Suzanne's Soundtrack Sunday
My kids play a lot of video games. They also watch several movies over and over. As a result, I end up hearing a LOT of soundtracks. (Never mind the ones I like, today, we focus on this topic!)
There are a couple of movies my kids watch over and over. They spend a time on a series and then move to the next one. As a result, I see a lot of the six Star Wars movies, the three Indiana Jones, and the four Harry Potter movies we own. Throw in ET, since Chef Jr *loves* that movie. What do all of those movies have in common? Composer John Williams.
With the Wii, the kids got Lego Star Wars:The Complete Saga. It made sense, since each of them had Lego Star Wars 1 and 2 for their Game Boy Advances. The difference is that I don't hear the GBA's all that much. We have a rule in the car: no sound or no gameboy, mainly so I didn't have to hear that hokey Mario music over and over. At home, I can't pull that rule, so I end up hearing the music from the games.
They've also got Gamecube games that can be played on the Wii, and among those are some Harry Potter games.
Now that they both play the Wii a lot, I end up hearing quite a bit of the soundtrack of the game. I have to say they did a good job with it-things have come a long way since playing Atari. Where there was tinny, 8 bit poke files, you now have rich, crchestral stereo sound.
I've noticed something that the kids missed. The Lego game uses themes from other John Williams movies. Supposedly, this is all Star Wars, but I keep hearing the fanfare that is used when students enter the Great Hall in Harry Potter and both Ed and I picked up a theme from ET when they were doing something at Mos Eisley.
We noticed it in the games. The other night, Chef put Star Wars episode 5 in, and we caught ET in that movie, too! I guess Mr. Williams noodles around with ideas and uses them briefly in the earlier movies. When he's got a new movie, he may visit those incidental themes and then develop them into something more substantial.
Pretty interesting what you notice when you're just listening to the video games!
There are a couple of movies my kids watch over and over. They spend a time on a series and then move to the next one. As a result, I see a lot of the six Star Wars movies, the three Indiana Jones, and the four Harry Potter movies we own. Throw in ET, since Chef Jr *loves* that movie. What do all of those movies have in common? Composer John Williams.
With the Wii, the kids got Lego Star Wars:The Complete Saga. It made sense, since each of them had Lego Star Wars 1 and 2 for their Game Boy Advances. The difference is that I don't hear the GBA's all that much. We have a rule in the car: no sound or no gameboy, mainly so I didn't have to hear that hokey Mario music over and over. At home, I can't pull that rule, so I end up hearing the music from the games.
They've also got Gamecube games that can be played on the Wii, and among those are some Harry Potter games.
Now that they both play the Wii a lot, I end up hearing quite a bit of the soundtrack of the game. I have to say they did a good job with it-things have come a long way since playing Atari. Where there was tinny, 8 bit poke files, you now have rich, crchestral stereo sound.
I've noticed something that the kids missed. The Lego game uses themes from other John Williams movies. Supposedly, this is all Star Wars, but I keep hearing the fanfare that is used when students enter the Great Hall in Harry Potter and both Ed and I picked up a theme from ET when they were doing something at Mos Eisley.
We noticed it in the games. The other night, Chef put Star Wars episode 5 in, and we caught ET in that movie, too! I guess Mr. Williams noodles around with ideas and uses them briefly in the earlier movies. When he's got a new movie, he may visit those incidental themes and then develop them into something more substantial.
Pretty interesting what you notice when you're just listening to the video games!
Comments