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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.
Vandevere’s theme – 1:37 in ‘Final Confrontation’. It plays a fair bit throughout the score, but it largely passes by unnoticed.
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.
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.
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.
Reviews are very mixed.
Most of Elfman’s ink seems positive, with a lot of references to an opening train cue.
I wonder what (if anything) came from that very odd-sounding orchestral work he said he was working with after Dumbo.
Good thing Dumbo is only a few days away because I’ve done nothing but listen to this for the last few days, and I’ll probably overplay it soon.
I wasn’t sure about the ‘One concert work per year’ thing as it seemed like ruling oneself out of work for 1/4 of the year was a very bad career movie, but now I’m all for it.
I appreciate that they wanted to maximise sales of the song compilation, but if this were for any composer other than Elfman, I’d be pretty miffed at having to buy the score twice.
My CD arrived today.
Listened to it three times. Each time I listened to a movement I thought, “No, this one’s my favourite.”
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….
I imagine/hope that the pitch was that Elfman would do what he can and oversee the rest. Can’t imagine Sony approaching Elfman and then being happy with getting Chris Bacon instead (no offence intended).
Interesting.
I hope Elfman’s actively involved and it’s not the ‘Here’s my music for the other movies – off you go’ situation that seemed to happen with Jason Bourne.
