Sounds like it. It's changed a bit, but main line fits. Anyway, I like to watch this wile I drink. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rtiAQk3ojE

Yep. It is.

Anyway, after Walt Dysney Corp. made three movies on MI, and you never saw a penny of it, I hardly found this THAT bad... I mean, c'mon! Its just the musical jingle! Could be worst...

This ripp off christmas-y version makes me want to dance more than the original.

Hell yeah! Party at LeChuck's tonite!

I'll bring the grog! Or should I make it root beer?

Seconded... I never wanted to dance when LeChuck showed up on screen...

Report it, maybe you give publicity or some profit :P

Or directly, kill them all.

It sounds very similar, but it isn't the same piece of music.

Yeah it contains a sample.

''I've listened to it several times and it's hard to tell because I keep getting distracted by the great savings at Kohl's''

HAHAHA! :)

If Vanilla Ice can get away with stealing the tune to Bowie's "Under Pressure" by adding an extra couple of notes in, I don't think you have much of a case here... does bring LeChucks theme to mind though.

Arrrrhh! Those nasty advertising pirates!


They deserve a Keelhauling :-P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keelhauling

Don't listen! I used to work for Kohl's, I know how their sales work!

Also, I thought it sounded a lot like LeChuck's theme.

If you want to compare, here is the original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQXsIUmsRQ4&fmt=18

Very very similar...

Wow, recognition at last! Your mommy must be so proud.

Fun fact: Ron Gilbert didn't make the music ;)

Anyway, it is the same. The trombone melody is the same and the bassline is very, very similiar.

Surely you mean Queen's under pressure?

That's very obviously stolen, yes. :) The sincerest form of flattery, though, I guess...

BTW, do you know Finntroll's "En Mäktig Här"? I think they're quoting from the Monkey Island music in that one, too.

The person who wrote the jingle for the ad was probably a Monkey Island fan, and couldn't get the music out of his head.. like me.

Provoke that the commercial is muted because of copyright issues.

Spill root beer on it.

You'd probably have a decent case against Nintendo too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h17aHdrcHM

Actually, listening to it again, I don't know if either ripped off LeChuck's theme (though the first riff is the same, but in a different key), but Kohl's definitely ripped off Nintendo.

Sort of unrelated. I just made this Monkey Island obamicon:
http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/entries/137179-yikes.html

Could it be that the Secret of Monkey Island was that LeChuck was really the captain of....Kohls?

I think I now need to visit Kohl's and douse the clearance section with root beer.  You can never be too safe... :)

It's seems like Lechuck has receive a Kohl's offer that he couldn't refuse...

Maybe he'll be next Santa :D

It is a little similar.

That's definitively LeChuck's theme...

It's almost as appaling as saying Under pressure is a bowie song when it was clearly co-written by the members of Queen ;)

Maybe Kohl's stole Coldplay, who stole Satriani, who stole LeChuck.

Well only the first notes remind me of LeChuck's theme. The rest is not the same. So pity they didn't cast LeChuck and let him play with the baby stuff or let him wear some beautiful earrings. The marketing effect could've been higher... for sure.

Well, well, well. It appears that LeChuck is a fan of old musicals, because Kohl's jingle is just a "Christmas" version of "Beautiful Things", from the Doctor Dolittle movie, which dates back to 1967.

Their other ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsO-CrfgeVQ) has a sung version of it, apparently by "Shiny Lapel Trio".

Interesting. So Michael Land copied from said musical, instead of Kohl's copying from Monkey Island.

Well, I wouldn't go as far as saying that Michael Land copied that song. They're different enough, especially if you listen to the original one. But maybe LeChuck's spirit influenced Leslie Bricusse (the composer of "Beautiful Things") back in 1967: after all, the story of LeChuck must be very old, otherwise LeChuck would still be around, and I'm quite sure he isn't...
(Eerie music plays) Or is he?

No. 1967 was before Monkey Island. Michael Land clearly copied from the musical. And then Ron makes a big fuss about the commercial allegedly copying from Monkey Island... ts ts ts.

I think the main problem lies in just how close and similiar certain themes are when compared side by side. Some are almost near definate with a few chords off or a section redone in a different fashion.

Example: Australia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp8aGhWyG8I&feature=related
PotC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDBkm3-48Vo

By changing those certain notes its supposed to be a different theme. But come on, we know in our minds its the same theme. Just slightly different sounding.

Though the worst was the vanilla ice contraversy. (Ice ice baby/Under Pressure) Which falls under sampling.

Lol, Australia is such a waste of money.

well... i didn´t hear Lechuck´s theme. But "BY GRAPTHAR´s HAMMER, WHAT A SAVINGS"

hey, its almost the same, just some parts...
... i have some reminds when i was young, when i recorded the song directly from my computer and i spent many many hours listening that song :D

oh well, do u know any way to email Ron Gilbert???
that damned form seems to be broken or doesnt work...or just points to nobody.. :P
Ron, where are ya!!!

Ron doesn't answer mere mortals.

They didn't do all that great job of ripping Monkey Island off...
I should've have at least liked to have seen some dancing three-headed monkeys and Stan yapping on about de-fogging portholes - now that would've made me want to buy the crap that they're selling...

It's the song of the Micro Groggery of MI 4
Le Chuck's Theme Remix

MI4?

He everyone should check this one out http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=-hotjeKvovg

its a kanye west song that is very similar to the MI theme

Yeah, seems like the same music with a different arrangement.
Oh well, the "beneath Monkey Island" theme sounded like "Behind my Camel" by The Police.

Strangely enough I haven't seen this commericial till now... and yet I work for Kohl's. VERY MUCH sounds like LeChucks theme.

But I think blombo hit the right reason. That definately sounds like a remix of "Beautiful Things" as well. During christmas Kohl's had Christmas remixes pumped through the radio system which would also explain the song. Though we had the regular version only for our store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRNBtcBFcUk&feature=channel_page

Perhaps if savings at Kohl's were not so good, but for the moment we never know the truth.

Perhaps we could sell this information to the competition, buajajajajajaja! Ok, ok. It was just a joke :P

I'm shocked. No European branch.

Must... buy... Kohl's...

Hi, Mr. Gilbert!

Some months ago, you linked a video of the Curse of Monkey Island guitar I painted and that made me really happy. So now I want to share with you this new home-made merchandise I've made; I took a pair of Converse All Star boots and painted them with two scenes from The Secret of Monkey Island. Here are the links:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kEHxO8RsI9I/SXiLaN2jA8I/AAAAAAAADtE/sYT5SMkgs00/s1600-h/Zapatillas+2.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kEHxO8RsI9I/SXiLaQJMm5I/AAAAAAAADtM/y9GozFtO9zg/s1600-h/Zapatillas+4.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kEHxO8RsI9I/SXiLauk3NJI/AAAAAAAADtU/MkY4ne8Z9as/s1600-h/Zapatillas+3.jpg

I hope you'll like them!  :D

Best regards from a spanish fan

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amazing. Keep up the fine work, Maya!!

AHAHAHAHAHAAH que bueno Maya!!
Thats hella cool!!!! I like that stuff!!

Nice work, Maya. :D

Holy god, I WANT THEM!
Amazing.

Wow, thank you! ^__^

ha cool :D
Down with converse!
How did you paint that on?? brush?

Madre de dios!!! es el pollo diablo!! digo... en serio... wow! increible!! ;) Great great work!!

RON ...if only you could sue them...you could get enough money to buy the rights back....

Just theoretical,

How much cost the MI License

If every MI Fan all around the World spend 100$/?...... or whatever

Were it possible for you Ron to buy back the MI License ?


personal I would give you up to 500$ for ne next MI Game

http://car4ron.com/news.php

Godspeed!

D: Hi. This is stupid. But I couldn't find any other place to put this. Sorry if it's dumb.

I saw this commercial and I was like omg. o_o;; My question is;; Why would they use this for a happy Christmas commercial? o_o; I don't see this as like a happy song. Maybe they thought it sounded Christmas-y [LeChuck in a Santa suit is pretty imaginable].

I've always wanted to ask a creator how they feel about seeing porn fanfics, in this case, with the pairing LeChuck x Guybrush. xD Do the creators ever imagine that? Or that people would actually THINK that themselves? xDD

o_o; Well anyway. I've been into MI since I could like..talk. xD My dad or older sister would read me as the text flashed past the screen. I loved watching it, at any rate, and soon I grew up to be able to play and win the games MANY times by myself. [I'm 14 right now (: ] I mean, seriously. I've won this game more times than I've won Bugdom or Tomb Raider II, and that's saying something! xD I dunno the game just never seems to get old, or lose its humor.

But just tonight, I read about the themepark theory. o_o It creeped me out bad. It's 8.45. Bedtime is in an hour...will I be able to sleep? T__T; BLEH. I always scare myself and I can't sleep. BUT I GOTTA SLEEP! School tomorrow. xD Man, do I sound like a kid or what? Here I am obsessed with Silent Hill, and I'm being scared of Monkey Island. That's sad. o_o;

I've never played the 3rd game. Particularly because I got MI && MI2 on a combo disk [along with Indiana Jones]...I never picked up the third game, I guess. It never appealed to me, really. I dun' like the style it's in and stuff [and Guybrush isn't hot anymore wtf D:]. But I have the 4th game! It's uhm. Weird. D: I dunno I always like older games rather than the new versions of it. [And btw wtf why aren't they making a 2oth anniversary MI game? D:] I guess I'm just not used to change. But Guybrush -IS- hot in the 4th game so I don't have a problem with that. xD

o_o Do you ever imagine Guybrush with a kid? This one day me and my friend were thinking about Guybrush punishing his daughter by spanking her with his belt. [xD I'm so sorry.]

In fifth grade! Me and my bestest friend ran around the playground. I'd go. "RAWR GUYBRUSH KEEP RUNNING I'M LECHUCK I'M COMING TO GET YOU WITH MY CREEPY WIGGLY BEARD". o_o It went on for many recesses. xD TIRING. They both have tiring jobs, right? xD

You know, you are one amazing man, having people still talking about the mysteries of your game like 19 years later. o_o; You're pretty cool, alright.

D: Come to think of it, you know, I never thought of it. When I was little, I mean. I never like thought there was something weird. Infact I never even thought of the secret. I didn't even know there was suppost to be a secret. T__T; I just always thought the MI2 ending was freaky. o_o Simply freaky. But now that I read that theory....BLAH. D: I'm scared of MI. MAKE IT GO AWAYYYYYY...

This is stupid and long and pointless. Do you really actually read these? From stupid fans like me? o_o; Dumb and young. Hey it sort of rhymes! Okay I guess not but..o_o; Sorry omfg I'm sorry. xD;; <3

I remember when I was little. In MI2, I wrote a whole story about that one scene. You know, in the end. Where there's two skeletons sitting and "LOST PARENTS'. Yuh, I wrote a whole fanfiction. About that one little thing. xD I dunno. Ever since I was little I was intrigued by it. I still dunno what it really means or what happened or why it's there or what, but I like it. D;

ANYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYWAY going back to this video. o_o; It's scary and wrong and I don't get how they'd find it, why they'd use it, and what it has to do with Christmas. xD

I'm so sorry that I'm so dumb and long. o_o; <3

attempts to sleep

Wow. Just wow. All that from a 14 year old.

Hey I'm 14 too!
I think I'll skip my Monkey Island life story though...

Although it'd be awesome ;)

I'm a bit worried about young generations and the future of our society.

dies omg. o_o cant believe this is real

Yuh. I'm an amazing 14 year old.

(: It's because of MI. It has brought me up to be the person that I am today!

...

xD Sorry. This is so cheesy I should really stop.

I did go to bed that night, easy....Why do I always get obsessed with monkey island on sunday nights when I have school the next day? D; GRRRRR. Why am I even scared?

It's okay I'm not scared anymore. It's okay. It's okay.

Okay. I'm so sorry. o_o My things are always so dumb dies again.

I'M TRYING TO KEEP ON TOPIC BUT ITS SO HARD WHEN YOU'RE YOU AND I'VE NEVER TALKED TO MONKEY ISLAND...i mean..I'VE NEVER TALKED ABOUT MONKEY ISLAND TO ANYONE..D: omg I want to talk to monkey island!

I want to talk to Guybrush!
I need Guybrush!
I yearn for Guybrush!

I've decided to write a song, to this Kohl's song;;

I am LeChuck chuck chuck
The great LeChuck
The great LeChuck
I am Lechuck chuck chuck

That's how far I got. Sorry, it's not very long. ): I'll try harder next Sunday. <3

Is that how young people communicate and write these days? I must be getting old... at 23.

I'm a bit worried about you kid. Are you alright? Maybe you should go talk to the school counsellor or a psycholic health worker.

You're DUMB and LONG?!

WTF?!

In fact no. Don't say a fucking word.

If Kohl's was to ever say their jingle is not the same song as LeChuck's theme, it would be just like when Vanilla Ice famously defended that "Ice, Ice Baby" was a completely different song from Queen's "Under Pressure." Oh, please.

Kohl's <u>undoubtedly</u> remixed LeChuck's theme.

Uh, no.
Please take the time to read the previous comments. While I have no doubt that LeChuck's theme is the original work of Michael Land, Kohl's theme is definitely a remix of the song they used for their Christmas ad campaign, and that is "Beautiful Things" by Leslie Bricusse.

Blombo, thank you for the condescending response.  Although I typically read a good number of  comments, it is unreasonable to expect one to sift through every single comment on every single blog before posting a response.  You're reply to my original post could just have easily begun with "While I have no doubt that..." as the first sentence, including the "Uh, no" was completely unnecessary.

So, please, in the future - post with a little more respect, or simply move along.

I agree with blombo on this one.
David is being sensitive. Uh, yes.

Kohl's didn't copy from Monkey Island.
It's even a question if Michael Land created original material,
as the musical has been around for so much longer.

Uh, yes.

David,
I see you think deciding what is reasonable and what's not is a prerogative of yours, which is a thing that may not be shared by other people, especially me. In fact, I think it's unreasonable to get offended by a simple "Uh, no" when you are posting what could be essentially called "crap". So please, next time be a little more informed or shut up.

Well, I must admit after reading your latest post, I do prefer people being outright rude to others they don't even know and saying what they actually mean as opposed to being passive aggressive, which is surprisingly ten times as obnoxious (and fyi, as I already said, it wasn't just the "oh, no").

At any rate, I'm over this banter. Comment back if you absolutely must, but seeing as how you're obviously not going to take my advice on posting with a little more respect, you would at least be doing me a service to take my follow up suggestion and "just move along."

Either way, I'm over this. Ta-ta.

What a gay way to say you don't care anymore.

Also pretty funny; I hope he posts another comment soon - I could do with a laugh

This is a very common practice in commercials, they either don't have enough many, time or creativity to compose an original tune, so they come up with a well known one, and change it enough not to be considered plagiarism.

Check out this (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gQEmoZBq9y0&feature=related)! Tryo is ripping off Monkey Island!

Ron ripped Monkey Island off from Disney's Pirates ride.

This is reggae. It all sounds alike. The bass line in this sounds nothing like monkey island.

Oh, squiggly line in my eye fluid.

I see you there, lurking on the periphery of my vision.

But when I try to look at you, you scurry away.

Are you shy, squiggly line?

Why only when I ignore you do you return to the center of my eye?

Oh, squiggly line, it's all right. You are forgiven.

LeChuck lives! Just saying.

Menemenum!

I hope DeathSpank isn't reflective of this blog.

DeathSpank will be a distinctively Canadian production. You know why? Because it's sponsored by Telefilm Canada, which usually funds Canadian films.

Great. I hope there will be a special cameo appearance by Terrence and Phillipp in the game. Maybe even grumpy Ron with his comic avatar, which resembles the Canadians in Southpark.

let's start a petition called "make ron funny again".

Ouch

Would that be the pirate beverage?

Here we are now, entertainers.

Don't forget Disney's Grim Grinning Ghosts, which is 1969.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwnF0d7mNQ8&feature=related

(fast forward to the middle to hear the actual song)

It's similar, probably moreso than the others because the melodic contour is the most similar, but you can't really copyright a few similar chords. Most pop music would be in trouble if that were the case.

Doesn't sound quite the same to me, but it similar

That's some pretty powerful savings.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e199/sharprm/dun4.gif

i heard a rumor about MONKEY ISLAND HD FOR XBLA AND PSN

is an ilusion?

Maybe you are in drugs. May I know what one is? :)

Yeah, I heard that one almost immediately, as well as a bunch of similar themes. Maybe it was intended as an homage by one of the ad people?

no doubt - that's the LeChuck-Theme!

Wanna hear smthg funny? This song is from the final bosses in Dragon Ball Origins (NDS). I was just playing it for the 1st time and I realized, lol

I read your blog & it has really nice information. Keep this sort of job in future as well