Favorite Toon Soundtrack

Post by **eddievalient** » June 4th, 2009, 12:34 am

Although the market for them in the US isn't nearly as large as the one in Japan, there have been a number of cartoon soundtracks released over the years, from compilations of theme songs (like the one Cartoon Network did awhile ago) to show-specific cds (Animaniacs had several). Among my favorites are the soundtracks for the Transformers and Jetsons movies, the two Cartoon Planet albums and Family Guy: Live in Vegas. What are you guys' faves?

Post by **Rodney** » June 4th, 2009, 11:21 am

For me, the Disney musicals have provided the most entertainment. Aladdin and The Lion King are at the top of my list. Both have excellent songs and great scores.

Post by **Whippet Angel** » June 4th, 2009, 9:42 pm

Pocahontas.

Funny, because I didn't really like the movie all that much, but it's probably my favorite Disney soundtrack. I also love Thomas Newman's score for WALL-E (as well as the "Down to Earth" song)

Post by **Bill1978** » June 14th, 2009, 3:10 am

Hands down winner for me is Beauty And The Beast. I could listen to that soundtrack for days on end. I just adore how it sounds like a real Broadway style recording. In fact, I think it is leaps and bounds better than the actualy Broadway recording. The orchestral pieces are glorious as well. One of these days I'll get my act together and make a CD of it in sequential order.

When I feel like I want to listen to music in the style of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy without all the loud chanting and choral work I often put on the soundtrack to Ghibli's Tales From Earthsea. I think it is probably one of the most underappreciated scores over the last few years. Maybe it will get more recognition when the movie is allowed to be released in the US.

For pure nostalgic purposes, I love to listen to the soundtrack to The Mysterious Cities Of Gold. I love being transported back to the 80s when my brothers and I would sit down together and magically travel off to South America. It was our must watch show of the afternoon. No one was allowed to disturb us until it was over.

Post by **Sunday** » June 14th, 2009, 11:39 am

I was just listening to this last night, but James Horner's score for Fievel Goes West does a superb job of melding his own compositions with the wild and wooly world of Copland. It evokes an extravagant, vibrant cartoon West and just about bursts at the seams when it really gets going (particularly Tiger's training montage). And the song numbers aren't shabby either.

It's difficult to single out one of the Newman scores for Pixar, and Giacchino's Incredibles nails the stylistic period that film was shooting for.

Toshiyuki Honda's 'old-timey' jazz for the 2001 Metropolis was a risky move but it paid off in creating a beautifully colorful world and, in the end, fitting Tezuka's original style to a 'T'.

I'm going to second the Beauty and the Beast pick. Just about the whole film is grounded in a musical structure, with nearly every scene of dialogue supported by the sequences surrounding it and a rhythm all its own. Very much like watching the most involving, energetic, and outright fanciful musical stage production ever devised!

(The occasional rapid-fire Animaniacs number is always a good bit o' fun. "I am the Very Model of a Cartoon Individual," anyone? Keeping the Gilbert & Sullivan tradition kickin', yo.)