Music Composed by Danny Elfman
Rating: *** 1/2

Only five years ago Elfman was in a study run of dark, introverted, and (to many) difficult scores, and it seemed that nearly all of Elfman’s early fans were crying for a return to his whimsical and melodic fantasy scores from the early 1990s. Now after a run including Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Corpse Bride, and Charlotte’s Web, Elfman’s given us more heartbreaking and magical fantasy variations that anyone could possibly hope for. I bring this up because only in this context can Meet The Robinsons seem like a minor disappointment. Unlike the scores it immediately follows, Meet The Robinsons is not a classic in the Elfman canon. It is, however, a great rush of entirely unpretentious fun that only Elfman at his most exuberant could deliver.

Unfortunately, Disney’s presentation of the music isn’t exactly ideal. While a half hour of score is more than they gave Randy Newman for Cars or John Debney for Chicken Little, it’s still nowhere near enough to give the music room to breath. Granted, most of the songs that share the album actually aren’t bad (I won’t begrudge Rufus Wainwright’s presence on any album), and a few of them even compliment Elfman’s score; The All American Rejects’ “The Future Has Arrived” was written by Elfman and based on one of his themes from the score, and They Might Be Giants’ “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” compliments Elfman’s esoteric sensibilities perfectly. But nevertheless, I can’t help but wonder how much more effectively this album was play if the score was fleshed out with another 15 minutes.

Danny Elfman

Still, in those thirty minutes we get no shortage of catchy signature Elfman themes, and the music has an impressive level of narrative shape given the circumstances. The score’s most immediate ancestor is certainly Flubber, and as such, the score has the tendency to pick up and change direction on the fly. Whether or not you can tolerate this approach is certainly going to affect your enjoyment of Meet The Robinsons, but I personally have no problem with Mickey-Mousing when it’s done with such wit and imagination.

“To the Future!” is probably the most memorable example of this zaniness, an insanely cheesy exercise in retro-joy, with the signature nasally Elfman choir cheering, “The Future Has Arrived! The Future Has Arrived To-Daaaaay!” (appropriated by The All-American Rejects song). The theme is similar to “Suzie’s Theme” from To Die For, but this time the chipper attitude is even more over-the-top and Elfman’s not even being satirical! An instrumental version of the theme pops up in “Pop Quiz and the Time Machine Montage” , another fluffy piece of gleeful tackiness. Elfman represents the future itself much as he represented the Martians in Mars Attacks! and the worms in MIB2 – with retro ‘60s synths and quasi-lounge jazz (“Science Fair”). It’s music that will irritate the hell out of many listeners, but I can’t get enough of it.

To offset the cheese, Elfman also makes a few diversions into darker territory, albeit darker territory that’s too melodramatic to take even remotely seriously. The winking homages to Prokofiev (or, “Faux-kofiev” as I like to say) we heard in his two recent concert pieces pop up for the occasional tongue-in-cheeky “serious” moment, most notably toward the end of “Goob’s Plan” and in the second half of “The Evil Plan.” The latter piece even comes complete with a solemn mock-Russian choir, guaranteed to raise a smile.

But for all the signature Elfman idiosyncrasies, the score also has its fair share of warmth. It’s all bound together with a tender main theme, introduced in “Prologue.” While the melody isn’t quite as memorable or heartwarming as that of Charlotte’s Web and The Corpse Bride, it’s still a sweet theme that makes great use of Elfman’s lyrical woodwind writing. The theme appears sporadically throughout the score, usually to serve as respite for the surrounding manic kookiness. It gets its grandest rendition at the climax of “Doris Has Her Day,” a classic Elfman moment where a great melody struggles through several overbearing harmonic layers before finally breaking triumphantly through with clarity.

And of course, what would any Elfman score be without a beautiful finale cue, this time in the guise of “Setting Things Right.” While it doesn’t hold a candle to his best finales, that final emotional swell always brings a lump to the throat. And though many will argue that the music fades with a whisper rather than a bang, it’s worth pointing out that Elfman at least takes the time to resolve the closing chord in the final rendition of the main theme. As with every Elfman score, the music ends, it doesn’t just stop.

Meet The Robinsons doesn’t break any particularly new ground for the composer, but while some might groan “same old, same old,” I’m personally grateful that we still have a few composers who sound exactly like themselves and no one else. While I think it’s just about time for Elfman to return to more serious fare (as he will this spring with The Kingdom), I’d still recommend the album to anyone who hasn’t gotten tired of Elfman letting his hair down.

Music Composed and Produced by Danny Elfman (7-16); Supervising Orchestrator: Steve Bartek; Orchestrations by Edgardo Simone, Steve Bartek, David Sloanaker; Conducted by Pete Anthony; Recorded and Mixed by Dennis Sands; Label: Walt Disney Records, (000024602); Availability: In-print; U.S. Release Date: March 27, 2007.

01. Another Believer (4:39)
Performed by Rufus Wainwright
02. Little Wonders (3:45)
Performed by Rob Thomas
03. The Future Has Arrived (3:05)
Performed by The All-American Rejects
04. Where Is Your Heart At? (2:23)
Performed by Jamie Cullum
05. The Motion Waltz (Emotional Commotion) (2:35)
Performed by Rufus Wainwright
06. Give Me the Simple Life - Performed by Jamie Cullum (2:04)
07. The Prologue (1:24)
08. To the Future! (1:16)
09. The Science Fair (1:56)
10. Meeting the Robinsons (2:47)
11. Goob’s Story (1:01)
12. A Family United (1:37)
13. Pop Quiz and the Time Machine Montage (3:45)
14. The Evil Plan (4:13)
15. Doris Has Her Day (4:57)
16. Setting Things Right (6:00)
17. There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow - Performed by They Might Be Giants (2:00)
18. Kids of the Future - Performed by Jonas Brothers (3:18)

Total Playing Time: 52:45