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| CD Reviews: The Incredibles and The Forgotten |
| Posted By: Andrew Granade, Cary Wong on February 15, 2005 - 10:00 PM |
CD Reviews: The Incredibles and The Forgotten
The Incredibles ***
MICHAEL GIACCHINO
Disney
19 tracks - 56:00
Do you remember what it was like waking up on Saturday mornings back
when you were a child? How you would climb out of bed before the sun
came up, click on the television, and stare at the test patterns until
it was time for cartoons to begin? Can you recapture that feeling of
anticipation that was suddenly fulfilled with the arrival of the loud,
brassy fanfare that opened most cartoons? If you can, then you have a
sense of the glee that bubbled up within me when "The Glory Days" from
Michael Giacchino's new score to The
Incredibles started up. In a year when so many scores are taking
themselves so seriously, it's a delight to have a score that does
nothing more than entertain and reawaken a childish enthusiasm for the
movies.
Given that The Incredibles is
a Pixar effort, expectations were high and, as usual, they were met and
surpassed with seemingly little effort. Knowing that Pixar is behind
the production, you might be wondering where the inevitable Newman
score is hiding -- and who this Giacchino fellow is. That would be an
understandable reaction, considering Randy Newman scored all Pixar
movies until the last one, Finding
Nemo, when the task fell to his cousin Thomas. But for this tale
of superheroics, the director decided to turn in a different direction
and ask a master of the genre to assist: John Barry.
Unfortunately, John Barry had to leave the project, and you can almost
imagine his replacement Michael Giacchino (who you might know from his
excellent work on Alias,
another program of superheroics) being told to deliver a score that
sounds like John Barry. Giacchino fulfilled this request quite nicely.
I urge you to try and listen to the brassy wails of "Kronos Unveiled"
and not think of the dastardly Goldfinger explaining his plan to James
Bond. Indeed, even one of the main themes is too strongly influenced by
the familiar theme to Barry's On Her
Majesty's Secret Service. But Giacchino wisely knew that
slavishly imitating Barry would not work in this heartfelt, yet
tongue-in-cheek movie. So he pushes the sound over the top, resulting
in a sound that would fit in an Austin
Powers movie as well as it does in The Incredibles.
For all the talk of how Giacchino channeled Barry for this score,
there's another strong presence. The
Incredibles is full of the swagger of the 1960s scores that
relied on big band swing and cool jazz to convey a sense of fun,
wonder, possibility and suspense. And no composer was better at that
sound than Henry Mancini. In "Life's Incredible Again," Giacchino
scores this celebration of life's purpose in a swinging 3/4 with the
melody in a saxophone chorus with harmon-muted trumpets punching hits
overhead. Or what about the high-hat and toms under the vibraphone of
"Lava in the Afternoon?" This is simply delightful scoring made to
awaken the Saturday morning child in all of us.
When I reviewed Giacchino's music for Alias,
I mentioned that the composer's mastery at helping an audience live in
the moment by deftly switching from style to style makes his scores
fascinating and, occasionally, frustrating. That feature is still in
evidence in this, his first major motion picture score, but overall, he
makes the jump from television quite well. Giacchino is going to be a
major composing presence in the years to come, and I can't wait to see
what he does next, especially if it is more in his own
voice. -- Andrew Granade
The Forgotten *** 1/2
JAMES HORNER
Varèse Sarabande 362 066 619 2
11 tracks - 59.35
James Horner has returned. After the near collapse of any kind of
originality in his music after the monstrous success of Titanic, James Horner has finally
hit a new stride of interesting and enjoyable scores. Except for the
excess of Windtalkers and Troy, Horner has come up with
consistently enjoyable scores from his Oscar-nominated A Beautiful Mind and House of Sand and Fog, to more
sentimental fare like Radio
and Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius.
Even though his score for The Missing,
which I may be in the minority in liking, got bogged down with his
danger motif, it still includes one of Horner's most stirring action
themes.
With The Forgotten, the hit
movie about a woman named Telly (Julianne Moore) who mourns her son's
death only to be told that he never existed, Horner has created one of
his more evocative scores. A fine psychological thriller which
unfortunately falls apart big time in the last act, Horner resisted the
use of his danger motif, and thus, the score is scarier, and creepier
than anything he's ever written. Working in a genre that has Philip
Glass or Mark Snow written all over, Horner tackles this thriller with
gusto and mostly synthesizers.
Just imagine the opening credit music to Aliens and you might get some idea
where Horner is going with this score. The music is certainly on the
side of Telly. Even though everyone around her seems sane and
understanding, the music hints otherwise and that helps the movie
immensely. The first cue, "An Unsettling Calm" is the main titles and
the creepy music is there and rarely lets up. That may result is a sort
of sameness as you listen to the CD, but I never got bored. That's
because Horner surprised me with such elements as a toy piano that not
only makes sense in the world of the movie, but it adds uniqueness to
the score.
To liven up the score a little bit, Horner adds a little action music
in cues like "Containment of a Darker Purpose" which certainly quickens
the pace. The movie rarely goes for the cheap scare, and Horner doesn't
either. Even when the movie goes into an unbelievable netherworld of
its own creation, Horner's music connects us to Earth while everything
else literally flies off of it.
Horner will always be a controversial composer, and I've certainly been
down on him for a couple of years, but his current scores have given me
hope that Horner is maturing into a productive later period in his
career. -- CW
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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Today in Film Score History:
December 6 |
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| Dave Brubeck born (1920) |
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| Hans Zimmer begins recording his score for Broken Arrow (1995) |
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| Lalo Schifrin begins recording the original soundtrack LP to Bullitt (1968) |
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| Lyn Murray born (1909) |
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| Maury Laws born (1923) |
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| Morgan Lewis died (1968) |
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| Mort Glickman born (1898) |
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| Patrick Williams records his score for The Streets of San Francisco episode “Bitter Wine” (1972) |
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| Piero Piccioni born (1921) |
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| Recording sessions begin for Sol Kaplan’s score for Destination Gobi (1952) |
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| Richard Markowitz died (1994) |
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| Roberto Pregadio born (1928) |
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| Willie Hutch born (1944) |
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