This is part of a series (a long-running series at this point).
- Here’s the last post on a bunch of sequels - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=117220
- If you want the full set of links covering the Too Big To Fail era or earlier, click on my profile.
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Interstellar (2014) - ****½
Hans Zimmer; orchestrated by B&W Fowler/Moriarty, Kevin Kaska, Carl Rydlund, Elizabeth Finch &
Andrew Kinney; conducted by Gavin Greenaway & Richard Harvey; ambient music design Mario Reinsch;
sequencer programming Andrew Kawczynski & Steve Mazzaro; technical score engineers Chuck Choi &
Stephanie McNally; organ at Temple Church performed by Roger Sayer; Cynthia Park as Zimmer’s assistant
“I got to talk to a lot of scientists. There’s something really nice about reading as opposed to being on the internet. I remember as a kid sitting on the floor, looking at those Time Life books, amazing photos from NASA, etc. We were [sort of] doing that again.”
Christopher Nolan continued his seemingly unimpeded march to critical and commercial success with another time-manipulating movie, this one about deep space travelers looking for potentially hospitable worlds. The film received largely laudatory reviews and immense box office, though some audience members were a tad befuddled by a final act that finds Matthew McConaughey’s astronaut stuck in a four-dimensional bookshelf (built by…future humans?) communicating with his daughter in the past via morse code, a sequence the YouTube comedy series Honest Trailers would term “full blown M. Night Shyamalan.” Obviously Hans Zimmer was attached; arguably Nolan/Zimmer had become a director-composer partnership on par with famous pairings like Spielberg/Williams and Burton/Elfman. “People say, ‘Why do you write such scores for Chris Nolan?’ Well the answer is in the question, isn’t it? Because it’s Chris and I. We’re staying on story and just trying to figure this out.”
An oft-repeated story during the movie’s press tour would be how the music originated. Before production started, Nolan gave Zimmer a note about some of the themes of the movie without giving away any of the plot and asked Zimmer to get back to him in a day with some musical ideas. The resulting Day One piano demo was, in Zimmer’s words, “really just about what it meant to be a father.” Only later would Nolan explain to him that it was a big ol’ space opus. Zimmer would later claim he hid in London during production to expand on his ideas. “So much of it takes place with people in isolation. I locked myself away in [my] apartment and didn’t see anybody for a month.” The absence of any credited additional music composers gave rise to the impression that Zimmer wrote nearly all of the score himself, though given how music tends to be realized on Nolan’s movies (in some cases with music editors manipulating portions or even individual instrumental lines from Zimmer’s suites into passages that are then re-written as actual music) it’s more likely that programmers Andrew Kawczynski and Steve Mazzaro had a fairly active role in helping to realize Zimmer’s creative vision throughout the entire film.
If the BWAM was perhaps the easily identifiable sonic component of Inception, then that element for Interstellar would undeniably be the sound of an organ. “We sat down and made a list of everything we’d done and what we’re left with. We’ve done the big drums, we’ve done the synthesizer stuff. And Chris said ‘what about church organ?’ I thought it would sound like a Frankenstein horror movie. But by the 17th century it was the most complex machine ever built by man, and it was actually built to be in the creation of music, so that’s not so bad. I thought [I’d give it] a go, how to write something which is not gothic, try a new vocabulary for this amazing piece of technology.” Organist Roger Sayer would describe the composing process as creating “as we were going” once Zimmer started to understand what he could get out of the instrument. Zimmer for his part would unsurprisingly describe the organ as “really a huge, complicated synthesizer.” The organ lends an optimistic, almost heavenly sheen to the film, an effective shorthand for the grandeur and possibility of what’s out there without indulging in the usual scoring tropes of astronaut or science fiction films (all genre trappings that Nolan wanted to avoid).
The score is often at slow tempos, frequently contemplative, and on occasion fairly repetitive, but it largely pivoted away from the brooding heaviness that many of Zimmer’s blockbuster scores had provided over the past decade-plus. There are moments of extreme restraint, including some evocative dreamy soundscapes, yet also moments of gargantuan walls of sound, or perhaps waves of sound in one sequence involving a tidal threat. It possibly took “maximalist minimum” to a new extreme - Honest Trailers would also joke that Zimmer “fell asleep on his organ” - and it might have bored some listeners, but many others found it to be a striking accomplishment, if not in full at least in parts such as the magnificent spaceship rescue sequence covered by No Time For Caution, a TBTF era highlight for Zimmer which astonishingly wasn’t part of the original CD-length album release.
“The night before recording, we had a big dinner with all the principals in the orchestra to talk about our ideas. If you just write middle C onto a page, it means nothing if you don’t give it context [on] where these notes fit into the tapestry of this film.”
Skylanders: Trap Team (2014) - **½
Lorne Balfe; add’l music by Max Aruj, Gary Dworetsky & Thomas Farnon; digital instrument
design Mark Wherry; solo violin Christine Wu; technical assistant Joe Cho
Skylanders was covered here: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=113090
Giants was covered here: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=113153
SWAP Force was covered here: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=117113
TBTF discovery #17. “I always start by seeing the drawings of characters and environments. The actual gameplay isn’t always finished when I start so you have to use your imagination!” This expansion would double down on legacy Media Ventures music mannerisms to the point that my wife thought Pirates of the Caribbean was on at one point. It was fine enough, but was also a world away from the wild sonic palette of the 2013 entry, and thus the least essential score of the series to date.
Penguins of Madagascar (2014) - ***½
Lorne Balfe; orchestrated by Oscar Senén & Joan Martorell; orchestra conducted by Gavin Greenaway;
choir conducted by David Hernando Rico; music programmer & score technical engineer Max Aruj;
Steffen Thum as Balfe’s assistant; ‘He Is Dave’ by Balfe & Antony Genn; thank you to Hans Zimmer
TBTF discovery #18.
Madagascar was covered here: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=109055
Escape 2 Africa was covered here: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=111646
Europe’s Most Wanted was covered here: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=113153
“I didn’t feel I could write that type of big-band, swing music. It wasn’t something I [listened] to.”
This spinoff of the Madagascar franchise was an unfortunate box office disappointment given its daffy charm, physics-defying action, and ace vocal work; getting John Malkovich as an aggrieved octopus was an all-time casting coup. It was a significant career milestone for composer Lorne Balfe though. After spending nearly a decade writing additional music or getting co-composition credits for Dreamworks, going all the way back to Curse of the Were-Rabbit and including significant contributions to both Madagascar sequel scores, he was finally given the lead composer role on a Dreamworks gig. “Sometimes I’m brought in 2 weeks before because they’ve forgotten about the music. With Penguins I was brought in a year and a half [before]. The great thing about film is that you have ideas and you change. If I wrote a piece of music at the piano, that’s it, it’s ‘correct,’ [but] I rewrote my first track 30 times. Film composers are film composers because they like working as a team.”
The penguins had been backed by caper jazz in the Madagascar films, and Balfe would stay consistent with that approach while adding in some of the aggressive mixed-meter action energy he had brought to Megamind and Kung Fu Panda 2 and also finally giving the birds a memorable main theme. Retro rock for the North Wind organization and a charming theme for the penguin Private helped elevate this snazzy variation on the typical Dreamworks “house style” of music. Bonus points for riffing on the Batman Begins Latin bat name track titles by having Latin penguin names for this score’s album track titles.
Planes: Fire & Rescue (2014) - ***½
Mark Mancina; arranged & orchestrated by Dave Metzger; conducted by Don Harper
Planes was covered here: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=117113
This sequel was seemingly rushed out only a year after the first Planes, though its production had actually been going on for four years, having been green-lit while the original was still being made. Middling reviews and lower box office earnings than its predecessor would bring the spin-off franchise in for an emergency landing, though at least it would provide another chance for Mark Mancina to revisit the awesome theme he had written for the 2013 movie. Funny enough, that theme would largely be underplayed this time, and the score would mostly abandon its predecessor’s retro rock feel for more of a straightforward orchestral romp. One new idea almost hilariously rips off of the whistling and pomp of the music from Chicken Run, and absent the wild regional interludes from the prior effort the score played more to genre expectations. A minor disappointment.
Big Hero 6 (2014) - ****
Henry Jackman; add’l music by Dominic Lewis & Paul Mounsey; orchestrated by
Stephen Coleman, Andrew Kinney & Gernot Wolfgang; conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith;
choir conducted by Jasper Randall; score technicians Victor Chaga, Vivian Aguiar-Buff & Antonio Andrade
Wreck-It Ralph was covered here: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=113153
“I needed to write a big, old-fashioned theme on the piano. It isn’t a film where a textural score [works]. These days, live-action people want a reduced score. In animated films there’s this overt celebration of fun, and your music becomes reflective of that.”
This charming animated superhero film (loosely adapting a Marvel comic) would reunite Henry Jackman with Disney two years after Wreck-It Ralph and five years after he worked with director Don Hall on Winnie the Pooh. Jackman would get to indulge in both his symphonic side and his more production-oriented side, providing a often-thrilling multi-thematic adventure sound that would occasionally spill over into more hip-sounding electronics and keyboards. “By the time you get to a cue like Silent Sparrow, it’s more in the tradition of serious symphonic writing. We are well past Nerd School and into some heavy duty revelations. You’ve got real music for when it gets dramatic, not stuff that just sounds cool.” It lacked the more outlandish highlights of Ralph, but arguably made for a more consistent listening experience.
After a flurry of animated scores in the early part of his film career (many of them quite good), this would be the last one Jackman would work on until 2018, perhaps due to his schedule continuing to get packed with more and more high-profile live action gigs.
The Interview (2014) - ***
Henry Jackman; add’l music by Dominic Lewis; orchestrated by Stephen Coleman; conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith;
synth programmers Victor Chaga & Vivian Aguiar-Buff; score technical engineers Antonio Andrade & Ryan Robinson
This Is the End was covered here: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=116843
In another universe, The Interview is perhaps seen as just a middling comedy with a great performance by Randall Park as North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. But in our universe, this movie became infamous for the North Korean government’s threats over its release and their later hacking of Sony that led to the cancellation of the movie’s theatrical release, the resignation of Sony’s co-chairperson Amy Pascal, and other scandals over the studio’s emails. Jackman would later recall, with astonishment, “reading a headline saying the North Korean government said there will be repercussions [and] thinking [they’re] always saying that, and then Obama’s on the phone with Sony. It was surreal. I couldn’t believe it was a matter of national security.”
As with his music for his last collaboration with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (This Is the End), the intent was to play serious music to bolster the comedy. “My pitch was music that Kim thinks ought to be played when he struts out with the fake medals he’s awarded himself. A cross between Beethoven and Shostakovich, something I could’ve shown to my music professor. Dead straight, strict, pompous as hell. The harmony is slanted so it feels like the imperial entry for a slightly off-kilter person.” The music largely plays like standard action thriller material, though the classically-inclined Kim pieces remain impressive.
Pixels (2015) - ***
Henry Jackman; add’l music by Halli Cauthery; orchestrated by Stephen Coleman, Andrew Kinney & Gernot Wolfgang;
conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith; synth programmers Victor Chaga, Maverick Dugger & Kevin Globerman
Were you as puzzled as I was when the famed 2010 short film about arcade characters running amok in the real world was adapted into an action comedy with Adam Sandler and Kevin James? Didn’t matter. The film still did decent business worldwide in spite of rancid reviews. Director Christopher Columbus, far from his heyday helming Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire, would have his composer omit any callbacks to the featured characters and even any obvious electronics. “Chris, who’s a great lover of adventure scores of the 80s, felt like since we have the iconic images and sound of those games, if we also do that with the score that’s a hat on a hat. It [was] more effective to play it straight, otherwise it gets goofy.” This mirrored the approach Jackman had taken for earlier Rogen/Goldberg comedies (“if the comedy is working, the score should take a backseat”). The music had several fun outbursts, but felt a tad workmanlike. Funny enough, after years of professing admiration for Alan Silvestri scores like Predator and Van Helsing, Jackman basically delivered an ersatz Silvestri work for Pixels.
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) - ****
Henry Jackman & Matthew Margeson; add’l arrangements by Dominic Lewis, Jason Soudah & Alex Belcher;
orchestrated by Stephen Coleman & Andrew Kinney; conducted by Gavin Greenaway;
score technical engineers Trevor Black, Victor Chaga, Antonio Andrade & Vivian Aguiar-Buff
X-Men: First Class was covered here: https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=113009
Released as Valentine’s Day counterprogramming, this kinetic, gleefully rude adaptation of Mark Millar’s spy comic was a surprise hit that produced two later (albeit inferior) follow-up films. It would unite Jackman with director Matthew Vaughn for the third time, and was also one of the first composer credits for Matthew Margeson, a longtime member of Jackman’s team whose first industry job was being Klaus Badelt’s assistant on Catwoman. “On additional music or orchestrating gigs with Henry, he’s already established what the scenes, colors, and instruments are. At that point it’s bringing manpower to get done by the deadline. With something like Kingsman or Kick-Ass 2, we’re both at the piano from the beginning, so there’s a respectful collaboration.”
Part of the process would mirror what Jackman went through with Vaughn on First Class, namely the tinkering with and simplifying of various musical ideas to meet the director’s specific vision. Jackman would claim “we had a Valentine theme, but it was posh, too Jerry Goldsmith” (Margeson would call it “Wagnerian”). “Matthew [Vaughn] was like ‘disco.’ I remember thinking…disco? To me, disco is kick drum, open hat, baselines. How the hell has disco got anything to do with adversary music? [But take] the baseline, distort it, forget drums, slow it to 90 beats per minute, and this sounds cool.”
That villain idea admittedly would be the score’s least interesting idea, though the composers still found ways to have its surrounding textures subtly harken back to the spy music of yesteryear - piercing flutes, brass chords straight out of John Barry’s Bond scores, and so on. And that speaks to a large part of this work’s charm. Sure, it was very much an extension of Jackman’s now-familiar mannerisms. But it also seamlessly integrated that 60s spy sound without coming off as haphazard, another testament to Jackman’s skill at weaving multiple genre influences into a cohesive whole (evident since Puss in Boots). Margeson said they didn’t “listen to Bond, the old Avengers show, or even Mission: Impossible or Bourne. However, we want to honor this genre, every once in a while bring in a vibraphone, or have an alto flute, [or] have the trumpets put in Harmon mutes and inject a little swank. We are still in a British spy film, but it’s our own take on it.” The result was by far the finest version of Jackman’s contemporary action style to date, an overachieving take on the concept that smartly synthesized old & new and was an immense asset in its film, especially with it being tied together by a very memorable main theme.
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Next time: “It feels like 15 years, but I think it’s only about four.”
