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Mulan (2020) by Harry Gregson-Williams


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1 hour ago, Pieter Boelen said:

This is one film that I do believe lends itself well to a live-action approach.

(Together with Atlantis and Treasure Planet; incidentally my three favourite Disney animations. ;) )

 

These are interesting choices. I approve. All 3 are great films, and two of them in particular are under-rated in the extreme.

 

Now if you had said Dinosaur, and you weren't referring to the awesome JNH score, I would have balked slightly.

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10 hours ago, blondheim said:

Now if you had said Dinosaur, and you weren't referring to the awesome JNH score, I would have balked slightly.

Dinosaur doesn't really need a live-action remake, does it?

It pretty much already is. ;)

 

Movie is decent enough, but not truly amazing.

No wonder, since it's got Jurassic Park and Land Before Time to compete with.

 

Music is excellent though.

Love those JNH themes! :D

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50 minutes ago, Fabulin said:

The Land Before Time is a pop mush compared to JNH's textbook example of great scoring though.

 

The Land Before Time is a masterpiece, classical rip-offs and all. This comment makes me sad. I don't know who hurt you, but I'm sorry.

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16 hours ago, Pieter Boelen said:

Have you seen it?

 

On 8/5/2020 at 10:04 AM, Jay said:

Disney is finally releasing this film, on September 4th, on Disney+

 

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20 hours ago, Smeltington said:

It was a rhetorical question!

It was my way of trying to remain positive about it until proven otherwise.

 

That said... I not at all happy with the release strategy.

Cinema tickets here used to be 10 euro's.

And I've got a cinema pass I haven't used in months.

So I'm paying for nothing right now; and I have to pay three movie's worth of fee for a Disney+ service I'm also already paying for?

 

I do understand where they're coming from.

But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sample!: https://music.apple.com/nz/album/mulan-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/1529680028

 

Awaiting full release this midnight.

 

Judging by the short sample on the very first track,

it sounds really Narnian,

and the rest, sounds really promising. This is really HGW back to his full fantasy mode.

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Its on spotify now.


Well, after hearing it in full.

Theose short samples can be deceiving indeed.

 

This is no Jerry Goldsmith. And it’s far from his original score.

And in fact, this is far from HGW’s own outing like Kingdom of Heaven or Narnia.

 

This score is more in the vein of Prince of Persia.

With a weaker, pedestrian theme.

( please do not even try to compare HGW’s Mulan theme with Goldsmith’s)

 

As a major score release since pandemic broke out, this is underwhelming, especially when you expect HGW to channel his KoH.

 

Yes, there are still nice moments here and there, but thats it. Its run of the mill effort by HGW and personally, this is not a repeat listens material

( Make me respect John Powell even more; the man can create all tracks engaging in their own, from start to finish)

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I liked the score. There's some beautiful moments that bring back the HGW of Narnia and Kingdom of Heaven. The main theme is good, but it gets repetitive after a while.

 

I didn't cared for the action music though. Too modern and electronic, could've been for an urban thriller instead of a Chinese epic.

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It has it’s moments, I’ll admit. But overall, it’s just a bit bland. Nothing I will be in a hurry to return to.

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On 9/5/2020 at 3:56 AM, LSH said:

It has it’s moments, I’ll admit. But overall, it’s just a bit bland. Nothing I will be in a hurry to return to.

 

Just finished listening to it and I agree with your assessment. A pity (the score, not our reaction to it)!

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Just saw this movie last night. It wasnt that bad. And HGW score was pretty good just not as rich as I was expecting. SOme cues were were standout and I do intend to pick this cd soon. The themes are short but the overall orchestration is colorful and vivid, much like the cinematography.Anyways, I just pulled out my old Goldsmith Muan cd album. Hopefully, Disney will get to expanding this superb Goldsmith score out some day. 

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Jon Broxton from MMUK really liked the score, and called it one of the best adventure scores of the year:

 

https://moviemusicuk.us/2020/09/11/mulan-harry-gregson-williams/

 

Though I wonder he said that because we didn't have many adventure scores this year.

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On 9/9/2020 at 4:30 AM, Albus Percival Wulfric said:

Overall it felt to me like a modern action version of some of the blatantly propaganda-friendly films made in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany (or some more old-fashioned westerns). A character-moralizing message piled on a moralizing message, and not in the light-hearted animated way. The film is watchable and somewhat entertaining, but uncomfortable on the edges.

 

The disturbing thing was that Mulan's father was characterized to resemble Xi:

The casting of Disney Mulan's father is to please the Chinese audience? :  China

Most people in America wouldn’t get this reference. I wonder if Mulan was meant to play specifically strong in China.

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On 9/11/2020 at 12:49 PM, Bayesian said:

Most people in America wouldn’t get this reference. I wonder if Mulan was meant to play specifically strong in China.


There’s no doubt in my mind that it was. Disney commonly likes to appeal to China with their films.
 

Wasn’t there controversy and call for boycott awhile back in relation to one of the stars and the Hong Kong protests, in support of China? I vaguely remember something about that. Has very little to do with the film itself though, I’m sure it gives it a boost in China though. 

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On 9/11/2020 at 6:18 PM, Edmilson said:

Jon Broxton from MMUK really liked the score, and called it one of the best adventure scores of the year:

 

It is neither the first, nor the last time Jon and I disagree strongly on a soundtrack. :D

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Lol. Something about reducing an entire musical culture to a sample library from which to pick and choose the sounds you like seems kind of problematic to me. But I guess that's how film music operates these days...

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On 9/12/2020 at 10:44 PM, Edmilson said:

Even still, the movie is being a box office bomb in China


Mulan may have flopped ‘theatrically’, but was in no way a flop.

 

Reports indicate that about 9 million subscribers purchased the movie on VOD for a total of $270 million.

 

Not only that, Disney can rake home all

the profits since there are no middle hands.

 

Goodbye movie theatres, it was fun while it lasted.

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nearly-onethird-of-us-households-purchased-mulan-on-disney-for-30-fee-data-221410961.html?guccounter=1

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2 hours ago, rough cut said:


Mulan may have flopped ‘theatrically’, but was in no way a flop.

 

Reports indicate that about 9 million subscribers purchased the movie on VOD for a total of $270 million.

 

Not only that, Disney can rake home all

the profits since there are no middle hands.

 

Goodbye movie theatres, it was fun while it lasted.

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nearly-onethird-of-us-households-purchased-mulan-on-disney-for-30-fee-data-221410961.html?guccounter=1

 

These reports are wrong. Mulan probably made about US$ 90 millions according to more reliable data.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2020/09/20/mulan-making-sense-of-its-box-office-and-pvod-grosses/#28b0b4b63d13

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5 hours ago, KK said:

Lol. Something about reducing an entire musical culture to a sample library from which to pick and choose the sounds you like seems kind of problematic to me. But I guess that's how film music operates these days...

 

As opposed to picking and choosing the sounds you like from a musical culture without a sample library, like composers did for decades prior? 

 

Like every Irish or Scottish fiddle/flute/pipe sound in any movie score ever? 

Like every castanet/guitar combo ever evoking Spain? 

Like highland pipes ex machina for Ironfoot? 

Like Ney Flute? Sitar? The James Horner Shakuhachi? 

 

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I don't think computers have anything to do with it. Did Dario Marianelli used a computer for Kubo? I thought that score was massively underwhelming as well (although probably had more personality than Mulan). 

 

HGW didn't seem that interested in incorporating Chinese style music in Mulan anyway. Just a couple token cues. 

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