 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here's hoping it's Newman's DuckTales: The Movie and its sells well, inspiring Intrada to let Lukas Kendall produce an album of Ron Jones's even more beloved music for the TV series... 
Yavar
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Feb 4, 2017 - 4:46 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
kenisu3000
(Member)
|
If it does turn out to be DuckTales: The Movie - and it's certainly looking that way - I can only hold out hope this means Doug and the gang don't consider a weekday afternoon '80s cartoon beneath them, as I've worried in the past. Of course, I still have my doubts that their (possibly) tackling the movie means they'd give the TV series (which had a different composer) a fair shake. Ron Jones's TV score is my ABSOLUTE NO. 1 HOLY GRAIL BY A LANDSLIDE (here's proof of how much I love it: http://kenisu.webs.com/ducktalesbgm.htm), but it stands to reason that Intrada would look at the movie - which is only between 60-70 minutes of score - long before they even considered the TV series, which if you include the Chase/Rucker material, would require something like four or five full discs for a complete release. It's all the more reason to plead with them for at least a single-disc release of the score to the 5-episode TV pilot, "Treasure of the Golden Suns", so they can see how that sells.
I will mention that, to a lesser extent, I love the movie's score as well. There are a few really awesome leitmotifs here that fit the feel of DuckTales to a "T". There's a main theme representing the Ducks, another representing Merlock, another for Dijon, one for the desert expedition... But to get the bad out of the way first, I'm not a big fan of the recurring "action" theme - a series of about seven frantic and very repetitive notes, looped three or four times each time it occurs. Had Ron Jones scored the movie, the action music would have no doubt been breathtaking.
Now for the positive. The main theme in particular is a seriously joyful earworm, and is also nicely flexible as it appears in various forms: an adventure theme (the camel-riding journey through the desert), a victory theme (the discovery of Collie Baba's treasure), a military march (Scrooge and the kids move to take the Money Bin back from Dijon), and a gorgeous happy-go-lucky theme (the kids are outside in a grove, playing with all the new, extravagant toys they've wished for, and Huey wishes for the world's biggest ice cream sundae).
My favorite moment in the score is those two minutes toward the final confrontation, as the Money Bin is transforming into Merlock's bizarre "house", a gigantic, thorny abomination of a castle that has the appearance of some kind of monstrous tree root. The best parts, which do an utterly masterful job of bringing out the despair of the situation, are heard when Scrooge dashes into his vault and sees his money disappear before his eyes, when Webby nearly falls down the stairwell and has to be pulled back up by the nephews, and especially the spine-chilling strings when the whole transformation culminates with Merlock's hideous throne "blossoming". If I could describe the sound of it, it's like Satan himself opened the gates of Hell to swallow up the entire earth, and it's actually surprisingly dark for DuckTales.
You'll also notice a few short, orchestrated quotations here and there from the iconic theme song (such as on the MovieToons title at the beginning) - something which even Ron didn't do much of during the course of the TV series.
But this is all me jumping the gun, when this upcoming release could be something other than Newman's DuckTales score. At least, if we're right, I don't have to worry anymore about having a heart attack when I see DUCKTALES in an announcement thread's title on their forum (and subsequent letdown when I realize the full title is "Intrada announces David Newman's DUCKTALES: THE MOVIE"), since I'll be expecting it.
Here's hoping it's Newman's DuckTales: The Movie and its sells well, inspiring Intrada to let Lukas Kendall produce an album of Ron Jones's even more beloved music for the TV series...
Lukas Kendall might not be interested in producing a DuckTales TV album, even if it is Ron Jones. When I put up my petition for a release of the TV score, with Kendall in the list of email recipients as a decision-maker, he responded with a request to be taken off the list, stating, "I'm not the droid you're looking for." Of course, that just means he's not somebody with the power to make that decision, and maybe he would produce the soundtrack if given the chance, and it would just have to be cleared by somebody else first. I don't know... it seems to me that Ron's fans who mainly focus on his Star Trek scores are typically woefully uninterested in his DuckTales work, since the atmosphere is so different between the two.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Feb 4, 2017 - 8:20 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
kenisu3000
(Member)
|
Safe to say nothing is "beneath them". They released A Troll In Central Park, a fantastic score to a really bad movie that barely got a theatrical release. It's about the music, not the title. If they're behind the music they will release it.
I mostly said that because I get the feeling people in general smirk at the idea of bothering with a TV animation score. Not that I think Doug and Roger see it that way, but hope is sort of a tough thing to hold onto considering the genre I'm fighting for. If animation scores are looked at, they tend to be movies, and La La Land appears to be the only label that puts much stock in TV animation soundtracks - but they don't have a Disney license. I get the feeling that skeptics aren't familiar with how DuckTales was handled, and when they hear the name they think of "Saturday morning cartoon" fare, which is notorious for either driving the listener crazy with silly, frantic music that attacks the ears rather than rewards them, or just being nondescript background noise. DuckTales is neither. It's a beautiful, sweeping, leitmotif-driven, orchestral adventure score that could give any feature film from the time a run for its money, and IMO runs circles around most film scores of today. The show was popular enough to receive FOUR prime-time specials during its run, all of which contained specially created scores from Ron.
Basically, I worry that some people assume the DuckTales score is some humdrum nothing, and scarcely worth a listen, because of the reputation TV animation music has. I don't know. I should probably quit yapping about the TV score in this thread, when it's clear that if the clue is referring to anything DuckTales, it's the movie... but one last thing: I *am* going to continue holding on to hope, as tough as I said that was, because of an exchange Justin Boggin had with Doug back in December 2012:
- Having said all that, is there even a remote chance for something like a 2 or 3CD set of "Ducktales" (Ron Jones, and the pilot score by Chase & Rucker)?
- Ummmm.... the quick answer is no. The longer answer is, even though it's possible, I've got countless other titles I want to work with first.
--Doug
Which of course, when I saw it, made me feel as hopeless as ever - at first, but the important thing to take away is what Doug added on the next page:
By the way, always hang on to hope. While it's not high on my list, that's mainly because so many other scores are. I have lots of wants still. People sometimes say there's not much left to release but I sure can come up with a list a mile long. Old scores from the 1930's and 1940's, 1950's, stuff I grew up hoping for in the 1960's and 1970's, endless TV scores, episode scores, expanded stuff by the dozens, countless treasures in the Disney vaults, you name it.
So your Ron Jones hopes are certainly worth holding on to as well.
--Doug
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If it is DuckTales... It should feature a great piece of cover/poster art by the great, Drew Struzan.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Intrada also said they could release "The Rocketeer" at anytime, but sure took their time in releasing it.
Good point. That gets me thinking of how long it took/is taking for titles like The Ten Commandments and Conan The Destroyer. So if the Duck Tales TV series is low on their list of titles to even consider, then I'd say we are in no way shape or form close to a release from Duck Tales the TV show. I wish Intrada didn't have a lock on ALL Disney titles. If they aren't interested in doing a title, let La La Land or somebody else do it. I feel like they're squatting on several titles.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
On a positive note: I'm not very familiar with DUCK TALES as a score, but I'll give any David Newman a fair shake. It does seem the likely candidate. Looking forward to samples.
If you like the more serious stuff by Newman you`ll love Duck Tales. It doesn`t sound like cartoon music at all and it`s rather dark, dramatic, thematic and features a very large orchestra. It`s the kind of filmmusic they don`t write anymore.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
