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Written 1/2/16
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Buy it... if you desire a loyal re-interpretation of the "Peanuts"
concept's music from long ago, composer Christophe Beck and his team
faithfully reprising and adapting Vince Guaraldi's classic music into a
more modern, orchestral environment.
Avoid it... if you expect this music to really push any boundaries,
because the very careful handling of the source material keeps it
largely segregated from the boisterous new original score and obligatory
pop songs.
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| Beck |
The Peanuts Movie: (Christophe Beck) Despite the
enduring popularity of Charles M. Schulz's comic strip, "Peanuts," it
had been 35 years since its characters were featured in a new motion
picture. The original four "Peanuts" films remain sentimental favorites
with a distinct style and tone, and Schulz's son and grandson, when
working for the better part of a decade with Blue Sky Studios and Fox on
a modern animated interpretation of the concept, insisted upon retaining
artistic control over the 2015 movie known internationally as Snoopy
and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie, perhaps to avoid nasty
translation issues. Writing and producing much of the project
themselves, the Schulz family turned to director Steve Martino
specifically to bring a faithful adaptation of the core values of the
strip to the film. The plot contains no new characters and essentially
follows two parallel storylines that occasionally overlap, one side
showing Charlie Brown persevering as he always does to gain the
attention of Little Red-Haired Girl with the help of Linus, Lucy, and
his dogged determination to do the right thing. The other side of The
Peanuts Movie is dedicated to Snoopy's adventures as the Flying Ace,
saving fellow pilot Fifi from the forces of the Red Baron. It's an
innocuous, self-contained story true to the original characters and not
requiring any sequel or deep understanding of the strip to be able to
appreciate. In fact, it's a rare circumstance in which a sequel wasn't
immediately planned despite critical and fiscal success. The music for
the concept is, like the characters themselves, a pivotal part of their
existence, and the handling of the soundtrack for The Peanuts
Movie was very carefully planned to exude the same nostalgic loyalty
to the other films and television productions. Some of the cast voices
actually consist of trombone performances rather than traditionally
spoken lines, requiring a fair amount of source material to be applied
to this film. Long toiling in the children's genre but having struck
gold with his work on Disney's Frozen, composer Christophe Beck,
himself a big fan of the "Peanuts" concept, was brought in to help guide
the soundtrack into the 21st Century. The original themes and their
iconic performances by Vince Guaraldi were mandatory inclusions, of
course, as were a few mundane pop songs for marketing purposes. Weaving
these elements together is an original score by Beck and a few
additional writers that does everything it can to avoid stepping on the
toes of the Guaraldi material.
The balancing act performed by Beck and the producers
for the music of
The Peanuts Movie is about as well handled as
one could hope. Original performances of several of Guaraldi's themes
(performed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio) are dropped into this film,
highlighted by the ever-popular "Linus and Lucy" main theme. The piano,
percussion, and bass performances are presented alongside the new
recordings with as much synchrony in sound quality as allowed. Beck
works all three Guaraldi themes into his score, "Linus and Lucy" most
extensively, including a modern re-working in the "Carnival Panic" cue.
Both "Skating" and "Christmas Time is Here" are afforded more
source-like re-recordings and placements, and Beck's arrangements are
fine. The original material by Beck is large and orchestral in the John
Powell mould of operation for today's animated flicks, a definite change
for the concept, but Beck keeps the score wholesome enough and features
piano at regular intervals. The reminder of the Trio at the end of "The
Assembly," for instance, is a nice touch. The "Snow Day" cue provides an
enthusiastic new identity for the concept that is easy to digest, and
"Charlie Brown in Love" explores a piano-based light romance variant
that is equally saccharine. More impressive in the new score is the
often soaring ensemble adventure music for the Snoopy side of the movie,
"Fifi's Theme" understandably reminding a bit of John Barry's
High
Road to China in scope and progression. The pair of "Wingwalking"
and "Curse You Red Baron" present extended action sequences that are the
score's highlights, Beck's orchestral writing openly positive and
harmless despite its snare-ripping bravado. The pair of "Winter Becomes
Spring" and "Pen Pal Partners" may be short, but their piano and
woodwind sentimentality is attractive. The album presentation of the
soundtrack nicely condenses Beck's new material to its midsection, his
arrangements of Guaraldi themes included at the end. The original
Guaraldi recordings and two new pop songs are thrown together at the
start of the product as expected. (a Target-exclusive product includes
one more song.) The whole product is tasteful and satisfying while being
extraordinarily conservative in its handling of the concept. Perhaps it
would have been nice for Beck to integrate the classic themes into his
score even more, but the whole functions fine as is. The album will
serve for listeners much like
Winnie the Pooh did for fans of the
Sherman Brothers' original music for that set of characters during its
own updated adaptation in 2011. Keep your expectations tempered and be
prepared for the listening experience to breeze by quickly and without a
worry.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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Bias Check:
For Christophe Beck reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.06
(in 16 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.06
(in 4,996 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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