Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Hey guys! I have a suggestion for the box -- Nigel Westlake's score to Babe: Pig in the City. This one hasn't had a release at all save for three short cues from the composer's compilation album Shimmering Lights (the links to which I'll try to add to this post). It's an incredible, dramatic score that covers a great deal of new thematic material, while still incorporating Saint-Saen's 3rd Symphony into the mix. I would go so far as to say that it's even better than Westlake's music for the original Babe (though that may just be personal preference -- I would invite anyone reading this to watch the film and share their viewpoints on the matter!).

It's a little difficult to gauge just how much score was written for the film due to a great deal of source music being used in the final release version (all of which is fantastic); however, by my rough estimate there's at least 30-45 minutes of Westlake's music featured in the movie, and there is almost surely more music that was left on the cutting room floor.

I'm posting this on the Intrada board because, based on my (albeit limited) knowledge of your guys' record company, it seems like a perfect candidate for a future release. It is a Universal film, the 20th Anniversary for which is in about 2 years time from now. I would greatly appreciate it if this gem were taken into consideration.

Thank you!

YouTube Links:
The Kindest Heart: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T12szHdxB3A
Sanctuary's End: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gEdx-fxXpNQ
Procession of the Animals: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8MYzU2YU-Fo
Protected by Angels (not by Westlake, but beautiful nonetheless): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RbTCenhTLQ0

Great suggestion! I'd buy it.

C'mon Intrada...strike while George Miller is hot again!

Yavar

Count me in for this one!

A few interesting additions!

In doing a little bit of digging, I've found an interview with Nigel Westlake in the Canberra Times in which he states that the majority of his music was cut from the final edit of the film just two weeks before release -- the reason cited is that 'they' (I assume a studio executive) thought that the music was too dark and too violent. I suppose that explains why there is so much sourced music in the film, and so little of the score -- no time for re-recordings!
(http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-new ... n9dnt.html)

The movie's Wikipedia article, under the Soundtrack section, has a track listing that is completely different from the official CD release (which also had very little of Westlake's score). I'm pretty sure this represents a bootleg copy of the 50-minute Westlake score that ended up on the cutting room floor; for many of the sequences listed there were accompanied by licensed music in the film. The only internet copy I could find of it was at a Polish website -- would love it if someone who knows Polish might be able to figure out where this music came from!
(http://www.tekstowo.pl/soundtrack,babe_ ... escie.html)

Man I'm dying to hear some of the stuff that didn't make it into the movie. Dark, jazzy and violent riffs from the sensibilities of the first film's score sound like they should be awesome! The little we do hear in the film is killer -- I sure hope we'll get the chance to hear more of it some day!

I'll also take this space to recommend the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's 20th Anniversary re-recording of the original Babe score. No film dialogue in-between tracks, and a lot of creative orchestration that wasn't a part of the original score! It's great yo!