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Amazon.com seems to enjoy it:
For this live-action adaptation of E.B. White’s beloved bestseller, Danny Elfman has written his loveliest score in ages. There’s no trace of the sardonic, manic pulse that beats beneath so much of his work: here, he proves he can do sweet without doing saccharine. The breezy orchestrations and low-key themes combine to make the score stand out in the kids’ genre, and it’s one many movies for grownups wouldn’t sneeze at either. As such, it’s closer to Joe Hisaishi’s pastoral compositions for the Hayao Miyazaki anime masterpiece My Neighbor Totoro and to Nigel Westlake’s music for Babe than to your average overblown kiddie blockbuster. Yes, there’s the obligatory ballad–in this case “Ordinary Miracle,” cowritten by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics and performed by Sarah McLachlan–but it’s rather subtle. Call us sentimental, but we even prefer the less-high-profile vocal track on this CD: Dakota Fanning’s plaintive “Lullaby” in “Lullaby/Escape.”
It seems to me that the filmmakers didn’t realize they’d be outdone by the score to their own movie — speculation, of course. Hell, I’ll try to see it with some friends who’d appreciate it.
Ryan, any idea when we’ll get an official announcement about Danny’s involvement, or is this going to be a secret job where Young takes the “music by” credit and Danny writes the new themes but still gets the “themes by” credit, making it seem that he’s just contributed the old themes but has actually supplied new ones?
A belated notice: on last week’s Simpsons with Homer in the Army (a weak episode, I should say) they had Kiefer Sutherland with his cool southern accent assigning names in the end credits to military positions, mostly “frontline infantry,” but when Danny’s name came up, he just muttered, “lord…” Not sure of the significance, but anyone is welcome to interpret.
On a side note, cartoons have SUCKED lately. Last week’s Simpsons, American Dad, and especially Family Guy (which used to be my absolute favorite show) fell way flat and lacked any humor, while tonight’s South Park was so unneccesarily and unfunnily mean that I’m starting to lose my respect and faith for Matt and Trey.
Yeah, my media player said the same thing, but worry not. Sometimes, the track artist can be listed as the conductor or the orchestra (my Superman Returns tracks all came out under the artist “Hollywood Symphony Orchestra). In this case, Pete Anthony conducted. However, I do recall in a SoundtrackNet photo essay seeing Danny conducting a cue… I wonder which one it was?
Here’s a link to the newest “Charlotte’s Web” trailer, deemed the “Bells Holiday Internet Teaser.” Now I’m really confused, because this preview makes the movie look a whole lot better than the latest one before that did.
http://www.charlotteswebmovie.com/public/video_files/CW_bells_holiday_teaser_large.mov
That trailer was much better than the newly released one, but I do agree that it might be best to play the teasing game with Venom. Still, I’m glad to have seen it. Very cool. And I’m still REALLY REALLY intrigued by all this vague info about Danny providing themes for the movie. When will there be an official announcement?!
An Elfman Bond score would be interesting, but I really think that if anyone besides David Arnold were to tackle a Bond score, it’s Michael Giacchino who deserves it most.
I’m not worried about the CGI. Remember, they’re still six months away from completion, and I’m sure there’s much left to work on. For example, the shot of Sandman taking out the police seems to have improved since the teaser; now it looks more like sand instead of a computer blob. With a $250 million budget, the effects BETTER be good!
Thanks for the heads-up! From what I heard, that really is a gorgeous score. I was planning on just waiting for the DVD to come out, but I may see the movie in a theater just based on the score alone. Is it too soon to say that this could be a potential Oscar nomination? After all, there hasn’t been much competition this year (so far, unless the stupid Academy picks an obscure and undeserving score from one of those “Oscar-season” films).
Agreed on the crappy edit and that it looks REALLY EXCITING!!! Dammit, Raimi may have been a douche to Danny, but he’s a hell of a filmmaker.
The link doesn’t work, even if the whole thing is copy-pasted. I’m looking forward to the movie, but I’m still confused about the music. Previously, I believed that Christopher Young alone was writing the score based on Danny’s original themes, but in a post which I believe may have been erased with the board problems, you somehow made it seem as if Danny was writing new themes upon which Young would expand further. Just to be clear and to give me some closure, as of now Danny has absolutely no involvement with the film… right?
Funny enough, I never usually watch The Simpsons but I decided to watch this particular episode because the program info mentioned a Golum and it hit my Jewish roots. I heard the opening music and was very amused by it… way to honor Danny! It occurs to me that his work has now been featured on The Simpsons (well, has been for many years), Family Guy (“The Breakfast Machine”), and American Dad (TWO Oingo Boingo references!)
Sorry, I meant that Elfman’s music was replaced with the music that he replaced in the first place. Whew, that’s tricky.
Yeah, the whole deal with Elfman being replaced was dumb. Hess probably expected Oingo Boingo Danny Elfman instead of Composer Danny Elfman. I can understand how the CD people thought that the Ramses suite would summarize Danny’s work on the movie, but the best moments came from variations on the theme or some of the shorter tracks (“Super Nacho” still being my favorite among them).
I just watched the movie again with the commentary (Jack Black, Mike White, and Jared Hess), and I have a sneaking suspicion that the producers omitted comments any of them may have made concerning Danny’s music. At one point during a statement of the Ramses theme, Jack Black says, “I love this musica,” followed by silence on their part and boosted volume in the movie audio. A similar thing occurs during my beloved “Super Nacho” music scene, and again in the end credits, when they talk throughout except during the long list of Elfman tracks. Perhaps I’m paranoid and not a fan of Danny-haters, but this is certainly odd considering they had an A-list composer aboard their cheaply-produced comedy.
Not sure if anyone’s posted this, but I have the DVD rented now and I’ll just go ahead and write out the longer-than-I-expected list of tracks for which Danny receives credit. By the way, Beck is only credited with six tracks, none of which stood out to me.
“The Saint”
“Ramses”
“Nacho in Alley”
“Nacho Fight”
“Super Nacho”
“Satan’s Cavemen”
“My Life is Good”
“Street Brawl”
“Gypsey Idea”
“Echoes of Ramses”
“Street Ramses”
“Stand Off”
“Encarnacion in Kitchen”
“Candle Walk”
“Nacho’s Letter”
“Ramses Prepares”
“Death March”
“Ramses Starts to Win”Composed and Produced by Danny Elfman
I enjoyed the movie more than I expected to, and was surprised at the amount of Danny’s music that was left in. I was especially thrilled with “Super Nacho.” It’s one of those really short but big-scale tracks that he writes and just does a ton with only about 20 seconds.
Just got back from seeing it, and I still can’t believe that the movie wasn’t originally made to be a 3D feature. The 3D was pretty sick, but it was the sound that stood out the most to me. I loved the surround sound they did for the re-release, and the score and songs were fantastic. Hearing Danny’s music and lyrics with such great quality really made the experience awesome for me. Plus, seeing that I was 4 when the movie came out and my parents had no interest in taking me to see it (and at the time, I probably didn’t have any either), it was nice to finally be able to see it on the big screen. Fun time, and cool new glasses for me!
Yeah, that was kind of awkward and odd. Although some may think so in theory, those two don’t seem to be a match.
It’s playing on only one single screen in all of New England! However, this won’t stop me from pre-ordering tickets and making the journey into Boston on Sunday evening. I did it for the early screening of Big Fish, and I’ll do it again for Nightmare 3D!
Funny, I was listening to the regular radio and I heard Danny too… only it was his voice, saying, “A tragic tale of passion, romance, AND A MURDER MOST FOUL!” It was a promo for the ABC Family airing of Corpse Bride (just ended as I type, and I am PISSED that they didn’t play the End Credits tracks). They played a bonus feature afterwards, and I was hoping it’d be a music featurette, but it was just the DVD one about the voices in the movie. Afterwards they played a “This is Halloween” “music video” with a terribly chopped-up version of the song. I guess we’ll just have to wait to hear the whole thing with the 3-D movie, huh? My off-topicness if awful lately.
Indeed you did come through, Ryan! Thanks a ton! I agree, he gave a great interview that had Jay cracking up.
