HOOK (1991) - NEW! 2023 3-CD Ultimate Edition Produced, Edited, and Mastered by Mike Matessino featuring all Williams/Bricusse songs

[Ollie 1,059]

3 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

 

I'll give you (and join you) with Indy and SW.

 

But if you start moaning that JW's entire filmography isn't available as a super-deluxe edition, there are going to be murders 

 

Besides, when said mythical day comes that Williams' last score is expanded... what will you look forward to? (yeah I know, that'll be in 2099 and we're all dead)

 

Michael Giacchino’s complete works.

[bollemanneke 3,349]

20 minutes ago, CompleteRecordingSessions said:

I’m so excited to hear the calliope version of ‘Take Me Out To The Ball Game!’

I'm actually more excited about the podcasts than anything else at this point.

[Groovygoth666 670]

2 hours ago, filmmusic said:

(and the broken cases I usually get from LLL)

If you order from them in the future, during check out there's a box for messeges to them, just write that you'd like more bubble wrap, I've been doing it for years and haven't had a broken case since. 

[The Five Tones 302]

Ordered, 10 minutes after the midnight email!

[Tom 4,661]

2 hours ago, The Five Tones said:

Ordered, 10 minutes after the midnight email!

What took you so long?  

[Laserschwert 475]

Edit: Never mind, quoting on mobile sucks 

[Holko 9,528]

16 hours ago, Jay said:

We also made sure all 12 major themes (the six that started life as songs and the six that came after) are represented. I think every sample except Banning Back Home and The Lost Boy Chase feature at least one of the score's twelve themes. 

So...

Would any enterprising scholars of this score help with identifying them in the samples?

[blondheim 1,157]

The fact that this is the second blue John Williams Ultimate Edition has to be a coincidence, right?

 

But honestly the blue truly is very striking. Not the direction I’d have ever thought to go but it makes you feel the absence of the red which is kind of classy somehow if that means sense don’t make me explain it because I cannot

 

AND I love that it is called the Ultimate Edition. That’s just so perfect. My playlists have always been called that so this feels almost personal. And I know it’s because the people who worked on this score are fans and clearly love it very much like we do and it shows with little things like that. Big thanks.

[rough cut 1,714]

Comparing the ‘expanded’ artwork with the ‘ultimate’ artwork is really Jim Titus vs Jim Titus.

 

I really thought the ‘expanded’ artwork was perfect, the way Jim had taken the original poster art and adjusting it to the square shape of a CD booklet was such fine work. It’s so well done, the kind of adjustment you don’t really notice unless pointed out to you (which Jim did on his Behance. BTW, Jim, if you happen to read this - thanks for sharing your work process, I revisit this page often, it is so interesting to read about the different projects and how they develop. You are the man!).

 

 

If one we’re to objectively critique the ‘expanded’ cover one might say that it’s a bit cluttered and busy to look at, but that is hardly the fault of Jim - rather that it it is an inherent quality of Drew Struzan’s original artwork (which I love BTW). However, it is a perfect representation of the original movie marketing, adopted for a CD cover.

 

 

I must confess, the ‘ultimate’ cover, I found harder to love at first sight. Jim had no easy task here - how do you improve your own work which was already perfect? And to try to top a work that absolutely breathed Hook down to the last pixel?

 

To make it blue, black and gold is an inspired but bold choice - the end result certainly looks beautiful - but, I am curious about how the discussion went to take the artistic choices in this direction? I can’t really remember the movie as being particularly blue - all though the ‘ultimate cover’ does have a “fairy tale night” quality to it which I guess kind of connects it to the movie.

 

Nor was blue a stand out color in any of the old marketing material (full disclaimer: from what I can find on google) but there seems to have been blue posters in some of the countries, so there’s that. Also the BD cover was kind of blueish?
 

 

Further, it’s an interesting choice to not use the iconic red Hook logo. It’s a bold move putting it in black on an already dark background. It looks almost like a black hole floating in space, barely perceptible but there none the less. Of course the golden outline makes it legible and elegant.

 

All in all, I’m a little bit on the fence about he ‘ultimate’ cover. On one hand, it’s gorgeous to look at, and really appeals to my sensibilities in terms of artistic choices. From this subjective point of view it is an improvement over the ‘expanded’ cover. On the other hand, perhaps it strays just a little bit too far away from the original source material.

 

 

Perhaps the decision was made to make it as distinctively different as possible from the ‘expanded’ set? That seems likely, but I can’t wait to hear the reasoning behind it.

 

On another note, it’s interesting to see that for the promo material of the ‘ultimate’ edition, the black logo wasn’t used. Nor is the traditional red logo. Instead, a hybrid logo which only highlights the ‘H’ in red is used, a logo that harkens back to the 90’s but had limited use from what I can gather.

 

I get it, on Jim’s new poster the logo color scheme is chosen so that the logo ‘pops out’ from the background and stand out to the viewer. Still, I always appreciate when art direction is such so there’s consistency between products and marketing material.

 

 

Nevertheless, this CD will stand proudly on my shelf, and it looks gorgeous. I can’t wait to flip through the booklet to see all the eye candy and attention to detail that Jim has in store for us - as he always has.

[GerateWohl 4,370]

For me the blue cover makes perfect sense as in a way the movie like the original story plays with the idea, that all the events in Neverland are just a night dream. This is for me reflected in the cover and in that sense adresses more the adult audience and less the children taking everything for real. 

[Groovygoth666 670]

Just quickly done this in MS paint, which works better for me -

 

 

 

[filmmusic 1,834]

I appreciate the minimalism of the new cover, but the cover of the previous LLL edition is one of my favorite film posters ever, so... I'm partial to it.

[rough cut 1,714]

Yes, my point was ‘why not keep the original logo’?

Of course when launching an updated product it makes sense to create something new so that it feels fresh, but It’s quite a step to go from updating/creating new cover art (which is expected) to redesigning a logo that represents a brand/franchise - beautiful as it may be.

 

I certainly don’t mean to knock Jim Titus’ work or anybody else who worked on this project - the design is beautiful - I’m just curious.
 

Thanks for doing the mock up @Groovygoth666. I’m guessing something similar was on the table during the design process but was abandoned - it’d be fun to hear the reasoning behind it.

[Goldfingers 126]

What's wrong? It looks perfect. And maybe it's with printed effects like gold effects that can't be rendered in the digital version of the cover. Wait until you have the product in your hands to judge anyway.

This logo is the original logo, mostly used in the prologue teaser and teaser posters (on Alvin artwork, blue sky background or black background). This is (to me) the best version and its elegance fit to this edition.
Jim reworked it a little to make it sharper and it look perfect to me.

When most of the stuffs have the same visuals for a movie. It's normal to try to find news and originals visuals. I can show you tons of stuffs made for the movie with variations of the classics Alvin and Struzan artworks on parchments paper, red background, blue, white and gold. Because they are tired of the classics visuals, the 4k visual is ugly with the use of stock images that don't even come from the movie... 

 

To answer the question about how the "Prologue" teaser was filmed. They used a camera guided by a computer-controled arm to film on a vertical surface where the map and accessories were attached and stabilized with thin nylons cables. For the close up when the Nevertree burns, the magnifying glass is hand held. 

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

Hmmm yes, inthink the red “H” should have been retained

[rough cut 1,714]

2 hours ago, Goldfingers said:

What's wrong? It looks perfect. And maybe it's with printed effects like gold effects that can't be rendered in the digital version of the cover. Wait until you have the product in your hands to judge anyway.

Nothing is wrong - I stated many times that the new ‘ultimate’ cover is beautiful. Possibly, what you interpret as “wrong” is simply curiosity about the design process. I would have hoped that that came across, but apparently not. Here’s hoping to clear up any misunderstanding.

 

Unless I’m looking at the wrong link, it’s clearly not the logo in the teaser trailer.

 

Screenshot:

 

 

2 hours ago, Goldfingers said:

When most of the stuffs have the same visuals for a movie. It's normal to try to find news and originals visuals.

Visuals - yes. Logo - no. It was more common to use different logos/fonts/colors in the 70s and 80s and possibly the 90s… actually the yellow Hook logo on a local/foreign market poster is a good example of this. It’s the kind of thing you rarely see today. Of course this was a time before branding and building global franchises had become the full fledged refined science that it would - but today the standard is to try to contain brand consistency. And a side step from that practice is curious to me.

 

A logo is the unique signifier for all that a brand stands for and is not lightly tampered with as it is the “flag” for the brand it represents. So changing or updating a logo is very rare, unless we’re talking about a re-branding, a modernization or a spin off, where it’s usual to tweak the original logo a bit to make it feel modern and appealing to a new audience.

 

2 hours ago, Goldfingers said:

This logo is the original logo, mostly used in the prologue teaser and teaser posters (on Alvin artwork, blue sky background or black background). This is (to me) the best version and its elegance fit to this edition.
Jim reworked it a little to make it sharper and it look perfect to me.

If you are referring to a black logo with a gold edge (as per the ‘ultimate’ edition) that was used for the original marketing during the early 90s which Him Titus might have used as reference - I couldn’t find it. I humbly submit that all I did was a couple of google searches, but I couldn’t find it. If you have an image, please share it because that would be exactly the kind of “source” I was looking for.

 

But just to repeat myself: I like the design of the new set from a pure design point of view - subjectively it is more appealing than reworking a 35 year old poster (but once again, I love that poster and I love the ‘expanded’ artwork).

 

As I have pointed out I have nothing but respect for Jim Titus, which was mentioned not only in the previous post but also in many posts throughout the years. My point now was to scrutinize the new cover from a marketing/branding point of view.

[BB-8 3,479]

[Andy 4,138]

Why does Steven look like he just visited the Star Wars Disenchantment Thread?

[Brundlefly 2,385]

Spectacular! I'll have to wait for JP, TLW, Sabrina and Hook to be available at the same time.

 

Quote

02. Home Run And Follow That Shadow 5:24
03. Peter Remembers (The Flying Sequence) 8:23
04. You Are The Pan (Film Version) 1:26
05. Tink Grows Up 2:21
06. The Ultimate War (Film Version) 8:02
07. Death Of Rufio 4:23
08. The Sword Fight And The End Of Hook 7:07
09. Farewell Neverland 10:18

I once edited the cues of the bootleg together and ended up with the exact same track combos. Thankfully, this 3-disc-set makes any bootleg obsolete!

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

I usually pass on the first pressing in case any fuckup in quality control...

[Brundlefly 2,385]

9 hours ago, rough cut said:

All in all, I’m a little bit on the fence about he ‘ultimate’ cover. On one hand, it’s gorgeous to look at, and really appeals to my sensibilities in terms of artistic choices. From this subjective point of view it is an improvement over the ‘expanded’ cover. On the other hand, perhaps it strays just a little bit too far away from the original source material.

It is kind of a statement to go from such a busy to such plain artwork, maybe it is supposed to make the two releases easily distinguishable. A statement à la "This is not a re-release, this one's different."

 

3 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I usually pass on the first pressing in case any fuckup in quality control...

La-La Land hasn't really had any of these fuck-ups. It has mainly been Intrada and Varese.

[GerateWohl 4,370]

2 minutes ago, Brundlefly said:

La-La Land hasn't really had any of these fuck-ups. It has mainly been Intrada and Varese.

I remember the discussions here about the filtered high frequencies in the first batches of the Harry Potter box.

[scallenger 483]

The only LLL goof I can think of that required repressing discs was for AI. But in that case it was a happy goof that accidentally gave us more music. LOL.

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

Then there's the 2nd SL CD...

[Tom 4,661]

17 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Then there's the 2nd SL CD...

They could have done more.  

[Taikomochi 1,136]

The Schindler’s List fuck up is far worse than the others. I’d never have noticed the HP issues by ear. The Schindler’s List compression was clearly audible.

[bollemanneke 3,349]

34 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

I remember the discussions here about the filtered high frequencies in the first batches of the Harry Potter box.

Which no one heard and I still don't get the problem. The flying car transition, THAT you can hear.

[rough cut 1,714]

56 minutes ago, Brundlefly said:

It is kind of a statement to go from such a busy to such plain artwork, maybe it is supposed to make the two releases easily distinguishable. A statement à la "This is not a re-release, this one's different."

Yeah, I thought as much in my original post (I don’t begrudge you for missing it though, it was a long post).

 

10 hours ago, rough cut said:

Perhaps the decision was made to make it as distinctively different as possible from the ‘expanded’ set? That seems likely, but I can’t wait to hear the reasoning behind it.

 

 

 

Still, quite a thing to not just go for new cover art (even if based on original material) but to re-color the logo.

[Nemesis 245]

8 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Which no one heard and I still don't get the problem. The flying car transition, THAT you can hear.

Were these problems ever fixed ?

[bollemanneke 3,349]

The cut-offs were.

[Tydirium 1,167]

I must confess that I was also a bit surprised by the cover art on this edition; I really loved the poster art that was used for the 2012 release. I don’t really associate blue with this film, either, so it just feels a bit odd. It’s beautiful, just unexpected.

[blondheim 1,157]

I may be too excited to be objective but I LOVE the cover. I never thought I’d have a Blue Hook Ultimate Edition. I hope someone reveals in that podcast that it’s a purposeful reference to TPM set because that’s honestly too good. I suspect that it may just be that red white and blue didn’t feel like Hook’s color palette. Personally, it took me by surprise in the best way.

[Goldfingers 126]

11 hours ago, rough cut said:

Nothing is wrong - I stated many times that the new ‘ultimate’ cover is beautiful. Possibly, what you interpret as “wrong” is simply curiosity about the design process. I would have hoped that that came across, but apparently not. Here’s hoping to clear up any misunderstanding.

 

Unless I’m looking at the wrong link, it’s clearly not the logo in the teaser trailer.

 

Screenshot:

 

 

Visuals - yes. Logo - no. It was more common to use different logos/fonts/colors in the 70s and 80s and possibly the 90s… actually the yellow Hook logo on a local/foreign market poster is a good example of this. It’s the kind of thing you rarely see today. Of course this was a time before branding and building global franchises had become the full fledged refined science that it would - but today the standard is to try to contain brand consistency. And a side step from that practice is curious to me.

 

A logo is the unique signifier for all that a brand stands for and is not lightly tampered with as it is the “flag” for the brand it represents. So changing or updating a logo is very rare, unless we’re talking about a re-branding, a modernization or a spin off, where it’s usual to tweak the original logo a bit to make it feel modern and appealing to a new audience.

 

If you are referring to a black logo with a gold edge (as per the ‘ultimate’ edition) that was used for the original marketing during the early 90s which Him Titus might have used as reference - I couldn’t find it. I humbly submit that all I did was a couple of google searches, but I couldn’t find it. If you have an image, please share it because that would be exactly the kind of “source” I was looking for.

 

But just to repeat myself: I like the design of the new set from a pure design point of view - subjectively it is more appealing than reworking a 35 year old poster (but once again, I love that poster and I love the ‘expanded’ artwork).

 

As I have pointed out I have nothing but respect for Jim Titus, which was mentioned not only in the previous post but also in many posts throughout the years. My point now was to scrutinize the new cover from a marketing/branding point of view.

Sorry, I was a bit quick in my reply and misunderstood the intention of your message. 

 

To complete my previous message.
I think the use of the blue is interesting. Even if the Hook promotional campaign in Asia mostly used a photo montage on blue sky background. I doubt this visual inspired anything for this edition. 

 

 

On the other hand, in the visuals not used for final campaign, there's a series of "window" visuals that are predominantly midnight blue with an orange moon (in the same tone as the parchment in which the logo with the illumination appears). 

 

 

Then it exist same kind of visual but with real photos and props in a dark blue background. One of this visual have the logo in white and blue.

 

 

The complete logo with the illumination usually only appears on the parchment, mostly on the John Alvin artwork. There is an audio cassette of the soundtrack from Asia which uses the logo with the illumination without the parchment.The logo is illegible. Personnally, I don't like it. It sometimes appear only with a parchment border too on some video games ads.

Jim mixed these two logos in a balanced way. Taking the shape of the typography from one to adjust it to the size of the other. 

 

Now, I don't know exactly where Jim Titus got his inspiration, but as a collector interested in all aspects of the film, I think it's part of a continuity that's not too far away from what's already been tried and done. It's elegant and I love the logo update. I have more trouble with the visual used for the Mondo vinyl. Although I love the colors and the intention, I find the artwork too much different from the aesthetics of the film to please me.

[rough cut 1,714]

3 hours ago, Goldfingers said:

 

Jim mixed these two logos in a balanced way. Taking the shape of the typography from one to adjust it to the size of the other. 

 

Nice find! 👍🏼

[Amer 2,110]

On 24/11/2023 at 5:41 PM, BB-8 said:

Is there already a spreadsheet where we can compare tracklists between the previous 2 CD edition of Hook and the new one?

Agreed. I was wondering the same. It would be more like a post mortem of the previous LLL edition. I think it would be fascinating you compare and analyse the major differences between the two !

 

Also:

As we are all waiting for our HOOK and other LLL orders to ship once the inventory arrives on 1st December but it's also very likely LLL will get a headstart to ship them before December 1st if the stock arrives before. Let's hope. I'm so excited..

 

( But It's the non US folks like me who will have to wait longer...)

 

 

 

 

[Laserschwert 475]

As long as the international resellers get them in time for Christmas. My HP box (ordered directly from LLL on release) arrived in January!

[Holko 9,528]

Yeah same, I still remember how everything was frosted up when it arrived, but I think that set specifically was prioritised to the US buyers first or something? My concern is that I'm at work the next 3 weeks but home in the week before Christmas so I might have to change my order destination or get someone to pick it up and go in just to get it.

[Amer 2,110]

16 minutes ago, Holko said:

Yeah same, I still remember how everything was frosted up when it arrived, but I think that set specifically was prioritised to the US buyers first or something? My concern is that I'm at work the next 3 weeks but home in the week before Christmas so I might have to change my order destination or get someone to pick it up and go in just to get it.

I was lucky. I had an aunt visiting from US to me and I had my HP set shipped directly to her. LLL made sure they shipped it super fast for me specificaly on priority and it arrived quickly before her flight.

[GerateWohl 4,370]

I was just thinking. Could it be, that Hook is the only JW score apart from franchises with so much and rich Thematik material? I mean, 12 major themes!!!

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

What about E.T.?

[GerateWohl 4,370]

I think, E.T. has less.

• Flying
• Over the moon
• ET and Me (Star gazers)
• Frogs
• Halloween 
• Adults/Agents
• The Call 
• Abandoned and pursued 
• That adventure theme from Adventures on Earth 
• Goodbye music 

For sure I missed something. Probably you are right. But some of these are more motifs than themes. And Hook has most of them well executed.

 

PS: Excuse my stupid theme names. 

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

12 hours ago, blondheim said:

I may be too excited to be objective but I LOVE the cover. I never thought I’d have a Blue Hook Ultimate Edition. I hope someone reveals in that podcast that it’s a purposeful reference to TPM set because that’s honestly too good. I suspect that it may just be that red white and blue didn’t feel like Hook’s color palette. Personally, it took me by surprise in the best way.

If red is not part of Hook’s colour palette, i dont know what other colour could represent him better 😅.

 

anyway this cover gives a new spin on the track name… “hook blues”

[blondheim 1,157]

3 minutes ago, Luke Skywalker said:

If red is not part of Hook’s colour palette, i dont know what other colour could represent him better 😅.

 

anyway this cover gives a new spin on the track name… “hook blues”

Oh red definitely is. Red white and blue just maybe isn’t. Once they decided to go with something more blue in the background color, I think the red had to go so it didn’t look patriotic of some kind.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

Just now, blondheim said:

Oh red definitely is. Red white and blue just maybe isn’t. Once they decided to go with something more blue in the background color, I think the red had to go so it didn’t look patriotic of some kind.

The Patriot expanded score confirmed!

[blondheim 1,157]

2 minutes ago, Luke Skywalker said:

The Patriot expanded score confirmed!

 

I’m personally praying for Nixon, but I’m happy when any John Williams score gets released or expanded. I’ll buy The Patriot just like I buy all the others.

 

So don’t worry, Patty, there’s room for you on the shelf next to all your brothers and sisters.

 

There’s Ami, she’s new, she’s still getting used to things, too.

 

You gals’ll be fast friends.

[bollemanneke 3,349]

Is it too early to ask why some OST tracks seem to have been kept while others weren't? For instance, why Remembering Childhood but not You Are the Pan?

[GerateWohl 4,370]

8 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Is it too early to ask why some OST tracks seem to have been kept while others weren't? For instance, why Remembering Childhood but not You Are the Pan?

Wasn't that just You are the Pan and Face of Pan plugged together?

[bollemanneke 3,349]

Oh sure, but wasn't RC a plain combo too?

[GerateWohl 4,370]

Might be. Good question. 

I also don't understand, why sometimes these kind of album edits are put on album and sometimes not.

Like Jurassic Park had the album edits, TLW didn't. Spacecamp had album edits, none of the Raiders of the Lost Ark had the OST edit of Well of the Souls. 

[blondheim 1,157]

6 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Might be. Good question. 

I also don't understand, why sometimes these kind of album edits are put on album and sometimes not.

Like Jurassic Park had the album edits, TLW didn't. Spacecamp had album edits, none of the Raiders of the Lost Ark had the OST edit of Well of the Souls. 

The Lost World didn’t because it would have needed to be a three CD set, which would have made it more expensive and probably harder to put out. I think Danny Elfman probably insisted on Spider-Man which is why that happened.