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What score do you prefer: Hook or The Philosopher Stone?


Edmilson

JW's fantasy scores  

96 members have voted

  1. 1. What score do you prefer?

    • Hook
    • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone


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I love both but went for Potter, probably because, like the poster above me, it instils more nostalgia in me. I'm not a Potter movie fan at all but the music was so prevalent in the early 00s.   

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17 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

No just wondering, as it is fairly down the middle. Would like to see who is like-minded :)

 

Done. Just click on the number of voters for each option to see who voted on what.

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Hook, didn't even need to think about it.

 

Don't get me wrong, they're both A+ scores, but Hook is, in my mind, a JW masterpiece, with every single cue essential and every melody unforgettable. HP1, for all its wonders, has many more longueurs and fewer constant stretches of pure musical invention. I particularly agree with @Jay on how effectively Hook is crafted as an overall score, with set-up and payoff for all the major themes and a feeling of beginning, middle, and end that I don't quite get with HP1's more sprawling narrative. Particularly with 9m3 ("The Banquet") onward, it's a constant succession of all-time-great Williams cues (give or take "When You're Alone"...).

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13 hours ago, publicist said:

Potter is a more refined work, with more idiomatic depth than the all-out cutesy Disney excesses of Hook. Still, i wouldn't want to lose cues like Farewell Neverland. 

 

But Hook is a Tristar picture.

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Hook was one of the first film scores that I was aware of as a young kid, and that I loved. Long before I understood that scores are written by someone, long before I owned any soudntrack at all, I loved the music of Hook.

 

HP1 was one of the first OST I owned, and I have to say it was a disappointment at that time... just because it was my first experience with the fact that soundtracks were incomplete! Until then, the only soundtracks I had were the SW trilogy double-CDs and the Ultimate Edition of TPM. I honestly believed that a OST would include all the music in the film! I remember desperately trying to figure out why the "Entry to the Great Hall" music wasn't there on the track with that name! lol

 

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1 hour ago, oierem said:

HP1 was one of the first OST I owned, and I have to say it was a disappointment at that time... just because it was my first experience with the fact that soundtracks were incomplete! Until then, the only soundtracks I had were the SW trilogy double-CDs and the Ultimate Edition of TPM. I honestly believed that a OST would include all the music in the film! I remember desperately trying to figure out why the "Entry to the Great Hall" music wasn't there on the track with that name! lol

I had a similar struggle with the Lost World OST. Why for example could excerpts from "Ludlow's Demise" be heard at three different spots in the film? When you don't know anything about tracking and re-arranging for album experiences yet, that can be very confusing.

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I do wonder what the demographics are for each side of this vote...it does appear that the original (Pre-Potter) class of JWFANs voted for Hook, give or take a King Mark.

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19 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

I could be wrong but I seem to recall JWFaners at the time being disappointed with Potter when it came out.

I think the majority really liked it.  My biggest complaint was there was too much Hedwig's theme throughout the score.  There were also some unfulfilled expectation issues when the music from the trailer did not make it into Hedwig's concert theme itself (which was itself premiered the summer before the movie).  

 

In terms of the considered topic, many thought Quidditch music hearkened back to the Ultimate War.  

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I remember reading somewhere that the general thinking when Harry Potter came out was that it was a rehash of Hook without the magic. Funny how things shift. I tried to find a JWFAN "Hook vs. Potter" poll from 15 years ago, alas without success...

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11 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

I could be wrong but I seem to recall JWFaners at the time being disappointed with Potter when it came out.

 

I was, and I still kinda am. I mean, "Hedwig's theme" was great (back when it was fresh and not played to death as it is now), and it had a couple of neat setpieces, like "Chess Game". But overall, I found it too directionless. Lots of tropes, little development or definition. A far, far cry from the consistently thematic and enjoyable HOOK - despite its long running time.

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CHAMBER is fine (and it has that gorgeous Phoenix theme), but that didn't make much an impression either, at least not on me. It was only with AZKABAN that I was truly wowed. I still consider it one of his best scores of the 2000s. It was as if the Williams of the early to mid 90s had suddenly and unexpectedly been ressurected for this - at a time when his style, post-A.I., had really evolved elsewhere.

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3 hours ago, Thor said:

CHAMBER is fine (and it has that gorgeous Phoenix theme)

 

Don't forget that magnificent (and criminally underused in the score) Chamber of Secrets theme.

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5 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

That theme isn't very good it's the arrangement that elevates it.

I can make a copy for you of the expanded score if you like, it's much more developed in the LLL than on the OST.

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When do the polls close? ;)

 

5 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

I heard the same and couldn't believe it either. How on earth does HP1 lack magic? It's overflowing with magic. Five seconds and I still feel like I just entered a completely new world.

 

I remember people thinking it would be "the next Hook" and then being disappointed that it wasn't.

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11 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

I remember people thinking it would be "the next Hook" and then being disappointed that it wasn't.

 

How so? Hook is a nautical adventures about Pirates, and HPPS revolves around a school of magic. Two very different films. 

 

It's the same as expecting that Adventures of Tintin would be the next Raiders of the Lost Ark... oh wait.

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7 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

That theme isn't very good, it's the arrangement that elevates it.


What criteria are we basing how “good” a theme is? For me this is a great theme. 

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1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

 

How so? Hook is a nautical adventures about Pirates, and HPPS revolves around a school of magic. Two very different films. 

 

It's the same as expecting that Adventures of Tintin would be the next Raiders of the Lost Ark... oh wait.

 

Not sure what you mean. This thread is about the music.

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1 hour ago, JTWfan77 said:

Not sure what you mean. This thread is about the music.

 

I know, I just found a little odd that people were expecting similar music from Hook on Philosopher's Stone, two fantasy movies that are very different from each other.

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22 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

I heard the same and couldn't believe it either. How on earth does HP1 lack magic? It's overflowing with magic. Five seconds and I still feel like I just entered a completely new world.

 

The "Potter = sub-Hook" sentiment was something I could get behind back when I discovered Hook in 2007,  and I was overwhelmed by the abundance of themes, the great setpieces, the bright orchestrations. At some point it was ostensibly my favourite JW score, tied with Schindler's List. But it's like Karol described, I sort of grew out of it. 

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