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The Good Dinosaur
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Composed and Produced by:
Orchestrated and Conducted by:
Nicholas Dodd
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LABEL & RELEASE DATE
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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Regular U.S. release.
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AWARDS
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None.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... if you appreciate the Danna brothers' consistent knack
for instrumental diversity, their broad palette of sounds favoring
Americana colors in this likable drama score.
Avoid it... if the creativity of the instrumentation does not
interest you compared to thematic complexity, this score's ideas
relatively simple by design and the narrative arc predictably plain.
BUY IT
 | | M. Danna |
 | | J. Danna |
The Good Dinosaur: (Mychael Danna/Jeff Danna) The
remarkable streak of fiscal success experienced by Pixar through the
years was bound to eventually come to an end, and the studio could have
predicted that the much-troubled production of The Good Dinosaur
would represent that failure. Released late in 2015 despite an original
target date of 2013, the film featured a script that had been under so
many changes over the previous five years that the original director,
producer, cast, and 67 regular studio employees were removed or laid off
because nobody could figure out how to end the movie. The plot has
always suggested an alternate universe in which dinosaurs had not gone
extinct but had instead evolved to function much like the farmers and
ranchers of America's Old West. A family of peaceful, farming
Apatosaurus dinosaurs has a little runt of a son that can't really fit
in with the family, and when he is swept away in a storm, he teams up
with a little caveman boy to survive amongst nastier and bigger species
of dinosaurs and eventually find his way back home to acceptance. The
story balances an intriguing concept, the appeals of the old Montana
landscape and lifestyles, a few Western genre staples of character
design, a focus on nature as the primary antagonist, and a surprisingly
depressing sense of loss in parts to create a concept never seen before.
Despite all the desperate attempts by Pixar to salvage the film, it
became a box office dud, the studio's worst performer since A Bug's
Life, and was projected to be the first of its cinematic projects to
lose money. Among the somewhat unusual production decisions for The
Good Dinosaur was the choice of the director and producer to
approach Mychael Danna to score the film after his attractively
emotional music embellishing abandonment for Life of Pi. Danna,
perhaps sensing that the project was going to involve substantial work
(the history of the production could have suggested significant
re-scoring might be needed in the end), enlisted the assistance of his
brother, Jeff, to write the score. The two had collaborated before (even
earning an Emmy nomination together) and Jeff brought guitar skills to
the table that would prove critical to the score's demeanor. They saw
the Montana landscape as the defining element in guiding the music,
setting the stage for an Americana score calling upon some lighter fare
for the two main characters. The music had to fill an extremely
important role in the film's mix given the lack of dialogue, the sounds
of wind and water the primary competition for the score.
The Danna brothers responded with a highly lyrical
score for The Good Dinosaur that adheres to Western drama
traditions while also featuring some of the worldly creativity that
especially Mychael is known for. Think of the music as a blend of Basil
Poledouris genre scope and folksy thematic simplicity with a fair dose
of affable performance style akin to Randy Newman. The themes are meant
to be slow and simple, their performances aplenty and adjusted to
various sets of instrumentation depending upon the setting. Aside from
the standard orchestral ensemble, the Dannas rely on solo fiddle,
guitar, mandolin, recorder, piano, and a wide variety of struck metallic
percussion to provide the right ambience for the score. The work's
primary theme, heard extensively in the pre-conflict portion of the
story (the first six tracks on the album), oozes with basic Americana
spirit, somewhat stereotypically but laced with enough instrumental
deviation from the norm, a Danna trademark, to retain your interest.
This theme for the titular dinosaur experiences a hell of a journey in
the film, transitioning to heroic brass in "Run With the Herd" and
"Rescue" during the climax. It returns to wholesome guitar and fiddle
performances at the end for the emotional payoff. The human boy in the
picture receives a theme of largely struck percussion and recorder,
heard most prominently in "Offerings" and "Unexpected Friend." The
motifs for the other various dinosaur species (friend and foe) in the
story present even more instrumental colors, the t-rex variety providing
some of the most robust, fully orchestral parts. The arc of the story is
quite nicely conveyed in the thematic development, the boy's theme
poignantly sent off on piano (once again the reliable instrumental
representation of family) in "Goodbye Spot" before the main theme takes
over as necessary. This wouldn't be a Danna score without some groaning
ambient textures, and a touch of the disillusioned portions from Life
of Pi does bleed into this work in its latter portions. Aside from
the most wholesome Western expressions of the main theme at the
beginning and end of the score, though, expect the highlights of The
Good Dinosaur to be the relatively rare, full-throated sequences of
excitement, including "Run With the Herd," which throws saxophone into
the mix with distinction and is the single cue here you will certainly
not want to miss. On album, some of the early cues are redundant and the
middle portion of suspense and self-discovery do slow the experience to
its detriment, but the whole is pleasant and instrumentally diverse
enough to recommend. It's a solid score when viewed in sum and an
impressively divergent sound given expectations for the topic.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Mychael Danna reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.25
(in 16 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.06
(in 5,347 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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Total Time: 63:22
• 1. Homestead (2:11)
• 2. Hello Arlo (2:49)
• 3. Chores (0:55)
• 4. Make Your Mark (2:07)
• 5. Fireflies (2:16)
• 6. Critter Problem (1:04)
• 7. You're Me and More (3:05)
• 8. Family Struggle (1:23)
• 9. Swept Away (1:33)
• 10. Mountain Top (0:51)
• 11. Lost in the World (3:35)
• 12. Offerings (1:32)
• 13. Unexpected Friend (2:56)
• 14. Pet Collector (2:24)
• 15. Swimming Lessons (2:29)
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• 16. Orphans (4:39)
• 17. The Storm (1:17)
• 18. I'm Never Getting Home (0:44)
• 19. Storm Chasers (1:22)
• 20. Bloodhound (1:37)
• 21. Fight Them Rustlers (1:46)
• 22. Run With the Herd (3:51)
• 23. Returned Call (1:25)
• 24. Sky Sharks (1:46)
• 25. Arlo's Vision (1:35)
• 26. Rescue (2:31)
• 27. Over the Falls (2:41)
• 28. Goodbye Spot (4:12)
• 29. Homecoming (1:24)
• 30. Arlo Makes His Mark (1:22)
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The insert includes a list of performers but no extra information about the score or film.
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