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Soundtrack details : http://filmmusicreporter.com/2019/03/13/soundtrack-details-for-tim-burtons-dumbo/
Do you think Elfman and Burton did fall out again? Elfman’s answer there was odd, and Derek Frey called Elfman to ask him about Dumbo instead of Burton himself….
looks like elfman went all GRINCH/JUSTICE LEAGUE on DUMBO, incorporating not one but two themes from the original film: “pink elephants on parade” and “casey junior”. the marvel universe can barely keep this up from film to film, and here elfman’s doing generations-spanning call backs. music lovers/historians of the future rejoice!
“I knew ‘Pink Elephants on Parade.’ I don’t know quite how I knew it, but it was like definitely part of my musical DNA. ‘Baby Mine’ I didn’t know as well, but I knew that also, I’m not really going to touch on that one, but ‘Casey Junior,’ it’s like, yeah, I know that tune. That’s a good tune. It’s just a good tune and on that basis alone, I got to find a way to get some ‘Casey Junior’ in the room.”
https://www.moviefone.com/2019/03/20/dumbo-composer-danny-elfman-interview/
(note: weirdly edited article from moviefone, syntax as if it was google translated from another language. read at your own grammatic risk.)
Quite curious to hear the score. Early reviews (embargo lifted in France it seems) are almost always mentioning Elfman’s music, either to say it’s a great effort or a total failure. There’s no middle ground.
Reviews are very mixed.
Most of Elfman’s ink seems positive, with a lot of references to an opening train cue.
As I said over on FSM:
I saw the movie earlier today, and while there were a couple of really good, classically burtonesque scenes, it was overall very disappointing. So LOUD and NOISY all the time (not helped by the fact that the projectionist turned the volume all the way up)! And — as with most “big” Hollywood scores from Elfman in the last decade and a half — just a couple of highlights (like the opening train cue, the waltz for the acrobat woman and the ‘pink elephant’ circus number), but the rest was all over the place; noisy, whimsical and grating, really.
As a massive Elfman fan, I really want to be the bearer of better news, but I can’t. I’ll continue to look forward to his next indie project instead, where he’s really at his best right now.
So, it’s out there and while there seems to be a lot to like in it (I will need a few more listens), it’s missing the cue from the “Fly little one” clip that has been online for a few weeks. “Dumbo Soars” is close but the orchestration is rather different. So I’m already waiting for a complete release… :/
I figured after all the ‘soaring’ talk that there’d be a lot more of it. I agree that the ‘Fly, Little One’ cue is definitely missed.
There’s a great album here, but the album needs some rearranging.
The album is definitely the one of the best listen of all the classic remakes Elfman worked on, most notably due its diversity. Cues are never too long and when they are longer, they tend to move quickly from one musical idea to the next. I still think indeed that with all the talks about the “soaring” aspects of the score (see this interview : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izxN4P6IR0k), the presentation here severally lacks of it. I don’t mind that we don’t get it all of it but “Dumbo Soars” is not enough. I’m still just super frustrated that “Fly Little One is not in there, Dumbo’s theme rendition sounds spectacular in that cue.
Dumbo’s Theme is really underplayed as well. Again, “less is always more” but I do feel it lacks presence in here; I’m not even sure we get a full play of the complete musical phrase in its standard harmonies (like in…”Fly, Little One”. I know). Even “Dumbo’s theme” sounds like a cue from the film while I originally thought it could have been an album suite “à la Alice”. Too bad, because it’s a really nice melody.
I also very much like the Circus source stuff because with all years that have passed and many hours of music Elfman wrote, his circus music still sound like something out of Pee-Wee. He still does not over-orchestrate them and they preserve a kind of naivety.
I’ll have to listen it more, once the “Fly Little One” frustration has passed.
This movie is a complete mess. The Dumbo stuff is wonderful, but the movie doesn’t seem interested in him. It’d rather focus on (a charming)Colin Farrell’s robotic children. It’s padded to the extreme with side-plots which feel like they should link to Dumbo’s story but don’t.
The first time Dumbo flies has more soaring music that is missing from the album. There was also another lovely version of Colette’s gorgeous theme that I would’ve liked, too. Dumbo’s theme is so beautiful that I wish there were more of it, but considering he’s side-lined in the movie that’s hardly Elfman’s fault.
Despite Keaton and DeVito reuniting with Burton I wasn’t planning on watching Dumbo in theaters. I’ll wait to rent it at my local library. Haven’t any in these Disney remakes and have increasingly grown tired of Burton’s reimaginings/remakes/adaptations for the past decade. He needs to do more indie fare (e.g. Big Eyes) and more original stories/films based from his imagination. Anyways I wonder if Dumbo being overshadowed by the human characters has anything do with Dumbo’s CGI eating up the film’s budget or not?
I still have to give it more listens but the beginning of the album presentation is stellar. It’s just one great track after the next, each in its own style. I don’t look forward to Burton’s films anymore but his work always allows Elfman do to something special.
I love how Dumbo’s theme is played in woodwinds each time he’s in danger, giving it a slight Indian vibe – this predicts the (wonderful, new) ending, and it also subtly reminds us that Dumbo really doesn’t belong here. Brilliant.
And that Soaring Suite…an all-time Elfman cue. His best mix of beauty/sadness since the Scissorhands/Black Beauty heydays.
The integrations of the old Casey Jr and Pink Elephants themes are fantastically handled. They’re there, you notice them, but they’re built into Elfman’s own cues seamlessly – this is what I was expecting with Justice League.
I am just smitten.
I saw the movie last night and loved it.
I think it had been a long time since I had not loved a score like this. It fits perfectly the movie.
It’s a return to classic Burton/Elfman. Some orchestrations even remind me of Batman Returns.Anyway, I did a little 19-minute suite, with different tracks and portions of tracks mixed together, pretty much like in the Music For A Darkened Theater albums, trying to respect the keys when a track slips into another. If anyone is interested, I’d love to share it. E-mail me at : sycoon at Gmail dot com.
Vandevere’s theme – 1:37 in ‘Final Confrontation’. It plays a fair bit throughout the score, but it largely passes by unnoticed.
I saw the movie again. A few observations…
1. The ‘Fly, Little One’ cue is absent because the beginning of ‘Nightmare Island’ is Elfman’s original take on it. Elfman mentioned that, during the recording sessions, Burton wanted more of the ‘soaring’ Dumbo theme – hence the film version. I’m 99% sure of this.
2. There’s a ‘Colette flying Dumbo’ theme. It takes up a lot of ‘Breakout’, and this kind of explains the lack of Dumbo’s theme during a lot of the later flying scenes.
3. There’s a lovely cue that plays as Mrs Jumbo looks out to the sky before giving birth.
4. This score is just brilliant.
My wife and I just saw it (Granny’s babysitting the little one) and both of us were in tears basically the entire time. Shocked to see the negative reaction to a deeply moving experience. I was waiting for Tim’s story touches and was not disappointed in the inclusion of the Nightmare Island concept.
The score was fantastic in the film – I think the increase in use of the “Soaring” theme really helped and wow, that finale cue is gorgeous.
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