That Time John Paesano Accidentally Used His Own Spider-Man Theme, Instead Of Michael Giacchino’s, For Avengers Campus
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Accidents will happen in the line of writing music for anything from a 2024 movie like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes to the music that plays in a theme park land like Disneyland’s Avengers Campus. As luck would have it, the man who tackled both of those tasks was composer John Paesano, who has some experience in the realm of Marvel’s superheroes himself.
In fact it’s because of a previous gig in the realm of the extended MCU that Paesano made a rather fun mistake. Which lead to him telling the story about the time he accidentally included his theme to the hit Insomniac video game Spider-Man, only to realize that he was going to have to go back and change some things.
How John Paesano Accidentally Used His Spider-Man Music In A Version Of Welcome Avengers
While speaking with John Paesano on behalf of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, I also touched upon his theme park contribution through the song “Welcome Recruits.” The world music for Disney’s California Adventure’s attraction inspired by the Marvel movies in order, it’s a song that pulls a Nick Fury and recruits several heroes from the MCU for a musical team up of some of the most memorable themes.
It’s a daunting task, and as Mr. Paesano told CinemaBlend, it was one that saw him make the following mixup when it came to his assignment:
I remember I got through like a whole like five minute long section of Spider-Man, that portion of the suite. And I had realized that I didn't use Michael's theme. I used mine for the video game. And I had to go back and be like, ‘Yeah, okay, you know, nice try. Michael's theme’s gonna supersede your theme on this one.’ But it was just like, subconsciously, I don't know, like what happened … 'cause I had been working on Spider-Man for so long, the Marvel game.
Now I have to admit, listening back to John Paesano’s theme to Insomniac’s first Spider-Man game, I can see where the composer may have gotten confused. From where I’m sitting, I feel like this theme exhibits influences from not only Michael Giacchino’s Spider-Man: Homecoming theme, but also Danny Elfman’s signature overture for the Sam Raimi trilogy.
Take a listen for yourself and see if you can hear what I’m talking about:
The soft, mysterious opening feels like it shoots its web towards the Elfman era, while the action with the strings and horns in the middle of Paesano’s Spider-Man is reminiscent of the MCU theme from Giacchino. While it’s only fair that the composer for Netflix’s Daredevil series had to include the current cinematic theme, I kind of want to hear a fan edit that tries to replicate what John was talking about as best as possible.
As it turns out, Spider-Man was only the beginning of John Paesano’s brief on how to score Avengers Campus. And with the sheer number of hero themes he had to adapt into one cohesive whole, one can see another angle into how such confusion could have reigned, even if it was only for a moment. But for a composer that used past Planet of the Apes scores as inspiration for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ score, the challenge was part of the thrill.
The Task John Paesano Was Given When Scoring Avengers Campus
Avengers Campus’ “Welcome Recruits” adapts seven different hero themes into a musical tapestry. Anybody who even listens to music will tell you that’s a tall order, but not an impossible one to fill. When first approaching the subject in conversation, John had described his task as trying to fuse Marvel-based music into this themed section of the Disney park in a way that captured the best of both worlds.
To that effect, John Paesano highlighted his work for Avengers Campus’ musical accompaniment further by describing the task at hand thusly:
When I was working with the Imagineers and the folks over at Disney that run the parks, they were trying to figure out a way, like, ‘What can we do to inject that magical world of Disney as well with it?’ And the idea was I wanted to inject a John Williams-esque aspect to it. So it was a lot of fun taking all those themes, but giving it kind of this fanfare classic, you know, golden age of orchestra vibe to it.
Listening to “Welcome Recruits” on your own, you can definitely pick out the aspects that Paesano singled out in the brief he recapped for Avengers Campus’ music. The opening horns absolutely recall Disney Parks attractions and the sound of adventure being invoked by whatever task is at hand. And with The Avengers’ theme acting as the glue, there’s a lot of creative ways that call back to Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man and even Doctor Strange’s musical stylings.
That’s not the end of the story though, as one more hurdle would need to be crossed in the eleventh hour of Avengers Campus’ heroic harmony. That surprise would come from two heroes entering the chat by special request.
The Marvel Hero Themes John Paesano Was Asked To Include At The Last Minute
The final test of John Paesano’s composing skills in Avengers Campus came from a last minute ask from the powers-that-be behind the Disney Parks attraction. Though as it turned out, these would-be stragglers were absolutely vital to the formula. One final time, here’s John Paesano to describe this pivotal twist:
I had developed the whole suite and then they said, ‘Oh my gosh, you know, we wanted to include Captain Marvel, and we wanted to include Ludwig's brilliant work that he did, obviously for Black Panther. And so it kind of kept growing and you realize, man, there's so many, it's fun, I mean that I think it's 12 minutes long.
So was all of this effort worth it? In my opinion, it absolutely is. Considering how our Avengers Campus review applauded Disney’s California Adventure for making itself a “Marvel fan’s dream come true,” you need to have the music to go along with the thrills. Whether you’ve visited the attraction for yourself, or haven’t booked your tickets just yet, never fear!
As we’ve talked about this jaunty tune throughout the write up, we haven’t listened to it just yet. So presented to you now, without further delay, is John Paesano’s “Welcome Recruits,” from Avengers Campus:
Listening to the adventure that is “Welcome Recruits” is one thing, but living it is a whole other story. As such, you can wander into adventure at Avengers Campus, which is currently open in Disney’s California Adventure. And for those of you who want some more cinematic training before going into the field, a Disney+ subscription has most of the Marvel thrills you could expect from the world of TV and movies.
