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| Desplat |
The Secret Life of Pets: (Alexandre Desplat) One
must wonder if director Chris Renaud, who had made a name for himself as
a bankable talent with the
Despicable Me and
Minions
movies, realized that he was thoroughly aping the storyline of
Toy
Story when he created
The Secret Life of Pets, but audiences
more than forgave him for this transgression either way. The plotline of
the 2016 film replaces toys with common house pets and gives audiences a
glimpse into what they do when their human masters are out of sight. In
the case of one dog owner in New York, two initially hostile dogs use a
journey around the city and back again to learn to like each other and
their master, and it's their adventure amongst the many other animals of
the city that brings each episode of humor to life. There are love
interests, chase sequences, and even a plot by a gang of abandoned pets
to annihilate the human population, and together,
The Secret Life of
Pets survived some uncertain critics to became a massive box office
hit. The music for the film, while perfectly suited to succumb to a
song-dominated soundtrack, was tailor-made for a jazzy adventure score
right up the alley of Michael Giacchino, and the lack of his name on
this movie's poster was initially a surprise. Instead, the assignment
went to Frenchman Alexandre Desplat, which shouldn't catch anyone off
guard despite the limited number of forays into the animated genre for
the highly respectable drama master. Desplat has conveyed an immense
sense of humor in his wilder music (
The Grand Budapest Hotel
remains a work best appreciated perhaps while on hallucinogenic
substances) and achieved much acclaim for
The Fantastic Mr. Fox,
not to mention that he has professed his admiration for jazz masters of
eras past many times. His approach to
The Secret Life of Pets,
therefore, is exactly as one would have expected to hear from Giacchino
based his prior similar entries, except with Desplat's own unique voice
and arguably superior flair for orchestration. You also have a more
vibrant mix of the jazz and traditional orchestral elements in Desplat's
take on the idea, Giacchino's flatly dry ambience replaced with a wider,
dynamic soundscape by Desplat. There is much to appreciate in Desplat's
instrumental and melodic techniques for
The Secret Life of Pets,
even if the schizophrenic pacing and frantic tone turns you away as
predictably as any other wacky children's score.
It would be easy to define Desplat's
The Secret Life
of Pets as a series of tributes to classic American and European
jazz masters, because many of the snazziest portions of the score
certainly pilfer that genre with zealous glee. The flute work alone in
this score is exquisite. The main theme is extended through several
subgenres within jazz and is pleasantly simplistic, allowing for the
flair of the brass and woodwind performances to really carry the work.
Desplat certainly feels comfortably at home in this mode, though being
that
The Secret Life of Pets is also essentially a journey movie
with a slew of secondary characters, the composer is compelled to
venture into other territory, and this is where he really excels. The
militant element to the "Flushed Pets" contingent occupies a significant
portion of the middle of the score, Desplat handling these portions in
almost a Georges Delerue fashion. Perhaps "Flushed Out to Brooklyn" best
exemplifies the distances travelled by Desplat here, starting with
full-fledged, soaring adventure tones before espousing the brass and
snare militarism and then transitioning to lovely piano romance before
returning to the softer, flighty jazz in the end. The same could be said
of "Gidget Meets Tiberius," which maneuvers through several genres of
music but more importantly serves as a good starting point for
identifying the many themes that Desplat inserts into the work. There's
a buddy theme for the main duo of dogs, of course, but the secondary
themes for the element of mystery and romance are more intriguing. The
composer takes these through both Latin tones ("Telenovela Squirrels")
and Americana nostalgia ("You Have an Owner?") before diving into
outward suspense ("The Viper"). By "Sausages!," the frantic pace of the
jazzy incarnations reaches Danny Elfman zaniness, and the trio of
"Duke's Old House/Captured," "Brooklyn Bridge Showdown," and "Rescuing
Duke" contains full-fledged, rowdy action material with only struggling
hints of the defining, descending jazz phrases that make up the main
theme. A little classic rock awaits in "Blue Taxi," as does a
horrifically obnoxious snippet from
Grease. Desplat sends
audiences away with a mixture of the softer American romance and
European hip style in "Welcome Home," completing a challenging but
ultimately cohesive journey. Scores like
The Secret Life of Pets
are not easy to digest for some listeners, certainly, but they exist as
best as any score in this context can. While this wildly optimistic
journey through genres can drive anyone nuts, the technical prowess with
which Desplat accomplishes this adventure cannot be dismissed.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Alexandre Desplat reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.39
(in 31 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.22
(in 16,383 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes a list of performers but no extra information about the score or film.
