Menken/Schwartz: Hunchback vs. Pocahontas

[WampaRat 1,105]

With the release of the legacy edition of Hunchback (all issues aside), we have a much fuller picture of the score and music from Menken and Schwartz second collaboration.

 

Overall, which of their two classic animated works do you prefer? Pocahontas or Hunchback of Notre Dame? 
 

I find them comparable as they are  both some of the most mature/soaring/ heart-rending music ever written during the 90s Disney Renaissance. 

 

 

[Thor 7,504]

HUNCHBACK has the best songs, POCAHONTAS has the best score. But both are great, obviously.

[Edmilson 7,448]

I love Pocahontas' score, is one of my favorites ever for an animated movie.

 

However, I haven't listened to Hunchback yet, so for now I'll refrain myself from voting.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

Both are embarrassing to think back on.

[Thor 7,504]

26 minutes ago, Kasey Kockroach said:

Both are embarrassing to think back on.

Why? They’re Disney at their finest.

[Edmilson 7,448]

5 minutes ago, Thor said:

Why? They’re Disney at their finest.

Come on, Thor, why do you still waste your time responding to him? Haven't you heard the expression "Don't feed the trolls?"

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

17 minutes ago, Thor said:

Why? They’re Disney at their finest.

The scores are exceptional listening, but the movies are embarrassingly pompous (Pocahontas moreso, back when white men making movies ‘discussing’ racism wasn’t as immediately laughed at as they are now). 

Menken’s (and Ashman’s) work for me peaked with Little Mermaid. There’s an energy and spontaneity to it that’s more polished with Beauty and the Beast and onward, but in turn feels more overtly manufactured and self-conscious. 

[Datameister 2,042]

Pocahontas for both. Hunchback has some absolutely stunning material in it, but other parts inexplicably grate on my nerves. I don't have that issue with the songs or score for Pocahontas.

[Holko 9,526]

Hunchback for both. When revisiting P, I got kinda bored of the underscore (this was a couple years ago though), and definitely felt a lot of the vocal performances aren't strong/tense/powerful enough to fulfill their narrative part, like P in Savages. I guess overall I very much prefer H's gothic/medieval brand of histocising over P's american historicising/native ethnicising and the way the songs are integrated.

[GerateWohl 4,368]

I didn't like both movies at all.

Arielle, Beauty and Aladdin were really best in class. But already Lion King and all the Menken musicals afterwards disappointed me as movies (except Mulan, which again was brillant, but like Lion King not Menken, I know).

[publicist 4,643]

Hunchback, if only because the place and subject matter prevented score and songs from becoming too Disney vanilla. I'm listening to the new edition of Hunchback on Spotify at this very moment.

[crocodile 8,012]

Pocahontas has better songs overall whereas Hunchback is better in two other categories. 

 

Karol