Monthly Archives: December 2020

My Thoughts on: The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)

Soundtrack News: ‘The Wolf of Snow Hollow’ Soundtrack Available Now

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My Thoughts on: Soul (2020)

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When Soul was bumped from its November 20th release date to Christmas Day on Disney+, I instantly knew what my top goal for my mini-Christmas vacation would be: sit and watch Soul with my family.

Not only was I successful with this goal, I also ended up watching a pretty enjoyable movie, though not one without a few flaws (I’ll get to that later). In fact, it was so much fun I didn’t realize until after the credits had rolled that (minor spoiler alert) there isn’t really a villain in this film. Which, if you think about it, doesn’t happen all that often. But really Soul doesn’t need a bad guy because it is dealing with a whole lot already.

Soul is, without a doubt, the deepest animated film I’ve ever seen. Think Inside Out and ratchet it up by a factor of 100 and you’ll be pretty close to the mark. In fact, Soul is so deep, that I wholeheartedly agree with every critic who has said that Soul is not and should not be considered a movie for children. This film deals pretty openly with matters of life and death, hinted reincarnation, chakras, the astral plane, the afterlife in general, and in short what it means to be alive on this Earth. It was a bold, BOLD move to deal with all of these concepts in a single film so openly and I applaud everyone involved with the film for putting that part of the story together. You might not agree with all of the beliefs presented or referenced in Soul (for example, I don’t believe in reincarnation), but you can easily appreciate the tone the film is going for: that there is way more to life and living than you might think.

Jamie Foxx as Joe Gardner is an absolute delight. As a musician myself, I could totally feel the pull Joe is feeling between following his dreams of being a full time musician, and taking the pragmatic route by being a band teacher. Joe is the perfect kind of everyman to take us through the story, and the scenes where Joe loses himself in “the zone” while playing the piano….those moments spoke to me the most.

Tina Fey as 22….it took a while but she grew on me as the story went on. By the time the film reaches the emotional climax (and it IS emotional), I was fully invested in what happened to 22.

Also, I have to say I LOVE all of the music scenes in this film. It’s great to see jazz given such a prominent spotlight in a Disney Pixar film, and I really hope this encourages everyone watching, young and old, to give jazz another listen if they’ve dismissed the genre in the past.

Now, while I loved a LOT about Soul, it is not a film without flaws. Most noticeably…the middle of the film. I tried and tried to get around it, but I can’t excuse the middle act of the film. I had a feeling from the previews that something of a “screwball” nature would be occurring, but I was not prepared for what actually happened. Here’s the thing: this gag they go with (minor spoiler alert: when Joe’s soul is trapped in a cat’s body) is kind of funny, but it doesn’t quite fit what comes before and after. It’s almost like the writers struggled with how to transition from the beginning to the climax of the film and this was the best they could come up with. In other words, this part feels like it came from a slightly different film.

The good news is, while the middle of the film lags here and there, it more than recovers at the climax to leave me feeling very satisfied with the overall experience. I know there’s a lot of discussion about Joe spending a significant chunk of the film looking….other than himself, but really jazz and African-American culture is given such a spotlight…..pardon me if this sounds too forward, but I feel like it sort of balances out in the end.

I highly recommend Soul to anyone who hasn’t gotten the chance to see it yet. It’s one of the best films I’ve seen this year (and in the craziness that has been 2020 that’s saying a lot).

Let me know what you think about Soul in the comments below and have a great day!

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My Thoughts on: Mulan (2020)

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After waiting 9 additional months (thanks COVID), I have finally seen Disney’s reimagined Mulan while visiting home for Christmas and I’m pleased to report I liked it just as much as I thought I would.

It’s no secret that I have extremely mixed emotions where the live-action Disney remakes are concerned (the fact that most of them are inferior to the original doesn’t help). But from the moment I saw the first teaser, Mulan felt different. It felt to me like Disney had finally hit the right balance of new and old, such as I hadn’t seen since Maleficent in 2014 (despite the title that is very much a remake of Sleeping Beauty and you all know it). My curiosity was definitely piqued by the film appearing to draw on traditional Chinese martial arts films (wuxia is awesome), so I was super excited to finally check the film out with my mom like we’d always planned.

In case you didn’t know, this new Mulan is really, really good. As with any other Disney remake, there are story beats that come directly from the animated original, but they’re switched up just enough in this film that they’re actually an improvement. One of my favorite details is that the songs of Mulan (one of my favorite sets of songs in the Disney renaissance), make a subdued comeback in the form of spoken dialogue. I absolutely loved this, it was great to hear mentions of “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” and “A Girl Worth Fighting For.” Hopefully the many Disney fans upset (like me) about Mulan not being a musical were appeased by this, I know I was.

But my favorite part of this film has to be the witch. This is not something I thought I would say a year ago. When it was announced that a witch was being added to the story, I thought it was a stupid idea, but that was before I realized that this wasn’t your stereotypical witch. The witch in Mulan is cool! In fact, she’s so interesting, I would almost demand that Disney make a prequel about how the witch got to be who she is, I can tell there’s a huge story there. Of course she’s designed to be a foil to Mulan, showing what our heroine might become if pushed down the wrong path, and I really liked the obvious similarities between the pair.

Another thing I liked? Jason Scott Lee as Bori Khan. He is a huge improvement over the animated villain Shan Yu, as we now have a much more defined reason for why Bori Khan wants to kill the Emperor. Also, I wanted to mention him because Jason Scott Lee also played Mowgli in Disney’s FIRST live action remake of The Jungle Book in 1994, and I thought it was really cool to see him in a Disney movie again.

Also, while I’m still upset that Li Shang is absent from this film, I AM okay with how Disney kept in a potential love interest for Mulan anyway. I say potential because nothing has officially happened by the time the credits roll, but it’s more than obvious that a sequel is being set up, and I would be more than happy to watch one.

One final note: the scene were Mulan finally embraces the truth of her identity as a female warrior is so powerful, it made me cry. Those are the kind of moments I live for in movies, and Disney hit the nail on the head with this one.

Mulan is definitely one of the best Disney live-action remakes the studio has made to date and I would be more than happy to see Mulan’s story continue in a future film.

Let me know what you think about Mulan in the comments below and have a great day!

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Soundtrack Review: Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)

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Along with the long awaited release of Cyberpunk 2077, there was also the release of the game’s lengthy (and I do mean lengthy) soundtrack. Stretched out over 37 tracks on TWO CDs, the soundtrack for Cyberpunk 2077 was a collaboration between Marcin Przybyłowicz, P.T. Adamczyk, and Paul Leonard-Morgan.

The Cyberpunk 2077 video game is an open-world, action-adventure story set in Night City, a megalopolis obsessed with power, glamour and body modification. You play as V, a mercenary outlaw going after a one-of-a-kind implant that is the key to immortality. You can customize your character’s cyberware, skillset and playstyle, and explore a vast city where the choices you make shape the story and the world around you.

If music in Cyberpunk 2077 would have to be described with just one word, it would be attitude. No matter the style, sound palette, or specific genre Przybyłowicz, Adamczyk, and Leonard-Morgan worked with, attitude is the cornerstone of every cue they composed for the game. Night City shimmers with colors and so does the music – not limited to one specific genre. Instead, the composing trio drew from all sorts of styles to craft a unique mix that drives the narrative and provides additional layers of context to the story. Expect a wide range of music styles from jazz, through downtempo, hip-hop, metal, industrial, to various incarnations of techno.

You know, after listening to a number of orchestral soundtracks for video games in recent months (The Ghost of Tsushima and Godfall most definitely come to mind), it was actually refreshing to take in a soundtrack that is not based entirely on strings and traditional orchestral instruments. Oh, you can hear them in the mix of Cyberpunk 2077 if you listen closely, but the base of this soundtrack is 100% synthetic. Or, better put, synthesized and electronic. This immediately puts you in the world of the future that is Cyberpunk 2077, where anyone can get their bodies modified and technology has reached levels we can only dream of. An orchestral score like the one used for Godfall would simply not do in this situation, it wouldn’t fit. I expected something of the sort even before I listened to the soundtrack, so this fit my expectations perfectly.

And then, as I was listening through the tracks, it occurred to me that all of this sounded very familiar, but I couldn’t quite figure out why, as I haven’t gotten to play the game yet, nor have I seen any gameplay where I might have heard the music before now. Finally, it hit me. I’ve heard music in this style before, though it’s been a few years. The music for Cyberpunk 2077 reminds me very strongly of the score for Blade Runner 2049. Both have heavily synthesized scores laced throughout with deep bass BWOOMS that just reverberate through you. And, if you consider the larger picture, they’re based in eerily similar locales: the not so distant future, a dystopian setting, body modifications abound…I’d be very interested in asking the composers if they took direct inspiration from Blade Runner 2049, or perhaps even the original Blade Runner.

I also really like how the music subtly shifts for different locales (or what I assume are different locations). Which is to say, all of the tracks exist in the same musical family, but they’re altered in such a way to give the impression of being on the streets, up high, even underwater or in an abandoned building, if that makes sense. The composers are absolutely making the most out of this sound world (as they should be).

There is an element of repetition throughout the music, but I’ve long since learned that this is to be expected in video game scores. Having not played the game yet myself, I don’t quite know what controls when the music changes from one track to the next, but I know that at a certain level there needs to be some level of repetition in order for the music to seamlessly shift from one track to another without making it noticeable (especially since gameplay can differ wildly between one player and the next).

One final thought: I frequently amuse myself by glancing through the track listings of soundtracks (be it film, television, or video games) and try to see what details I can glean regarding the story strictly by looking at the listings. Sometimes, depending on how they’re worded, you can actually learn quite a lot. But, and this is a good thing, while I can work out a basic story outline from the track listing, I can’t detect any major spoilers, or at least no obvious spoilers. That’s tricky to do, as track listings need to be descriptive but not in a way that gives plot details away if it can be helped.

All in all, the music for Cyberpunk 2077 sounds like the perfect score for this type of game. It fits the story perfectly, but is not so overwhelming that it distracts you from gameplay (indeed, I’m certain there are many times the music will largely blend in to the background). I’m well aware that the game has numerous issues on PS4 and Xbox One (speaking as a PS4 player, I’m scared to see how the game plays if/when I get it for Christmas), but at least I can safely say the score isn’t one of them.

TRACK LISTING

Disc 1: