Ryan Leach : Music for Animation

The soundtrack for Up features a short video interview with composer Michael Giacchino. Up is Giacchino’s third feature film collaboration with Pixar, the first two being The Incredibles and Ratatouille.

The subject of the video is “Composing for Characters”, though the discussion by the filmmakers and composer seems to be more generally about themes and not necessarily why a certain theme goes with a certain character.

The highlights of the video are the shots of the orchestra recording the score. Giacchino is Hollywood’s brave knight in the fight for live musicians and has been very successful in getting live groups of amazing players together to perform his scores. A lot of people take for granted that a score sounds great because the of the composer’s writing, forgetting that half of the reason it sounds so good is because of the players that turn that writing into music.

This past weekend I had a chance to see The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story at The Regent theater in Westwood. Overall the film was an incredibly enjoyable biography of Robert and Richard Sherman, two of the greatest songwriters in the Disney legacy. The film was very well put together, with a lot of fun clips from the brothers’ songs and movies, and interviews with a great cast of celebrities including people like Roy Disney, Julie Andrews and Ben Stiller.

Some of the best moments of the film occurred whenever Walt Disney made an appearance, or the boys were sharing a story about him. Despite the close relationship the Shermans had with him, the film seemed to treat Walt almost like a mythical figure, which I guess is the Disney way.

As much fun as the film was, there was a major emphasis on the “troubled relationship” between the two brothers. Although they kept making reference to the tension between them and the rift it created between their families, they never seemed to really explain what went wrong. Right from the introduction the filmmakers (Robert and Richard’s sons) seemed like they were going to reveal to the world the dark secrets that made their relationship so strained. In the end there were a few moments of “I don’t want to talk about that, it’s too hard”, and that was that. No great mystery revealed, for the most part we just saw moments of great success and happiness.

I highly recommend anyone who loves Disney films to watch this documentary for an enjoyable behind the scenes look at some great Disney history.