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| Elfman |
The Nightmare Before Christmas: (Danny Elfman)
Sometimes films don't receive their due praise until long after their
unheralded debuts, and such was definitely the case with Tim Burton's
production of
The Nightmare Before Christmas. Based on a concept
percolating in his head for a decade, the story involves the clashing of
two holidays when the inhabitants of the fantasy town of Halloween
discover the town of Christmas and attempt to adapt the latter holiday
with their own sensibility. Every aspect of the film is unconventional,
from the stop-action animation process to ambiguous look of the
characters and the musical format of the soundtrack. Executives at
Disney were initially horrified by Burton's creation during
post-production, withholding merchandising and advertising dollars
because they were convinced that the film was an extremely morbid
blemish on the studio's reputation. Indeed, a combination of character
and set design was too dark for small children and humor aimed at adults
caused
The Nightmare Before Christmas to become a favorite of the
teenage crowd instead. The enigma fared relatively well at the time of
its 1993 release, but despite being a musical in Disney's line-up at a
time when that format could do no wrong for the studio, the film was a
box office disappointment. The songs and score by rising star Danny
Elfman received little mainstream recognition, failing to garner a
single Oscar nomination in either category. Inevitably, the world was
enamored with Alan Menken's production for Disney at the time, which
made sense given that he had just completed the superior trilogy of
soundtracks (ending with
Aladdin) that made him famous. But time
has been abnormally kind to
The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is
often remembered today as a hidden gem in the careers of both Burton and
Elfman, and its cult following increased to such an extent that the film
was transferred by Disney into 3D format and re-released into theatres
on its 13th anniversary in 2006. The film has earned its fairly deserved
recognition outside teenage circles and, while still too strange for
some older audiences and certainly the kind of concept to earn
considerable protest from the America's touchy religious right, it
continues to develop a strong reputation with another generation of
youngsters.
For Elfman,
The Nightmare Before Christmas was an
endeavor of immense personal hardship, investing himself so far into the
project that he eventually became not only composer and lyricist, but
lead performer and associate producer. His girlfriend at the time,
Edward Scissorhands writer Caroline Thompson, was enlisted to
write the rushed, late screenplay long after Elfman and Burton had
assembled the songs and written the lyrics together. The two men
suffered equally from the pressure of Disney's negativity, and after a
petty argument at the conclusion of work on
The Nightmare Before
Christmas, they went their separate ways. Burton used composer
Howard Shore as a temporary stand-in for Elfman in
Ed Wood the
following year before the collaborators reconciled prior to
Mars
Attacks!. Contributing to Elfman's frustration in late 1993 was that
his music wasn't much applauded by mainstream critics (in fact, some
denigrated it simply by using Menken as an unfair comparison), despite
the fact that
The Nightmare Before Christmas remains a remarkable
exhibition of the man's obviously singular talents. For many viewers and
listeners, the production is just as much defined by Elfman as (if not
moreso than) Burton, who chose not to direct the picture himself.
Musically speaking, when Elfman changed course with his career later in
the 1990's and experimented with orchestral and electronic minimalism,
many of his earliest fans lamented the loss of his
Batman and
Edward Scissorhands styles. Equal was the loss of
The
Nightmare Before Christmas, for the composer would never again pour
so much overwhelming creativity of a clearly personal nature into one
production. His songs and score may not be classics in any corner, but
they are uniquely fashioned out his distinctly intoxicating sound. His
lyrics, with some input from Burton in several songs, are frightfully
intelligent and humorous. His singing performances as several of the
characters, including Jack Skellington, are remarkably inflective. The
composer was originally not intended to take these roles, but once he
had performed all the parts (except Sally) in the demo recordings, it
became clear that due to his passion for the music, he would be an
excellent choice for the lead. In fact, some of his vocals for the demos
were considered superior to those recorded more professionally for the
final product and were utilized instead.
By 1993, the scoring community had already tasted its fair
share of Elfman's creativity, and yet one can easily get the impression
that nobody was fully prepared for the rather demented personality of
The Nightmare Before Christmas. It truly is impossible to place
this work in context with the average run of the mill soundtrack or even
musical. Because of that fact, it's hard to listen to
The Nightmare
Before Christmas very often unless you consider yourself a die-hard
fan of the concept. With its so many strong themes, it's a great score
to dissect and reconstruct, and the main reason to pull this album off
the shelf is to admire the complexity of Elfman's creation. The
composition itself is superior, with multiple themes interacting
seamlessly and complimenting each other with a certain funny elegance.
His manipulation of themes to suit the varying emotions of the
characters is masterful. His inherent love of tragedy leads to such
numbers as "Jack's Lament," "Sally's Song," and "Poor Jack," while his
affinity for the bizarre is heard in "This is Halloween," "Kidnap the
Sandy Claws," and "Oogie Boogie's Song." The fact that there are ten
songs in
The Nightmare Before Christmas (eleven if you consider
the reprise at the end a separate song) not only gives the film
wall-to-wall melodies but also creates a roller coaster ride that defies
a consistent sound for the entire production. The brooding emphasis on
lower range instruments and heavy bass in the mix, a carry-over from the
morbid, droning ambience of
Batman Returns, offer a bit of
overarching connection, as do the references to previous songs in later
ones (and future songs in preceding score cues). On the whole, though,
The Nightmare Before Christmas is all over the map in terms of
style. To go from the vintage Cab Calloway-style jazz of "Oogie Boogie's
Song" to the sparse drama of "Sally's Song" causes obvious problems in
stylistic continuity. While "This is Halloween" is the flashiest,
"Jack's Lament" and "What's This?" are highlights, if only because of
Elfman's dynamic, hyperactive vocal performances as Jack. His amusingly
expressive performances easily overshadow the vocals by Catherine
O'Hara, Ken Page, and others. Without any single dominant song in the
entire work (there is no "title song"), there really was nothing for
awards voters to grasp on to. Technically, "Jack's Lament" and "Sally's
Song" are the most frequently referenced in the score and closely
represent the lead characters, but neither can be described as a
showstopper.
As for the score, Elfman's music is very tightly related
to the melodies of the songs, with no score-specific standalone themes.
Outside of parts of "Jack and Sally Montage" and "Christmas Eve
Montage," the score tracks are largely unremarkable unless you are
enamored by all of the various songs, for Elfman rarely branches off
from one of the song melodies in his predictable but effective parade of
themes conveyed in each instrumental interlude. In an age when overtures
have long since disappeared, it's great to hear a well-constructed one
here, and both "Overture" and "End Title" are smart suites that
brilliantly provide snippets of most of the songs' themes. The two
performances by Patrick Stewart as the narrator provide a great,
God-like perspective on the whole affair, but neither was heard in the
film. The original "Opening" was abbreviated and recorded by the actor
who plays Santa Claus (never released on album) and it is that
performance that existed in the film at its debut. Elfman himself also
recorded the narration and can be heard on a few of the available
albums. Arguably the soundtrack's most endearing, heartwarming moment
comes when the score and song are fused at the end of "Finale/Reprise,"
when Elfman and O'Hara perform in unison a snippet of "Sally's Song"
with lovely orchestral accompaniment. Despite this and other highlights,
Disney has never been thorough in its presentation of the music on
album. The film was released two weeks before Halloween and the initial
CD hit the shelves ten days after the pumpkins had been packed away,
allowing for the revision of the narration but clearly indicative of the
lack of confidence the studio had in the film. The product contained all
of the songs but only about half the score. For the 2006 re-release of
the movie to theatres, Disney offered a 2-CD package with no new
material from the score. It does offer demo performances of four songs
by Elfman (including "This is Halloween," which appeared on the
composer's "Music for a Darkened Theatre, Volume 2" compilation), but
the five cover versions by Marilyn Manson, Fiona Apple, and others are
wretched and atrocious. And, as if Disney hadn't milked this cow enough
after realizing its initial error, the studio's label released yet
another album of music from
The Nightmare Before Christmas two
years later, this time with only cover versions of every track. The 2008
album is the absolute worst that commercial markets can inspire, taking
artists of radically different cultures and genres of music and giving
each one shot at producing their own version of material that really
required Elfman's own touch.
The spirit of the original performances by Elfman and
others for
The Nightmare Before Christmas is usually completely
lost in the 2008 cover versions, except in the cases of "Sally's Song"
and "Poor Jack," both of which actually marginally resemble the original
recording. The Marilyn Manson performance from the 2006 album is
reprised. Otherwise, some of these cover renditions are so incongruous
with the originals that they will be unrecognizable. This isn't like
hearing Natalie Merchant perform David Bowie's "Space Oddity," one of
many cases in which the cover is gorgeous and the original quite
annoying. Elfman and his ensemble nailed these performances in 1993 and
anything significantly different is an oddity not worth the money. On
the surface, one interesting aspect of this album for the composer's
collectors will be the fact that the score tracks are included in the
2008 endeavor. The Vitamin String Quartet's version of "Jack and Sally
Montage" is listenable, but that's about it. Hearing the remaining score
tracks translated into heavy metal or electronica (or, in the case of
"End Title," a drug-induced haze) stinks of studio and label greed. If
Disney wanted to do this right, they would have taken the original
recording, augment it with the important quantity of score material that
still remained unreleased (indeed, after three albums, Disney still
couldn't provide a complete presentation!), and offer a second CD (like
the 2006 album) with all of these ridiculous cover versions to help push
units. The only truly neat aspect of the 2008 "Nightmare Revisited"
album is the change in narration during "Opening" and "Closing." For
these tracks, the original orchestral underscore is accompanied by the
new recordings of Elfman performing the narrator role himself. His voice
has changed in the last fifteen years, though there's still a hint of
that Jack Skellington tone to be heard. Patrick Stewart's version, not
surprisingly, is arguably superior, but since
The Nightmare Before
Christmas is truly Elfman's baby, it's nice to hear him in yet
another role. The vocal mix is resounding and he reprises the harsher
edge of Jack's spoken voice with the line "Wouldn't you?" to conclude
"Closing." In the end, however, no cover version of any of Elfman's
songs or score can possibly capture the spirit of the cast of voices and
accompanying instrumentation, and the original 1993 album still exists
with everything true enthusiasts of the film and music really need. That
is, unless you've got a tremendous amount of expendable income, in which
case, the 2011 set "The Danny Elfman and Tim Burton 25th Anniversary
Music Box" finally treats the soundtrack right.
[
Editor's Note: Two weeks after reviewing that
beast of a box set, I was manually assembling the track listings for all
its miscellaneous albums and discovered an oddity on CD 16. I had fallen
out of a willow tree earlier in the day while trying to prune the
unwieldy monster, and I figured upon encountering a strange issue with
the orchestra-only version of "Finale/Reprise" that I was simply
"hearing things" in my head because I was groggy from the day's work.
Upon closer inspection, however, as well as confirmation from my wife
after my third attempt to point her to this oddity, some facts were
revealed. In this particular track, the last forty seconds could be
classified as one of two things: a disastrous attempt to edit a cue or a
really cool accident. What originally caught my attention was the
feeling that I was still hearing Catherine O'Hara's voice in the
background of the "Finale" with Sally's theme in that supposedly
orchestra-only version. Naturally, I ignored it at first. After all,
I've heard that soundtrack enough times through the years for my brain
to simply fill in the voices subconsciously. But then I noticed that the
orchestral recording concluding that track is the superior film version,
a more whimsical alternate with a hint of "What's This?" in its celesta
contribution. What you hear closing out "Finale" on all the vocal
versions on CD going back 1993 contains a solitary descending brass line
instead. After transferring the track into some editing software, I
confirmed that I wasn't simply "hearing things" in regards to O'Hara's
voice, either. While the accordion is front and center as it's supposed
to be, her lyrics "...and sit together, now and forever" and "we're
simply meant to be" are relatively evident at high volumes (especially
the "s" tones). Elfman's voice is completely absent. Another clue to
this strange artifact occurs right before her lines begin; at precisely
1:57 into the track, there's a hiccup in volume that reveals a bad
splice where someone apparently attempted to change recording sources.
It's possible that an editor chose to include the film version of the
orchestra's performance for the last 20 seconds of the score, simply
cutting into a different take at that 1:57 mark but failing for some
reason to completely dial O'Hara's vocals out of the mix. Some listeners
probably won't notice any of these issues, maybe hearing a woman humming
in the background at most. But the film version of that cue has been
long awaited on CD, and, aside from the hiccup at 1:57, the ghostly
nature of the voice in the background is strangely appropriate. On the
other hand, it's yet another example of a disappointing set with an
abundance of sloppy and curious choices.]
There are a multitude of reasons to despise the
Elfman/Burton "music box," foremost its ridiculous design, endless
delays, and ridiculous $500 price tag. But you really can't fault
Elfman's own treatment of
The Nightmare Before Christmas for that
product. Whereas many of the soundtracks on that set include just a
couple of additional new cues or are primarily served with newly
revealed demo recordings,
The Nightmare Before Christmas, among a
couple of others, is really one of the major reasons to invest in the
product. On CD #6 of the set, Elfman assembled the most complete
chronological order of music from the film to date, adding nine score
cues and extending "Christmas Eve Montage" by two minutes. Some of these
cues are meaty, too, with several minutes of fantastic development and
foreshadowing of the songs' melodies. In particular, "Post Party" and
"Sally's Lament/Wandering Jack" represent five minutes of satisfying
development of the two leads' themes. The duo of "Bunny" and "Big
Send-Off," each about two minutes in length, delve into the holiday
spirit, the latter a vital cue. In sum, the additional score amounts to
about 15 minutes in length, a long overdue presentation that flows very
well. The set's miscellaneous CDs also concentrate heavily on
The
Nightmare Before Christmas. On CD #15, "Curios and Curiouser," the
composer provides his previously released narrative tracks, several
demos as yet unheard by the public, the quite cool Oingo Boingo-style
rock version of "Making Christmas" titled "This Time," and interesting
but sometimes unlistenable foreign language recordings of some of the
songs. On CD #16, "Notes and Notions," the orchestra-only recordings for
the songs will be fodder for karaoke enthusiasts and a newly recorded
music box suite runs through the major melodies. The USB stick-only
bonus material in the set includes additional demos and the two source
cues from the Halloween Town Band. No matter where you stand on the
massive issues pertaining to the 2011 set, you have to admire the
plethora of material from
The Nightmare Before Christmas
included. For $500, you can assemble almost every piece of music from
this soundtrack that you could possibly want, minus the shortened,
unreleased performance of the original opening narration. Given the cult
following that worships this movie, it wouldn't be surprising if a fair
number of the set's 2,000 copies are snagged by this specific fanbase.
Elfman and Burton would try to tap the same well in 2005 with
The
Corpse Bride, but by then, the undeniably unique magic of
The
Nightmare Before Christmas was gone. Love it or hate it, this music
is a once-in-a-lifetime type of experience.
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Written for the Film: ****
- Music as Heard on the 1993 and 2006 Albums: ****
- Music as Heard on the 2008 "Revisited" Album: **
- Music as Heard on the 2011 Set: *****
- Overall: ****
| Bias Check: |
For Danny Elfman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.16
(in 86 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.27
(in 148,807 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
Both the 1993 and 2006 albums contain the same credits and lyrics, but neither
features extra information about the score or film. The first pressing of the 2006 album
contained a 3D slip cover. The 2008 album was packaged in a hard cardboard slip case,
with a removable insert that contains photos of most of the artists, but again no
extra information about the score or film. The 2011 Warner set features some notes from
Elfman about his choices of music for inclusion on the product.
