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| Elfman |
Flubber: (Danny Elfman) Disney's live action films
if the 1990's, devoid of any refreshingly new ideas, were often based on
the studio's hits from a previous generation. One such entry in 1997 was
Flubber, a revision of 1961's
The Absent-Minded Professor
and its 1963 sequel. The material from the original film wasn't that
strong to begin with, and a wretched script for
Flubber stole
what few laughs existed previously and ruined them with terrible
rewrites, unnecessary displays of special effects, a cast that really
didn't seem to care, and a score by Danny Elfman that tries far too hard
to compensate for those shortcomings. With the energizing balls of green
goo and Robin Williams in the lead, you wouldn't think that
Flubber needed life support from Elfman, though the score would
test the limits of Elfman's most zany writing, his creative crew, and
the flair of mambo rhythms. The composer's scores at the time were
exploring an awkward return to his wild mid-80's film and television
music, both cartoonish and obscure, all the while maintaining hints of
the tragedy from his classic scores of the early 90's and the electric
instrumentation that immediately followed. Between
Mars Attacks!,
Men in Black, and
Flubber, you hear significant
similarities. This, the last of those three scores, would lack the
cohesion that existed in the other two, wandering through three genres
within the score with little to hold it together. The spirit and
ambience of the ensemble is largely the same, however. A moderate
orchestral ensemble is led by distinctive roles for piano, theremine,
electric bass, saxophone, and trumpet, creating a sound largely
indistinguishable from
Men in Black in many cues. The mood of
Flubber takes those similarities to
Men in Black and
infuses them with incessantly cute and hyperactive rhythms and motifs.
In terms of themes,
Flubber does have some fleeting ideas, but
the score relies far more heavily on the general attitude of its three
parts to identify with the various situations in the film. What themes
do exist are often so wildly arranged and orchestrated that you'll have
very little likelihood of humming them to yourself after the album is
finished.
Depending on your taste (or amount of prescription
drugs in your system), this score could either launch you up to dance
around the room or run screaming from it. Your mood and tolerance level
for Elfman's zany, unpredictable styling will determine which it is. Of
the score's three personalities, the wild, cartoonish movements for the
professor are perhaps the least interesting. Elfman had taken the Carl
Stalling style of Warner Brothers cartoon music to wacky distances with
his
Pee Wee scores in the 1980's, and some of that explosively
bizarre material resumes here. Early sections of the score throw in the
theremine to accentuate the mysterious nature of the professor's new
creation. The second personality within the score is the sentimental
side, which only prevails a few times (later) with any great length. The
wistful and tender interludes for strings and piano (primarily for
Weebo) are so dominated by the surrounding action that they don't have
the opportunity to establish a mood consistent with Elfman's best
material from the early 90's. The third portion of the score is
ironically both the best and the most obnoxious. For the green blob
itself, Elfman fashions a mambo rhythm and adventurous theme for
trumpet. While provided in hints in "Main Title," the mambo announces
its maturity in "Mambo in the Sky" before continuing with lengthier
statements in "Mambo del Flubber" and "End Credits." The latter two cues
include a variety of real and sampled vocal effects, with "Mambo del
Flubber" certain to both amaze and irritate simultaneously. This cue,
brought to life with the help of composer and conductor Mark McKenzie,
is mostly an exercise in patience and tolerance, though its
speaker-bouncing effects are the kind of annoyance that any good
roommate should keep in his or her collector to occasionally whip out on
unsuspecting apartment neighbors. Overall,
Flubber is an
extraordinary exhibition of Elfman's talents, but as some of his music
in the 80's proved, the composer's most lively kiddie action and comedy
material borders on being unlistenable. The song "Goo a Little Dance,"
featured prominently in the film's trailers, is appended to the end of
the album. Extreme Elfman fans, suck it up. You'll be the only ones.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Danny Elfman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.16
(in 89 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.27
(in 153,899 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert contains extensive credits, but no extra information about the film
or score.
