examples. It helps that the sequences themselves were amazingly well directed.

As for the rationale that animated scores don't win back to back, um, remember the '90s and Alan Menken? He won Oscars for Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and I think one other one but I don't remember, all in the span of 4 years. So it is very much possible. Zimmer won for Lion King for 1994. Actually now I have to list it

1989- Little Mermaid (Menken)

1990- Dances with Wolves (John Barry)

1991- Beauty and the Beast (Menken)

1992- Aladdin (Menken)

1993- Schindler's List (Williams)

1994- Lion King (Zimmer)

1995- English Patient (Yared)

and then we start getting away from animated Best Scores for a while. I think they split the categories up for a while actually.

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Deathly Hallows nominated? Pff, like that'll happen. There are still 2 months worth of films coming out.

Giacchino won his Oscar last year..because of.."Married Life" for UP!, Can anyone really remember a whole lot of the rest of the score?

yes

The score is not complete. I believe there is less than 10 minutes of missing music from the OST. While most of it are reprises of music already covered on the soundtrack, there are some very cool moments that were left out of the album. For example, "You're Not a Viking", which is the most emotional track from the soundtrack, was left out, probably because it could stop the flow of the listening experience.

what part of the movie was that from?

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what part of the movie was that from?

The part after "The Kill Ring" scene and right before "Ready the Ships". It's when Stoick discusses with Hiccup the location of the Dragon's nest and then tells him something among the lines of "You're not a Viking... You're not my son!". It may read cheesy, but the emotion confered in the acting, the animation and the music is top-notch. A great moment.

And something curious: A lot of people refer to the scenes by the track titles. For example, the "Forbidden Friendship" scene or "Test Drive" to name some. I think it's the first time I see something like this. Another compliment for Powell!

Edit: My 500th post. Intersting and kinda depressing at the same time...

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Deathly Hallows nominated? Pff, like that'll happen. There are still 2 months worth of films coming out.

Watch TSHTF here if that happens. :)

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I honestly don't even think How To Train Your Dragon will be nominated. It deserves to be, and probably should win, but I just don't see the Academy giving kudos to Powell. Who knows, though. It happened with Beltrami when he deserved it the most.

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what part of the movie was that from?

The part after "The Kill Ring" scene and right before "Ready the Ships". It's when Stoick discusses with Hiccup the location of the Dragon's nest and then tells him something among the lines of "You're not a Viking... You're not my son!". It may read cheesy, but the emotion confered in the acting, the animation and the music is top-notch. A great moment.

And something curious: A lot of people refer to the scenes by the track titles. For example, the "Forbidden Friendship" scene or "Test Drive" to name some. I think it's the first time I see something like this. Another compliment for Powell!

Edit: My 500th post. Intersting and kinda depressing at the same time...

ahhhhhh so: "Stoick Learns of Nest"

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I honestly don't even think How To Train Your Dragon will be nominated. It deserves to be, and probably should win, but I just don't see the Academy giving kudos to Powell. Who knows, though. It happened with Beltrami when he deserved it the most.

Why not? Powell is the most respected composer who came out of MV, and the score has had an amazing response on people, something which is rare amongst those who don't listen to film-scores frequently.

ahhhhhh so: "Stoick Learns of Nest"

Well, I was reffering to it as it was its original title. You can lear more about that at the ASCAP page.

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ahhhhhh so: "Stoick Learns of Nest"

Well, I was reffering to it as it was its original title. You can lear more about that at the ASCAP page.

i know, thats just the name i gave it for my rescores (i didnt know the track titles at that time) which was a parody of the cue is used (Misguided missles and kryptonite/trajectory Malfunction / Luthor's Lethal Weapon)

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I honestly don't even think How To Train Your Dragon will be nominated. It deserves to be, and probably should win, but I just don't see the Academy giving kudos to Powell. Who knows, though. It happened with Beltrami when he deserved it the most.

You wouldn't be elated if Powell won? I sure would be!

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I honestly don't even think How To Train Your Dragon will be nominated. It deserves to be, and probably should win, but I just don't see the Academy giving kudos to Powell. Who knows, though. It happened with Beltrami when he deserved it the most.

You wouldn't be elated if Powell won? I sure would be!

I would be ecstatic. I'm just trying to be realistic. Powell's done this kind of thing before (Happy Feet, Horton Hears A Who!) and has gone unnoticed.

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I honestly don't even think How To Train Your Dragon will be nominated. It deserves to be, and probably should win, but I just don't see the Academy giving kudos to Powell. Who knows, though. It happened with Beltrami when he deserved it the most.

You wouldn't be elated if Powell won? I sure would be!

I would be ecstatic. I'm just trying to be realistic. Powell's done this kind of thing before (Happy Feet, Horton Hears A Who!) and has gone unnoticed.

That's true but I think there's more attention toward HTTYD compared to the other films. I know it was reviewed a lot better. I dunno, he just might get a nom, and if that's so, he could pick up the win. Remember the members of the Academy in each dept nominate their fellow composers but it's the general Oscar members from all depts that vote for the win. I still don't agree with that when someone like Julia Roberts disrespects Bill Conti the way she did one year, clearly revealing the fact that she knows jack shit about film music or composers. Also, I think actors dislike composers because their music can take the attention away from those attention-hogs.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I count 1:17, but there's a lot of silence on the start and end of tracks.

And the second half of This is Berk isn't there.

I forget that these 'for your consideration' places often pop up around the end of the year.

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Defiance is a mixed bag for me. The action material is as generic as it comes.

The extra material for this doesn't seem to add much really. I still think Powell is really good at making CDs with good flow, and knowing which cues not to include.

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I honestly don't know what the big deal is. Better things have happened with FYC sites, like Defiance.

One possible "big deal" is that for those who didn't buy it, now they have a moral reason not to because the score and commercial soundtrack are "free."

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It seems that they have included a few alternates too on the promo. For example, "Training/Out There" (which on the CD is "The Downed Dragon") sounds slightly different than the CD version. There are some changes in how the Clarinet plays the notes and the Bassoon seems to be mixed more loudly.

Just something to consider.

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Defiance is a mixed bag for me. The action material is as generic as it comes.

The extra material for this doesn't seem to add much really. I still think Powell is really good at making CDs with good flow, and knowing which cues not to include.

I was specifically talking about the wealth of unreleased music available on the FYC versus the OST.

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I was specifically talking about the wealth of unreleased music available on the FYC versus the OST.

The reason that there was so little extra added is that there was so little missing before. I believe we now have a complete score.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Apparently, according to IMDB, Powell is attached to score Captain America: The First Avenger. I would put it in the rumor category, yet on the HZ forums they confirmed that HTTYD and Kung Fu Panda was used for the temp-track for Captain America.

As a huge fan of Powell's X-Men 3 score, if he's doing it -- fantastic. I would love to hear it -- and how good it is, I'll buy it. Joe Johnston always seems to get really good scores from the composers he's worked with, like Horner for The Rocketeer and Elfman for The Wolfman.

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The Wolfman was a post-production mess.

Powell will not be scoring Captain America as far as I know, someone else is being considered.

What remained of Elfman's score for The Wolfman was just... excellent. I really couldn't tell Pope's contributions alongside Elfman's score, aside from the final scenes. The movie itself is an entertaining mess too.

And care to elaborate on this "someone else" -- namely who is being considered?

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How To Train Your Dragon experts: Is this an accurate list of how to assemble a complete score combining OST and the FYC download?

01 - Berk Intro (On Album- This Is Berk (split/pt 1))

02 - This Is Berk (On Album- This Is Berk (split/pt 2))

03 - Dragon Battle (Album Only) **

04 - Did Anybody See That (Expanded Set Only) *

05 - War Room (Expanded Set Only) *

06 - Training - Out There (On Album- The Downed Dragon)

07 - Hiccup Comes Home (Expanded Set Only) *

08 - Dragon Training

09 - Wounded

10 - The Dragon Book

11 - Focus, Hiccup!

12 - Offering (Expanded Set Only) *

13 - Forbidden Friendship

14 - New Tail

15 - Teamwork (Expanded Set Only) *

16 - Charming The Zippleback (Expanded Set Only) *

17 - See You Tomorrow

18 - Test Drive

19 - Not So Fireproof

20 - This Time For Sure

21 - Astrid Finds Toothless (Expanded Set Only) *

22 - Astrid Goes For A Spin

23 - Romantic Fight

24 - Dragon's Den

25 - Let's Find Dad (On Album- The Cove)

26 - Kill Ring - Stop Fight (On Album- The Kill Ring)

27 - You're Not A Viking (Expanded Set Only) *

28 - Ready - Comfort (On Album- Ready The Ships)

29 - Relax - Stroke Hell (Expanded Set Only) *

30 - Over - Less Okay (On Album- Battling The Green Death)

31 - Wings! (On Album- Counter Attack (split/pt 1))

32 - Counter Attack (On Album- Counter Attack (split/pt 2))

33 - Where's Hiccup (Alt) (Expanded Set Only, But Sounds No Different) *

34 - Where's Hiccup

35 - Coming Back Around

36 - Sticks & Stones (Song by Jónsi) (Album Only) **

37 - End Credits (On Album- The Vikings Have Their Tea)

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Is it just me, or is the expanded version of "This Is Berk" broken? It only plays 16 seconds and cuts off very abruptly for me. Are others having this problem?

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Yeah they've screwed up that cue.

But if you find an expanded footwarmer (i.e. not obtained using downloadhelper), the two parts of the cue are there properly. And you're not missing anything - the OST version is complete AFAIK.

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Go here:

http://www.dwaawards.com/

And click "Music". There are 3 tabs. "Score" and it appears to be the complete score, with original titles!, "Soundtrack" which is the CD album version, and then "Song" with the lyrics.

From what I gather, combining forces, the below would be a true complete score:

01 - Berk Intro (On Album- This Is Berk (split/pt 1))

02 - This Is Berk (On Album- This Is Berk (split/pt 2))

03 - Dragon Battle (Album Only) **

04 - Did Anybody See That (Expanded Only) *

05 - War Room (Expanded Only) *

06 - Training - Out There (On Album- The Downed Dragon)

07 - Hiccup Comes Home (Expanded Only) *

08 - Dragon Training

09 - Wounded

10 - The Dragon Book

11 - Focus, Hiccup!

12 - Offering (Expanded Only) *

13 - Forbidden Friendship

14 - New Tail

15 - Teamwork (Expanded Only) *

16 - Charming The Zippleback (Expanded Only) *

17 - See You Tomorrow

18 - Test Drive

19 - Not So Fireproof

20 - This Time For Sure

21 - Astrid Finds Toothless (Expanded Only) *

22 - Astrid Goes For A Spin

23 - Romantic Fight

24 - Dragon's Den

25 - Let's Find Dad (On Album- The Cove)

26 - Kill Ring - Stop Fight (On Album- The Kill Ring)

27 - You're Not A Viking (Expanded Only) *

28 - Ready - Comfort (On Album- Ready The Ships)

29 - Relax - Stroke Hell (Expanded Only) *

30 - Over - Less Okay (On Album- Battling The Green Death)

31 - Wings! (On Album- Counter Attack (split/pt 1))

32 - Counter Attack (On Album- Counter Attack (split/pt 2))

33 - Where's Hiccup (Alt) (Expanded Only) *

34 - Where's Hiccup

35 - Coming Back Around

36 - Sticks & Stones (Song by Jónsi) (Album Only) **

37 - End Credits (On Album- The Vikings Have Their Tea)

I did find it odd that, besides the song, "Dragon Battle" was only on their "Soundtrack" CD listing and not in the "Score". I put it in with the above list, as you see.

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actually the cue wheres hiccup [alt] DOES sound different, listen to the opening of each, the "high voiced" choir comes in later on the one track

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I'm listening to X-Men: The Last Stand again. Honestly, I can't get enough of this score -- this is Powell's crowning achievement, action score-wise.

I honestly don't care for his Bourne or Ice Age scores much. I do like Kung Fu Panda and How to Train your Dragon, though.

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  • 2 months later...

The samples sound very promising, but it seems Powell isn't going away from his confort zone too much... I can already hear bits from Hancock, Dragon and Ice Age 2. However, the orchestrations sound extremly good and it seems there is going to be a really nice thematic flow attached to it.

And I love how big the score sounds. The string writing is particularly impressive.

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