In fact, Randy Newman was so popular from his
widespread awards and public appearances that his
Monsters, Inc.
album initially performed strongly even with the mighty competition from
another soundtrack album that was released on the same day: John
Williams'
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Even against
such odds, Newman excelled. In a year of extremely strong competition,
Monsters, Inc. was nominated by the Academy for both its score
and song, winning the latter award after years of frustrating loses for
Newman. But why all the love? Randy Newman was to Disney music in 2001
what Miss Cleo was for television psychics. In other words, whenever you
mentioned Disney music to the day's 8-year-olds and their parents, that
Randy Newman sound automatically popped into their minds. Even later in
the decade, the same was generally true. His slurring voice and upbeat,
jazzy scores had become a sort of icon. The sound certainly works in the
films, and it's a seemingly faultless marketing combination. Lost in the
mix, though, was the fact that Newman was still, after all is said and
done, a master of songwriting. His scores for these animation flicks are
cute and, of course, appropriate. But just as Alan Menken began doing in
his waning years at the Disney music helm, Newman eventually started
rehashing the same work that fans had heard in
Toy Story and
A
Bug's Life. He failed to take any chances in
Monsters, Inc.,
causing it become a predictable, mindless, and borderline boring
listening experience, especially compared to the refreshing attitude of
A Bug's Life. Newman retained the same moderately sized
orchestral ensemble, acoustical elements, jazz band, and his own piano
and produced essentially the music that we had heard before. And with
Leatherheads in 2008, we'd hear a slightly more vintage and
dramatic variant of the same material. In a few noteworthy places,
Newman borrows a quote from a classical piece or an old Bernard Herrmann
staple, but even in his comedic interpolations of existing themes, the
orchestra treats the composition in a flat, procedural way.
The ensemble's performances yield none of the same
energy that you hear from the animation scores of Powell and Howard of
the era. For works such as
Chicken Run and
Atlantis, the
players sound as though they intentionally congregated to perform an
awesome piece of work, and that enthusiasm can be heard in the final
product. For the Randy Newman scores, as they progress up to
Monsters, Inc., the players become increasingly devoid of that
exuberance. There's nothing functionally wrong with Newman's style of
writing or its general application to the picture, but without any
snazzy new avenue of thought, the music quickly becomes evidence of a
composer on autopilot. There's simply nothing in
Monsters, Inc.
to eclipse what was similarly done in
Toy Story 2 and
A Bug's
Life. The most frustrating aspect of
Monsters, Inc. is its
failure to even try to take advantage of all the creative liberties that
the storyline offered it. Newman takes no chances in his instrumentation
or themes, not even inserting the wacky percussive elements that a film
such as this could have really used. Instead, we hear generic Newman
jazz that would perfectly accompany Saturday morning cartoons on
television. Even more disappointing about
Monsters, Inc. is the
unfortunate fact that the title song, despite its Oscar, isn't very
appealing. "If I Didn't Have You" drags along without the zip that
listeners had come to expect (and even demand) from Newman. By
comparison, the song for
A Bug's Life is a fun, alluring, and
vivacious composition, enjoyable both in its vocal and instrumental
versions. Once again, both the song and score are perfectly fine for
Monsters, Inc., and Newman was indeed overdue for winning an
Oscar for his body of work through the years. But if Disney has visions
of ever winning another Academy Award for a score, then punting on
Newman was likely a prerequisite. The album for
Monsters, Inc. is
generous in its presentation of the score, with over 50 minutes of
orchestral material available, and no modern pop songs to spoil the mix.
Still, it's a disappointing product overall given Newman's lack of
stylistic alteration in light of so many possibilities.
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