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| Elfman |
Epic: (Danny Elfman) Shameless environmental
propaganda masquerading as an animated children's film? From Hollywood?
Yes! The idea is not original, of course, with
FernGully: The Last
Rainforest the most famous (and ridiculed) of such leftist endeavors
to ensure a younger generation friendly to conservation interests. The
similarly themed movie
Epic, once on the verge of being a Pixar
entry, was released by Fox to capture the children's market during the
early summer, 2013 season, enjoying a decent return while boring parents
and indoctrinating children into an environmentally conscious state. The
filmmakers of
Epic started with the premise of William Joyce's
"The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs" but, claiming not enough action
to sustain young minds, added a war to the plot that pits good, tiny
humanoid creatures against nasty ones that are, unknown to most of us,
battling it out in the forest. The protagonists, the "Leafmen," fend off
"Boggans," the latter using their weapons to kill off all living things.
A real human girl living nearby the forest is shrunk in size to join the
battle and find a boyfriend in the unlikeliest of places, and her
eccentric scientist father inevitably gets involved as well. All you
need to know about this movie is that there are cute, talking snails and
glowworms in it. Appealing to Danny Elfman's sensibilities,
Epic
features another score from the veteran composer that ventures towards
the fantasy realm that dominated his early career. After
Alice in
Wonderland,
Oz the Great and Powerful, and
Frankenweenie, the sound of
Epic will no longer come as a
surprise to listeners who only became familiar with Elfman's music after
he had departed his famed fantasy period of the early 1990's. Strangely,
this energetic fantasy material, especially that which is brightly
optimistic for the charming portion of children's realm, has suddenly
become abundant from him, presenting a wealth of satisfying music but
also opening doors for claims of redundancy and anonymity. The Elfman
style for
Epic is largely retained from the previous projects
(there is never a doubt as to the composer of this music), but the
ensemble's emphasis on an Irish tilt at least keeps the music refreshing
when compared to previous, similar efforts by the composer. A light
choir and acoustic guitar join the standard tones of Elfman's orchestral
ensemble, with a significant and logical emphasis on woodwinds for this
tale. Expect cooing choral sequences and upbeat Irish rhythms to hit all
the right chords for this innocuous, feel good atmosphere.
Absolutely nothing in the score for
Epic will
surprise a film music collector. A fair amount of stock Elfman action
material occupies the work, and when there isn't wildly fluttering
activity like the woodwind and percussion-led "Pursuit," the composer
stops for a moment of choral reflection as in "Rings of Knowledge." The
standard base woodwinds for mystery exist in "Tara's Chamber" and the
acoustic guitar that pops up occasionally reconnects the music back to
real world goodness in typical Elfman fashion. Skittish strings
represent the father in the story ("Meet Dad") and a general sense of
rural mysticism in "Moonhaven Parade" hails back to
Black Beauty.
The "scary" portions manage to maintain a lighter touch with continuous
major-key reminders. Genuine Elfman "magic" for overwhelmingly
beautiful, harmonic grandeur comes into play a few times, "The
Selection" a particularly satisfying moment of such bliss. The narrative
flow of the score is decent but not apparent enough to match Elfman's
best works. Part of this issue with memorability outside of the general
affable style of the music has to do with the score's generic thematic
stew. The main theme is referenced in its fully enthusiastic Irish
embodiment in "Leafmen" and "Epic Finale," and this rousing melody is
split off into several of the action cues in the middle of the score.
The fantasy interlude to this theme (featuring the choir) is too brief
to be really effective, its longer renditions in "Ambush" and
"Kidnapped" representing lament with Elfman's usual zeal. A secondary
representation of magic that grows out of this interlude material is
evident in "Tara's Gift" and the resolution cues near the end of the
score. The pair of "Epic Final Confrontation" and "Return" features
saccharine pleasures that begin to stray towards Joel McNeely's
Tinkerbell environment, though the acoustic guitar manages to
keep this one rooted in Elfman territory. So much of
Epic will
sound familiar to Elfman collectors that it risks becoming sonic
wallpaper for those hoping to hear him take this genre in interesting
new directions. The Irish elements are an attempt at that movement, but
other animated scores have taken that path in the past. Don't be
surprised if this score is met with much of the same reaction that
greeted
Oz the Great and Powerful. Both remain solid, workmanlike
scores that lack the distinctive punch of the composer's classics, but
you can't really knock any part of these works outside of some possible
handling issues with the themes. The brain insists that a score like
this one, on the heels of
Oz the Great and Powerful, is worthy of
a high three-star rating, but a cue with the majesty of "Return" demands
that the influences of nostalgia and comfort add a fourth star. Elfman's
loyalists are once again served with a reliably entertaining listening
experience.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Danny Elfman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.23
(in 77 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.35
(in 139,365 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a list of performers but no extra information about the score or film.
