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It’s hard to say because he had already slowed down the pace on his film music scoring activities since the late 2010s, regardless of the accusations. We won’t have 4 scores a year though, that’s for sure. No matter what, we are entering the last years of his career.
To go back to the topic, it looks like tomorrow’s release is going to be mostly songs from the film + 2 Elfman tracks (Main/End Titles).
Those two tracks are something special. Reminds me of the some of the best parts of his DARK SHADOWS soundtrack, mixed of course, with the spirit of the original BEETLEJUICE.
Accusations be damned, I remain Team Elfman and love listening to his new works. But I agree with Ryan, his absence from the film’s promotion feels intentional. I think his lack of output over the past few years speaks more for the way that the industry has changed. Do we know anything more about THE ACTOR or RHONA WHO LIVES BY THE RIVER? Updates on both of those projects have been eerily quiet.
My gut says that The Actor didn’t work out though there has been radio silence on that movie.
Elfman was spotted at a place where they film stop-motion projects. I would presume this is for Rhona.
It’s been two years since White Noise, and no new projects announced. His name has been in almost every review I’ve read of the film, but no score album announcement. Hollywood has a way of pushing problematic creatives out, only to welcome them back later. So I don’t think it’s the end of the line for Danny—I just think there’s not a lot of heat on him right now. That might be symptomatic of the entire industry, as there are so few notable scores so far this year, I’d be hard pressed to name five of them!
I enjoyed the movie, but I don’t know if I’ve ever been more disappointed by a score in a movie. Elfman is given almost nothing to do. It reminded me of Big Eyes, to be honest.
Only a handful of cues made an impression, and most of those felt like riffs on cues from the original. All the quirk and colours were gone.
Interesting—this isn’t the first time someone has felt the music lacked room to operate.
Considering Elfman was absent entirely from the promotion of the pic, is it possible a rift formed over this film and his scoring opportunities? Like, did he not align with Burton on the score’s scope? Are we looking at Burton’s next film being scored by someone else?
I hate to speculate like this because, in my sad mind, I have a fantasy that Elfman reads this forum and gets royally pissed when people gossip like this.
I’d be surprised if Burton wasn’t temp-track obsessed with this one.
The best and most impactful cue is by another composer!
There was a cool cue for an awesome flashback sequence at least…
Elfman hasn’t posted about BJBJ on Twitter or Instagram. His last BJ-related tweet was from October 2023 to promote the re-release of the OST on glow-in-the-dark vinyl.
To be fair, he didn’t promote his Percussion Concerto/Wunderkammer release bar reposting Sony Classical once.
Just remembered the Gramophone interview in which Elfman mentioned recording 45 cues for Beetlejuice 2.
I may well be wrong, but I don’t think there’s anywhere near that in the movie.
I’m seeing it again tomorrow.
I saw a late afternoon showing… still processing this absolute nothing burger of a film score. A follow up to one of Danny’s most memorable scores and he’s given no room to play. You hear maybe three cues (not including the Bava riff) and anything else is absolutely buried. Just a crushing disappointment.
Astrid exploring the town and the dream sequence near the end were ripe opportunities to really establish a theme for her.
I really think this was all Burton. A mix of temp track love and wanting to make the movie as 70s in vibe as he could.
I saw it again, and there probably are 45 starts in there. They’re all just so non-descript you wouldn’t notice.
Major bummer, but this is at least a Burton movie that’s good and successful. I guess we can’t have everything.
I wonder if they’re on good terms after this.
I’m mellowing after my initial reactions to the film. It’s not the films fault it wasn’t the movie I’d built up in my head. Fingers crossed if the score gets released there are some used bonus tracks.
Not sure if it’s a bad sign but the score was recorded in London and LA. Those LA sessions could have been last minute rescoring and replacements making this entire thing so frustrating.
I don’t get how Dumbo can get such a wonderful treatment from him while a sequel to Beetlejuice falls flat. I still haven’t seen the film (I’ll wait for streaming) but it’s quite sad to read. 🙁
I love Dumbo, too. Really underrated score with a gorgeous main theme.
I said on another forum that it’s so weird having a blah score to a good Burton movie when normally Elfman’s the one overcompensating. I think this is the first time the score doesn’t (isn’t allowed to) live up to the movie.
Can we also talk about how bad the opening of the Main Titles is ? The mix is awful, even after quite a few listens, I still can’t figure out what I’m listening to. It gets better as the track starts and the theme kicks in, but those 20-30 first seconds feel like a first draft that somehow made it into the final product.
It’s missing the overlay of Donna Summer’s cover of MacArthur Park. It plays over the score like how Day-O does in the original.
Hearing the main title was such a blast in the cinema. Everyone was bobbing along.
There’s a fun cue during which Beetlejuice sucks everyone into their phones. Felt like Elfman was allowed to play for just a few seconds.
I don’t mind the mix—it starts off like a bit in the Dark Shadows sonic world. The plinkety ethnic percussion is pure Boingo before those two big notes (electric guitar?) The brass on the left does sound a like a sample.
I’m really bummed about this no score album news. My hope was we’d get new material even if it wasn’t in the film. I guess we’ll have to wait until it slowly filters out to the collector community.
Waxwork Records will release this on Vinyl/CD, although no tracklisting is available : https://waxworkrecords.com/collections/cd/products/beetlejuice-beetlejuice-cd
I’m going with a wild theory here that Danny only wrote the main and end titles — perhaps the Dolores flashback, but that’s it — despite that interview from earlier.
I like to think I can tell the difference between Elfman and Bacon nowadays (maybe I’m full of it), and I only really heard Elfman here. The orchestral version of MacArthur Park at the end jumped at me as being a Bacon cue.
Bacon’s also only credited with additional arrangements, not music, which tends to be the case when his role is smaller – Dumbo, Grinch…
I’ve been interacting with Ryan and ddddeeee about this on FSM, but I thought I’d come back here and post too.
I saw the movie (I liked it!), and I thought there was a LOT of score in the movie. I didn’t know about the “35 starts” thing until I saw the post above, but I can believe it. And I DO believe that most of that made it into the movie. I don’t hear a lot of signs of score tampering here… not like in Hellboy II, for example, where you could hear that some cues were faded out, or that there was that big statement of Danny’s Hellboy theme that was pasted into the movie at a few awkward spots (and it wasn’t even on the original album!).
I think there’s plenty here to make a score album out of, and if the film continues to pull in big money, I believe that WB will do one.
I’m convinced that the BeeGees song when Dolores staples herself back together was planned. The music kind of works around it. I think the modern pop songs when Astrid rides her bike through town and meets Jeremy were totally deliberate too and were NOT replacing score cues. The movie needs you to see that as a Young Adult love story moment, and putting ANY score in those sequences would have highlighted that there’s something else going on there. Clearly the Soul Train music and the big MacArthur Park moments were all planned as well. I don’t think any of those songs replaced score that Danny had written.
I agree with those above who said that the score was reminiscent of Dark Shadows. It sounded like a modern Elfman score. There were 3 or 4 cues that used themes from the first score (when we first see Beetlejuice at his desk job, and when we first see the model, etc), which are great. But much of it was original, and I really do think Elfman did most of it. He’s been generous about crediting co-composers before, and I don’t know why he would do so this time.
Anyway, I liked the movie and I like the score. I might have benefited here from not seeing it until the second week, and hearing everyone complain about both for the last seven days!
Also, I put this on FSM, but I snapped a picture of the music credits in the end roll, and here they are:
Music Editors BILL ABBOTT • CECILE TOURNESAC
Assistant Music Editor DENISE OKIMOTO
Score Produced by DANNY ELFMAN
Additional Music Arrangements by CHRIS BACONScore Recorded by
PETER COBBIN • KIRSTY WHALLEY • NOAH SNYDER • ANDREW DUDMANScore Mixed by PETER COBBIN • KIRSTY WHALLEY
Orchestrations by
STEVE BARTEK • DAVE SLONAKER • ED TRYBEK
JONATHAN BEARD • HENRI WILKINSON • JULIAN KERSHAWOrchestra Conducted by RICK WENTWORTH • PETE ANTHONY
Orchestra Leaders THOMAS BOWES • BRUCE DUKOV
Featured Soprano
GRACE DAVIDSONChoir VOCALS UNLIMITED • CAPITAL VOICES
Choirmasters TOM PEARCE • ANNIE SKATES
Music Preparation by
DAVE HAGE • JOSEF ZIMMERMAN • MATTHEW SLATERGREGORY JAMROK • ABRAHAM LIBBOS • MARC MANN
Score Programmer DAVID GLEN RUSSELL
Technical Score Engineer MATTHEW THOMAS
Score Coordinator MELISA McGREGOR
Pro Tools Operators MATT JONES • KEITH UKRISNA
Score Recorded at ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS, LONDON • FOXSTUDIOS, LOS ANGELES
BANDRIKA STUDIOS, LOS ANGELESScore Mixed at SUCH SWEET THUNDER STUDIOS, LONDON
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