PRINTER FRIENDLY VIEW
(inverts site colors)

•	2009 Disney Album

•	2011 Disney Album

The centerpiece of the score is "Married Life," a heart-breaking four minutes depicting the majority of Carl and Ellie's lives and her death; Giacchino's manipulation of the theme's pacing and instrumentation in this cue so well matches the tone of the scene that it alone likely merited much of the recognition given to the entire score. In "Carl Goes Up," Giacchino completes the translation of the theme into a fully symphonic variation with harps waving and flutes chirping. Later scenes revisit the theme frequently as Carl focuses on his nearing goal of realizing the adventure they never had, "Paradise Found" and "Stuff We Did" solemn reminders of better days. The latter cue is another tear-jerking point at which the score is not layered with any other sounds in the film. The pair of "It's Just a House" and "The Ellie Badge" amplifies the bittersweet application of the theme with contrasting sensibilities, ultimately returning the theme once again to the solo piano from which it originated. The final theme in Up belongs to the adventurer Muntz and his blimp; the film's opening newsreel scene applies this theme with heavy, vintage jazz (in song form) and it disappears until an enthusiastic, light-hearted ensemble performance in "The Nickel Tour." Giacchino then adapts the theme into a dark, minor-key variant in "The Explorer Motel" as Carl and the boy realize that Muntz is an insane killer, and thereafter the menacing version of Muntz's theme and heroic bursts of Ellie's theme do sonic battle (as in "Escape From Muntz Mountain" and "Seizing the Spirit of Adventure"). A few other general motifs meander through the score, though none is of particular note. The wacky dogs of Muntz are afforded a primordial march of low woodwinds and varied drums that seems like a holdover from Land of the Lost. Forcefully enunciated in "Giving Muntz the Bird" and "Seizing the Spirit of Adventure" is a bold ascending and descending brass motif that joins Muntz's theme as a probable representation of the airship. Cues specifically for the boy and an exotic bird at the center of the story are usually treated with loungey variations on Ellie's theme, as in "Kevin Beak'n" (indeed, the composer once again can't contain himself with his cue titles). The muted brass and layered solo woodwinds running throughout these ideas solidify Up as tribute to yesteryear.

In general, the vintage jazz and waltz combination is effective in raising the spirit of adventure specifically from the perspective of an elderly man, but this material could potentially sound geriatric to some listeners seeking only loftier fantasy elements. The straight action cues, such as "52 Chachki Pickup," adhere to typical animated action, even down to prominent xylophone runs. Together, the totality of Up is effectively likeable and addresses well the age of the primary character. It has just enough whimsy and action to hold the faster scenes while Ellie's theme steals the show in its solo piano renditions. The score was never released by Disney on CD at the time of its hype, only available as a download with the source-like newsreel cue and three sound effects tracks tacked onto the end. Unfortunately, with a score as dynamic in instrumental range as Up, hearing it in compressed MP3 form is simply unacceptable. This format may work for headphones, but its presentation of the recording sounds dull and flat on any sizable stereo system. It renders the sound effects especially pointless as well. Disney, which has oscillated on its 2009 decision to never again release its soundtracks on physical media, did Up a significant disservice with the MP3-only release, causing the subsequent CD promo releases of two expanded selections of cues to fetch outrageous prices in auctions and be extensively distributed illegally online. Pressed in a short period at the end of 2009 and start of 2010, the "Cast and Crew" and "For Your Consideration" promotional CDs for Up both clock in at over 70 minutes in length, spread over 50+ tracks, though they do differ in contents and arrangements. The "Cast and Crew" version is generally considered the complete presentation of the score in lossless sound. The "For Your Consideration" album, however, does have longer versions of four or five cues that were condensed together on the other CD. Enthusiasts of the score are unfortunately left with a search for both versions if seeking absolutely every moment of the score, though the "Cast and Crew" CD contains the most raw material. In either case, the presentation is extremely choppy because of its segregation into such a large number of very short cues. The additional music, despite really filling in the sequences before the house ascends into the sky, is not spectacular and certainly won't merit the hundreds of dollars that either CD has demanded on the secondary market.

Disney's decision to avoid commercial CDs clearly backfired when the score won so many awards, and the studio finally rectified the MP3 situation for most listeners when it decided to allow Intrada Records to distribute a CD version of the previously available MP3 contents in 2011. The physical product was celebrated with great enthusiasm at Intrada, for it represented the first in a line of highly anticipated collaborations between the massive studio and the specialty soundtrack label that promised to deliver several Disney scores highly desired by fans. That said, the album is primarily a Walt Disney Records product, and with Intrada not credited anywhere on the packaging except for the marginalized use of its logo, it seems that the smaller label is only a distributor of what is essentially an in-house Disney endeavor. There was some understandable grumbling about the fact that the Disney/Intrada pairing did not yield a CD release with an expanded presentation of the score, especially considering Intrada's usual tendency to press outstanding expanded presentations of properly aged scores. As the CD is only a mirror of the MP3 contents, it's difficult to imagine that Intrada will hit its ceiling of 10,000 pressed copies of the product very quickly, if at all. Sound quality is the primary benefit of that CD for those not interested in the promos, the soundscape finally realized in its fullest domain on a commercial product. Keep in mind, however, that Giacchino's major recordings of theatrical scores have almost always tended to be overly dry and shallow in the mix, a truly unfortunate and perpetual point of concern for fans of a man with so much inspiration in the fantasy genre. One would hope for at least a minimal amount of tastefully applied, genre-acceptable reverb in these scores, and Up in particular suffered especially in its compressed MP3 presentation because of this additional loss of some of the dynamic range of the recording. The 2011 CD will still sound highly constricted to some listeners; don't expect this score to bounce off the walls with vibrant ambience, because not only is the mixing unsatisfactorily flat as usual, but the score's intimate design exacerbates this situation to an extent. Regardless of the issues with its mixing and release on album, Up is still a fine score. It never deserved all the awards it received (even Schindler's List and Titanic didn't achieve the same number of wins), for it is not substantially competitive with its most robust peers in 2009, but it breaks your heart when it needs to.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

• Music as Written for the Film:  ****
• Music as Presented on All Albums:  ***
• Overall:  ****

Bias Check:

For Michael Giacchino reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.46 (in 43 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.21 (in 23,411 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.