Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you adore Thomas Newman's pluck and struck style of rhythmic movement, despite the consequent reliance on texture over melody for the music's identity. Avoid it... if you expect the composer to take inspiration from his brother (David Newman) to provide exciting or interesting action material for his first science fiction effort. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
WALL·E: (Thomas Newman) Advertised as the last of Pixar's original story ideas from the mid-1990's, WALL·E is the tale of a robot (whose name is based on his purpose: Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth-Class) who is left behind when mankind is forced to leave Earth. Taking place around the year 2815, WALL·E lovingly develops the character of the cute little robot and follows him on his quest for romance and his discovery that the planet may be ready for humanity to return. After exploring the personality of the titular character, whose vocalizations consistent entirely of sound effects, the film becomes a race to find the humans and inform them of Earth's new condition. After the critical success of Ratatouille didn't materialize into the commercial success that Disney and Pixar were hoping for, WALL·E enters the scene with positive buzz and a healthy marketing campaign. Writer/director Andrew Stanton struck Oscar gold for Finding Nemo in 2004, and the film earned composer Thomas Newman one of his eight Oscar nominations as of the release of WALL·E. It was, ironically enough, on the night of the 2005 ceremonies that Stanton mentioned the concept of WALL·E to Newman as a cross between Hello Dolly and science fiction. Neither of those two ideas really mesh with Newman's career, but, not surprisingly, he joined the crew of WALL·E and worked with another Stanton connection, Peter Gabriel, on a song and some mutual score material for the production. Unlike his brother, David, the more successful Thomas Newman had never scored a science fiction film until WALL·E. The connection to Hello Dolly relates to the robot's fascination with an old VHS tape of the 1969 film that he watches during the story, and it doesn't have any impact on Newman's score. What does have an immediate and pervasive impact on the music is Newman's unique sense of creative instrumentation and endless overdubs, as well as the composer's usual knack for rhythmic movement that well matches the narrative of the film. If you're expecting to hear a score with the sci-fi bombast of David Newman, then you'll be in for a disappointment. Likewise, if you're expecting to hear a truly cohesive score with easily identifiable motifs and continuous character development, you'll be even more disappointed. Newman instead handles WALL·E with considerable restraint, especially compared to Michael Giacchino's music for recent Pixar films. Everything about this music is saturated with Thomas' own "Newmanisms." Slight, jaunty rhythms with sparse, but pinpoint orchestration set an appropriately mechanical mood for WALL·E, with static progressions and sharp instrumental colors that imitate a robot's mentality. Nearly every cue in WALL·E features instruments being plucked, struck, keyboarded, or puffed. The harp is an immediate and interesting highlight of the ensemble. The typical array of plucked and struck strings and novelty percussion instruments carry over from numerous other Newman scores. Keyboarded contributions include a few synthetic sound effects of metallic or electrical character ("Mutiny!"). The woodwinds and brass are often presented in slow, staccato puffs to push this idea even further. A bouncing electric bass in some cues will remind listeners of Danny Elfman's comedy works. An orchestra is present, as is a choir in later fantasy cues, but the ensemble rarely is allowed a fully fluid performance of over 30 seconds in length. Thematically, WALL·E is unfortunately devoid of distinctive character. A clucky motif for the robot in "WALL·E" and a love theme of sorts co-written by Gabriel (in two cues) for the "EVE" robot are never developed with any consistency. Both are clever in their imitation of the robots' style of movement, but Newman emphasizes the textures of the themes throughout the score rather than the actual melodies to be potentially harvested from them. The rhythms themselves begin to form a cohesive bond in their combined efforts, but with so many cues at or under a minute in length, even these bright and affable rhythms suffer from a consistency problem. There are many parts of the score for WALL·E that are highly entertaining. But there is little to truly hold them together other than Newman's plucking style of instrumental expression and the extremely creative mixing job that was done to bring all of the separately recorded elements together. In a technical sense, WALL·E is quite accomplished. But for all the personality in many of the short bursts of rhythm, there remains surprisingly little enticement after the conclusion of the score. Individual highlights remain, including the outstanding chord shifts and plucking harp of the opening "2815 A.D.," a cue that serves as the only truly convincing fantasy moment in the score (although the "Horizon 12.2" cue returns to the same general idea at the end). The straight comedy is good; the Francis Lai-style of "la-la" vocals in "First Date" and the jingle of "BNL" are both funny. A short burst of Aaron Copland-style adventure exists in "Septuacentennial." Wild plucking and swinging style in some of the cues remind of the atmosphere of Fried Green Tomatoes, especially in "Repair Ward." The rhythms in "Foreign Contaminant" and "M-O" beg for more development. As for the action cues, the introduction of brass in "EVE Retrieve," as well as the fuller ensemble performances in "Rogue Robots" and the five cues that follow, are interesting but not really engaging. The exception might be "Hyperjump," though Newman's not-so-harmonious heroic stature in this cue isn't an easy fix. Overall, the score is likable, but somewhat frustrating given its reliance on texture for its identity. On album, the Gabriel song likely won't interest Newman collectors, and its tone doesn't match the score. The two Michael Crawford performances of Hello Dolly material offer the singer at his highest, most nasal reaches, at which he definitely doesn't appeal. The album also features sound effects at the start or end of several cues, which surprisingly works well with Newman's equally creative music (though in "Repair Ward" they do become excessive). The score has more than a dozen highlights, but their only loose relation to each other and the score's lack of thematic cohesion lowers it to the ranks of average. And this, given the potential here, has to qualify as a minor disappointment. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 61:47
* co-written by Thomas Newman and Peter Gabriel All artwork and sound clips from WALL·E are Copyright © 2008, Walt Disney Records. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/21/08, updated 6/22/08. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2008-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
