Winnie the Pooh (2011 soundtrack)
| Winnie the Pooh | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Soundtrack album by Various artists | ||||
| Released | July 12, 2011 | |||
| Recorded | 2010–2011 | |||
| Genre | Film soundtrack | |||
| Length | 46:42 | |||
| Label | Walt Disney Records | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Walt Disney Animation Studios chronology | ||||
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| Henry Jackman chronology | ||||
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Winnie the Pooh is the soundtrack album to the 2011 film of the same name, based on the eponymous novel created by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard, and directed by Stephen J. Anderson and Don Hall, the latter in his feature directorial debut. Henry Jackman composed the film score with additional music by Christopher Willis. The original songs were written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.[1] The soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on July 12, 2011.[1]
Development[edit]
Hoping to find the right songwriters for their film, Anderson and Hall sent visuals to five songwriting teams. The duo liked the demos returned by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez,[2] who had previously worked with executive producer Lasseter and Disney Records' executive Chris Montan on the theme park musical version of Finding Nemo.[3]
The first song which the songwriting candidates were asked to write was the one which became "Everything Is Honey", in which Pooh undergoes a wild hallucination in his desperate hunger for honey.[4] The Lopezes' inspiration for writing their successful demo was their desperate lack of sleep at the time because of the restlessness of their then-newborn younger daughter, Annie.[4] The Lopezes wrote seven songs for the film, including "The Tummy Song", "A Very Important Thing to Do", "Everything Is Honey", "The Winner Song", "The Backson Song", "Pooh's Finale", and "It's Gonna Be Great".[5] "The Backson Song" was also inspired, again, by the Lopezes' ongoing issues with their younger daughter's difficulty with sleeping through the night, as well as the fact that Disney's request for the song came in while they were on "the vacation from hell" on Fire Island (in Anderson-Lopez's words) and they had to borrow a piano at a local church to compose it.[4] In the song, Kanga (voiced by Anderson-Lopez herself) mentions that one thing that Backsons do is "wake up babies at one and three."
Zooey Deschanel performed three songs for the film, including a take on the Winnie the Pooh theme song,[6] "A Very Important Thing to Do" and an original end-credit song "So Long", which was written by Deschanel and performed with She & Him bandmate M. Ward.[7] Although Winnie the Pooh did not do as well as hoped because it opened against the last film of the Harry Potter series, it was while working on the film that Disney executives started to really notice the Lopezes' "instinct for storytelling with music."[3] In turn, they did not have to audition for their next Disney project; instead, Disney pitched Frozen to them, whose soundtrack received positive response.[3]
Henry Jackman composed the film score with additional music provided by Christopher Willis. Jackman did not incorporate the musical works of Buddy Baker's compositions from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), but changed the method of composition, disregarding the use of electronic samplers and relied on with orchestration and harmony, to make the music "delightful", "innocent" and "charming".[8] The orchestral section consisted of a string quartet, with instruments such as double bass, cello, viola and violin were used in scoring for the film. Jackman stated "I think I just responded to the picture and spent two or three days finding that Pooh theme that had just enough melodic naivety to feel like Winnie the Pooh, just enough use of harmony so that, as the score develops, you know that you can sort of blossom into the appropriate material for the score."[8] He did not collaborate with Lopez and Deschanel, for writing the songs, as they were mostly standalone tracks.[8] In the trailer, the song "Somewhere Only We Know" by English alternative rock band Keane was used instead of the music written by Jackman.[9] However, "Somewhere Only We Know" is not included on the soundtrack.
Track listing[edit]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Artist(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Winnie the Pooh" | Robert B. Sherman, Richard M. Sherman | Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward | 2:32 |
| 2. | "The Tummy Song" | Robert Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez | Jim Cummings & Robert Lopez | 1:07 |
| 3. | "A Very Important Thing to Do" | Robert Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez | Zooey Deschanel | 0:47 |
| 4. | "The Backson Song" | Robert Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez | Craig Ferguson, Cast - Winnie the Pooh | 2:55 |
| 5. | "It's Gonna Be Great" | Robert Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez | Bud Luckey & Jim Cummings | 2:05 |
| 6. | "Everything Is Honey" | Robert Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez | Jim Cummings, Zooey Deschanel, Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez | 2:00 |
| 7. | "Pooh's Finale" | Robert Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez | Robert Lopez, Zooey Deschanel, & Cast - Winnie the Pooh | 1:05 |
| 8. | "So Long" | Zooey Deschanel | Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward | 3:28 |
| 9. | "Main Title Sequence / Winnie the Pooh" | Robert B. Sherman, Richard M. Sherman | Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward | 2:24 |
| 10. | "Pooh Greets the Day" | Henry Jackman | Henry Jackman | 2:46 |
| 11. | "Get You Tiggerized!" | Henry Jackman, Christopher Willis | Henry Jackman | 2:08 |
| 12. | "Woods and Words / Backson Tracks" | Henry Jackman, Christopher Willis | Henry Jackman | 3:41 |
| 13. | "Eeyore Needs His Tail / The Winner Song" | Henry Jackman / Robert Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez | Cast - Winnie the Pooh | 2:08 |
| 14. | "Picnic and Beehive Chase" | Henry Jackman | Henry Jackman | 2:26 |
| 15. | "Hundred Acre Spy Game" | Henry Jackman | Henry Jackman | 3:34 |
| 16. | "Stuck in the Pit/Balloon Chase" | Henry Jackman | Henry Jackman | 4:04 |
| 17. | "A Honey Happy Ending" | Henry Jackman | Henry Jackman | 2:44 |
| 18. | "Winnie the Pooh Suite" | Henry Jackman, Christopher Willis | Henry Jackman | 4:38 |
Charts[edit]
| Chart (2009) | Position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200[10][failed verification] | 98 |
| US Soundtrack Albums (Billboard)[11][failed verification] | 10 |
Awards and nominations[edit]
The song "So Long" was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2012 ceremony,[12][13] and the film's soundtrack received a Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Music in a Feature Production.[14] The film's acclaimed track "The Backson Song", along with "So Long", were shortlisted for the nominations for Academy Award for Best Original Song,[15] and Henry Jackman for the Best Original Score category list.[16] However, none of them received the nominations.
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Winnie the Pooh". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
- ^ Armstrong, Josh (July 25, 2011). "Winnie The Pooh's Directors Stephen Anderson and Don Hall: Back to the Hundred Acre Wood". AnimatedViews.com. Retrieved August 6, 2011.
- ^ a b c Rudulph, Heather Wood (April 27, 2015). "Get That Life: How I Co-Wrote the Music and Lyrics for "Frozen"". Cosmopolitan. Hearst Communications, Inc. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
- ^ a b c De Brito, Deia (August 19, 2011). "Successful Disney writer 'knew what she wanted'". Charlotte Observer. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
- ^ Hill, Jim (June 3, 2010). "Disney's Going Back to the Future with Winnie the Pooh". Jim Hill Media. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ Jagernauth, Kevin (November 11, 2010). "First Look At 'Winnie The Pooh'; Zooey Deschanel To Sing Theme Song". IndieWire. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
- ^ Walt Disney Pictures (March 31, 2011). "Zooey Deschanel Performs Three Songs for Winnie the Pooh Read more: Zooey Deschanel Performs Three Songs for Winnie the Pooh". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
- ^ a b c "Winnie The Pooh's Henry Jackman, a "First Class" composer – Animated Views". Retrieved April 9, 2022.
- ^ Knight, Chris (May 19, 2011). "Trailer Tracker: When Bears Attack". National Post. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
- ^ "Soundtrack Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
- ^ "Soundtrack". Billboard. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
- ^ T. H. R. Staff (February 12, 2012). "Grammy Awards 2012: Complete Winners And Nominees List". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
- ^ "Grammys: 54th Grammy Awards nominees". Los Angeles Times. March 21, 2014. Retrieved April 9, 2022.
- ^ Giardina, Carolyn (February 4, 2012). "'Rango' Wins Annie Award for Best Animated Feature". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- ^ "39 Original Songs Vie for Oscar's 2011 Playlist" (Press release). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. December 19, 2011. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
- ^ "97 Original Scores in 2011 Oscar® Race" (Press release). Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. December 22, 2011. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
