: (Danny Elfman) From the
very beginning, Walt Disney Studios was interested in adapting L. Frank
Baum's "Oz" novels of the early 1900's into movies, but MGM bought the
rights to
before Disney could do so in the
1930's. Many decades later, Disney did eventually follow its initial
interest in the Baum stories, but none of their efforts was as
successful as their 2013 endeavor,
.
The titular Oz is Oscar Diggs, a stage magician of dubious character in
America's Midwest who is transported via tornado to the mythical land of
Oz and is confronted by fantastic creatures and wicked witches. He
becomes involved in the internal power struggles of the land, eventually
using his magic and wit to become a hero who can restore justice and, of
course, claim the best of the witches for himself. The Sam Raimi film
was not met with a tremendous amount of acclaim, critics ambivalent
about the project due to concerns about casting, pacing, and cohesion.
Nevertheless,
, in wooing audiences out
of hundreds of millions of dollars, easily recouping its budget in
excess of $200 million within just a couple of weeks. The 2013 visual
spectacle shared several production aspects with
, including a wondrous score from Danny Elfman that once
again returns to the composer's early fantasy realm. The attachment of
Elfman to
came as something of a
surprise for enthusiasts of the composer. After the extraordinarily
frustrating experiences the composer shared about working with Raimi on
, despite an amicable relationship prior, Elfman
claimed he would never work with the director again. "To see such a
profound negative change in a human being was almost enough to make me
feel like I didn't want to make films anymore," he said in 2005. "It was
really disheartening and sad to see the way it ended up. The end of
was a self-induced hysteria." Eight years and some
healing later, Elfman rebutted that the reason he was attracted to
was due primarily to the involvement of
Raimi, completely brushing aside his prior complaints about the
director's apparently one-time hysteria.
The assignment of
Oz the Great and Powerful for
Elfman was, unlike
Spider-Man 2, a remarkably easy and positive
experience. Ever since
Alice in Wonderland reasserted the broad
fantasy element in the composer's career, he has seemed very comfortable
with it, the results in subsequent related works ranging from average to
excellent and always raising memories of the music that initially
launched Elfman into the spotlight of film scoring. He was asked by
Raimi to write a music box waltz for the witches in pre-production, the
director eventually requesting fully orchestrated versions of that theme
for other source usage necessary while shooting the picture. Eventually,
once Elfman started writing the full score, only six rather effortless
weeks proved necessary to complete the project. He further erased any
bad blood with Raimi through his many proclamations that the process on
Oz the Great and Powerful was "fast" and "natural" for him,
because he was allowed to follow a comfortable narrative pattern of
writing that fits snugly with the "old school, but not self-consciously
old-fashioned" style of melodrama that he prefers. As he reaffirms, "I
can tell a story in the music" in this type of environment, an allowance
that propelled
Alice in Wonderland to such great success. Elfman
wrote roughly 75 minutes of music featured in the 2013 picture, and most
of that material was translated into a long, generous album
presentation. The fully orchestral work is devoid of obvious synthetic
accompaniment, instead utilizing the more familiar choral tones typical
to any Elfman fantasy music. The tone of the writing, as well as the
accompanying orchestrations, are absolutely pure Elfman tradition in
their execution, nothing about the recording likely to surprise the
learned collector of the composer's albums. The music box, organ,
stomping tuba rhythms, melancholy violin performances, brass that
answers back and forth within the section, prominent bassoons in the
mix, cimbalom or mandolin for a touch of wickedness, marching snares for
determination, bass string ostinatos for preparation, chimes for
resolution, and other instrumental applications are all easily
recognizable within Elfman's palette. Underutilized are some puffed
woodwinds in "A Strange World" and others that are not expanded upon
satisfactorily. The tone of the music box is well handled, Elfman's
obsession with its sound yielding effective narrative implications here
without becoming a stereotypical nuisance.
From the whimsy of lightly dramatic strings to the
force of brass and percussion rhythms in a tizzy, few typical techniques
for the composer are absent in
Oz the Great and Powerful, the
most notable among them being the pleasing use of cooing choir for
sentimentality. The singers' contribution to
Oz the Great and
Powerful isn't as creative as what listeners enjoyed in
Alice in
Wonderland, however. Only one source-like "song" of sorts is obvious
in the work, Elfman's "The Munchkin's Welcome Song" an upbeat little
piece that the composer performed himself in a manner befitting
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Outside of this one diversion,
the score is one lengthy homage to Elfman's other works, pieces of
several of his scores making obvious entrances at various times. The
lack of new stylistic exploration may bother some listeners, but for
those seeking an extension of personality from
Alice in
Wonderland, it will entertain sufficiently. The narrative flow that
Elfman talks so much about in his perception of success with
Oz the
Great and Powerful isn't anywhere as near as cohesive when compared
to the powerful 2010 work, and it's possible that the composer's
handling of this Oz-related topic in a "stream of consciousness" flow of
writing, with fewer explicit themes, contributed to a feeling that much
of the later score, while certainly serviceable, lacks the emotional
punch of its predecessor. The limited number of themes in
Oz the
Great and Powerful may be a significant factor in this seemingly
reduced narrative cohesion, despite the composer's frequent references
to those ideas. Only two primary themes and a secondary one grace the
score, and two of those have significant referential problems. The
standout theme is the one Elfman composed initially for Raimi,
representing the witches with all the devious waltz-induced character
one would expect from Elfman. Opening the score and expanded upon in
"Foreside Dance," this theme is eventually afforded battle-worthy depth
in the late cues of confrontation. The integration of this theme and its
various secondary phrases into the score is quite admirable, the
progressions used in various guises as necessary to suggest both the
"sweet" and "bitter" aspects of all three witches, as the composer would
term it. Many of the portions of the underscore that are on the surface
devoid of any major thematic reference are in fact turbulent
explorations of this theme in such disguises. The same astute
manipulation of melody also applies to Elfman's other main theme for the
film.
More obvious in portions of the
Oz the Great and
Powerful score is the fanfare-like theme for the main character and,
by association, the Emerald City. Heard briefly at the outset, this idea
builds appropriate steam as the protagonists regain control of their
land. It's somewhat generic in its expected, static movements, and for
some listeners, the theme will be an obnoxious distraction due to the
fact that it prominently exhibits the first three notes of "O Canada,"
the Canadian national anthem. How Elfman and his crew could miss this
blatant association is a bit curious, because it really could bother a
fair number of listeners. The third theme is sparingly referenced (a
nice rendition comes at 5:03 into "The Preparation Montage"),
representing the sentimental element of the various creatures of the
land with an alternately workman-like rhythm and flowing melodic
identity that is best recognized by its resemblance of James Horner's
famous lullaby from
Casper. All three themes are presented in
easy succession in "End Credits From Oz," the Horner-like idea serving
both of its two stylistic halves at the 0:31 mark. The main anthem comes
before and the witches occupy everything after in that cue. The specific
references to previous Elfman scores are not quite as glaring, but they
do exist. The most strident of these references is the "cut and paste"
job the composer seems to have done in "What Army?," a remarkably intact
portion of
Dark Shadows making the transition. More subtle is the
sense of adversity that carries over from
Real Steel into
portions of "The Preparation Montage." More generally, expect to hear
pieces of
Charlotte's Web,
Corpse Bride,
Men in
Black, and
Alice in Wonderland at regular intervals. When you
put all of these elements together, you get a score that will be highly
entertaining for the avid Elfman collector. But it will have difficulty
eliciting the same emotional response that still comes from
Alice in
Wonderland, partly due to the inherent referential weaknesses of the
themes but also because the narrative just doesn't seem as tightly woven
this time around. The lengthy album (released in physical form by
Intrada Records) is a fantastic tool with which to hear what Elfman was
attempting in this score, and the composer reaffirms his clear
enthusiasm for fantasy concepts throughout the work. Ultimately,
however,
Oz the Great and Powerful is one of those great ambient
listening experiences in the genre that doesn't stand up to focused
analysis upon a closer look. For many listeners, such details won't
matter, but that is what distinguishes a solid, workmanlike score from
one destined to be a classic.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Danny Elfman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.16
(in 90 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.27
(in 154,008 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
