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| Elfman |
Frankenweenie: (Danny Elfman) Redemption couldn't
come much sweeter for director Tim Burton than the feature-length 2012
remake of his 1984 live-action short film,
Frankenweenie. Disney
fired Burton after the completion of the original version of the parody
tale, claiming that the director had misused some of his $1 million
budget and created a movie too scary for the studio's intended audience.
In the mid-2000's, Burton sought to revisit the topic in his now famous
stop-motion format of storytelling, and when Disney signed him to direct
the reimagining of
Alice in Wonderland, the subsequent remake of
Frankenweenie, complete with $35 million budget, was attached to
the deal. Some critics have lamented Burton's tired, recycled art
direction for his characters and scenery (after all, his morbid designs
all do relate), though a solid story of humor and affection results in
the black-and-white 2012 resurrection of
Frankenweenie. A young
Victor Frankenstein in the peaceful town of New Holland is a science
enthusiast, as one would expect, with the awkward relationships that
have come to define Burton's films. When Victor's beloved dog Sparky is
killed in an accident, some inspiration from the boy's science teacher
helps him develop his soon-to-be-famous technologies to harness
electricity and bring the stitched-up dog back to life. Neighbors are
horrified, naturally, and chaos in the town is inevitable. Unlike the
movie's stylistic predecessors,
The Nightmare Before Christmas
and
Corpse Bride, there was no attempt to force
Frankenweenie into a musical format, instead utilizing the
director's collaboration with Danny Elfman to yield a straight-forward
orchestral and choral underscore. This marks the 15th work together for
Burton and Elfman, and they are at the top of their game here, the
resulting score emulating some of the best characteristics of the
projects that have come before. While
The Nightmare Before
Christmas and
Corpse Bride experienced issues with narrative
continuity at times, mostly in relation to the genres of music
influencing the former and a lack of gravity in the latter,
Frankenweenie is as solid a score in terms of flow and
development as
Edward Scissorhands, but without the majestic
expansiveness. While there is plenty of fantasy to be heard, there's
also a strong dose of drama, connecting Elfman's monster movie homage to
scores like
Charlotte's Web and
Alice in Wonderland.
The personable portions of
Frankenweenie clearly
resemble early (and popular) Elfman techniques while the overblown
gothic elements need not look further back than
Dark Shadows to
draw many comparisons. This is purely vintage Elfman at is core,
however, and the instrumental ingredients for
Frankenweenie are
standard to the composer's most sensitive fantasy and drama modes while
also toying with obvious nods to the scores of classic monster movies in
its latter half. The London orchestra has the usual emphasis on solo
woodwinds and tingling percussion for loving encounters and deep bass
strings and brass for ballsy action cues. The choir is the predictable
accent to the sappy relational portions, cooing away with blissful
harmony on many occasions, though it also expresses dread in the lower
ranks during the reanimation scenes. Absent is Elfman's array of
contemporary instrumentation, replaced in the synthetic realm by a
theremine effect that is very tastefully and surprisingly sparingly
integrated into the mix. A booming organ is a logical choice as well,
resounding with force in several later cues. In
Alice in
Wonderland and
Dark Shadows, Elfman showed a willingness to
fully embrace a return to the orchestral fantasy elements that made his
early years on the big Hollywood stage so fruitful, and his enthusiasts
will be thrilled to hear more of the same substantive exploration of
that realm in
Frankenweenie. The personality of the score is
extremely engaging, the symphonic performances crisply balanced and
expressing the parody aspect of the score without ever becoming cute or
obnoxious (the obvious exception being the false logo music at the start
of the score, which actually qualifies as a highlight of the entire
score). Part of the success of
Frankenweenie in retaining your
attention is due to its very well developed thematic core, the usage of
the four main themes so tightly woven that the narrative is never in
doubt. On the hand, the themes are also arguably the only true weakness
of the score, their basic progressions reminiscent of prior identities
and too simplistic to truly stand apart in Elfman's career. That said,
his execution of these ideas is so intelligent that
Frankenweenie
still stands as a superior overall effort. The thematic identities are
divided equally between the basic concepts of the "good" and the "bad"
while also reflecting those sides of both main characters, resulting in
alter-ego themes of a sort for each. Elfman predictably collides these
identities in sonic battle as the monstrous electricity starts to
flow.
On the upbeat side of
Frankenweenie, Victor and
Sparky receive their own heartfelt themes, the idea for Sparky seemingly
doubling as a representation of pleasant suburbia. The Sparky theme
begins with bubbly enthusiasm in "Main Titles" and progressively becomes
tinged with sadness as the score progresses. In its first, perky
performances, there are progressions and rhythms reminiscent of vintage
James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith light children's drama music. After
several bright renditions in the early cues, including some rowdy,
intentionally soaring performances in the fateful "Game of Death,"
Elfman boils the theme down to solo piano in "The Funeral" and fragments
its progressions in "Electricity" before a tender reference at the end
of that cue. After Sparky is resurrected, the theme is appropriately
tortured in its brighter renditions to suggest something is awry, its
shadow at the end of "Sparky's Day Out" a sad reminder of better times.
In "Dad's Talk" and "The Bride/Edgar Knows," the piano solos and faintly
bouncing versions attempt to re-establish themselves, "A Premonition"
building out of fragmentary usage to allow a full return to glee at the
end. The theme occupies moments of reflection and struggling disbelief
in the first thirty seconds of "Mom's Discovery/Farewell" and at 4:33
into "Making Monsters." During the closing cues, Elfman forces the idea
through false resolutions in "Final Confrontation" before returning to
the bliss of early performances in several soft and heartfelt
performances in "Happy Ending." In the score-only album's two bonus
cues, the "Alternate Main Titles" still features this theme prominently,
but with softer tones in the middle section, and the somewhat useless
suspense cue "Over the Fence" features slight hints of the theme.
Countering the Sparky/suburbia identity is the representation of Victor
and his love for the animal. The two themes are at times appropriately
heard together, eventually merging as one as "Happy Ending" progresses.
This Victor theme, the teary expression of wonder in
Frankenweenie, is terribly derivative for Elfman, its series of
descending four notes reminiscent of countless similar applications in
prior scores for the composer. Typically performed with the soothing
choir, however, it's difficult not to remain appreciative of how well
this motif continues to function for the composer. It connects this work
firmly with Elfman's fantasy past, and, like Sparky's bright theme, you
can hear its nearly mystical personality float about the relational
sequences in the first four major cues.
The true magic of the pretty theme for Victor and his
affection for Sparky in
Frankenweenie begins to make sense in
"Electricity," in which plaintive cellos handle the identity at 1:55
before handing it off to the tender choir again at 2:44. After the
resurrection is complete in "Re-Animation," Victor's successful
endeavors allow a bittersweet but still lovely rendition of the theme at
the end of the cue. A caring celesta performance in "Dad's Talk" and
continued choral closure at the end of "Invisible Fish/Search for
Sparky" are continuing reminders of Victor's persistence. Similar
treatment at the conclusion of "Mom's Discovery/Farewell" firmly lends
the element of sadness to the story, though after the monster-fest
portion of the score, Elfman is sure to express the idea with the
necessary grandeur in "Happy Ending." The usage of the theme in the
notable bonus track, "Alternate Main Titles," is much the same as in the
other version. Where the score for
Frankenweenie really becomes a
delightful listening experience is in the darker identities for these
two characters, producing gothic explosions of force that are never
scary but do have a resounding impact on their cues. Starting in
"Electricity," Elfman starts teasing out these two themes, one for the
mad scientist element on Victor's behalf and the other serving the
creation side for Sparky. These ideas play off of each other well in the
score, overlapping at times and each receiving grandiose brass and organ
statements of wicked triumph that are the composer's clear and deserved
nod to the monster movies of the classic era. Interestingly, Elfman's
development of these two ideas on the album doesn't entirely clarify
which theme belongs with which character, however, for they would be
easily interchangeable in terms of personality and application.
Interrupting the "When You Wish Upon a Star" Disney logo cue is the
6-note theme of
Dark Shadows resemblance that could be the
representation of Victor's mad scientist and monster elements. It's
introduced properly at 1:24 into "Electricity" before an emphatic series
of expressions in the middle of "Re-Animation" leading up to a
theremine-aided crescendo at 3:15 into that cue. After an ominous
reminder in full at 1:14 into "Sparky's Day Out," Elfman keenly adapts
the idea into several variants in "Invisible Fish/Search for Sparky,"
including a quirky rendition on woodwinds at 1:42, an organ blast at
3:14, and a lead-in to the Victor affection theme at the end. Continued
fragments on organ in "Making Monsters" and even less obvious informing
of "Pool Monsters Attack" precede more concentrated references to
frequently whip up a frenzy in "Mad Monster Party."
After one last brass fanfare version of the mad
scientist theme at 0:35 into "Final Confrontation," the theme's
repetition dies off as necessary in that cue. The other dark theme in
Frankenweenie is arguably more frequently referenced, likely the
romping monster version of Sparky's thematic representation. This
five-note idea, sometimes truncated to four, is frightfully simple in
progression, though its performances, as mentioned before, do
compensate. Introduced on deep brass at 2:05 into "Electricity," this
monster Sparky identity develops throughout "Re-Animation," building
momentum from 1:06 into that cue to a full rendition at 2:12. In
"Sparky's Day Out," the theme exists under the playful romping material
as a clue that something is truly wrong with the picture. More obvious
ominous reminders return at 1:16 into "The Bride/Edgar Knows" before
"Invisible Fish/Search for Sparky" allows for several massive organ
statements (along with the other dark theme). A brief and sad, but
resolute statement is made at 0:49 into "Mom's Discovery/Farewell." The
theme's most coherent and entertaining usage comes in "Getting Ready"
(and this is where the attribution suggests that it might represent more
of the mad scientist element than Sparky's resurrected form), in which
several organ bursts accompany the application of the theme as a
repetitious and propulsive device of action. The brass and organ
likewise raise hair with this theme at the start of "Making Monsters,"
transferring the idea to Elfman's standard low woodwinds later in the
cue. In "Final Confrontation," the theme supplants the bright
Sparky/suburbia theme at the start and again turns into a rhythmic tool,
a huge organ statement interrupting a false happy ending to close the
cue. Outside of these four main themes, Elfman does occasionally throw
in a unique motif worth mentioning. For instance, a morbid deep cello
identity in the middle of "The Speech" is a diversion. A mischief motif
harking back to
The Nightmare Before Christmas graces the last
thirty seconds of "Electricity." Likewise, a snippet of
Dark
Shadows is seemingly jokingly referenced for the resurrection
activities in the first forty seconds of "Re-Animation." Overall,
Frankenweenie is extremely entertaining in nearly of its ranks,
despite some regurgitation and simplistic themes from Elfman. The parody
material, from the opening logo to the monster-fest at the climax, is
tremendous fun. The "Electricity" and "Re-Animation" duo is equally
engaging. As surprising as this may seem, it's the lighter two themes
that, while very pleasant, fail to carry the same ingenuity and
memorable character. Still, this is a very solid score that is pure
Elfman magic at its heart, and, as a superior companion piece to
Dark
Shadows, it reaffirms the composer's mastery of gothic
storytelling.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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