Word: elfman
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Though not directed by Burton, "Nightmare" is the most fully realized execution of his brooding fantasies. Director Henry Selick and composer Danny Elfman have produced a Christmas special gone terribly wrong. All the expected cliches are here: the despairing soul who doesn't understand the holidays, the possibility of a Christmas that almost isn't, a jolly but befuddled Santa Claus and...a mad scientist with a flip-top skull? "Nightmare" is a decidedly different celebration of the season...
...Danny Elfman is as much in his element here as Burton. A frequent Burton contributor, his soundtracks have finally found the most ideal visuals possible. Blending the hurdy-gurdy eeriness of Halloween with the jingle-bell enthusiasm of Christmas songs yields a varied collection of hysterical musical numbers. They range from festive yuletide riffs to a Cab Calloway parody sung by the aptly named Oogie Boogie...
There's wit aplenty in Danny Elfman's discordantly lush score, with its sugarplum fairy exploding over meowing violins. And imposing performances from Walken, as a master builder who out-Trumps himself, and Keaton, sturdily imploding from Batman's unresolved, not quite explicable nobility. But the flashy turns are from DeVito and Pfeiffer...
...like Batman, this comic-book movie is anything but comic; every plangent chord of Danny Elfman's splendid pop-Wagnerian score underlines the scientist's twisted nobility. Raimi isn't effective with his actors, and the dialogue lacks smart menace, but his canny visual sense carries many a scene. And he knows how to give resonance to a tinny plot: by portraying a character so powerful and warped that he is urban America's perfect patron saint...
...Elfman's score not only matches Prince's but surpasses his with its dark chords and swooping orchestral romanticism. Elfman's Batman sets a new standard for film scores. Only a superhero could do better...