indy4 155 Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Often, Mickey-Mousing can be difficult to listen to outside of the film because it can disrupt the flow of the music. But when done properly, it can really enhance a scene AND make for a really interesting listen. Here are some of my favorite examples of Mickey-Mousing:- "Arrival of Baby Harry": when Dumbledore takes the lights out, and Williams accents these with choir, strings, and percussion- "Airplane Fight": pretty much the entire cue- "Down The Rope/Into The Park" from Home Alone 2: at 1:20 Williams accents Kevin pressing 911- "Whirl Through Academe": pretty much the entire cue. I think the reason this works so well as a listening experience is because awkward brass hits seems to be a through line for Mutt. We get them all throughout "The Adventures of Mutt" (for instance, the last 3 brass hits in the piece), and so by the time it comes around in "Whirl" it feels very naturalOther examples? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faleel 5,417 Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Williams: Indy's very first adventureNon-Williams: Back to the Future Doc's Theme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,241 Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Wagner: Der Ring des NibelungenNo, seriously, this things to pop up in "classical" music. Strauss is an obvious example (half of his Alpensinfonie is either straightforward mickey mousing or a kind of metaphorical mickey mousing). Wagner has several mousey bits in his operas. I assume most "modern" directors (the kind that has to reinterpret everything the original librettist wrote) try to hide that, but the current Viennese staging by Bechtolf uses it to great effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,493 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Just way too many examples to list. One of my very favorites is probably the opening of Last Crusade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Score_Fan 36 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Thor kills the destroyer (film version)Used to perfection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demodex 557 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 What is Mickey-Mousing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Score_Fan 36 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 When music is synchronized right in line/perfectly with what's being shown on screen.Like when you see a mickey mouse cartoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Datameister 2,091 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Well, nearly all film scores are written and recorded to synchronize perfectly with what's being shown on screen. The thing that differentiates Mickey-Mousing is that it constantly and overtly accentuates that synchrony by highlighting every punch, bounce, splash, surprise, and whatnot. Instead of broadly scoring the overarching emotions that run through the scenes, the composer opts to work in a moment-by-moment fashion that sounds right at home in a cartoon but can annoy some listeners.Personally, I think Williams is a master of tasteful Mickey-Mousing - or at least, he was. In later years, his action music has shifted away from those overarching emotions so much that it's sometimes started to leave me cold. But Williams' best action music (from ANY era) tends to find a great balance between clarifying the broader emotions and highlighting all the individual actions onscreen.ROTLA's "Pffist Fight" comes to mind as one of my very favorite examples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hlao-roo 389 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Looney Tunes: Back in Action comes to mind. When Goldsmith chose to "mickey-mouse," he did it exceptionally well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck 155 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Looney Tunes: Back in Action comes to mind. When Goldsmith chose to "mickey-mouse," he did it exceptionally well.I was about to post that example, LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,637 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 I hate listening to that stuff alone, but there's unquestionably good stuff in the context of certain films and cartoons.There was lots of it in Williams' INDY 4 and TINTIN, just to mention two recent examples. Which is the primary reason why I don't like them so much on CD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
publicist 4,643 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Williams did his best mousing impressions in TEMPLE OF DOOM, the two HOME ALONE's and lately TINTIN. There's a lightness to them and still they sound refined and musically complete., which is no easy feat for such slapdash material.Goldsmith had a great main title cue in DENNIS THE MENACE and SECRET OF NIMH has some delightful musical reactions to on-screen action.Broughton has HONEY I BLEW UP THE BABY, which is ingenious and BABY'S DAY OUT has wonderful cues, too. Watch out for a little homage to the IMPERIAL MARCH in the cue 'Veeko and the Elevator'.Horner has done so many i refuse to list them all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh500 1,615 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Just way too many examples to list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brónach 1,302 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 I'm crazy about good Mickey Mousing.I think good Mickey Mousing accentuates the moment but retains an "overarching emotion" through the whole thing at the same time. In the case of the recent Tintin, there are cues of a shifting "comedy and adventure" all the way through. I find it amazing. I didn't always like it this way, I used to prefer different approaches, but I've slowly gained a better appreciation of it through the years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh500 1,615 Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Yes, John Williams is a master when it comes to Mickey Mousing.But sometimes he goes even one step further! In Jurassic Park, I was very impressed with the way he scored the scene in which an injured Malcom is sitting alone in the back of the jeep, waiting for the others to return. Malcom starts to hear the seismic T-Rex footfalls slowly approaching. JW accentuates each footstep with a menacing cue played by deep brass instruments. Like this: BOOM - (cue) - BOOM - (cue) - BOOM BOOM (cue played twice). And then Malcom says, "I am fairly alarmed here" and the music really gets going, as if the orchestra was given the cue by Malcom himself!Also at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan the camera pans slowly over the grave markers of the fallen soldiers in the cemetery. Each time the camera passes over a grave marker, JW accentuates the moment with a tight military drum flourish, almost as if JW is saluting himself (I think this happens three times). I was quite impressed with this too. You can hear this in the track "Revisiting Normandy."These examples are not strictly Mickey Mousing, but further techniques that JW uses to enhance the movie-watching experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,241 Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 There was lots of it in Williams' INDY 4 and TINTIN, just to mention two recent examples. Which is the primary reason why I don't like them so much on CD.It bugs me a lot in Indy 4, simply because it doesn't strike me as musical. But in Tintin, it all makes sense in a pure listening experience, so I appreciate it all the more.Korngold of course used a lot of wonderful mickey mousing in his swashbuckler scores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,637 Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 There was lots of it in Williams' INDY 4 and TINTIN, just to mention two recent examples. Which is the primary reason why I don't like them so much on CD.It bugs me a lot in Indy 4, simply because it doesn't strike me as musical. But in Tintin, it all makes sense in a pure listening experience, so I appreciate it all the more.Korngold of course used a lot of wonderful mickey mousing in his swashbuckler scores.Steiner was crazy about it too, and he also loved putting in those brief arrangements of popular and classical tunes. Which is why I can hardly listen to him, legendary as he is.I once bought one of the Carl Stalling CD's, just to see what all the fuss was about, but by God, I couldn't stand it and quickly sold it. On the other hand, I guess I can see the fascination for it, like John Zorn has in the liner notes, as some sort of weird, eclectic art expression. Like watching a jumbled series of images in an art installation or something. Just not for me.I'm very fascinated by its use in context, though. Some incredible skill going into those old Disney cartoons etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrJosh 892 Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I'm always impressed with the mickey-mousing in the old Looney Toons themselves. I have a big Looney Toon collection on DVD and man, the scores on those are so complicated! So many moments synced up perfectly to a lot of crazy mickey-mousing stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,493 Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Here's an Elfman example I've dug since I was a wee boy: 0:57, Pee-Wee knocking on the door. So awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Looney Tunes: Back in Action comes to mind. When Goldsmith chose to "mickey-mouse," he did it exceptionally well.Chose? You mean forced at gunpoint by Dante! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indy4 155 Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 That Pee-Wee example is a great one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherief83 2 Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Here is my own Micky mousing for fun. 480p is recommended.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEeZtjQYJBM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmmusic 1,885 Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Well My favourite Mickey mousing music is all the music from the classic Disney shorts and looney tunes.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrJosh 892 Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Here is my own Micky mousing for fun. 480p is recommended.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEeZtjQYJBMHey, that's really great! That must have taken some serious time to write the music in a way that syncs with so many points in that clip! Really fun to watch, and really fun music too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marian Schedenig 8,241 Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Steiner was crazy about it too, and he also loved putting in those brief arrangements of popular and classical tunes. Which is why I can hardly listen to him, legendary as he is.Steiner is hit and miss for me. Some stuff is awesome, other scores just confuse me with a plethora of non-original themes all over the place.The Gone With the Wind overture has to be the best film music related encore pieces of all time. Even beats Supergirl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck 155 Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Steiner was crazy about it too, and he also loved putting in those brief arrangements of popular and classical tunes. Which is why I can hardly listen to him, legendary as he is.Steiner is hit and miss for me. Some stuff is awesome, other scores just confuse me with a plethora of non-original themes all over the place.The Gone With the Wind overture has to be the best film music related encore pieces of all time. Even beats Supergirl.I find Alfred Newman's "How The West Was Won" overture to be the best film music overture ever composed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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