The King and I (1999 film)

88 minutes

In 1862 Siam, the King of Siam rules with traditional beliefs and refusal to change. With the arrival of Englishwoman Anna Leonowens and her son Louis, his evil, but villainous Prime Minister, Kralahome, plots to have the King overthrown with deceit. At the same time, the Crown Prince Chulalongkorn falls in love with Tuptim, a servant given to the King as a gift from Burma, but their love and friendship must remain a secret as such is strictly forbidden.A soundtrack album was released on March 16, 1999 by Sony Classical Records. It was released on both CD and cassette formats. All the songs on the album were composed by Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers. William Ruhlmann of Allmusic.com gave the album a rating ofstars out of 5, describing it as a surprisingly adequate soundtrack to a badly received film. He adds, however, that the overly effusive vocal performances and overly busy arrangements make it by far the worst version of this music ever recorded, and cites the use of nine different orchestrators as a possible factor. He concludes by conceding that there is good singing on the album. John Kenrick in his article Comparative CD Reviews Part III, describes the 1999 recording as a total disgrace that sees superb Broadway singers...labor against mindless cuts and gooey orchestrations. In a relatively negative review of the animated adaption, the book The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia does say that some of the songs survive nicely, and the singing vocals throughout are very proficient. ........

Source: Wikipedia