Another fantastic soundtrack in the musical oeuvre of Danny Elfman! Fans of Elman’s style of music will no doubt enjoy “Epic: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Music by Danny Elfman”. Recommended!
Image is courtesy of © 2013 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Epic: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Music by Danny Elfman
LABEL: Sony Classical
DURATION: 52:25
RELEASE DATE: May 28, 2013
- Leafmen
- Pursuit
- Tara’s Chamber
- Meet Dad
- Moonhaven Parade
- Alarms
- The Selection
- Ambush
- Tara’s Gift
- Small
- Girl Meets Boy
- Rings of Knowledge
- Antlers
- Kidnapped
- In the House
- Many Leaves
- Escape
- False Start
- Epic Final Confrontation
- Return
- Epic Finale
When it comes to television and movie soundtracks, Danny Elfman’s name is one of the names you will often seen listed.
Known for creating “The Simpsons” theme, creating music for Tim Burton’s “Batman”, “Corpse Bride”, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and most recently creating the music for “Men in Black 3”, “Frankenweenie”, “Hitchcock” and “Oz and the Great and Powerful”, to say that Danny Elfman is in demand as a composer is an understatement.
And for the Oingo Boingo lead vocalist turned prolific TV/film composer, Danny Elfman’s latest addition to his musical oeuvre is the 2013 American 3D computer animated epic fantasy-adventure-comedy drama, “Epic” based on William Joyce’s children’s book “The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs”. An animated film produced by Blue Sky Studios, directed by Chris Wedge and features the voices of stars talents such as Amanda Seyfried, josh Hutcherson, Colin Farrell, Christoph Waltz, Aziz Ansari, Chris O’Dowd, Pitbull, Jason Sudeikis, Steven Tyler and Beyonce Knowles.
The film revolves around a teenage girl named Mary Katherine who moves in with her eccentric scientist father Professor Bomba, after the death of her mother. She finds out that her father is looking for little tiny human soldiers, which she is quite skeptical and wishes her father would stop pursuing such work.
But the truth is Professor Bomba is correct and that these tiny humans known as “Leafmen” do in fact exist and their duty is to protect the forest from the evil Boggans and their leader Mandrake who are intent in destroying the forest.
One day, as Mary Katherine a.k.a. “M.K.” leaves home, annoyed by her father, the queen of the forest, Queen Tara is attacked by Bogans and is shot by Mandrake. While looking for father’s dog Ozzie, she sees Queen Tara falling and Tara gives M.K. her leaf pod and uses her magic to shrink her. Her final message to M.K. is to take the pod to a glowworm named Nim Galuu.
Now, knowing that her father research is true, M.K. with the help of the Leafmen try to reach to safety, knowing that Mandrake and the Boggans are out to kill them.
With this adventure and fantasy theme, Danny Elfmanworked with many musicians for this soundtrack. From musicians who specialize in violins, violas, celli, bass, flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, French horns, trumpets, trombones, tubas, harps, percussion, timpani, piano and guitar.
brings a bit of an Irish style of fun and uplifting music for the first track “Leafmen”. But manages to transition to the more serious and action-sequence of “Pursuit” which features Danny Elfman’s trademark style of action music.
His style is heard in “Tara’s Chamber” and to hear the vocal chorus employed in “Tara’s Chamber” reminds me of his work on “Batman”. Ominous with a dab of playfulness, a beautiful track on this soundtrack!
For the fourth track “Meet Dad”, the soundtrack captures the playfulness and eccentric style of Professor Bomba, albeit a short :34 second track.
The fifth track “Moonnhaven Parade” is a beautiful track that utilizes harp and guitar with gentleness, while the short track “Alarms” utilizes strings to the track’s efficacy. And once again, for the more magical track “The Selection”, a beautiful track that also captures the Elfman style!
“Ambush” is much more fiercer than “Pursuit”, a track that manages to blend in acoustic guitar with strings and percussion to create the sense of danger.
While the ninth track “Tara’s Gift” is moving and sad with strings that capture the death of Queen Tara with emotion and sadness and captures M.K.’s transformation to a shrunken version of herself.
The 10th track “Small”, similar to “Leafmen” is upbeat and has that Irish style and transitions to the moody “Girls Meets Boy” with a sense of pending danger. While the 11th track “Rings of Knowledge” is a track that utilizes the flute, oboes, clarinets and strings. A beautiful and whimsical track!
For the 13th track “Antlers”, Elfman creates a dreamy track in which the musicians produce magic and beautiful balance with strings, vocals and more! But the gentleness of “Antlers”, easily transitions to a more threatening track with “Kidnapped”.
The 15th track titled “In the House” is another “in pursuit” style of track. Ominous tones with an overcoming surge of energy as one is being pursued and the use of strings and flute is brilliantly used on this track. The 16th track “Many Leaves” is under track that use the woodwind instruments rather nicely. But as much as I enjoyed the track, it’s much too short and next thing you know, the next song, the 17th track titled “Escape” returns to the more ominous and darker sounds with fast strings creating the sounds of pending danger.
The 18th track “False Star” is a song that brings hope, with the magical vocal arrangement that blends nicely with the instruments. A magical and beautiful track on this soundtrack!
For the climactic confrontation, the 19th track “Epic Final Confrontation” starts out gentle but then transitions to a more distressed and action-driven style that Danny Elfman always manages to pull off magnificently.
The 20th track “Return” is a song of hope, beauty and calm. Great use of strings and brass and fine use of guitar in the transition. And the final 21st track “Epic Finale” is a beautiful Flamenco style that combines the Irish style of music that is heard in “Leafmen” and “Small” for the final track. Upbeat and a fascinating track overall.
“Epic: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Music by Danny Elfman” comes with an eight page booklet with images from the film and production credits.
Overall, “Epic: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Music by Danny Elfman” is another magnificent soundtrack that Danny Elfman fans will enjoy!
Whimsical, adventurous, enjoyable and recommended!
