Alan Menken - POCAHONTAS (1995) - Soundtrack Suite

Pocahontas: (Alan Menken) By the middle of the 1990's, the Disney animated film franchise was once again a powerhouse in Hollywood, and some critics argue that the studio's animation was at its historic peak during that era. After the first trilogy of films featuring music by Alan Menken proved more successful with each entry, Disney scored another major success with The Lion King. With The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin on his resume, Menken wasn't yet to lose his position atop the musical pillar of strength for Disney's animated features. In 1995, Pocahontas received the same critical success as Menken's previous projects, winning Academy Awards for both the score and the main song, a feat that had become somewhat normal for the franchise. But The Lion King had opened a new door in Disney's mind, allowing for major Hollywood composers to collaborate with pop artists for the music in their films. Only two years later, Menken's reign over the musical scene at Disney fizzled to an inglorious end, and the studio would consistently rotate between big name composers for their animated features thereafter. It's not controversial to say that Pocahontas represented the beginning of the end for Menken, although Disney fans would be quick to respond that The Hunchback of Notre Dame had considerable merit and that it was 1997's universally intolerable Hercules that killed the Menken/Disney collaboration until its revival in the mid-2000's. No matter the overarching situation, Pocahontas remains a very typical example of Menken's style at the time, with trademark songs of simplistic harmonic construction and a score rich with light orchestral action and a varied use of slapstick breaks. The overall packaging of these usual elements, however, was slightly different in Pocahontas than it had been in either Menken's previous or following efforts. As a whole, Pocahontas has a much more balanced and steady tone in its songs and score than either Aladdin or The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Menken's score is very reflective of the song melodies, as usual, and is light hearted and orchestrally pleasant. Because of the lack of gravity in their ensemble performances, his scores rarely capture the same emotional power as the songs, but in animated musicals, the underscore isn't as vital a component. Menken does remain extremely loyal to his song melodies in the score, adding continuity to the whole package. He also ends the film with his normal, large-scale choral finale. The only disappointing aspect of Pocahontas (then and now) is that the film moves at an extremely fast pace, and thus the songs are unable to exist in the form of the long ballads that they could (and probably should) have been. An example of a fine song that was cut too short due to its brief scene was the vocal performance of "Steady as the Beating Drum" by Jim Cummings (as the chief). In 1995, Pocahontas may have disappointed fans who had become accustomed to the wildly dynamic songs of the previous films. And yet, when you examine Pocahontas in its place among all of the musicals, it stands the test of time much better than expected. It has held itself well and is still an enjoyable experience above its more inconsistent peers to follow. In the film, it suffers from the problematic pace of the unfolding story, but on album it remains a worthy effort. The Academy Award-winning song performance by Vanessa Williams is a decent pop rendition of the film's main song, however it could be argued that the melody of "Listen With Your Heart" would have made a better title song. At the time, the obnoxious and seemingly unrelated pop song "If I Never Knew You" was a useless, commercial addition to the end of the album. Eventually, however, it was revealed that this song was the pop variant of a love song for the two leads that was ultimately struck from the final cut. This song, as well as related melodic instrumental material, was reintegrated into the picture upon the film's expanded DVD release. As was done with all of Menken's Disney scores, a small amount of instrumental material was inserted into the presentation of the songs at the start of the product, but the mass of underscore can be heard in the latter half. Overall, Pocahontas has aged well, better than many of Menken's other Disney works, and if you never explored it upon its debut, it will improve your collection of Disney albums.
Source: www.filmtracks....