This is another entry in my Complete Score Breakdown Series, focusing on the complete scores to films that have had abbreviated previous releases or have gone unreleased.
Today we are looking at Mighty Joe Young (1998) by James Horner.
I’m a sucker for James Horner in exotic, outdoors, adventure mode, so Mighty Joe Young was bound to be something I would enjoy. I really like the diverse ensemble of unusual percussion, the use of vocals, and peaceful and tranquil softer moments (“The Trees”) between Jill and Joe, and of course the rambunctious action tracks which don’t go annoyingly mickey-mouse but maintain a nice, linear energy.
The existing CD is already a generous 73 minutes, but after doing a CSB on The Missing and learning that there can be a lot of unreleased/alternate/unused music to be discovered even if the original album is already long enough, I thought I would check out Mighty Joe Young. It turns out that the film itself has a score that runs nearly 96 minutes, and also contains an alternate and shorter film version of the opening cue “Sacred Guardian of the Mountain” which features more synths and even more percussion than the CD version. When you factor this cue in with its CD version alternate along with all unreleased music and an extended film version of “The Burning Ferris Wheel”, the total of all known music written for the film comes to almost 101 minutes, yielding nearly 28 minutes of unreleased material.
Some of the unreleased music is a bit plodding and dull, mostly for the character Strasser and his goons as they plot, with meandering villainous strings. However, the rest of the missing stuff is great, more ethnic instruments and wonderful beautiful African-style music, some nice woodwinds, some more scary music for Joe being taunted and losing his cool, and so on. Horner wrote some of his best and most original themes for Mighty Joe Young (imho) and they get more extensive and attentive treatment in the complete score; fans of the music for this film would enjoy the variations of thematic material in the unreleased music without a doubt.
A particular highlight left of the CD is when Charlize Theron cleans up for the first time (“Jill Cleans Up”) and appears at a fundraiser in an immaculate white dress and Horner scores her entrance with some of his most beautiful string and piano music -- a vintage gorgeous Horner romantic passage that would have been a great inclusion on the CD. Another beautiful cue is when Theron sings her lullaby to Joe towards the middle of the film as Horner’s music backs her up (“Lullaby”). It’s much more clean and well put together than the awkward lullaby sample from the CD track “Poachers” and much more attractive, too. It's one of those very interesting collisions of character vocal and score music that makes sense plotwise but also is quite lovely in simply enjoying the score and stands alone beautifully as a piece of music, representing the African lullaby Jill learned as a child from her mother.
Hoping this CD gets an expansion someday!
CURRENT CD RELEASE RUNTIME: 73min 00sec COMPLETE SCORE RUNTIME (AS HEARD IN FILM): 95min 50sec ALL KNOWN ORIGINAL MUSIC WRITTEN FOR THE FILM (INCLUDING UNEDITED CD TRACKS, UNUSED TRACKS, AND/OR ALTERNATE FILM VERSIONS, WITH NO IDENTICAL DUPLICATION REGARDING FILM TRACKS & CD TRACKS): 100min 50sec
UNRELEASED SCORE RUNTIME: 27min 50sec
Complete Score Cue Titles and Cue Times (unreleased cues named by me for the sake of identification):
+ – previously unreleased (or includes previously unreleased material)
1. Sacred Guardian of the Mountain (2:34) + – (alternate shorter film version with more synth and percussion) 2. Strasser (0:54) + 3. Poachers (7:46) 4. Looking for a Legend (1:05) + 5. Attempted Capture (5:50) 6. Gregg Dangles (1:46) + 7. The Trees (5:00) – (edited from CD track) 8. Freedom Threatened (2:42) + 9. Change Considered (1:22) + 10. Our Last Chance / A New World (4:04) 11. The Lady’s In Control (2:03) + 12. Caged (1:21) + 13. Habitat Scares (0:53) + 14. Hide and Seek (0:53) + 15. Opportunity for Injustice (2:27) + 16. Taunting Joe (1:13) + 17. Beach Date (1:00) + 18. Lullaby (1:46) + 19. Figure from the Past (1:40) + 20. Jill Cleans Up (1:10) + 21. Provocation (1:18) + 22. A Broken Promise (4:28) 23. Leaving By Night (4:50) 24. Hollywood Boulevard (8:20) 25. Freeway Crossing (3:48) 26. Almost Home (0:22) + 27. The Carnival (6:20) 28. The Burning Ferris Wheel (8:36) + – (extended version with extra 1:00 of unreleased music) 29. Dedication and Windsong (9:44)
Current CD Release Track Titles and Track Times:
1. Sacred Guardian of the Mountain (3:57) – (CD version) 2. Poachers (7:52) 3. Attempted Capture (6:00) 4. The Trees (6:04) 5. Our Last Chance / A New World (3:48) 6. A Broken Promise (4:31) 7. Leaving By Night (5:15) 8. Hollywood Boulevard (7:45) 9. Freeway Crossing (4:09) 10. The Carnival (6:22) 11. The Burning Ferris Wheel (7:36) 12. Dedication / Windsong (9:44)
The film's trailer is similar to "Titanic", in that it featured an early demo of the main theme. It was largely synth, with a small choir but it was much softer, almost ethereal. Like the Titanic trailer, it was only the first half. The rest was music from another source.
This is one of the scores I wanted to add to my collection but it's fetching really high prices on Ebay... Hopefully an expanded version is on the way.
Bump, nice job Deputy, Jill Cleans Up....yum....sounds lovely. Again, and I see this sometimes (Dennis the Menace comes to mind), a whole reel or two or section of cues together go missing from the original CD! Anyone see that here too? Any guesses how or why?
I would guess the primary reason for so much of that mid-section score being omitted was the length of the cues. Horner always preferred longer cues and that was definitely true of his albums. I think it was really just as simple as that.
Giving this a random work listen for the first time in ages and I'm really loving it. The long-lined main theme is a real earwig, one of Horner's best from the post-TITANIC era, and there's some killer rhythmic material that bridges the drama and the action.
Also, in hindsight, does this strike anyone else as a first (and perhaps better) draft of AVATAR? I don't mean in the way of borrowings, but tonally, harmonically, thematically, this score would work hand-in-glove with AVATAR. Both are strong when it comes to the action, but I think JOE is better thematically.
