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It’s funny… Elfman was barred from using the Big Adventure theme in Big Top because of the change in Companies but… if you listen… he still snuck a massive subtheme it in there.
Remember the “Turning Point” music in the first film — the Stolen Bike sequence — which was a big homage to Bernard Herrmann — all strings?
Big Top’s major turning point was the storm that brought the circus and, if you listen to that CD (which I just did the other day… or watch that part of the film), Elfman actually orchestrates a more bombastic version of that same melody near the end of it. I’m sure this was mentioned here before… but I thought it was cool that continuity does exist, outside of style, if you look for it.
So, sneaky sneaky.
I imagine if he ever returned to the series he would perhaps do as he did with those two films, and handle it like a seperate score but in the same fashion and mindset (just as Nino Rota did for Fellini’s films, while retaining the same DNA). I always thought that was interesting. Big Top was closer to Rota’s 8 1/2 while Big Adventure had a percussive feel that parts of Casanova had — in addition to 8 1/2 type bass lines.
Maybe the influence will continue…
Your best bet is seeing him on the 22nd of this month at comic con. Just an interview…
http://www.cinematical.com/2010/07/08/comic-con-thursday-schedule-announced/
Saw a midnight screening of the movie. Here are my opinions…
As I imagined, we have a quasi-Spider-Man 2 type situation in the final film. The original score is basically cut and spliced around in areas where you know, from the tracklist of the album, it shouldn’t be. The Prologue is gone (a scene you can tell was supposed to be much longer than it ended up being). The Suites are used as transitional pieces alot. The mixing wasn’t too great. I think the Travel Montage was lifted and placed in two different places. All in all, I have a feeling Elfman is pissed about the way the music is used in the final cut.
The movie itself, I can, tell was intended to be at a much, much slower pace but Universal, wanting to go for the more youthful audience, cut scenes down to quicken the pace. The result? You have no pacing what-so-ever. No Main Titles. No nothing. It cuts directly to the main point. Talbot is back home a few moments after the titlecard investigating the werewolf.
The music apart from the film is amazing. I’ve never been as excited about something Elfman’s written, post-listening-experience, since Sleepy Hollow. Sadly, the studio destroyed the integrity of the script and mood, if there was a little bit in there, with the post-production gang bang that ensued.
If anything good came out of this mess, it was the Elfman CD, which I’d be brash enough to say is Oscar worthy.
Though we all know that will never happen. Not for THIS movie…
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
You can tell this was probably offered to Tim Burton. Hell, the Sleepy Hollow screenwriter even writes this in a similar way (same brutal opening, heavy gore, same father-issues, same science-in-olden-times approach, same final battle, same nightmares). The production design is via Rick Heinrichs, as was Hollow’s, and is great. You can even imagine that the intended version, if paced slower and less reliant on flashy effects, might have looked better on paper. It’s not scary. It could have been alright in the Hammer Horror fashion though.
Universal tried to turn this into Underworld. Tried to modernize it. The electronic score may have been too much, but traces of the Underworld-thinking remain. Example: watch the scene, which is also in the trailers, using the whole slow/fast zoom from 300 and Underworld. The addition of that into the movie seems like a horrible afterthought. The super-fast CG wolfman which runs like an ape on crack is also something that Rick Baker was apparently unhappy with. I can see why.
The director mentioned releasing the first cut at some point in the future, which I hope he does, if anything to see the intended version of Elfman’s work.
Maybe it will seem less… I don’t know… stupid.
Then again… I read two reviews that compared the final werewolf battle to two wookies in a WWF arena, which pretty much sums it up. I don’t think editing can really fix that.
But Elfman has transcended this, once again, with something better than I could have imagined.
Listened to it a few times now. I’m going to say this is my favorite Elfman score since Sleepy Hollow. So it’s my favorite Elfman score in over 10 years. I CAN NOT BELIEVE IT WAS ALMOST REJECTED.
It’s a type of old-fashioned composing he hasn’t exhibited in a while. Black Beauty and Sleepy Hollow were grand examples. Hellboy 2 sort of harkened back to his old style… BUT THIS…
It’s definitely in the style of Kilar and even reminds me a bit of the music for The Happening, which had great music but sucked as a movie.
That is the Elfman I grew up listening to… I knew he’d come back.
NOTE: Favorite parts…
– Wolf Suite #1: All of it…
– Wake Up, Lawrence: Check out the modern harmonies at around 3:49 on. Elfman has DEFINITELY matured as a composer.
– Bad Moon Rising: Like with Batman, we only need the beat to allude to the theme. When the melody comes it’s EVEN BETTER. Best string writing I’ve heard from him since Dolores Claiborne.
– The Healing Montage: The chorus takes on a prominant role. This reminds me of the “Sick” motifs from Black Beauty. The violin adds alot to that, as do the Herrmann-esque harmonies.
– Traveling Montage: Big, epic, Kilar-inspired Eastern European music.As to the tone, that’s the main reason I believe this is the best score he’s written in years. It’s close to his concert work in a way, but more in tune with Bartok, Prokofiev and Kilar than ANY of his previous works I think. Definitely the best string work he’s done since Dolores Claiborne. The harmony alone warrents recognition. He weaves a dreamscape with it. Also, the most prominent use of violin since Black Beauty.
Amazing.
Elfman didn’t produce it. He wrote the lyrics and came up with the riff. I believe someone else arranged it as he was off scoring something else at the time.
Her official website states “themes by Danny Elfman.” He did the themes.
So we do get some Elfman material afterall.
It wasn’t just a description. They get the video and a media release, and the release sent out to apple.com for the movie stated clearly that Elfman is scoring it. Maybe she’s doing incidental work, but I’m sure Elfman is scoring it.
It was between ’89 and ’90, although I never got a CD of his until ’92. I was pretty young and it was on my own that I just realized everything I loved involved this guy: The Simpsons, Weird Science, Tim Burton’s movies, etc. It was weird when I realized it. Like several interests hinging on this one common factor. It’s been forever that I’ve listened to his stuff.
Danny WILL score 9. Apple got a media release as well as a cut of the trailer. The release says Elfman’s name. No need to worry…
…unless Elfman walked out of a Burton production, which I doubt.
I guess this is a score you really have to listen to a couple of times. It’s based on Herrmann-esque motifs more than melodies. You know, “In the Army Chamber” is a really, really good track. I just realized this. The reason the FSM guys and most people don’t really “see” the theme is because it’s not repeated enough, like say Batman or Spider-Man, but it’s right there in the Titles. From :55 to 1:45 in track 19, though, the theme is presented in it’s most awesome incarnation, I think.
The strings in the introduction remind me of something from Psycho. Not the stabs but the quasi-atonal stuff mixed in with the music box.
It comes down to preference. I personally listen to scores with lush colors and melodies that provoke a rush of blood. Batman Returns was one of those scores. Batman Begins wasn’t.
Still, — again –, from what I’ve heard, I am looking forward to the Dark Knight CD nonetheless. Why? Early buzz. Also I just listened to Howard’s “The Happening” and his music for that movie was so good I thought. It was like a return to Herrmann’s Twilight Zone style of composition. So simple and dark. The beat of the low strings and the instrumentation made that score.
The Dark Knight score doesn’t have to be Elfman but I am hoping it’s something enjoyable. I’m placing my bets that it just might be.
Don’t believe a word of this until confirmation comes in.
I really doubt Del Toro, who apparently had been itching to get Elfman ever since the first Hellboy, would do that. I really doubt Elfman, who has only spoken of how good it was to work on the score, would have been kept in the dark up until the premiere of Wanted.
The CD’s been pressed. The Spider-man 2 situation sucked, but I don’t think that is happening here.
Plus I like to hear WHO the news is coming from.
Wait for confirmation.
Bull shit.Wow, this is surreal. It’s like Boingo has returned. Elfman’s scoring style may have changed but the song sounds like it was something meant for the final 1994 album — but somehow better. Very cool.
