Composer Threads John Powell kicks ass

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

I finally got myself to watch Happy Feet in a complete form. I've had both soundtracks for some time now, but for some reason the idea of dancing and singing penguins seemed not to be appealing to me. But recently, I started listening to the soundtracks again and I started thinking that such good music at least could make up for a bad movie.

Luckily, the movie is actually quite good and entertaining. It's not a masterpiece, of course, and it has its flaws, but its an animated film that tries something a little different and more mature and it succeeds. It almost has a Don Bluth quality to it, something which shouldn't surprise me considering how this movie was inspired by a Don Bluth movie that I prefer not to mention.

The animation is fantastic, the direction is magnificent, the visuals are incredible, the voice talents demonstrate how talented they are and the dances are pure fun to watch. But it's the music that makes the film. And I'm not talking about the songs -which, however, are fantastically arranged by Powell-, but more of the actual score itself. The serious cues really take the icing of the cake, demonstrating how mature Powell can be when assigned with the right project.

Just listen to this and tell me that it doesn't give you chills...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KZCX9sHI4g

Simply amazing. I think this one has become my second favorite Powell score, right behind HTTYD.

For some reason, I'm really interested in seeing and hearing what will he do with Happy Feet 2, although the trailers look absouletly dreadful and not at all in tone with the original film. But we'll see, the trailers for the first film seemed silly too.

[Richard P 4,779]

That cue demonstrates how good Powell is at writing simple but catchy themes.

Every single animated movie he does comes with at least one insanely memorable theme. His dramatic efforts less so.

[Marian Schedenig 10,177]

Remarkable suite. The performance of the romantic theme is heart-wrenching.

And I love how he finishes See You Tomorrow off with the final part of Test Drive. Wow.

Shame about the idiotic audience clapping bit though. Quite embarrassing, especially since they didn't mention that in the rehearsals, so even those of us in the audience who were there were completely unprepared.

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

Samples from Happy Feet Two are up! Thanks to FSM for letting me know...

http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Feet-Two-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B0064WL2UA/ref=sr_shvl_album_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1320885191&sr=301-3

The samples from Powell's score are too short to judge, but so far it doesn't sound as good as the first score. However, I'll reserve full jugdement until the score's out, as his cues seem to be quite lenghty. Tappin' To Freedom sounds very impressive.

And the arrangemente for Rawhide is AMAZING! Powell desperately needs to do a western. You listening, Tarantino?

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

Some wonderful arrangements for Happy Feet Two:

[Richard P 4,779]

I'm not a fan of how pop-culture it sounds - like Shrek was at points.

But I do like that first track. Some really nice score material in the background too.

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

According to IMDb, Powell is finally going to work with Pixar in a Toy Story-themed short, called "Small Fry"...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2033372/fullcredits#cast

Can somebody confirm this?

[Neimoidian 14]

I listened to HF2 and it's preety good. In terms of writing, it's much lighter than HTTYD, thus more enjoyable for me, but it lacks equally interesting thematic basis.

[Richard P 4,779]

The Huddle theme makes one appearance, but other than that it is rather light on themes.

Other than that, it's good, functional music, but nothing special. HTTYD has the benefit of being the sole musical focus - it doesn't have songs to work around.

[Jay 42,523]

Varese will release John Powell's score to The Lorax on March 20th:

http://www.varesesarabande.com/servlet/the-1023/Dr.-Seuss%27-The-Lorax/Detail

[alicebrallice 134]

I'm not a big powell fan, I do however love the how to train your dragon score (shocking!).

listening through the mars needs moms score atm... not too bad, kind of reminds me of HTTYD.

[David Coscina 4]

Check out Powell's Hancock and X Men 3. He has some nice cues on that as well. Welcome to this forum as well Alice.

[Little Ghost 7,880]

I find that I prefer Chicken Run to HTTYD, the underscore/non action cues in HTTYD just do not seem as interesting as the ones in CR.

[Jay 42,523]

The Lorax info and track list:

http://www.varesesar...he-Lorax/Detail

Isn't that short (both in number of tracks and total length) for a Powell release?

[publicist 4,648]

Thankfully yes.

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

I believe Powell wrote a bunch of original songs for the film, so maybe there's a separate release for the songs? Like Happy Feet.

Most of the track titles sound intriguing... Wasteland, Valley Exodus, Funeral for a Tree... It could be a lot more mature than we are expecting.

[Koray Savas 2,256]

I wonder if it will be in the same vein as Horton.

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

Is Powell's D-Tox any good? IMDb lists it as his only horror picture, so I thought it could be interesting, but I can't find any info on the internet about it...

Anyone?

[BloodBoal 7,544]

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

A wonderful suite from a wonderful Powell score I didn't know about. Endurance.

http://www.dailymoti...urance-19_music

Great stuff.

[Koray Savas 2,256]

Endurance is indeed great.

I was listening to The Bourne Ultimatum the other day and I still couldn't get over how awesome "Tangiers" was. One of the best action cues of the past several years.

[jtwfan 1]

I'm not a big powell fan, I do however love the how to train your dragon score (shocking!).

listening through the mars needs moms score atm... not too bad, kind of reminds me of HTTYD.

Ditto. HTTYD is a great score. My take on "Romantic Flight" is below with more HTTYD recordings coming soon (www.youtube.com/user/DenverDebonair)

[Jay 42,523]

JOHN POWELL TO PERFORM AT THE VARÈSE SARABANDE 35th ANNIVERSARY GALA!

Another exciting announcement about the quickly approaching Varèse Sarabande 35th Anniversary Concert Gala with the Golden State Pops Orchestra ... the great John Powell will be joining our epic anniversary line-up! John Powell is one of the best and busiest film composers in the world. He keeps us very busy at Varèse Sarabande and we couldn't be happier about it ... How To Train Your Dragon, The Lorax, The Bourne Identity, Horton Hears A Who!, Hancock, Kung Fu Panda 2, Paycheck, The Italian Job, Ice Age 3 &4, The Bourne Supremacy, X-Men 3, Rio, Robots, United '93 and many more! Don't miss John Powell conducting the GSPO on May 11, 2013 as part of Varèse Sarabande's historic anniversary festivities!

Tickets are selling fast. http://www.gspo.com/season.php

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=619993751347402&set=a.526956143984497.130599.100000103483647&type=1

[Matt C 541]

And he's also reuniting with Sergio Mendes to score Rio 2:

http://filmmusicreporter.com/2013/02/23/john-powell-and-sergio-mendes-to-return-for-rio-2-2/

Wish his return to film scoring wasn't a Blue Sky or DWA film...

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

Nice! Do we know what he will be performing?

[Anthony 826]

I would imagine How To Train Your Dragon.

[chuck 155]

Remarkable suite. The performance of the romantic theme is heart-wrenching.

And I love how he finishes See You Tomorrow off with the final part of Test Drive. Wow.

Shame about the idiotic audience clapping bit though. Quite embarrassing, especially since they didn't mention that in the rehearsals, so even those of us in the audience who were there were completely unprepared.

If you noticed carefully, it's the conductor's fault; he prompted the audience to start clapping along.

[Marian Schedenig 10,177]

Yes, but that could mean that he did it of his own accord or was told to do so by the producers. Axelrod has been a great conductor for this series, but I have a feeling he was all too happy to fulfill all the producers' ideas to make the concerts more Octoberfest-y. Possibly the reason why Mauceri never returned.

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

I found a little gem from Powell's early carreer at composing, a short french animated horror film, and it features some very interesting music!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xcw54r_les-escarpins-sauvages-de-thierry-e_shortfilms#.UUObJhcz2So

I don't know how much of that is his, but it's still very interesting! I wish he did more of that kind of music.

[Koray Savas 2,256]

Powell did a Q&A for Spitfire Audio, and he mocks the whole interview process. Seems really bitter towards the changing industry, but his responses are hilarious and insightful at the same time.

[A. A. Ron 2,264]

Geez, who pissed in his cheerios?

[crocodile 9,211]

Is it for real?

Karol

[Koray Savas 2,256]

I assume so, why wouldn't it be?

[KK 3,310]

Sounds like an April Fool's joke to me....

[crocodile 9,211]

Yeah, it feels like Daily Mash or Onion News Network.

Karol

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

Definitely doesn't look serious. At all.

[Koray Savas 2,256]

April Fools was over a week ago. There's no date on that page so I can't be sure when it was uploaded.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,087]

I don't think that's an April Fools joke.

It was posted Sunday 7th of April:

[Brónach 1,318]

Apparently, he's blunt like that.

As for not listening to film music, I'll justJOHN WILLIAMS OR DEATH.

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

He writes as pissed off as Steef or Quint when they're angry

[Jay 42,523]

Question: What happened to Powell?

For a while in the late 2000s and early 2010s, he was getting typecast as a scorer of animated films only. I mean, in the 5 year span of 2008 - 2012, he scored ELEVEN animated films, and only 6 live action. And, he hasn't scored ANY live action films since 2010.

I thought I remembered reading in this thread that post-Lorax and Ice Age 4, he had a bunch of live action films in the works - Mad Max 4, Captain something or other, and some other one (I can't find the posts now).

But now it looks like he won't be scoring ANY 2013 films, and the only 2 films he has for 2014 are both animated (HTTYD2 and Rio 2).

Did he decide to take time off? Or is he just not getting offered live action gigs?

[crocodile 9,211]

Powell did a Q&A for Spitfire Audio, and he mocks the whole interview process. Seems really bitter towards the changing industry, but his responses are hilarious and insightful at the same time.

Karol - still not sure how to read it

[Koray Savas 2,256]

I thought this was discussed in detail? He took time off, presumably to spend more time with family, but after his most recent interview it seems he's fed up with the Hollywood system. A shame, since I was looking forward to his next Miller, Greengrass, and Liman films.

[Jay 42,523]

I thought so too but I can't find the posts.

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

Some news regarding HTTYD 2:

DreamWorks Animation held a small filmmaker panel at Comic-Con today, and director Dean DuBois revealed that Jonsi will be working with John Powell, who worked on the music for the original film, and write three songs for How to Train Your Dragon 2, just like his Sticks and Stones track on the first film.

Also, Cate Blanchett, Kit Harrington and Dijimon Honsou have been added to the cast.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2013/how-to-train-your-dragon-2-gains-composer-jonsi-more-voice-cast/

Three songs, huh? I wonder what does that mean.

[Koray Savas 2,256]

That there will be 3 songs?

[Muad'Dib 1,947]

Yeah, but I mean how will it be used on the film. One is for the end credits I'm sure, but I hope they don't use the other two for the flying sequences. Let Powell do his thing like he did on the first one.

[publicist 4,648]

I thought so too but I can't find the posts.

http://www.spitfireaudio.com/john-powell-exclusive-qa.html

[Little Ghost 7,880]

Yeah, but I mean how will it be used on the film. One is for the end credits I'm sure, but I hope they don't use the other two for the flying sequences. Let Powell do his thing like he did on the first one.

source music hopefully.

[Koray Savas 2,256]

Happy Feet had a ton of songs and his score still had room to shine. There's no issue here, especially since he'll probably be arranging and producing them.