Extended musical journey

Please listen to these two great unreleased pieces of music coming from the Indiana Jones an the Crystal Skull soundtrack by the brilliant John Williams.

Area 51 warehouse escape



Jungle chase extended version

Angry German Kid strikes back

Remember that angry German kid getting crazy about an Internet game? Here's another hilarious parody with him commenting on a beauty pagent contestant who vainly tried to play the Star Wars theme on a trumpet…

Ants!

The title refers to a track on the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull score by John Williams, "Ants!":

Batman theme song

I forgot to show you this theme song based on Danny Elfman's soundtrack for Tim Burton's Batman. Please watch the original opening credits first, and then the song.

Ode to Joy

Just watch Beaker (i.e. one of the Muppets, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's scientific assistent) who multiplied himself in order to recreate Beethoven's Ode to Joy ("a choral symphony for four solo voices, chorus, and orchestra", "in the fifth and final movement of his Ninth Symphony", as stated on Wikipedia [because I don't know anything about classical music]) — for Statler and Waldorf's delight, of course.



Today's Uncyclopedia featured article: Beethoven.

This image proves that Beethoven was either a pimp, the villain The Joker from the Batman comics or a very angry man

The sound of music

The Dark Knight D-Day minus 1! Meanwhile, let's listen to some good pieces from the soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard.

Track 8: Like a dog chasing cars



Track 12: Introduce a little anarchy



Track 14: A Dark Knight

And I know that you can see my underwear / And you can joke about it I really don't care

Yet another movie theme turned into a song: John Williams's Superman theme revisited by Goldentusk:



"Let me be at peace in my Fortress of Solitude"

"You built a time machine out of a car!"

Goldentusk, who made the Indiana Jones theme song which I featured some days ago, made several other theme songs. Today, I'd like to show you this one about the Back to the Future theme composed by Alan Silvestry. You might want to listen to the original version first:



And now, the parody:



Please (re)watch this Back to the Future rap which I featured last year:

"Rarely I practise what I preach, that was why I was born to teach"

Since we're in a kind of Indy week, I propose you watch this brilliant song parody based on the Raiders March theme by the god of composers, John Williams. Let's watch first a music video with fragments from the first three films.



Parody by goldentusk:

In-D-Day

Indiana Jones hit the screen today in Belgium, and since I'm one of his biggest fans I had to go and see the movie today. So I decided to take a break in this rather long and tiresome period preceding the first exam and I went to the cinema. I was expecting a huge crowd of Indy freaks, but it appeared that only two dozens of people had come! Anyway, that's not a problem.

I really enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but I won't write a lot about it right now, because I'm running out of time and because I prefer not to disclose to much information about the plot and so on. I'd just like to say that this film won't appeal to people who have never seen the other episodes, for it's full of references and "Easter eggs". The plot was terrific, except that a couple of scenes were too unrealistic… Yet, this film was great and I'm looking forward to seeing it once more after the exams. If you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, go to the cinema asap!

I suppose most of you won't have the opportunity to go to the cinema before a month or so, and that's why I thought that listening to John William's great music would be fine meanwhile. I hope you'll notice the many hints to the other films.

Raiders' March:



Journey to Akator:



Finale:

"The Cat Concerto"

The Cat Concerto is perhaps one of the most popular short cartoons ever created. In 1947 it received the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. It "stars" Tom (the cat) as a piano virtuoso giving a recital on the instrument Jerry (the mouse) lives in.



I LOVE Tom's face at 03:43 and the way the piano lid is slammed onto his fingers…

The theme that you hear, Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2 by Franz Liszt, has been spoofed in Who Framed Roger Rabbit in the piano fight scene featuring Daffy Duck and Donald Duck.



From Wikipedia:

Controversy

The same year MGM produced The Cat Concerto, Warner Bros. released a very similar cartoon entitled Rhapsody Rabbit. Directed by Friz Freleng, Rhapsody Rabbit featured Bugs Bunny opposite an unnamed mouse. Both shorts had very similar plots, and even use the same piece by Liszt.

Both MGM and Warner Bros. accused each other of plagiarism, after both films were shown during the 1947 Academy Awards ceremony. Technicolor was accused of sending a print of either cartoon to the competing studio, who then allegedly plagarized their rival's work.

Caveman

In 1977 Star Wars mesmerised millions of viewers thanks to revolutionary, stunning special effects. Three years later The Empire Strikes Back was released, featuring even more spectacular shots, creating an even better illusion of a space odyssey — most notably with the Asteroid field scene. Just one year later, cinema travelled back in time until prehistory:



Caveman was born! Basically Ringo Starr (click that link to see a picture of how he looks like now—that's quite a change) didn't know what to do and decided to play in one of the silliest films ever. He's joined in his wreck, no, adventure, by Dennis Quaid, Shelley Long and Barbara Bach (Starr's current wife). Starr plays a cavemen who discovers a lot of things: "drugs, fire, cooking, music, and learn how to walk fully upright" according to Wikipedia. (I admit it's been a long time since the last time I watched this movie…) Let's watch the scene where they discover music:



And now: Geriatric Park!



(Music by Lalo Schifrin.)

eBay

I'm currently preparing a blog entry with parody stuff about Yoda (one of my favourite Star Wars characters) and since one of those spoofs was made by Weird Al Yankovic, I thought I could feature another song of him. This one describes quite cleverly eBay, the best-know website for selling things you don't need anymore. (That's better than a bonfire, as they do in Little Britain.)



Lyrics:

A used ... pink bathrobe
A rare ... mint snowglobe
A Smurf ... TV tray
I bought on eBay

My house ... is filled with this crap
Shows up in bubble wrap
Most every day
What I bought on eBay

Tell me why (I need another pet rock)
Tell me why (I got that Alf alarm clock)
Tell me why (I bid on Shatner's old toupée)
They had it on eBay

I'll buy ... your Nik Naks
Just check ... my feedback
"A++!" they all say
They love me on eBay

Gonna buy (a slightly-damaged golf bag)
Gonna buy (some Beanie Babies, new with tag)
(From some guy) I've never met in Norway
Found him on eBay

I am the type who is liable to snipe you
With two seconds left to go, whoa
Got Paypal or Visa, what ever'll please ya
As long as I've got the dough

I'll buy ... your tchotchkes
Sell me ... your watch, please
I'll buy (I'll buy, I'll buy, I'll buy ...)
I'm highest bidder now

(Junk keeps arriving in the mail)
(From that worldwide garage sale) (Dukes Of Hazard ashtray)
(Hey! A Dukes Of Hazard ashtray)
Oh yeah ... (I bought it on eBay)

Wanna buy (a PacMan Fever lunchbox)
Wanna buy (a case of vintage tube socks)
Wanna buy (a Kleenex used by Dr. Dre, Dr. Dre)
(Found it on eBay)

Wanna buy (that Farrah Fawcet poster)
(Pez dispensers and a toaster)
(Don't know why ... the kind of stuff you'd throw away)
(I'll buy on eBay)

What I bought on eBay-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y

This parody song was a spoof on I want it that way, by the Backstreet Boys. (I admit I didn't know that. I hardly know anything about popular music, actually. Poor me!) Here's the video if you want to compare:

Happy Valentine!

Bail Bailey is not only a succesful British comedian (I refer you to what I told you about Black Books, but also a gifted singer. Listen to his love song:



Ok, the end is not so happy, but I like the tune, though. Here's my favourite love music, namely Across the Stars, the love theme written by John Williams for Star Wars Episode II and Episode III.



The following video is dedicated to all the Germanists from Namur who had to study some fragments from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, for Bill Bailey is going to tell a joke in Middle English style, the "Pubbe Gagge":



That's a pretty good imitation of Chaucer's style and prosody, I think! If you want to watch a version in which he declaims much quicker, please click here — there's just a slight sound problem.

Hands Solo

Once again, I discovered by chance something really interesting:



This guy is actually playing the Cantina band music (composed by John Williams for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) by making his hands fart; he says his disciplin is called manualism. Of course, he's got a mike to amplify the volume, but still: he's very good at manualism.

(I hope you got the joke in the title: Han Solo/Hands solo… Silly, I know.)

Starry Potter and the Philosopher Hope

Before starting (well, in fact, this is already the start…), I signal that this blog entry is (again) only suitable to people who have already seen Star Wars. Those who haven't not only need to get cultivated and watch them asap, but shouldn't waste their time watching and reading what follows, because otherwise they'd understand nothing at all.

First, if you did see Star Wars, it might be interesting to watch the original trailer of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (released in 2001).



Great music by John Williams. And very good film, though I prefered the third and fifth films in the Harry Potter franchise. Now let's watch this video showing clips from Star Wars to correspond the trailer's text:



Brilliant montage — just like what I featured the other day, namely the crossover between The Departed and Star Wars.

The line I like most is that of Snape (Alan Rickman), but here "said" by Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid)… "Mr Potter……… our…… new……… celebrity."

And whenever I'll watch Episode IV, I'll always have that "Troooooooooooll in the dungeon!!" quote in mind…

"Not all wizards are good…" --> It reminds me of that crossover between the dialogue Vader/Luke from Empire Strikes Back scene and the confrontation Voldemort/Harry in The Goblet of Fire, which I featured several months ago.



If you know both Star Wars and Harry Potter, admit this is great!

E.T. meets a friend

Some idiot (read: genius) managed to make a horror trailer out of the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial:



Funny, wasn't it?

Let me seize this opportunity to show you one of the most brilliant crossovers in the history of cinema: E.T. meets someone he thinks to be an old friend of his:



Home! Home!

--> So now we know where Yoda's actually from: he's from the same planet as E.T. But the point is that we don't know its name either… Too bad. By the way, there are lot of hidden gems (the so-called "Easter eggs") about Star Wars in this movie, for example a TIE-Fighter on Elliott's bookshelf.

Please note that we can actually spot Steven Spielberg dressed up as an old lady when E.T.'s looking through the ghost shroud, just on the left after "Yoda" appears. (This is, as far as I know, his only cameo in one of his films.)

Please also note that the talented John Williams, who brilliantly composed the score of both E.T. (1982) and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980; film where Yoda appears for the first time in the movie history), subtlely uses Yoda's theme when we see him. I don't think there are many composers who can be proud to have achieved such a thing in their career. Not even Mozart. (Even though movies didn't exist back then.)