| Winnie the Pooh | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Soundtrack album by various artists | ||||
| Released | July 12, 2011 (2011-07-12) | |||
| Recorded | 2010–2011 | |||
| Genre | Film soundtrack | |||
| Length | 46:42 | |||
| Label | Walt Disney Records | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Walt Disney Animation Studios soundtrack chronology | ||||
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| Henry Jackman chronology | ||||
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Winnie the Pooh is thesoundtrack album to the2011 film of the same name, based on theeponymous novel created byA. A. Milne andE. H. Shepard, and directed byStephen J. Anderson andDon Hall, the latter in his feature directorial debut.Henry Jackman composed the film score with additional music byChristopher Willis. The original songs were written byKristen Anderson-Lopez andRobert Lopez.[1] The soundtrack was released byWalt Disney Records on July 12, 2011.[1]
Hoping to find the right songwriters for their film, Anderson and Hall sent visuals to five songwriting teams. The duo liked the demos returned byRobert Lopez andKristen Anderson-Lopez,[2] who had previously worked with executive producer Lasseter and Disney Records' executive Chris Montan onthe theme park musical version ofFinding 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" onFire 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 theWinnie 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 withShe & Him bandmateM. Ward.[7] AlthoughWinnie the Pooh did not do as well as hoped because it opened against the last film of theHarry 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 pitchedFrozen to them, whose soundtrack received positive response.[3]
Henry Jackman composed the film score with additional music provided byChristopher Willis. Jackman did not incorporate the musical works ofBuddy Baker's compositions fromThe 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 asdouble bass,cello,viola andviolin 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 bandKeane was used instead of the music written by Jackman.[9] However, "Somewhere Only We Know" is not included on the soundtrack.
| 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 |
| Total length: | 48:03 | |||
| Chart (2009) | Position |
|---|---|
| USBillboard 200[10][failed verification] | 98 |
| US Soundtrack Albums (Billboard)[11][failed verification] | 10 |
The song "So Long" was nominated forGrammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the2012 ceremony,[12][13] and the film's soundtrack received anAnnie 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 forAcademy Award for Best Original Song,[15] and Henry Jackman for theBest Original Score category list.[16] However, none of them received the nominations.
