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Written 1/2/12
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Buy it... if you have fond memories of Henry Mancini's iconic theme
for this franchise and desire an effortless extension of that idea into
the 2000's reboot of the concept.
Avoid it... if you are looking for the Beyonce Knowles songs from
the film or are a Mancini loyalist to such a degree that some
contemporary adaptations of his theme could be offensive.
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| Beck |
The Pink Panther (2006): (Christophe Beck) The
first two decades of the movie franchise of The Pink Panther were
long beloved as breezy entertainment from the era of Peter Sellers,
Blake Edwards, and Henry Mancini, lingering with its dignity largely
intact into the 1980's until a ridiculous spin-off by Roberto Benigni in
1993. An attempt by MGM to reboot the concept in 2006 was met with
disastrous critical response, though the main character was still
popular enough to earn respectable grosses and surprisingly spawn an
equally poor sequel in 2009. Playing the role of bumbling Inspector
Jacques Clouseau in the reboot is Steve Martin, whose career had
devolved to such an extent that he shamed himself alongside Jean Reno
and Kevin Kline with his involvement in this movie. The plot pits Martin
and Kline's inspectors against each other as they try to solve the
mystery of the assassination of soccer coach and the disappearance of
his valuable ring. Although placed intentionally at a disadvantage,
Clouseau clumsily reaches the right answers and is vindicated with silly
regard by the end of the story. Parody elements abound, as do cameos.
Also in abundance was post-production studio panic, a trait common to
the sequel as well. Director Shawn Levy originally sought the services
of composer Christophe Beck for this assignment, but scheduling
conflicts placed comedy veteran David Newman in the job instead. Thanks
to the post-production delays, however, Beck was available to score
The Pink Panther and Newman was fortunate to walk away from this
debacle. Newman would likely have handled this project as well as
anyone, though Beck was already by this point a veteran of ridiculous
comedy scores, with multiple entries accomplished for Levy previously.
Of course, anytime you're talking about music for this franchise, the
shadow of Mancini looms large. It's nearly impossible to imagine any
film in this series, no matter how bad, without its signature theme, and
the 2006 reboot was well aware of this sentiment. Beck treats the
Mancini favorite with great care, going so far as to employ the
saxophone player from the original version of the theme, Plas Johnson,
for a faithful reprise. One of the few truly interesting aspects of the
reboot is just how viable Mancini's idea remains, its dated
characteristics diminished in importance compared to its continued
effectiveness as an identity of comic investigation in general. Some
listeners may have tired of it by now, but it's difficult to figure any
other way to musically handle this overwrought concept.
The score for the 2006 version of
The Pink
Panther provides three straight forward renditions of the classic
Mancini theme, the opening and closing titles containing saxophone and
accordion performances respectively. The "Pink Panther Theme" at the
very end of the score-only album is the fully retro arrangement (with
vibes), and when you take these three presentations out of the running
time of the product, you have twenty-six minutes of underscore in
between. Perhaps as expected, the majority of this material takes the
extremely malleable progressions of the Mancini theme and applies them
to a variety of different emotional settings. The pairs of notes in that
theme are the subject of this manipulation, though their inherent
rhythmic swing is often retained as necessary. Beck rarely twists them
completely out of their natural formations, though for Kline's
character, he does translate it into a somewhat fresh mystery motif.
Otherwise, you'll hear Mancini's music in various states of easy-going
jazz and light romance throughout the score. The only exceptions are
where the score excels, though these passages are the ones most likely
to truly irritate Mancini loyalists. In "Paris Bound," Beck gives the
theme George S. Clinton treatment, the baritone sax joined by 1970's
keyboarding and percussion. Strikingly different from the rest of the
score is "Perfect Day for a Murder," which takes the theme fully
contemporary in the process of giving it a James Bond persona. If you
can hear past the electric guitar, aggressive loops, and vocal
manipulation of a dramatic, Craig Armstrong type of usage in this cue,
you'll hear the fullest and most impressive orchestral applications of
the entire score. The instrumentation utilized by Beck for
The Pink
Panther is otherwise standard for an orchestral parody score, aided
in this case by a few worldly accents (like castanets). It's actually a
bit disappointing that the composer didn't find a way to more frequently
modernize Mancini's theme throughout the score after the impressive
assassination sequence. As pleasing as it is to hear the traditional
arrangements of the idea, it's been so over-exposed that the
unconventional variations on this album are its unlikely highlights.
Overall, it's still hard to discredit Beck's well-recorded approach
taken to this project (he would return for the sequel), and the album is
a completely effortless listening experience. It's always humorous when
the Varèse Sarabande label has to indicate on the outside of the
packaging that no music from a major pop star appears on the product; in
this instance, Beyonce Knowles played a role as a singer in the film and
neither of her two songs for its soundtrack in context were included
with Beck's tribute to Mancini's legacy.
*** @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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