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The sequel to the glorious BABE, one of my all-time favorite films, was pretty mediocre.
There was one exceptional scene - the round-up of the animals- that was made especially memorable by the haunting, Irish melody.
Does anyone know what music was used?
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I actually loved Pig In The City. One of the most surreal and borderline-disturbing G-rated movies ever made.
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I actually loved Pig In The City. One of the most surreal and borderline-disturbing G-rated movies ever made.
You and Gene Siskel.
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You and Gene Siskel.
Actually, PITC received mostly excellent reviews at the time of it's release, but the critical huzzahs were buried by the film's extremely poor box-office reception (of course, opening the movie in-between A Bug's Life and the Rugrats movie didn't help). Yeah, it's "darker", but so what? At least it didn't copy the first film verbatim.
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I don't really want to get into a discussion of the merits of the film.
Suffice to say, the excuses the films' champions keep making; e.g. "the promotion was wrong", "the release date was wrong", it was "misunderstood", "too dark" etc. etc, is total b.s.
BABE ITC flopped because it was not a very good film.
'nuff said!
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I don't really want to get into a discussion of the merits of the film. BABE:PITC flopped because it was not a very good film.
Well, now that you have got into discussing the merits of the film, despite the fact that 10-year-olds loved the original BABE, it really was a horrendously schmaltzy, sentimental, overly-sweet piece of forgettable slosh. Okay, everyone to their own opinion, if you like Babe, then that is fine.
But everyone I know plus a whole bunch of critics, and journalists who I don't know, all agree, that the vastly different Babe:PITC is a very good to excellent piece of filmmaking.
As for it flopping. That's pretty naive to suggest that films flop at the box just because they are not any good. Plenty of great films do poor box office. And plenty of rotten films do great box office. eg. the worst film of the year, "Legally Blonde 2", which replicated the charming original's box office success.
As for the Irish piece in the round up in PITC - I think that piece was actually written by Nigel Westlake or maybe was adapted by him from a trad. Irish piece.
If anyone knows for sure then I would like to know the origin of the piece as well.
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Sorry, but I love this movie too!
I'd buy the soundtrack if i knew this track was on it, but it's hard to tell as it's one of those "Music Inspired by" compilations. Seems to be a trad. arranged by Nigel Westlake, featuring Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains. The best possibility on the amazon.com track listing is #11 "Protected by Angels". Maybe a reader who owns a copy of disc might be able to confirm this or offer any more info?
You are correct about the soundtrack: it does not appear that the music in question is part of it.
Absurdly so.
The round-up scene is a great example of film music used in a non-traditional way.
Most directors would have scored that scene with the conventional action/comedy music employed in most animated films.
By using the mournful tune instead, the emotional
reaction of the audience is completely different.
The sadness of the scene is conveyed primarily because of this counter-musical choice.
Another good example of this type of scoring is DUCK, YOU SUCKER.
When Sean(James Coburn) blows up the bridge carrying the soldiers, Morricone plays the lyrical main theme, scored for strings.
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Posted: |
Feb 18, 2017 - 12:18 AM
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By: |
Slackattack
(Member)
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Hey everyone! I hope you all are having a great week!
Pig In The City happens to be my favorite movie, and I've done a little bit of research concerning the music used -- and not used -- in the film. I'd love to hear your responses to this information! I am also pining for a release of Nigel Westlake's 50 minute score -- the majority of which has never seen the light of day!
Before I get into, I'll write my recommendation of the film here. If you've seen it but don't remember it, I highly suggest you take another look; and if you haven't seen it, then you're doing yourself a disservice. It's an incredible film that has to this day never failed to move me; and will surely move you too if you can get past how odd, dark and absurd it is in comparison to the original (though I would argue that the original is just as dark; if not more so). In fact, it's hardly worth comparing to the original at all; for aside from following the same main character, and featuring a similar 'Pigs are animals who can't do anything and exist to be eaten' subtext, there are very few similarities. If you have the time, take a look! You'll surely be amazed at the creativity that went into the creation of this film.
Now, to the meat of my post; and my reason for posting here -- the music!
Firstly, the official CD release is, as one of the previous posters mentioned, an 'Inspired By' album, and not really representative of what is in the film. Some songs on the album do not appear in the film, and some songs in the film do not appear on the album. Also, in keeping in line with the original's score release, it features dialogue tracks in-between the songs. While they're easily edited out, they make for a pretty uneven listening experience. That being said, there is some terrific and inspiring music on the album; including the track Protected by Angels, which is the piece of music that the previous posters are alluding to -- as well as a version of the film's theme song "That'll Do" sung by Elizabeth Daily (who also voiced Babe for the film). Probably one of the few good 'Music Inspired By' albums out there!
In tandem with the queries posted above, I can provide a few (admittedly late) answers. The track Protected by Angels, which was used for the majority of the incredible Animal Roundup scene, is performed by The Chieftains, and not part of Nigel Westlake's score (though there's a chance that he arranged it? Not really sure on that one -- I think tretchikoff above has more answers than I do in that regard). If you don't know The Chieftains, they're a pretty influential Irish traditional band that are sort of responsible for the popularization of Irish pipe music in the past half century or so. They composed the score for Barry Lyndon, and performed a substantial portion of the music in John William's Far & Away. They have a lot of incredible music under their name, and this track is no exception. In fact, this track in particular makes the scene it belongs to scene probably one of the most emotional moments of the whole movie (which has quite a number of emotionally affecting moments! The children's hospital scene, Thelonius's dressing scene, the chase scene, the balloon scene.. the list goes on). Watching as Animal Control rips away the haven for the marginalized and unwanted animals with this music playing really gets to you. Mr. Marshall said it better than I ever could could in his brief analysis above (though I think that any director who would choose to score that scene with an action/comedy vibe could not have even made this movie in the first place)!
Here is a link to Protected By Angels:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbTCenhTLQ0
On an interesting tangent, it turns out that Jerry Goldsmith wrote a score for the first film that was rejected by Chris Noonan and George Miller for not lining up with what they wanted (one source I've found said that his music was too cartoonish, and that they ended up turning to Nigel Westlake for a more serious composition)! There's a forum on Jerry Goldsmith Online about it that I'll post here:
http://www.jerrygoldsmithonline.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=1627
Back on track however, I'll now write a little bit about the information I found concerning Westlake's score for Pig in the City. The film as it was released in theaters consisted mostly of licensed music (most of which ended up on the aforementioned CD), and there are only three or four fleeting sequences that feature the music Nigel Westlake composed exclusively for the film (though there are a few moments that track music from the first film's score). While trying to figure out why so little of his music was used, I ended up reading an article in the Canberra Times (I won't post the URL here, but the title is 'Babe Accompanied Live By CSO Under Composer Nigel Westlake') in which Westlake says that almost all of his music was dropped when the film was recut two weeks before release. Westlake says "they felt the music was too dark or too violent" (I assume 'they' is in reference to studio executives at Universal), and with only two weeks before the film's scheduled release, there was no time to re-record anything. While this story is nothing new for those of you who keep up with the behind-the-scenes drama of productions that have troubled relationships with their studios, what that means is there is a 50 minute score for the movie that was left almost entirely on the cutting room floor. For anyone who is a fan of the original score -- or any of Westlake's compositions, for that matter -- the fact that there is 50 minutes worth of dark, emotional, dramatic and jazzy musical riffs off of the themes and motifs of the first film that has not had any sort of release... it's an absolute travesty, in my opinion. The few songs that have been released are from Westlake's compilation album Shimmering Lights -- and if these three tracks can't convince of the tragedy of this unreleased score, then I'm not sure what will. The links are here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEdx-fxXpNQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T12szHdxB3A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MYzU2YU-Fo
In watching the film, a tiny bit of Westlake' more jazzy, avant-garde approach can be heard during the sequence in which Babe follows the Chimpanzee family out of the hotel in their search for food. I hope that more of the unreleased material is in this vein, as it's some incredible stuff that we don't hear nearly enough of in scores these days (or at least, I haven't heard nearly enough of -- if anyone has any recommendations, I would love to hear them!)
I think that this is surely a treasure of an undiscovered score; and, with the 20th anniversary of the film coming up next year, would be a great release for any of the many wonderful labels out there that devote themselves so selflessly to the preservation of great film music. I -- along with many others, I'm sure -- would be greatly appreciative of finally having a chance to listen to this unheard Westlake gem!
I'll also take this space to recommend the 20th anniversary re-recording of the original Babe score that was released a little while ago by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra! No more dialogue snippets in-between tracks, and some very cool and creative new orchestration that wasn't in the original score. There's a previous discussion about it here that I'll link to: http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=110629&forumID=1&archive=0
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"Watching as Animal Control rips away the haven for the marginalized and unwanted animals with this music playing really gets to you. Mr. Marshall said it better than I ever could in his brief analysis above (though I think that any director who would choose to score that scene with an action/comedy vibe could not have even made this movie in the first place)!"
thank you Slack for the info.
SO the cue in question is , in fact, on the soundtrack cd?
Great news. I can probably find a copy cheap in the bargain bin.
(I will probably file this under "World Music', not soundtracks)
bruce
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I don't think there are any descriptions of Goldsmith's score being "cartoonish", just possibly "not dark enough" for the super-dark version of the film he scored. It's very possible his score is still a darker composition than the Westlake/Saint-Saens concoction that graced the final film (which I agree is still pretty dark at times). In any case, the Goldsmith score was probably not recorded, so the only way we'd hear it is if some enterprising label recorded it. Since someone budgeted a rerecording of Westlake's score, I guess anything is possible!
Yavar
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13 years from question to answer..
"It's gotta be a world record!""""
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I actually loved Pig In The City. One of the most surreal and borderline-disturbing G-rated movies ever made.
You and Gene Siskel.
I liked it a lot too when it came out. Have not seen it since, though.
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