Ah, mid-may in the nation’s breadbasket. The signs of summer’s
\nyearly approach are quickly coming upon us, including the buzz over
\ncertain upcoming movies. (No, not
\nStar Wars: The Phantom Menace<\/i>; we covered that yesterday.)
\nYes, we’re talking about the annual release from the minds of the
\nanimation department at Walt Disney; this year, our treat for the
\nsenses is
\nTarzan<\/i>.<\/p>\n
But unlike other years, this film breaks from the traditional
\nmold of an animated musical. Instead of having the characters break
\ninto song to emphasize certain aspects of the movie,
\nTarzan<\/i> works with what I can only call “mood” pieces – that
\nis, songs written to enhance the action but not to overshadow it.
\nIt’s a bold step, but is it one that works? We’ll talk about that
\nmomentarily.<\/p>\n
For the film (which I haven’t seen yet – heck, it isn’t even out
\nyet), Phil Collins was recruited to write the music and assist with
\nthe film score. This isn’t too big of a stretch for Collins; over
\nthe course of his last few albums (both solo and with Genesis),
\nhe’s added more of a tribal beat to his music, so selecting him to
\nwrite music for
\nTarzan<\/i> is a natural.<\/p>\n
But what struck me quickly about the music for
\nTarzan<\/i> is that this hardly sounds like your typical Disney
\nouting. For that matter, there really doesn’t sound like there’s a
\nlot of music in this film at all. There are four different flavors
\nof the track “Two Worlds” – the hit single, the original, the
\nreprise, and the finale – as well as two each of “Trashin’ The
\nCamp” and “You’ll Be In My Heart”. That accounts for over half of
\nthe 14 selections on this soundtrack.<\/p>\n
While we’re on the subject, the duet between Collins and pop
\nsinging group of the month ‘N Sync – one of the versions of
\n“Trashin’ The Camp” – really is a wasted pairing. I would have much
\nrather heard Collins and ‘N Sync tackle “Two Worlds” or “You’ll Be
\nIn My Heart” instead of a track that, lyrically, doesn’t have a
\nwhole lot to offer.<\/p>\n
The four selections featuring music from the film’s score, as
\nwith many recent releases from the Disney camp, are incredible
\ninstrumentations. Collins does add drums to these, but at least he
\nis able to blend in with the Mark Mancina-composed works well. On
\nthese tracks like “The Gorillas” and “A Wondrous Place,” the
\nhighlight is on the orchestra, and rightfully so.<\/p>\n
And, if taken on their own, the tracks performed by Collins are
\ndecent enough efforts staying on track with what Collins has been
\nputting out recently. “Two Worlds” is a great single, though
\n“You’ll Be In My Heart” – a nice track – just isn’t the greatest
\nballad that Collins has ever written.<\/p>\n
So, the grand question remains: Does a soundtrack without the
\ntraditional Disney musical theme work? And the answer is… well, I
\ndon’t know. Unlike other soundtracks, I’m not able to ascertain
\nwhat is happening in the film just by following the tome of the
\nmusic; this, in and of itself, isn’t a bad thing. But
\nTarzan<\/i> feels less and less like a Disney soundtrack and more
\nlike another Collins solo effort, only without much variety to
\nchoose from.<\/p>\n
This isn’t to say the music is bad; it’s just something that I
\nhaven’t gotten used to. I hope to see the film in due time; maybe
\nthings will come into focus more after that. Until then, I’d have
\nto call
\nTarzan<\/i> a good effort, but mildly disappointing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5729],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38945","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soundtrack","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38945"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}