[POLL] Favorite Menken Disney Score?

[Disco Stu 15,516]

I'm 85% certain that Hunchback will win so I have to admit I'm only doing this poll because I'm curious to see how many other people have the objectively correct opinion that Pocahontas is his best work.

[Datameister 2,505]

Mermaid for me, even though the recording itself is pretty terrible.

[Thor 9,327]

ALADDIN.

[Luke Skywalker 2,273]

Pocahontas…though aladdin comes very close

[Edmilson 11,207]

Pocahontas is a truly masterful score. And the songs are great too! It's Menken's masterpiece in my opinion.

 

The choir singing "The Colors of the Wind" in the Finale always bring a tear to my eye.

[blondheim 1,414]

This is a hard poll.

[MrJosh 1,029]

I've casually listened to all of these, and The Little Mermaid was what stood out as being the one that I enjoyed the most. I'll try revisiting Pocahontas this week and see if my opinion changes, since I see a number of people have that chosen as the best one. 

[WampaRat 1,867]

I’d say Pocahontas is probably a more consistent listening experience. The finale in that one still gives me chills. But the sheer power of Hunchback tips the scales for me. I cannot wait for the inevitable half-baked live action remake just so we can get Menken taking another crack at that score.

[blondheim 1,414]

Idk. I can wait. Menken’s redos of Beauty and Aladdin leave me cold. Hunchback has gotten enough love over the years.

 

Well, not exactly enough. It should have gotten enough love to treat its legacy collection with respect but besides that, I need nothing else.

[mstrox 7,288]

Was very close for me between Pocahontas, Hunchback, and Hercules - sorry to disappoint u Stu!

 

If we were including songs in the equation, it would be Hercules for me.

[GerateWohl 6,263]

For me Beauty and the Beast was the peak musically. But for any of these I don't count the live action version or the extended version. Just the original animated movie.

[blondheim 1,414]

There’s no doubt that it is between Pocahontas and Hunchback and Beauty. Those are the top three guys in no particular order. Sorry to break it to all of you

[Disco Stu 15,516]

I included the years in the poll options to specifically exclude live action remakes

[Marian Schedenig 10,976]

By "score", we're referring to the whole package in this case, songs & score?

[Disco Stu 15,516]

7 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

By "score", we're referring to the whole package in this case, songs & score?

 

Yes.  Score in the Broadway sense of the word.

[Bounty95 579]

Hercules is hella underrated. I hope it gets the legacy collection treatment in the not so distant future. 

[Marian Schedenig 10,976]

15 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Yes.  Score in the Broadway sense of the word.

 

Hercules then. It's not an easy choice, and with Menken I'm mainly in for the songs (instrumental score-wise, Tangled is possibly my favourite). Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahontas are all strong contenders. But Hercules is definitely underrated. The lyrics are brilliant (sorry, Howard Ashman), the gospel muses are stroke of genius, and on top of that it's got what may be the best love song in the Disney canon.

[mstrox 7,288]

Yes I’m changing my vote to HERC!

[Edmilson 11,207]

Is there anyone who actually likes Home on the Range? Even as a kid I thought that movie was lame. Among the crappy mid-2000s Disney animations, Chicken Little was much more entertaining.

[Disco Stu 15,516]

Who here has even listened to the Shaggy Dog remake score?  I didn’t even know Menken scored it until I was making this poll

[Yavar Moradi 4,024]

9 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

I'm 85% certain that Hunchback will win so I have to admit I'm only doing this poll because I'm curious to see how many other people have the objectively correct opinion that Pocahontas is his best work.

Me. Hunchback may arguably have slightly higher highs, but Pocahontas is the more consistent and unified masterpiece.

 

Yavar

[Datameister 2,505]

6 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Yes.  Score in the Broadway sense of the word.

 

Oh. Much tougher decision then. I guess I'll still give it to Mermaid. But Hercules, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin are all stiff competition.

 

For me, Hunchback is a strange mixture of the stunningly brilliant and the stunningly mundane. Neither Tangled nor Enchanted reaches such heights, but they're still fantastic. 

[TheUlyssesian 2,620]

I would judge a score for a musical by the arrangements of the instrumental portions as well as how much new material not based on song melodies is supplied for the score.

 

 On that criterion, Aladdin is most interesting to me.

[Thor 9,327]

6 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Is there anyone who actually likes Home on the Range? Even as a kid I thought that movie was lame. Among the crappy mid-2000s Disney animations, Chicken Little was much more entertaining.

 

At that point, I was tuning out from Menken along with his fade on superstar heaven in general. I was also well into my 20s. But he'll always be a star to me due to that string of amazing classics from 1989 to 1997. He's also one of my top 3 of living film composers I haven't interviewed yet. Gutted me that I had to cancel my trip to Vienna in September, to see him live.

[Luke Skywalker 2,273]

15 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

 

The choir singing "The Colors of the Wind" in the Finale always bring a tear to my eye.

I always wonder what the words would have been if it had lyrics like the previous three movies.

 

 

[Jay 44,378]

Am I the only person on JWFan who has never listened to a single one of these scores ever?

[Thor 9,327]

2 minutes ago, Jay said:

Am I the only person on JWFan who has never listened to a single one of these scores ever?

 

That would be likely.

[Bespin Copilot 10,209]

A favourite among these? Hmmm...

 

[mstrox 7,288]

1 hour ago, Bespin said:

A favourite among these? Hmmm...

 

If you twisted my arm, I’d go with Once Upon a Time in the West

[Ravi Krishna 95]

I really like all of them (haven't heard Newsies yet, though) but my all-time favourite is Aladdin. 

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,602]

3 hours ago, Jay said:

Am I the only person on JWFan who has never listened to a single one of these scores ever?

No I never heard any of these too

[Edmilson 11,207]

Menken is actually such a big deal of a composer that his presence on a movie was used as one of its primary marketing hooks 

 

Just look at this trailer:

 

 

 

Unfortunately it didn't work, as the movie bombed harshly at the box office.