Misc. Open Season Stuff

[nazareth]

"Good Day" sounds the same as the Eventually version to me, except that they added strings to it.

[kgp]

I really love this "subscribe to this search" feature.

[JIlario]

I found the info on the Open Season premiere in Los Angeles:
I seriously doubt Paul would show up, bit it is possible.
It will be Monday, 9/25 at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles at roughly 7:30 PM.
I'll go check it out and see if Paul or Tommy show up.

4:00 p.m. - Film premiere; Columbia Pictures and Sony
Pictures Animation present "OPEN SEASON". Celebrities expected:
from the film, voice talent Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher,
Debra Messing, Gary Sinese, Jon Favreau, Billy Connolly,
Patrick Warburton, director Roger Allers, director/screen story
Jill Culton; plus Lauren Holly, Penny Marshall, Antonio Sabato
Mr., Matt Groening and many others. 4:00 press call time;
5:30 arrivals; 7:30 screening. RSVP a must, parking info will
be forwarded upon RSVP. Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont Ave.,
Griffith Park, Los Angeles.


James

[Kathy]

Thanks for the info on the premiere!

Even though the press info there doesn't mention Paul, I can't believe he won't show up. I bet you anything he is home spray-painting a suit right this second.

[Meri]

Dang! I went looking for info on the premiere a couple of weeks ago, hoping it'd be in Hyannis, MA New York City.

...the next best thing, though, is knowing that James will be our eyes and ears. Bring a camera!

[headlightbeams]

St. Paul Pioneer Press:

Posted on Thu, Sep. 21, 2006
Different track for Westerberg may lead to Oscar
ROSS RAIHALA
Here's an image to ponder — Paul Westerberg performing on the Academy Awards. Given the strength of his soundtrack to the upcoming animated feature "Open Season," it's a very distinct possibility.

The song that could land the former Replacements leader on the red carpet is the gorgeous Stones-ian piano ballad "I Belong," which also serves as the centerpiece for the "Open Season" soundtrack, due in stores Tuesday. The simple, direct and bittersweet number so excited the film's producers, they've already vowed to push it as a possible Oscar contender.

Westerberg spent more than two years working on the music for "Open Season," which follows a pack of wild animals on the run from a hunter. Eight new songs show up on the soundtrack along with "Good Day," a track from his 1996 solo album "Eventually." He also co-wrote the film's score with Ramin Djawadi, samples from which are incorporated into the album-closing reprise of "I Belong" with Pete Yorn on vocals.

His first major-label release in seven years, "Open Season" also marks the return of Westerberg playing with a full band. He recorded five tracks with Jim Boquist, Kevin Bowe and Michael Bland — the guys who backed him on his tour last year — and another pair with fellow Replacement Tommy Stinson on bass and backing vocals.

The amiable results sound perfectly kid-friendly yet not dumbed down. And despite some obvious allusions to the film's storyline in song titles like "Meet Me in the Meadow" and "Right to Arm Bears," the album stands on its own as one of Westerberg's most straightforward and lovable efforts in ages.

That said, it works much better when used in conjunction with the skip button. The truly awful Talking Heads song "Wild Wild Life" is wedged midway through the album, and there are also two tracks from the Cake offshoot band Deathray, one of which is a cover of a track Westerberg wrote for the film (apparently the producers weren't happy with his version).

Or better yet, just wait for the LP version. Lost Highway Records will release the soundtrack as it stands on vinyl and also has plans to issue a limited-edition 10-inch version with only Westerberg's material, including several cuts unavailable elsewhere.

[headlightbeams]

Minnesota Public Radio blog entry by the guy who edited the MPLS monthly The Rake when PW's sister had a column there:
September 22, 2006
Like Elton John and Phil Collins, Only Cooler In Every Way
The Wall Street Journal today provides a full airing of Paul Westerberg's involvement with creating the soundtrack to "Open Season." It was a big job that involved lots of high-level negotiations and collaborations, that drew Westerberg out of his insular, basement-unit solo career. It also involved frightening small children. According to the Journal, Westerberg said


"One song, 'Everybody's Stupid,' was kept out of the movie after the child of one of the producers was frightened by its lyrics."

Somehow we find that reassuring. Westerberg wrote 20 songs, ten of which were selected for the soundtrack; he also suffered the indignity of having his theme song, "I Belong," rerecorded by Pete Yorn and translated into 29 languages. Will all this exposure do for Westerberg what "Lion King" did to for Elton John? Or what "Tarzan" did to for Phil Collins? We live in hope.

[headlightbeams]

Sci Fi Wire: "It's Open Season on Hunters"
Sci Fi Wire: "Motherhood Helped Open's Messing"
excerpts:
The cast and crew of the upcoming animated movie Open Season told SCI FI Wire the movie has an anti-hunting message. "I think that hunting and killing anything for sport, just for fun, is just something that I can't wrap my mind around," Debra Messing, who voices an anti-hunting park ranger, said in an interview. "I wish that it didn't exist." ... Lawrence, who voices the lazy bear, quipped, "I don't know that much about hunting. The only thing I've ever hunted was roaches."

Debra Messing, who voices a park ranger in the upcoming animated comedy film Open Season, told SCI FI Wire she did the part before and after giving birth to her first child, which helped her understand her character's nurturing qualities. "I did some of the voice of Beth while I was pregnant, and some afterward," Messing said in an interview. "The lullaby [scene] was done after giving birth, and, yeah, I think it helped."

[Wolfdog]

Sports broadcasts have a history of using popular songs for promos and pieces...maybe this season will have some Open Season tracks...

Meet Me In The Meadow for Giants home games....

It's All About Me for Terrell Owens biography segment.....

Right To Arm Bears for Brian Urlacher replays.....

I Wanna Lose Control (Oh Oh) for Steve Foley updates.....

Can't Get Any Better Than This for the Brett Favre highlight film. ;D

I Belong for the live report from the hennepin cty jail the next time a Viking gets busted.

...just some ideas.

[headlightbeams]

National Public Radio's Weekend Edition folds in PW's movie work with Ben Folds'. Brief article, also you can click a link to listen to the report, which is more fleshed-out, though both emphasize BF.

[headlightbeams]

United Press International unleashed this squib today:

Rocker tries hand at soundtrack project
MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Replacements veteran Paul Westerberg figures that scoring an animated film may score him some points with his son.

The former frontman for the Replacements wrote songs and the score for the new feature "Open Season," with the tunes -- including "Right to Arm Bears" and "Love You in the Fall" -- appearing on a new companion album.

Westerberg said he likes the idea of his music being heard by children, including his own.

"My son is 8, which is perfect for the film," Westerberg notes. "When I started he was going to be 6, and I thought, 'Well, by the time I'm done with this, he'll be the perfect age for it.' And it's true. It has a lot of stuff for kids and a lot of humor or adults in there, too."

Westerberg, who also contributed music to the 1992 drama "Singles," reunited with former Replacements bandmate Tommy Stinson for two songs on the "Open Season" soundtrack.

[headlightbeams]

From a gaming website's review of the "Open Season" Nintendo game:

The music is suitably catchy with a hillbilly banjo-and-harmonica theme that we're assuming is what will be used in the movie's soundtrack, but the characters voices are simple "Oofs" and "Grunts" performed by sound-alikes that are definitely not Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher.

[headlightbeams]

The Onion A.V. Club gave "Open Season" (the movie, not the soundtrack) a D+. Here's the PW content:

Some final questions: Does it make less sense that all the squirrels are Scottish, or that Paul Westerberg provides the songs? It's a long, strange journey from "Bastards of Young" to setting an animals-vs. -hunters fight scene to "The Right to Arm Bears," isn't it? The battle in question doesn't have substantial casualties, but no one makes it out of this laughless mess unscathed.

[headlightbeams]

China got the word a little later than North Korea. Not sure what that says ...

CCTV.com: Movie stars and their kids walked not the red but the green carpet at L-A's Greek Theater. The children had been eagerly awaiting the premiere of animated feature, "Open Season".

[Sam K]

"Wow! The movie was stunning. Really beautiful. The music was strange at times. I guess Westerberg just isn't my cup of tea.. Otherwise, a Fantastic Film."

www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=509369

[Kathy]

riverr said:

It's a long, strange journey from "Bastards of Young" to setting an animals-vs. -hunters fight scene to "The Right to Arm Bears," isn't it?

It's interesting how all these articles focus on what a big change this is for Paul...I guess maybe all the people who write this stuff are young'uns cause, really "Bastards of Young" was 21 years ago....it's not that shocking that the work someone was doing at 25 is different from the work they are doing at 46. What would be shocking is if they hadn't changed one iota in over 20 years.

[headlightbeams]

Here's the St. Paul paper's movie critic:

The music, including a couple of ballads and an uptempo rocker by Paul Westerberg, is also pretty. But are the kids going to go for pretty campfires and piano ballads? When even I start thinking some woodland-creature flatulence would perk things up, I begin to have my doubts.

and all the Chicago Tribune critic needs is a tambourine, a pair of quasi hips:

The movie has a quasi-hip air; the original songs are by the Replacements' Paul Westerberg.

[headlightbeams]

It's a big night for reviews of the film. The news from the Left Coast:

Here's what Variety sez:
At first glance, "Open Season" would seem to bear all the elements that have typified studio animation in recent years: a menagerie of fast-talking supporting players; generous dollops of bathroom humor; and animal-emo interludes set to incongruous pop songs (penned by Paul Westerberg, who also composed the film's score with Ramin Djawadi).

The Hollywood Reporter sez:
On the aural side, Paul Westerberg, in his first full-length soundtrack assignment, contributes a comfortably down-home score and song selection that feels a considerable distance away from his harder-rocking Replacements days.

The Los Angeles Times sez:
From the title sequence accompanied by Talking Heads' "Wild Wild Life" ("I'm wearin' fur pyjamas") through the slew of catchy songs from Paul Westerberg, the movie is a genial romp and because it relies on the gentlest of scatological comedy, it can be enjoyed by all ages.

---
OK, I think I could write one of these brief movie reviews now, at least the last paragraph: throw PW a bone, and mention the poop jokes.

---

Now comes South Korea's famous citizen-journalist web news source, OhmyNews, amazingly a day or two after the closed society of North Korea, but with the best headline so far:

'Open Season' Deserves to Be Shot
Tired, achingly unfunny CG animated comedy offers no hope

[headlightbeams]

More big night.

Betsy Pickle (I kid you not) of the Scripps-Howard News Service: "Paul Westerberg wrote several songs for the movie and co-wrote the score with Ramin Djawadi. A couple of the tunes sound like generic animated-film numbers, but others provide a welcome edginess."

John Beifuss of the Memphis Commercial Appeal (I kid you not): 'Open Season' should win over the kids/But aggressive rock and roll, violence too much for adult ... So what's wrong with "Open Season"? The sentiment of the story is fine, as Boog learns to be independent from the loving forest ranger (Debra Messing) who raised him; but the songs that underline the emotions are absurdly serious. Paul Westerberg is a great songwriter, and I don't begrudge him the paycheck, but there's something offputting about seeing a cartoon bear being carried over a forest by a helicopter while the former voice of the Replacements gruffly croons, in the key of melancholy: "A good day/ Is any day that you're alive ..." I also would have preferred a less violent subplot than one that requires the animals to use force and their natural gifts (skunk scent, porcupine quills, etc.) to drive off a gaggle of stereotypically evil hunters. What's worse is that the filmmakers (three directors and seven writers are credited) score the action with aggressive rock and roll, a strategy so cliched it sabotages rather than enhances the scene. The music battles the images: It tells us that no matter how pleasing the animation is to our eyes, we're actually experiencing something thuddingly, uninterestingly familiar. Even so, "Open Season" represents a very promising debut for a new company, Sony Pictures Animation.
Nice butt-kiss at the end, buddy. By the way, can people who work for a newspaper called "Commercial Appeal" begrudge anyone their paycheck?

The Kansas City Star, in apparent payback for the old Roger Miller cover: "It also gets Disney-level sappy, with bland songs by alt-rock legend Paul Westerberg, who must have needed a new amp or something."

Not only can they not count ballots in Broward County; their newspaper can't identify theme songs: Vindictive Flannel By Jamie Laughlin. Look out, world. Those grungy kids of Generation X -- the same ones you chased out of your yard and off the county courthouse steps for skateboarding -- have grown up, made spawn, overthrown the powers-that-be, and infiltrated every pore of the media with their sticky, pop-culture tentacles. (How else could you explain the fact that songs by the Buzzcocks, Iggy Pop, and the Breeders now seep in as the backing tracks for car commercials?) Gen X’s stranglehold is further revealed when the new computer-generated, cartoon movie Open Season 3D opens at IMAX (401 SW Second St., Fort Lauderdale) on Friday. ... The zany Elliot is played by panty-dampener-turned-father-figure Ashton Kutcher, and the movie’s theme song, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” is provided by the Clash (What’s that noise? Why, it’s Joe Strummer pounding on his casket, demanding an explanation!). If all of that seems like just a wacky coincidence, Paul Westerberg of the Replacements composed eight songs for the film. Consider yourselves warned, old-timers; Gen X is grown up and seeking revenge for all of that broom-waving… one cheesy soundtrack at a time.
What broom-waving?

The Washington Post discovered Watergate and now a new adjective for the Westerberg/Replacements Critics Dictionary: "... And, yes, alterna-fans, that's Paul Westerberg providing the lugubrious incidental songs."

The News & Observer of Raleigh, NC: "Season" also relies on the same manipulative kid-movie chicanery, giving us sad montages set to melancholy tunes composed by a once-cool musical artist. The fact that the tunes are done by none other than Paul Westerberg will probably make every Replacements fan reading this very sad and melancholy. ... "Open Season" is supposed to remind audiences, young and old, that animals are God's creatures and should never be harmed. But never has a movie made me want to go out and pop a cap in the behinds of some varmints more, especially those that sound like Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher. Man, I wish I had Ted Nugent's phone number right now.
He's got Paul Westerberg's number, or so he thinks. What more does he want?

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram: Herd it all before/'Open Season' is just the latest in an assembly line of computer-generated, cookie-cutter cartoons ... What we have here is yet another tale of wisecracking animals with celebrity voices trying to make their way back home, accompanied by the occasionally syrupy ballad on the soundtrack. (In this case, the tunes come courtesy of ex-Replacement Paul Westerberg, who, despite his hipster cred, makes his contributions as cutesy and forgettable as the rest of the movie.)

[headlightbeams]

San Jose Mercury News:
``Open Season'' isn't exactly a musical, but it's got a lot of songs that play during the movie's transitional sections. Almost all of them are terrible. After a promising opener -- ``Wild Wild Life'' by the Talking Heads -- what follows is a trail of malodorous spoor left by a group ominously named Deathray, and the puzzlingly tuneless warbling of Paul Westerberg. Fortunately, the animals themselves aren't asked to sing, though it's hard to imagine how they could sound more off-key than Deathray.

The Oklahoman:
But the film shows signs of life and warmth thanks to strong characters, lively imagery and a great score by former Replacements leader Paul Westerberg, so "Open Season" hits more targets than it misses.