I had to watch BEAUTY AND THE BEAST the other night, and it was the first time I had done so in a looooong time (I honestly don't remember the last time I watched it, but I know I used to watch it frequently when I was really little)... and in doing so, I THINK I can kind of see where Nostalgia Critic is coming from about Alan Menken... I mean, the songs in that movie were kind of irritating... the song about Gaston in particular almost had me cringing. Though, I can't really say all of Alan Menken's work is bad - I actually really loved the songs from THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, for some reason, I like to sing "A Guy Like You" every once in a while for no apparent reason; I haven't seen a lot of Jason Alexander's theater work (um, what's with that toupe he wears all the time now?), but that songs makes me realize what a surprisingly good voice he has.
Ever noticed how really varied movie soundtracks are? I've noticed they usually (not always) fall into one of two formats: either the CD features all of the actual songs that were used in the movie itself, and maybe the last two tracks are samples of the music by whoever scored the movie, or the entire soundtrack itself is almost like the entire movie with all the dialogue removed and nothing but the music score itself (I've noticed a lot of animated movies tend to do this with their soundtracks). But again, it's not always the case. The CD soundtrack for the movie RADIO is interesting: the first half of the tracks are the songs that were used in the movie, while the second half of the tracks are pieces of the beautiful score that James Horner had composed, so it's really a nice balance. Not only that, but have you ever noticed that when the soundtrack of a movie is released on CD, inevitably, there's always at least one song from the movie that ISN'T included on the soundtrack, and it's usually one of your favorites? Makes me wonder if it has something to do with legal issues and licensing, or maybe they forgot about it something, or maybe the soundtrack is based on a certain version/draft of the movie and the particular song wasn't used at the time? Sometimes, a soundtrack will include a song that wasn't even used in the movie: I have the STUART LITTLE 2 soundtrack, and it includes "Born to Be Wild", which I don't recall ever hearing in the movie itself. Go figure.