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If you have an Elfman sequel score maybe you can spare the first part?


GerateWohl

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From Danny Elfman's Batman score I own the OST of Batman and Batman Returns. If I feel the need to listen to Batman Returns.

I own the OSTs of "Spiderman 2" and "Alice through the Looking Glass". I like both score but I feel no need to have the first one of these.

The sequel scores seem to me often more mature. But this is highly subjective.

So, I am asking, does anyone have similar oppinion?

Or the complete opposite? Someone who always prefers the part 1 scores?

 

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1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

The sequel scores seem to me often more mature. But this is highly subjective.

So, I am asking, does anyone have similar oppinion?

Or the complete opposite? Someone who always prefers the part 1 scores?

 

 

Interesting topic. 

 

But let's look at Pee-Wee. 

 

Big Adventure is a classic score for a million reasons. Warner Brothers. 

 

The sequel score, Big Top, was not allowed to use any themes being a Paramount movie. And you could have Danny himself sing me this score, and I wouldn't recognize a note. I can't really tell you if it's more mature, but it's probably quite unrelated. So it's certainly a rare exception for your original proposal, but it is. 

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I'm an Elfman completist, so I need to have the first score, the second, and on and on, for every series.

 

But yeah -- sometimes I prefer the second over the first. BATMAN RETURNS, MEN IN BLACK 2 and SPIDER-MAN 2, to be precise.

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I agree with you in a very general sense that the sequels are better, except for Alice because I’m not super familiar with either score at this point.   However, if you “lose” Batman or Spider-man, you lose some genuine highlights not just of those scores but of Elfman’s whole career (the chemical plant raid, Descent into Mystery, and the triumphant finale from Batman 89; the first web and montages from Spider-man).  So I agree with Jay - let’s just have both!

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7 minutes ago, Positivatee said:

 

The sequel score, Big Top, was not allowed to use any themes being a Paramount movie. And you could have Danny himself sing me this score, and I wouldn't recognize a note. I can't really tell you if it's more mature, but it's probably quite unrelated. So it's certainly a rare exception for your original proposal, but it is. 


I’ve loved bits and pieces of this score for ages, especially the love theme.  We watched this movie with our kid for the first time a few months ago and, first of all, I was not ready for a super horny Pee-Wee movie!  Tying that back into the score, I was rolling in laughter with what that love theme (and specifically its build to the triumphant ending, which again I’ve always loved) actually underscored.  See 2:55 to 3:20 here 

 

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6 minutes ago, Positivatee said:

Batman Returns is as unlistenable as its movie is unwatchable. 

 

 

Well that's not very positive.

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1 minute ago, GerateWohl said:

*smart ass mode on* No. That was not a double negative but a quite negatively formulated comparison. That's something different. 

 

Of course. But when I joined this forum, I read the fine print. Smart-ass mode has been disabled. 

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26 minutes ago, mstrox said:

Descent into Mystery, and the triumphant finale from Batman 89; 

I never managed to concentrate on the music until the finale. Usually I switched off the CD before. Maybe I missed something. 

Just now, Positivatee said:

 

Of course. But when I joined this forum, I read the fine print. Smart-ass mode has been disabled. 

I am doomed.

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53 minutes ago, mstrox said:


I’ve loved bits and pieces of this score for ages, especially the love theme.  We watched this movie with our kid for the first time a few months ago and, first of all, I was not ready for a super horny Pee-Wee movie!  Tying that back into the score, I was rolling in laughter with what that love theme (and specifically its build to the triumphant ending, which again I’ve always loved) actually underscored.  See 2:55 to 3:20 here 

 

Big Top Pee Wee is better than the original

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This is a bit of a difficult question for me to answer, because the two series I've heard where he's scored two entries (Batman and Spider-Man) honestly feel very different from each other (moreso the former). There's very distinct qualities in each installment that I don't think I could definitively say I prefer one over the other. Returns has a very specific mood that sets it apart from 89. And while Spidey 2 definitely is a great maturation of the concept for Elfman, the first score has a very childlike innocence and energy to it that the sequel largely eschews. So until I give the MIB sequels a go, and listen to both Alice scores, I feel I'm in the camp where I'd pretty much would want to keep both.

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I love Spider-Man 2, and agree it's a wonderful maturation of the themes, but Spider-Man 1 has always been a classic for me. I imagine this isn't a popular opinion around here, but I think every note, and every track in the film, is perfect in Spider-Man (2002). Each for completely different reasons. 

 

My example is always the film version of the track "The Fire". It could have just been another epic / heroic track with slight suspense, but how it starts off right out the gate, as suspenseful and terrifying, building up perfectly to what seem to be dissonant resolution in the trombones, and suddenly the Spider-Man "B" theme springs from the trumpets. Then the uncertainty in the strings and woodwinds, to the eventual buildup to a new variant of the main Spider-Man theme. Not to mention the pure tension onwards after Spider-Man re-enters the building. Every note of that track adds so much to that scene's tone and atmosphere. 

 

 

Still have to listen to Batman Returns as well, but I have my doubts on whether it can really beat the first film's score.

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I feel like Spidey 2's greatest strength is Doc Ock's theme. The Goblin's theme is a very slithery and appropriate baddie theme, but I really dig the low brass in its successor. Otherwise I somewhat prefer the first score.

 

Batman is interesting. I like the first score in the film but haven't ever acquired it on album; I do have the second score, but I have kind of a love-hate relationship with that one. Lots of good moments but it gets on my nerves after a while.

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This thread has made me realize that I don't think I've actually ever listened to the Big Top Pee Wee score (other than the track on Music For A Darkened Theater of course).  I should rectify that...

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I don’t think the score needs a complete presentation, but you have to go with the LLL anyway because it drops the constant dialogue.  If you liked the MFADT suite, you’re getting more of that, just some bouncy business and variations of the themes you’re familiar with.

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At listening again to "Alice Through the Looking Glass" I realized once more how much this sounds like Elfman's Avengers scores and even like Spiderman in parts.

But when you get used to that it is quite good.

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