DIGIMON: THE MOVIE by Udi Harpaz

ReddiShadow · **Joined:** Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:22 am **Posts:** 39

Now, I know what you're thinking. You want to laugh. I know you do. You're wondering why such a stupid and bizarre request exists. But before you close this thread, let me elaborate.

I think it's agreeable that animation is somewhat neglected in the score release world. For every (excellent) release of The Brave Little Toaster, How to Train Your Dragon or WALL-E, there are scores like Transformers: The Movie, where only a short selection (admittedly a selection of the very best moments) is present on the commercial album, and the only release of the complete score was an extremely limited promo only available to attendees of a convention that took place over a decade ago, or South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. Marc Shaiman's work for the latter film is truly brilliant, working the themes of the songs into the scores flawlessly. How do you go about listening to said score? You have to track down a 128kbps bootleg. It seems that even the most obscure live-action films of the past are being dredged up and given excellent complete score treatments, yet you rarely see animated films of the past receiving the same treatment. Off the top of my head, I can only recall Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (another amazing album I am proud to say inhabits my collection) getting a complete score from La-La-Land (they also did the Teen Titans DTTV movie, but since that was recent I'm not counting it). In short, although I'm sure my fellow forumers (forumites? Forumlings? Whatever.) will point out examples I'm missing, to me it seems that when a movie has passed it's money making cycle, i.e. has ceased to sell DVDs in any great quantity and is quietly doing the rounds on TV, if one has not come out then all hope of seeing a score release is gone.

At last, I come to this sad example: Digimon: The Movie. While not the best of films (it was created by taking three different films, chopping them up and putting them back together again, never a good omen), nor the most profitable of films, it has my #1 most wanted unreleased scores of all time. It was officially composed by Udi Harpaz and Amotz Plessner, although some sources say Shuki Levy (composer for the TV series) did some additional, uncredited work. All that has been released so far are two selections from two of the composers. The first is six tracks from Udi Harpaz's site:

http://www.udiharpaz.com/projects/digimonmovie/

...and one short suite on Shuki Levy's site:

http://www.shukilevy.com/Shuki_Levy_Onl ... gimon.html

...although these tracks do not contain the best parts of the score. See, Digimon was blessed with an extremely catchy techno theme song co-composed by Levy, and it was translated brilliantly (I know I'm using a lot of superlatives in this post, but they are deserved) into orchestral arrangements in the movie. You can hear just a few glimpses of these arrangements in the above links, first in the latter third of 'Final Battle Scene', and an alternate take of 'Final Battle Scene' in Levy's suite. However, my personal favourite moments are when the techno song and orchestral music are combined, such as at 0:50 in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoamwzMk9tU

You do have to concentrate to hear it over the sound effects though. But, if you don't care for the song or listening through intrusive sound effects, here's two fan-made excerpts made through some kind of black magic (they aren't recreations, and the DVD has lots of echoing dialogue and sound effects all around the 5.1):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxQVyqOKn0g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fFAQi89zAU

And if you think no-one would care for such a thing, I've seen countless people saying "I've scoured the Internet for years for this". Some examples:

http://thedigiport.com/forum/index.php?topic=8394.15
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 726AAPc3hO

...and those were just the ones I could find, there were definitely one or two more places I've heard nothing but 'I wish they'd release this'. True, it may not sell thousands, indeed 1000-2000 could serve well enough, but the people who do buy it will have been holding out for eleven years waiting for it, and I for one shall be the first one racing to secure my copy.

All I ask is that this buried gem be considered and investigated. Thank you for your time.

Basil · **Joined:** Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:40 pm **Posts:** 402

I second the motion! I'll definitely buy it.

The film appears to be partially owned by 20th Century Fox / Fox Kids, according to IMDb. Perhaps Nick Redman could work a miracle for this?

As already mentioned, score releases for animated films appear to be heavily neglected in the film score community. I'm not sure I understand why? True, we got Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Batman: TAS, Copernicus' Star and other DC stuff from La-La Land, but aside from them and Varese releasing Rio, Hop, Shrek 4, etc., the labels don't seem to be displaying much interest in scores for animation.

It's been several years since I've seen Digimon: The Movie... I'll have to check it out again sometime.

If I could "Like" the above post, I would. You really know your stuff!

redokt64 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 06, 2011 3:44 am

Third the motion. After the Misha Segal/Udi Harpaz score for (don't laugh) Ninja III: The Domination, I had become a fan of both composer's. I have always found the music of Udi Harpaz as very lively and a lot of fun. Briing it on!

ReddiShadow · **Joined:** Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:22 am **Posts:** 39

Phew, for a while there I was worried this thread would die without so much as a single reply. Thanks guys, it's great to know even here there's people wanting this one.

Basil · **Joined:** Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:40 pm **Posts:** 402

I made a plug over at FSM as well:

http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts ... &archive=0

ReddiShadow · **Joined:** Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:22 am **Posts:** 39

Aha. I was wondering when I read Bug Music got the rights to Saban's music library if the movie's score was included. I was just listening to a bootleg created from the surround-sound, and there are a lot of uncomfortable edits and repeated cues in there (the FSM guys called it 'Phantom-Menacing', maybe it's just me but when I think hack-job I call it 'Aliening'. Or maybe 'Alienating' might be better

). I do recall reading on another forum somewhere the theory that the score was composed for the initial rough cut of the movie rather than the final cut (the rough cut didn't have the third segment, it ended after the nuke landed in the bay), since most of the third segment's music was recycled material.

In fact, in checking, I found the exact post:

"I've had some sort of realisation for the music's placement in the film.

I believe the music scored the original cut that Jeff Nimoy has mentioned. The original cut of the film did not include the third movie. But the Final Battle Scene music was used there! So where else could it go?

I think it goes during the Infermon/WarGreymon/MetalGarurumon fight. It seems to match almost blow-for-blow, the attacks, the hits of the timpani drums... it makes sense."

If there is indeed a release one day, there's going to be one HELL of a story for the liner notes.

ggctuk · **Joined:** Fri Jul 08, 2011 8:40 pm **Posts:** 37

I concur about there needing to be a release of this. There's a ton of music that wasn't even seen in the film (but it made it into the second series). A release of this soundtrack is very, very overdue. There are so many themes that were recorded for the film that never made it in as well as themes which were in the film but ended up spliced all over the place.

I did ask Jeff Nimoy though and he said that no sound work (VO, SFX or music) had been done for the first cut of the movie.

Knightmon · **Joined:** Mon Aug 08, 2011 11:41 am **Posts:** 4

I would also like to see Digimon music entirely released. Not just movie scores but also everything that was used in Adventure01 and in Adventure02. I have tried to e-mail many people who might have access to tracks but they don't respond me. Even Bugmusic doesn't respond..... or they respond but that's when your not talking about digimon. Shuki's webmaster also responds you until you don't ask anything about Digimon.

Intrada is my only hope, so please help me and other fans to get those tracks.

ReddiShadow · **Joined:** Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:22 am **Posts:** 39

@Knightmon I think a full series release would be problematic. Not only would you be dealing with absolute tons of material, but the legal rights situation would be a logistical nightmare too. Although some tracks were clearly composed specifically for the series (since they adapt the title theme for orchestra), it's common knowledge now that Saban often relied on their music archive to score their shows. Some Kamen Rider tracks were used in Digimon, some Digimon tracks ended up in Power Rangers series... not only would it be near impossible to organise a release with any sort of sane chronology (not to mention the fact that it followed the traditional anime method of scoring by taking several tracks for different moods and reusing them without alteration many times throughout a season), but obtaining permission from all the artists to do it would be near impossible. That's not even touching on the rearrangement of The Movie's score by Shuki Levy for Adventure 02.

That's why it's more realistic to pray for a comprehensive release of The Movie. Not only does it provide a neat overview of the series as a whole, after all The Movie's score was 02 in a nutshell thanks to the reuse, but the sheer amount of alternate takes hinted at throughout the net would be about as deluxe a release we could ask for for a relatively niche, old TV franchise. Not to mention what I'm sacrificing goats to dark gods in hope for: alternate versions of the digivolving scenes, one with orchestra only and one with the techno theme overlaid. I just know if we ever get a release (flimsy a hope as that is), it'll avoid the theme altogether, offering only the 'clean' orchestral recordings and not including the full-length 'concert arrangement' (i.e. album version) of the theme to bookend the release. It would just so typical to have hoped and prayed and murdered innocent animals in anticipation of a release... only to have what I wanted the most be left off and told "you should be thankful there was a release at all".

But that assumes there will be one. The way things are looking, that's like hoping for a revival of Road Rovers. To those of you asking what that is, I respond "exactly".

Knightmon · **Joined:** Mon Aug 08, 2011 11:41 am **Posts:** 4

I am not asking to get all series released, I am more interested in adventure 01 and 02, I am not so interested in other series.

I care more about Shuki Levey as he was 1 of main musicans. Udi released pretty much here http://www.udiharpaz.com/projects/digimonmovie/ already

Even "Omnimon Birth" is downloadable as MP3. Movie is pretty much leaked already. Adventures 01 and 02 are somehow better kept (or it's probably just because they have more tracks). Some tracks from adventure are also used for movie.

I don't have anything against movie but in my opinion adventures 01 and 02 have more music. But it would great to get 01,02 and movies released

ggctuk · **Joined:** Fri Jul 08, 2011 8:40 pm **Posts:** 37

Just to let you know, posting bootleg tracks here is not a very smart move, IIRC.

ReddiShadow · **Joined:** Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:22 am **Posts:** 39

@Knightmon I wasn't talking about all series, I was referring to just the first two series. There were roughly 100 episodes between just those two, and fitting them on one release would be a mammoth undertaking. Star Trek: TNG only got such a release because it's so popular. Digimon is not that popular.

I linked to Udi Harpaz's site in my original post. That site represents about 10% of the music, if that. There is a considerable amount of music still unavailable outside of those, so your statement that the movie is 'pretty much leaked' is hugely inaccurate, unless you're counting fanrips of the entire score made from the 5.1 audio track on the DVD, in which case I would argue intrusive echoes and sound effects do not equal a leaked release.

If you mean the person who has implied they have gotten hold of some of the recording sessions, then that is no proof. I could easily claim I have every lost episode of Doctor Who stored in my attic, as long as I claim "I promised not to share it" I can get away with anything. Just because people say things do not mean they are true. But, let us give that person the benefit of the doubt. Let us say they do have such things. It would be against forum rules to discuss it. Even the information that that person has given implying the sessions are not complete and therefore not worth a damn anyway would likely get me banned.

Whoops.

Adventure and 02 being "better kept" is that the series was produced in stereo, not 5.1, so fanrips would be impossible. There's no big secret here. The only reason the movie has marginally more exposure is Harpaz's and Levy's excerpts on their site. End of.

It's not a matter of opinion. Of course 100 episodes are going to have more music than a 70 minute movie, that's blindingly obvious. The point I made previously is that Saban relied on it's music archive heavily for much of it's output, so in order to release the two series in complete form as you are suggesting the label taking up the challenge would have to end up releasing a great deal of Saban's archive, which would not only need many, many discs to hold but a great deal of legal wrangling to get permission from all the various composers involved, making the release too expensive to be justified by the niche market.

Trust me, if this were a perfect world there would be disc after disc of gold from Saban on offer, and the both of us would be happily snapping them up no matter the price. Hell, if this were the Japanese version, it WOULD be so. The Japanese soundtrack for all the Digimon series has been released pretty much in full. Sadly, this is not a perfect world. As much as it would be great to see a release for Adventure and 02, it would be far too cumbersome and complicated to do seeing as how we're dealing with a decade-old animated series and not a mega-popular live action one being made today. By putting forward the movie alone, I'm only being realistic. The series getting OSTs is such an unbelievably long shot that it's better to hope for a more limited release focused purely on the movie. There's material enough to be put onto one, maybe two discs, and can be realistically expected to sell. What you are asking for would indeed be awesome, but it's so incredibly unrealistic to the point of being absurd.

ggctuk · **Joined:** Fri Jul 08, 2011 8:40 pm **Posts:** 37

The second series uses entirely the movie's music, even the stuff that appears in season 2 that doesn't appear in the movie was done for the movie. So to release the movie score is to release the season 2 score.

ReddiShadow · **Joined:** Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:22 am **Posts:** 39

@ggctuk So the entirety of 02 was intakes and outtakes from the movie? How do you know this?

ggctuk · **Joined:** Fri Jul 08, 2011 8:40 pm **Posts:** 37

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