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Composed and Produced by:
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Michael Giacchino
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Co-Orchestrated and Conducted by:
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Tim Simonec
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Co-Orchestrated by:
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Jack Hayes
Chris Tilton
Peter Boyer
Richard Bronskill
Chad Seter
Larry Kenton
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Performed by:
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The Hollywood Studio Symphony
Page LA Studio Voices
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Release Date:
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May 6th, 2008
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you like your jazzy action scores to slap you upside
the head with their boundless enthusiasm, excessive volume, and roaring
pace.
Avoid it... if you're fresh out of painkillers and don't want to
risk the inevitable headache that the Speed Racer score will give
a high proportion of the listening public.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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Speed Racer: (Michael Giacchino) Exhaustion. For
the majority of viewers of the Wachowski brothers' adaptation of the
classic Speed Racer cartoon, as well as the music that
accompanies it so faithfully, that's the one guaranteed result. A film
like this exists to re-define the term "eye candy," for there's little
other than the visuals to retain your interest. The old cartoon's story
is preserved in the form of the Racer family and the boy Speed Racer's
ascension to the top of the future's wild new form of auto racing. The
film's style of inserting the live-action actors into a glitzy,
inventive universe of colors and movement overwhelms what little
interest the story has to offer, or, for that matter, nearly any other
production element. Among 2008's early summer competition at the box
office, Speed Racer fared poorly, shunned by audiences likely
unfamiliar with the historical significance of the show's influence on
Japanese animation and not inclined to suffer from the burned retinas
that are suggested by the film's trailers and its extremely long running
time. In almost every regard, Michael Giacchino's score for the movie
suffers from exactly the same set of detracting circumstances. The
music, like the film's visuals, only exacerbates the sensory overload,
further exhausting the viewer or listener with hyperactive and
flamboyant sounds that attempt so hard to fit with the environment (and
pay significant tribute to Nobuyoshi Koshibe's music along the way) that
a headache is just waiting to happen. Part of this auditory overload is
likely due to Giacchino's self-professed love of the show and its music.
The composer's loyalty to both the theme of the show and its general
instrumental style is extremely impressive, especially in his effort to
work fragments of the theme into a wild variety of different
circumstances, even if that only entails some creative counterpoint most
of the time. Also to be commended is the technical prowess of
Giacchino's work, including its orchestration and performance.
While the music for Speed Racer may eventually
only attract a very small audience, it certainly reaffirms Giacchino's
talents when both inspired and working under a reportedly tight
recording schedule. Those positive attributes of Giacchino's attempt to
launch the music of Speed Racer into the 21st Century, however,
fail to create a cohesive whole, and debate will linger about how much
of this problem can be attributed to the film's lack of clear direction.
Parts of this score give you the same feeling as John Powell's Horton
Hears a Who! earlier in the year because of both scores'
tendency to impress in the moment but lack a cohesive heart or soul when
trying to present themselves as a combined work. The music on album
constitutes only roughly half of what Giacchino wrote for Speed
Racer, but that still clocks in at an hour in length, and most
listeners will be fed up with the hammering effect of the score's
incessantly wild action cues by the half-hour mark. Part of this effect
is caused by the intensity of the ensemble and the frantic pacing of
each and every action cue. A large orchestral ensemble, joined by choir
in a handful of major cues, is stretched to the limits of its tonal
diversity. The percussion section gets a significant workout, from the
medium range drums and wild xylophone that hail back to the cartoon, and
the electric bass, occasional electric guitar contribution, omnipresent
brass, and usual shrieking flutes on top make for as dynamic a
soundscape as you could imagine. The score often breaks into the action
and jazz blend that Giacchino has utilized well recently in his career,
though the extreme enthusiasm and accelerated tempi of the jazz here is
aimless and accomplishes no greater purpose in the score. Character
development cues, which exist in the score only to the extent that they
seem forced into both it and the film, are few and far between, and they
provide only basic thematic exploration of no particular interest.
The score does start well, interestingly, with "I Am
Speed" setting the stage with a strong rhythmic crescendo and "World's
Best Autopia" opening with the first of the somewhat alluring female
vocals that exist throughout the score before striking up one of the
score's more attractive and subdued rhythms. The choir's contribution in
the latter half of the score, including "The Maltese Ice Cave,"
"Reboot," and "Let Us Drink Milk," plays like forced fantasy, though the
two latter, climactic cues are highlights of the album because they
finally take it easy on the volume and allow some fluidity to their
thematic enunciation. The integration of the title theme into the actual
finale of "Let Us Drink Milk" is nicely handled. The theme is broken
into its two distinctive parts by Giacchino for use throughout the
score; both the rising three-note phrase and the more memorable,
swinging four-note repetitions are well integrated into the action cues.
For purists, Giacchino provides full treatment of these ideas in "Speed
Racer," which concludes the album with a performance complete with
lyrics. There do seem to be other themes woven into the fabric of
Speed Racer, but with a headache from the nearly non-stop action
and only marginal clarity to any of those ideas, they don't have an
appreciable impact for someone who has no interest in the story.
Overall, fans of the original show's music will find much to smile about
in Giacchino's score for this film. Otherwise, collectors of the
composer will be better served seeking the jazz from Ratatouille,
the action from Mission: Impossible III, or the two together in
The Incredibles. Without a doubt, Speed Racer is the least
readily listenable album of all four, but this is in no part because of
the score's technical mastery. Rather, it's simply too explosively loud
and incessantly enthusiastic to tolerate for lengthy periods of time...
almost like those annoying guys in television commercials who try to
sell you household cleaning products while shouting their praise for the
item and never yielding to take a breath. They're effective, but after a
while, most of us either mute the bastard or change the channel. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. I Am Speed (0:37)
• 2. World's Best Autopia (1:15)
• 3. Thunderhead (3:07)
• 4. Tragic Story of Rex Racer (4:49)
• 5. Vroom and Board (3:38)
• 6. World's Worst Road Rage (2:41)
• 7. Racing's in Our Blood (1:52)
• 8. True Heart of Racing (4:05)
• 9. Casa Cristo (4:02)
• 10. End of the First Leg (2:20)
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• 11. Taejo Turns Trixie (1:37)
• 12. Bumper to Bumper, Rail to Rail (3:07)
• 13. The Maltese Ice Cave (2:04)
• 14. Go Speed, Go! (1:24)
• 15. He Ain't Heavy (1:45)
• 16. 32 Hours (3:49)
• 17. Grand Ol' Prix (6:13)
• 18. Reboot (3:08)
• 19. Let Us Drink Milk (4:33)
• 20. Speed Racer (4:21)
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The insert includes extensive credits, a list of performers, and a note from
the composer about the score.
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