Michael Giacchino's association with Pixar Animation Studios reaches back to his first truly mainstream film score, The Incredibles, and flourished with his Oscar-nominated score to 2007's Ratatouille (both films were directed by Brad Bird).
Both scores were astonishingly charming and mature orchestral works by the young up-and-coming composer, and his latest score for the studio, Up, not only continues this trend, but greatly expands upon and develops those qualities, resulting in a masterfully entertaining, adventure-romance score, a delightful musical throwback to the Golden Age of Hollywood, and an extremely well-rounded, three-dimensional score album.
Giacchino's Refreshing Orchestral Scores
Giacchino's music, being completely acoustic and orchestral, has an organic nature to it which is refreshing in and of itself, but he goes one step further by employing colorful orchestral techniques and instrumentations which give his scores a completely delightful flavor. In addition to his racing strings and trademark xylophone and triangle hits, Up also features lots of muted trumpets, delightful violin solos, harp and piano passages, and prominent roles for the woodwind section.
In a nutshell, he uses the full ensemble to its greatest potential, with a place for every instrument, giving the score a musical solidity and integrity which is cleverly submerged beneath the immediate attractiveness of the score's upbeat optimism and ceaseless charm.
Themes in the Up Soundtrack
The score’s most prominent theme (though it is by no means the only one) is a wonderfully innocent waltz, first heard on piano in “We’re in the Club Now” and explored thoroughly in extremely affable fashion in the next track, “Married Life” (a good candidate for the album’s highlight) with the rapturously happy melody being passed from piano to solo violin, to woodwinds, to muted brass, to chimes, xylophone and other light percussion; and ranging emotionally from delirious joy to reflective tenderness with effortless flexibility.
The waltz is twisted and manipulated to a terrific degree throughout the score, such as the lofty, carefree version heard in “Carl Goes Up” (strongly reminiscent, perhaps intentionally, of Victor Young’s hot-air balloon waltz from Around the World in 80 Days): but the theme finds perhaps its most surprising variations in the heroic action cues, such as “Escape from Muntz Mountain,” “Giving Muntz the Bird” and the climactic “Seizing the Spirit of Adventure,” all cues of surprising and relentless intensity.
Secondary Melodies in Giacchino's Pixar Score
Two other wonderful themes show up with delightful regularity: one is the “Spirit of Adventure” theme for Muntz (the theme used for the opening titles and reprised in quaint song form at the end of the album), and the other is a lounge-style jazz melody for Kevin the bird. They too receive ample development during the duration of the score, and combined with the dominant waltz theme, they have a delightful and infectious presence, both in the film and on the album.
All the major themes are reprised and developed even further in the nearly eight-minute long “Up With End Credits,” a wonderful summary of the entire score.
Summary
The score’s perfect balance of nostalgia, adventure, action, romance and Golden Age-styled melodies makes it easily one of Giacchino’s finest efforts to date, and the album presents a near-perfect representation of the score. The length of the album is just right, with about 50 minutes of Giacchino’s music and another few minutes of sound effects from the film presented courtesy of Skywalker Sound.
If any complaint could be leveled against this otherwise flawless soundtrack, it would be that there is no CD release for the score: it is available as a digital download only from Amazon.com and the iTunes store. In any case, the music is surely one of the year’s best scores so far, and it comes very highly recommended, regardless of Disney’s egregious publishing methods.
See Also: Star Trek Soundtrack Review, Land of the Lost Soundtrack Review, Michael Giacchino: His Music
 |
 |
