Disney Hates Soundtracks

[GIANTfraggle]

What's going on with Disney and releasing cd sountracks for their movies?! It's starting to get frustrating! We got no soundtracks for Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Bedtime Stories, Race to Witch Mountain and probably others I'm forgeting and God forbid we get releases to any older films like Disney was doing for awhile before. Now I'm not finding listings anywhere in any of my searching for an Up soundtrack. You'd think with the movie coming out in 2 weeks Amazon would have it up for preorder. I enjoy collecting the movie cd's as much as collecting the dvd's! ARRGH!!! Sorry. Just wanted to vent.

[dvdjunkie]

How about the fact that those movies mentioned don't have any memorable music on them to release to a CD.

A soundtrack to a movie is only essential when it like the big blockbuster films "Star Trek", "Star Wars", and the like. Big symphonic orchestras and the like that add to enjoyment of the movie.

The latest Disney gaggle of no talents ruining a perfectly good song is not condusive to having a great soundtrack.

Some of Disney's best soundtracks are from movies that have memorable music. Take a look at your collection and you will see what I mean.

[drfsupercenter]

Well, I think it has to do with the fact that a lot of their soundtracks don't sell, or wouldn't - if they released them.

The big Blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean had CD soundtracks because they were super-popular movies and tons of people liked the music (me included)... but I saw Bedtime Stories and wasn't jumping out of my seat at how unique or exciting the music was.

The only ones I'm really disappointed about are some of the DACs - I wish they'd release a SOUNDTRACK (Vocal music, etc.) and SCORE (The orchestral music) separately, rather than trying to cram the best of each on one CD. If they could do it for stuff like Transformers, why not for the DACs?

[Chernabog]

The music to

Santa Clause 3
Underdog
Race to Witch Mountain
Bedtime Stories

are available as download-albums from Amazon

[my chicken is infected]

For most DAC's, you wouldn't have to do separate CD's. A CD holds 80 minutes of music, the movies are usually 80-90 minutes long, and there's usually maybe five minutes of movie with no underscore or anything. Most, if not all, of the music from a DAC could fit onto a single CD, but Disney prefers to only release "the best of," which can often come to a scant 35-45 minutes, leaving a bunch of space unused.

At least Disney got it right with their 2-CD release of Mary Poppins. Most complete soundtrack they ever released, probably.

[SpringHeelJack]

I'd concur by agreeing with DVDJunkie... there's probably a good reason the soundtracks haven't been released. I really can't think of anyone who left "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" thinking how much they'd enjoy the soundtrack.

In all fairness, it's not just Disney. Many films never get decent soundtracks. Seldom does John Williams every release a score in its entirety. He prefers to use rearranged and abridged versions of the music in the film as a concert suite format. It's not something I like, generally, I prefer to have my scores as in the film and in chronological order. But one so seldom gets what one wants.

Anyhow, sometimes if you're lucky you can find bootlegs of the "for your consideration" score CDs online. "The Lion King", "Brother Bear", "Chicken Little", and "Meet the Robinsons" (off the top of my head) all have these circulating.

[KubrickFan]

In all fairness, it's not just Disney. Many films never get decent soundtracks. Seldom does John Williams every release a score in its entirety. He prefers to use rearranged and abridged versions of the music in the film as a concert suite format. It's not something I like, generally, I prefer to have my scores as in the film and in chronological order. But one so seldom gets what one wants.

The scores of Star Wars Episode I and the original trilogy are complete (for the special edition, that is. They're missing the original songs that were changed) and I'm still waiting for the Ultimate Editions of Ep. II and III.
But it is indeed very rare a complete score gets released. Too bad, I hate it when a score is incomplete.
Although I hate it even more when only a soundtrack (with songs inspired by the film ) is released instead of the score. There still isn't a score available of Spider-Man 3, for example.

[disneyfella]

I think the soundtrack to "One Little Indian" just got an extremely limited official CD Soundtrack release. It doesn't happen often, but those older Disney live action films have some great soundtracks...

::runs to "Scandalous John" LP and hugs it::

If only they got more high calibur releases, like the "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" album on iTunes.

[Escapay]

::runs to "Scandalous John" LP and hugs it::

::runs to "The Black Hole" LP and hugs it too::

I know it's on iTunes, and that there's an Italian bootleg of that floating around, but I'd rather wait for an official CD from Disney (even if the chances of that are slim to none).

albert

[Kossage]

It's unfortunate that often Disney's soundtracks are quite short although the complete bootlegs do help a bit. I still wish that Disney will one day get a grip of itself and release complete scores of its films (including alternate takes and unused songs, demos etc.). That sort of stuff could easily fit into two CDs in most cases. Releasing them e.g. online via iTunes could be a good opportunity for Disney to market its beautiful music (which does not only consist of nice songs but also the often wonderful underscore).

I think a soundtrack should not be limited to just blockbusters. There are lots of good films out there that never became blockbusters, and they have very good music. One of the more recent examples I can think of is Angel with a magnificent score by Philippe Rombi. Many blockbusters nowadays actually have very underarchieving scores although at least we're being offered soundtracks.

[disneyfella]

This may be slightly off topic, but I know of the following pre 1990 live-action scores that Disney released either via LP, cassette, or CD:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Westward Ho, the Wagons!
The Vanishing Prairie
Secrets of Life
Scandalous John
The Black Hole
Return to Oz
One Little Indian
The Journey of Natty Gann
TRON
Return to Snowy River
Flight of the Navigator
Mary Poppins
The Moon Spinners
Night Crossing
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

are there more?


I know there are soundtrack albums (i.e. "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band", "Babes in Toyland", etc.), but they don't have score tracks....let alone a score album available.

You may have to look hard, but those score tracks are out there. I don't mean that Disney is marketing their library of films scores the way they ought to. They have a gold mine of film music, and digital downloads would be the perfect outlet for fans to download and enjoy....and Disney stands to make a large profit. Until then, fans will continue to make their bootlegs from 5.1 audio mixes.

[drfsupercenter]

I have seen that Tron CD first-hand... and it should be on Amazon.

But if anyone wants it I should be able to find it for you.

I can check my local library for others on that list, if you guys are serious about collecting rare or hard to find soundtracks...