Jump to content

John Powell's CALL OF THE WILD (2020)


PrayodiBA

Recommended Posts

Another clip! With full tune fully heard.

 

I love that the tune sounds like Powell's old style tunes, like Drumline, or any of his pre 2010 score.

This really puts a big smile on my face right now. Really cant wait.

 

Update:

Powell called the tune "Working Riff" and "Dog Team Tune"

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It reminded me a little of some older Powell stuff like Bolt and the Ice Age sequels, but with Americana. He clearly had fun with this score, without the pressure of Solo and the epic heights of HTTD 3. Can't wait to hear another fun, wholesome Powell score!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

It reminded me a little of some older Powell stuff like Bolt and the Ice Age sequels, but with Americana. He clearly had fun with this score, without the pressure of Solo and the epic heights of HTTD 3. Can't wait to hear another fun, wholesome Powell score!

Yes! Thats exactly the term. 

He clearly has no pressure in this. (While i also think he has no pressure working on Ferdinand too, but i think the result is too somber/soft, not too playful/loud; and his music was still limited to Spanish flavour)

 

Anyway, The tunes above does remind me, in a way, of Drumline's theme:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

Chicken Run is incredibly overrated.

 

dude wtf

 

18 hours ago, PrayodiBA said:

Another clip! With full tune fully heard.

 

I love that the tune sounds like Powell's old style tunes, like Drumline, or any of his pre 2010 score.

This really puts a big smile on my face right now. Really cant wait.

 

Reminds me a bit of his Evolution score. That's a score I need to revisit, I remember being very lukewarm on it. Didn't help that I thought the movie a bit obnoxious. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chicken Run's mixed horridly in he film and I couldn't get through it on its own. Feels like Powell not really being his own self and doing his own thing but trying to do something else instead of soaring free with flowing themes or I dunno.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Perhaps you feel that because it's a collaborative score.

His voice came through much clearer in Shrek.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Someone needs to tell Powel he should put on a proper shirt.

 

4 hours ago, Holko said:

His voice came through much clearer in Shrek.

 

I think both of them have the ability to excel in animated movies. But of course, not everything they do in this genre is gold.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Burligame's report about the score:

 

Quote

‘Call of the Wild’ Composer on How Music Became Protagonist Dog’s Voice

 

Jack London’s “The Call of the Wild” ranks as one of the most famous books about a canine ever written. So director Chris Sanders knew that the composer of his film adaptation simply had to be a dog lover.

 

Luckily, Sanders’ “How to Train Your Dragon” composer, John Powell, has two standard poodles. And when Powell watched a full-length animatic version of the film, long before there was even a rough cut, he wasn’t the only one who appreciated the work. “My older dog Chase sat and watched the whole thing with me on the couch,” the composer reports.

 

Powell (who earned an Oscar nomination for his 2010 “Dragon” score) was also the right choice, Sanders says, for “his ability to transport us so fully to a time and place” — in this case the Yukon Territory during the Gold Rush days of the 1890s. The music needed to be “something a little bit folksy,” the director explains.

 

Powell calls it “immigrant music, a kind of music that seemed to be part of that world.” Thus, banjos, accordions, mandolins, guitars, fiddles and harmonium become the heart of the score, although they’re augmented by a 90-piece orchestra and 60-voice choir to deliver, as Sanders says, “moments when you need scale and majesty.”

 

To hear Powell explain it, “People didn’t take grand pianos up to those kinds of places; they would take accordions and banjos, maybe because they were from France or Ireland, but also because they were mobile.” Irish flutes, Native American flutes and penny whistles round out the many ethnic sounds that color the score.

 

The “immigrant” sound also hints at Irish, English and Scottish flavors and rhythmic, dance-like movement throughout. “I do write in dance form,” Powell concedes. “[The music] can be very slow because people are just talking, or very fast because people are in peril, but dance is, to me, very much the sound of music.”

 

He cites a sequence from another outdoors movie as an inspirational model: the barn dance from the 1954 classic “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” “They take a little phrase from [the song] ‘Bless Your Beautiful Hide’ and whip it into this amazing construct that keeps heading in different directions. So this idea that all sorts of life are a dance is always there.”

 

Although in “Call of the Wild,” Harrison Ford is top-billed as Thornton, the film’s central character is the dog Buck, kidnapped from his comfortable California home and transported to an uncertain future north of the Canadian border. As Sanders notes, the film is filled with scenes where no one speaks. “Music is the voice for these critical moments where we’re alone with Buck,” he explains. “In a very real sense, music is the voice of Buck.”

 

As usual in Powell scores, multiple themes serve various aspects of the story. But Buck’s “work tune” is the most fun, involving an ensemble of 12 banjos. “It’s about the toughness of work and the nobility of running,” Powell says.

 

He used the same dozen players — session guitarists who have played on everything from Steely Dan to Britney Spears, he says — to perform passages on acoustic guitar and mandolin, depending on the scene.

 

While the score follows Buck’s adventures, there’s also music of “regret and loss” for Thornton, Powell says. “He’s the facilitator of Buck’s launch into a world that he can be authentic in. It’s way more than a coming-of-age story; it’s a transition story. It’s finding your way in the world.”

 

There is also, Sanders notes, an initially disquieting sound for the mysterious giant black wolf that only Buck can see. And the choir, Powell reports, sings phrases in the Inuit language of the indigenous peoples of northern Alaska and the northern Canadian provinces.

 

As for the dogs, Sanders introduced Powell’s pups Chase and Moose to Buckley, the Kansas rescue dog that Sanders and his wife adopted and became the digitally scanned model for Buck in the movie. Buckley came to the recording sessions, and, reports Powell, “he was wonderfully calm and encouraging to the orchestra.”

 

Says Sanders: “Music is the closest you can get to real magic. When we work on these films, I always feel that we get about 50% there and the score takes you the other 50% of the way. John brought Buck’s voice to the story. He did the heavy lifting, story-wise. He speaks for the wilderness — he brought the environment to life — and he speaks for Buck.” 

 

https://variety.com/2020/music/production/call-of-the-wild-music-1203506883/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just listened to the album.

 

Pretty good! Imagine a mix between HTTYD and Bolt with Marco Beltrami's The Homesman and Thomas Newman's The Horse Whisperer.

 

On this first introduction, I didn't loved as much as I did when I listened to The Hidden World for the first time, but still, it'll be great to study this score over the next few days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was it even announced that this would get a physical CD?

 

Like I said,

 

On 1/16/2020 at 4:41 PM, Jay said:

There are not going to be many film scores written in the 2020s that get released on physical CD. Just the way it is

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, to be honest,

on first listen, is a tad underwhelming.

 

What i hope to be a "wholesome" playful score, this score turns to be a whole lot more serious, softer, and sadder.

 

Add to that, what i assume to the main theme ( first heard in the opening track) is not that strong IMO,and in fact, this is the might be rare time where i dont really like Powell's theme ( that somehow mainstream sounding scottish-like tune in the b section of the theme, ugh)

 

Overall a bit disappointing ON THE FIRST LISTEN. Considering the wait and expectation, and being so called "Powell fan" myself

 

But i hope this can grow on me on repeat listen

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, PrayodiBA said:

Well, to be honest,

on first listen, is a tad underwhelming.

 

What i hope to be a "wholesome" playful score, this score turns to be a whole lot more serious, softer, and sadder.

 

May I suggest giving this playlist a try. Equal parts fun whilst introducing some of the more dramatic and moving material in the second half.

 

01. Wake The Girls (2:37)
02. Skagway, Alaska (2:31)
03. Snowy Climb (1:25)
04. Joining The Team (2:59)
05. Buck Takes the Lead (4:55)
06. We Carry Love (3:02)
07. The Ghost Wolf Of Dreams (1:06)
08. Couldn’t Find The Words (2:22)
09. Buck And Thornton’s Big Adventure (4:36)
10. Finding Bears And Love In The Woods (2:57)
11. Rewilding (3:48)
12. Come Say Goodbye (2:09)
13. Ice Rescue (2:26)
14. What An Adventure (3:02)
15. The Call Of The Wild (2:51)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally on Spotify. The first track is gorgeous - I'm liking this style!

 

Track 2 even better. That string turning to choral writing is just... wow :o

 

Although I keep expecting to hear one of the HTTYD themes start during the quieter bits.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Jay said:

Was it even announced that this would get a physical CD?

 

Like I said,

 

Ferdinand, Solo and HTTYD3 all got CD releases. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, first listen.

It's... good. But like HTTYD3, or rather probably even more so, I felt like most of it just went by without me really latching onto anything, and especially with nothing really explicitly reaching out for me to grab and follow it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Arpy said:

What indication do we have that Disney won't release more physical releases, when they've consistently released major film scores on the format?

Only some of them.

 

Karol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm enjoying the OST, but it really is just a *wee* bit too close to Evolution for comfort on first listen.  I might not mind as much if Evolution wasn't already one of my all-time favorite Powell scores.

 

But the instrumentation and orchestration for COTW are really enjoyable to listen to.  I often enjoy Powell more in his small-to-mid-scale mode than his grand epic mode.

 

Compare 0:56 -1:06 here

 

To 0:29 - 0:39 here

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, it's not a temp thing. Powell just doesn't really tread new harmonic or melodic territory, so a lot of his stuff naturally bleeds into each other. But because its done so damn well, and he's one of the few composers still actively exercising the full colours and range of the orchestral ensemble, you could forgive him. ;)

 

I'm looking forward to checking this out. You can always count on Powell for a good ride! 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, KK said:

No, it's not a temp thing. Powell just doesn't really tread new harmonic or melodic territory, so a lot of his stuff naturally bleeds into each other. But because its done so damn well, and he's one of the few composers still actively exercising the full colours and range of the orchestral ensemble, you could forgive him. ;)

 

 

 

Hey, that's just a longer, more intelligent version of what I said.  How dare you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Hey, that's just a longer, more intelligent version of what I said.  How dare you!

 

Nothing like waxing some pointless poetic to drive a point home! ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.