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John Powell's PAN (2015)


Not Mr. Big

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Hmmm movie looks kind of interesting after all. Though I want to see Wright's intended version, not the studio-meddled version. Oh well.

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The full details of the soundtrack album for Joe Wright’s fantasy adventure Pan have been announced. The album features the film’s original music composed by John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon, The Bourne Identity, Happy Feet, Shrek, X-Men: The Last Stand). Also included are two tracks performed by Lily Allen. The soundtrack will be released in early October in the U.S. by WaterTower Music and overseas by Sony Classical. Pan is directed by Joe Wright and stars Hugh Jackman, Garrett Hedlund, Rooney Mara, Adeel Akhtar and Levi Miller. The movie based on the classic story by J.M. Barrie is set during WWII and follows an orphan who is kidnapped by pirates and brought to Neverland, where he discovers he’s destined to save the land from the pirate Blackbeard. The Warner Bros. Pictures production will be released nationwide on October 9. For updates on the film, visit the official movie website.

Here’s the album track list:

1. Opening Overture

2. Air Raid/ Office Raid

3. Kidnapped/ Galleon Dog Fight

4. Floating/ Neverland Ahoy!

5. Smells Like Teen Spirit – Cast from Pan

6. Blitzkrieg Bop – Cast from Pan

7. Murmurs of Love and Death

8. Mine Escape

9. Inverted Galleon

10. Neverbirds

11. Something’s Not Right – Lily Allen

12. Tramp Stamp

13. Origin Story

14. Pirates vs Natives vs Heroes vs Chickens

15. Crocodiles and Mermaids

16. A Warrior’s Fate

17. Flying Ship Fight

18. A Boy Who Could Fly

19. Transfiguration

20. Fetching the Boys

21. Little Soldier – Lily Allen

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2015/09/17/pan-soundtrack-details/

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Thank you BloodBoal for the links. The action stuff is pretty standard Powell bombast, not on the same level as HTTYD but still good. I sense notable influences from the "Mars Needs Moms" score in some of the themes. However I really love "Mermaid Rescue music_02" and "Neverland Your Room loop", in particular I like how he mixes the harp, celeste and synth in the first one. Will definitely be picking up the final score!

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  • 2 weeks later...

The droll classicisms in OVERTURE sound much more engaging than the run-of-the-mill orchestral stuff for the big action scenes. I wlll buy it as pleasing-enough and mildly diverting - if derivative - musical goulash - Powell's very own HOOK.

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It's on YT and while i wish Powell would have been allowed/encouraged to bypass his ROBOTS/HTTYD/ICE AGE/BOLT mannerisms - catchy as they are - there is an attempt like in this overture to enrich that with some more substantial romantic writing it's basically a variation on JNH's PETER PAN with less mickey-mousing and more show-offy action pieces.

Given its light nature - it's less kitchen sink than usual for Powell - it is easy to like, though.

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A couple of cues in, I'm a bit disappointed by how familiar all of it is really. But there's this one idea I'm really digging and it appears at 1:15 in the overture, with special mention to the passage at 1:30-ish.

I'll write more once I've finished the whole thing.

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It's all right. Kind of disappointing, but then that was kind of my first impression of HTTYD 2, and I love that now.

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The only cue I'm 'digging' is 'Floating - Neverland Ahoy!', part of which was in one of the samples.

I'm not hooked on what I assume is Powell's main theme (which I've realised has a hymnal quality to it). I have yet to properly listen to the action material however - there could be some highlights.

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Smells Like Teen Spirit :music:

I'm also impressed by the second section of the overture, especially the chord change was handled very well. Will be listening to the whole thing...

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You should write a review! It's been far too long since the last one! MusicMuse is dead!

Those days are long gone :(

But I'd like to see them return. We shall see!

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You should write a review! It's been far too long since the last one! MusicMuse is dead!

Those days are long gone :(

But I'd like to see them return. We shall see!

You should get back to that, KK!

Karol

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What's up with those Kusturica-like snyth trumpets and percussion in Kidnapped - Galleon Dog Fight? Sure, it's cool but I somehow can't picture this fitting into a freakin' Peter Pan movie.

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I agree with most of it, though I liked it more than it seems you did. The scores flies for me (even if at medium altitude).

About the two cast songs: I also noticed that "Co-produced by Dario Marianelli" in the booklet, and I think it could mean that both songs were originally there when Marinelli was still involved in the project and he probably even arranged them. Then Powell came in and recorded them (hence why he also got a "co-produced" credit on the song).

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As I said in that article, it's not that any of the ingredients is bad. It just doesn't quite gel for me as an album. But that has probably more to do with the film than anything else.

Karol

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I think that's the only real problem the score has. Apart from the overture and some moments here and there, it feels more like a step backwards for Powell instead of what HTTYD2 seemed to be in terms of pushing the composer forward.

It's like he threw all his past tricks together. Which mind you, doesn't make for a bad score, but for a 2015 Powell it's kinda worrying.

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The thing is, we don't know yet how much time he had to compose the score. Maybe a lot of the score's shortcomings can be attributed to a lack of time.

Not everyone can pull a JNH when doing a replacement score!

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