DVDizzy Forum

Sorry guys, but I need someone to rant to and nobody on my budddy list is on except for the Lord of the Rings IM robot, so I'm going to use the forum to rant and let off a bit of steam. You've been warned, and I'm sorry if this gets to be long.

Ever since Tuesday I've been pestering Mom to go out and get me the Brother Bear soundtrack and finally tonight she made the trip to Target, and, guess what? None in stock. NONE! It's in their weekly ad and it's not in stock. It gets on my nerves -- false advertising. Now I suppose it could have sold out but I highly doubt it. Unfortunately, she's too tired to go look somewhere else for it, so here I am for another night without the CD.

Sigh.

Hmmm....

Want me to do some Elvis karaoke for ya?

Go to Costco. Saw plenty of them there today for only $12 or so too.

Well, I finally have it (YES!!!!!) And I just spent the last hour or so writing this review up without having the intention to go into review-quality detail. But, I did, so here it is.

Let me tell you, this is really beautiful music. Even if the movie is horrible, which I know it isn't, this music is wonderful. Phil Collins's contributions are really great -- his voice has a soft and soothing quality to it, something that really worked to great effect in Tarzan, specifically You'll Be in My Heart, which I'm happy to report is back here. However, it is also often epic and powerful.

Tina Turner's performance in "Great Spirits" is exellent and vibrant, too, and brings viraity to the otherwise Collins-centric album. However, there's a snipet of Collins singing this in the trailer I've got on my desktop, and honestly I prefer that one. But maybe Turner's version will grow on me, and I'm sure it works wondefully in the film. I just liked her better in the colder-voiced, darker-toned GoldenEye theme. But that kind of thing wouldn't have worked here, and upon a second listen her version is already growing on me.

The chiors in here are hauntingly beautiful and really powerful. I can't wait to hear how their material is used in the film.

One thing I did notice, though, is that there really aren't any tracks here sung by the characters themselves. That's not a bad thing, though. That style was used to some extent in Tarzan and the Toy Story movies, but even those had some songs performed by the characters. (Examples: "You'll Be In My Heart" featured Glen Close singing Kala and then Phil Collins "took over for her," and "Trashin' the Camp" didn't involve Collins' vocals at all.) The rest of Tarzan's tracks had Collins acting sort of as a narrator, singing to the characters sometimes ("Son of Man"), about them ("Two Worlds") oe using their perspective and the pronoun "I", ("Strangers Like Me") but they weren't sung BY the characters. DreamWorks used the same style with Byran Adams in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Disney did it again for I'm Still Here in Treasure Planet. Here, all of the music seems to be either the vocal performers being "narrator" again and singing about things relating to the story "Great Spirits") or using "I" and stepping in to sing from the character's perspective without it actulally being the character doing the singing ("On My Way," "No Way Out.") This is odd, since some early trailers featured Koda singing a little bit of "On My Way" and then Collins taking over, such as he did with Glen Close on "You'll Be In My Heart" for Tarzan. I wonder if Koda's singing survives in the fim? Probably not because it's not here, but they might have removed it to make the track more "radio-ready." Marej or anyone else who has seen the film already, care to comment?

Speaking of being radio ready, I think all of these songs will do wonderfully on the radio and wouldn't be suprised if some of them get a lot of airplay if the movie is a hit, perticularly "Look Through My Eyes." I'd also look for one or more of these songs to be nominated for the Best Song Oscar 2003 and one of them might win. The end-title track from The Return of the King is going its biggest competition as far as I can tell. The end-credits song from Finding Nemo is a remake of a Bobby Darin '60s track and isn't "original," so it can't compete, and Sinbad and Pirates of the Carribbean eskewed end credit songs in favor of end credit score.

Speaking of score -- the few pieces of score available on this CD are all amazing -- some is beautiful and soothing, some uses the chior again to become haunting, and other parts are exciting and have an epic feel (this bit is probably used in the climax and/or brother-hunts-brother action sequences in the film.) This score is really, really exellent and I wouldn't be suprised to see it win Best Score at the Oscars this year. Although several sequels this year have wonderful scores too (X2, the Matrix sequels, and *cough* mainly Lord of the Rings *cough*), the Academy's new rules say that since sequel scores sometimes reuse principal themes from the previous films they can't be considered original and thus aren't elligible for the award. So those are all out. Me, I'd say Pirates of the Carribbean is worthy of a nod, but it doesn't strike me as the type of score the Academy would nominate. My guess is that Finding Nemo, Sinbad, and Brother Bear will all be nominated for Best Score with Brother Bear justly coming out on top to win the award. Also - this score is Phil Collins' first attempt at doing underscore (Tarzan was scored by Mark Manchina, who also cowrote this score with Collins) and he deserves to be commended for it. Good job!

Now, I know a lot of people have and are going to be comparing the music from Brother Bear to the music from Tarzan, since they both feature Phil Collins. (Heck, I already did in this review, several times.) Let me directly comment on that now. Yes, they both feature Phil Collins, and yes, there are some simmilarities, but this is to me very different from his work on Tarzan -- not that that's a bad thing, just an observation. His voice has not changed and it's crystal clear that the same person is doing them both. However, the tone is really different than what he did for Tarzan. It's really, really difficult to describe but when you all hear it in the film you'll know what I mean. Also, those of you who didn't like his music in Tarzan (and I know there are a few) - please, give this a chance. I think you'll be pleasntly suprised.

ALSO -- A NOTE ABOUT SPOILERS: I haven't seen the movie yet, obviously, but the lyrics DO NOT appear to have spoilers of any kind. There are some lyrics that might lead to theroies, such as "Brother bear, I let you down" in No Way Out, but nothing that sounds like a definate spoiler.

PACKAGING: The CD is in the standard CD case with a booklet which has the same art as the movie poster. The shrinkwrap also has a lot of stickers, including the usual security tape and a sticker promoting Phil Collins' presence on the album. The booklet is nice, featuring lyrics for all of the songs, pictures of the artists, and, the highlight, a bunch of beautiful stills from the film. It also has a foldout ad for Brother Bear books and the Brother Bear CD Read-Along, which can be removed and used as a bookmark. Nice booklet! When the CD and booklet are both removed, the case shows a picture of the moose.

Wow, that took a long time to type and I've already heard the entire CD through once and then some while writing it. All in all, it's a VERY good album and highly reccomended for purchase. My only problems with the CD really is with what's NOT here -- Koda singing parts of On My Way and Collins doing Great Spirits, both of which were in the trailers -- and the full, complete, unabriged score. What IS here is all GREAT. This instantly ranks up there with the best of Disney music and is a worthy addition to that legacy.

HIGHLY RECCOMENDED!

cool! thanks a bunch for the review...

Welcome. Actulally, it didn't start out as that formal of a review, just a few random comments, so it's just me perticipating in the board as usual, but it devoleped into that. And it was my pleasure to write it. Hope you enjoy the CD.

Um... thanks for the obsessively detailed review? O_o

Now, I know you're interested in journalism, Jake - please tell me you were just practicing your form. Because I really don't see any other reason to have such a lengthy (and at times digressive) review of this disc. But that's just my opinion.

I picked up this soundtrack on its release day, along with the Dragonslayer and Indiana Jones dvds. And I must make a note about the Phill Collins version of "Great Spirits" - it's included as a bonus track if you buy it from Best Buy. A little late notice for you, Jake - but it's there. LOL

The soundtrack, imo, follows the pattern of the film itself - good but not great. I still remember those reports of Brother Bear's early demos being called "disappointing" by insiders. They've certainly shaped up since then, but that knowledge that they were pretty piss-poor in the beginning kinda tainted my experience - not a lot, but it was in the back of my head as I listened to the tracks some of the first few times.

The "Phil-only" songs are pretty mediocre, imo. The lyrics are generic, basic, and kinda forgettable. They're not very inspired - it feels like they were written and finished up in a rush, almost. The best of the bunch are his English rendition of "Translation" - short and sweet - and his take on "Great Spirits" - which, apparently, is a rarity for this soundtrack.

I must tell you now that my favorite genre of music is soundtracks - they far outnumber any other regular ol' artist album in my collection. And my favorite part of soundtracks is the score. I'm into instrumentals - dunno why, I just am. But the three end tracks on this cd are too convoluted to listen to, imo. They jump from theme to theme - from quiet and soothing, to some obvious "action sequence" piece. I just wish they had broken up the themes a bit - and fleshed out each one to make its own substantial track.
But I'd have to say that this is far from a Best Original Score contendah - it has just as much of a chance at Score as the Phil Collins pap does at Song. "You'll Be In My Heart" got all the nominations, awards, and acclaim because that song really was a diamond in the rough of Tarzan - it's truly an inspired, heartfelt piece. Any other track from Tarzan is so generic it all almost sounds the same. And I don't even know if Brother Bear's stuff competes with the least of Tarzan's. Still, Paul Simon's simplistic "Father & Daughter" from The Wild Thornberries was nominated last year - we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Well, it's nice to know that the Phil Collins Great Spirits is available in some form, but why not just put it on the CD for all retailers? Or at least make it known that it's only available from certian stores. I would have liked to know where I could get it, but getting the word out on that bonus was awful. I usually find out, but for some reason I didn't. I did see last week's Best Buy ad, too, and I don't remember it being noted in there.

Sigh. Lucasfilm did the same thing with a bonus track on the Episode II soundtrack if bought from Target, which I was lucky enough to be forewarned of.

Oh, well. Tina Turner's version is growing on me, and Disney might include the Collins one on one of their numerous neverending best-ofs. Well, thanks for the info.