Filmtracks: Lightyear (Michael Giacchino)

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Written 6/21/22

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Buy it... if you appreciate Michael Giacchino's loyalty to music genres of the past, Lightyear a simplistically affable and proficient extension of vintage science-fiction mannerisms.

Avoid it... if you require dynamic enthusiasm in your adventure music, for Giacchino hits all the right notes here but fails to really convey the gregarious spirit this score should have espoused.

Giacchino

Lightyear: (Michael Giacchino) If you spend too much of your time explaining the premise of your movie ahead of time, then you're losing the box office battle. Such is the lesson reaffirmed by Disney and Pixar's 2022 disappointing Toy Story spin-off, Lightyear, an attempt to peacefully co-exist with other Buzz Lightyear-related backstories and tell of the animated movie that spawned the creation of the toy seen in the primary franchise. With animation inspired by science-fiction depictions of yesteryear, the film tells of Lightyear's adventures as a Space Ranger in Star Command, the kind of outlandish actions that the toy was bragging about in the Toy Story entries. His story here is actually quite convoluted and unpleasant in several ways, becoming embroiled in time and character paradoxes that witness the character as something of a failure overall. A plot twist involving Lightyear and the evil Emperor Zurg induces eye-rolling from audiences seeking relative simplicity, and the comedic element inherent in Tim Allen's performance of the titular character is lost in Chris Evans' interpretation of Lightyear at his prime. The concept didn't seem to appeal as much to audiences as a direct sequel would have, the theatrical opening of Lightyear among the poorest grossing of any Pixar film. While the music of the Toy Story franchise has long been defined by Randy Newman, Pixar veteran Michael Giacchino did score a pair of television specials for the franchise in 2013 and 2014, so he was a logical composer to select for this assignment. With the film's purpose in rooting its look and feel in old-school science-fiction, Giacchino saw the opportunity to draw upon vintage genre music from his own youth, and Lightyear is thus styled around early 1980's and earlier influences in its score. Perhaps the most important decision made by Giacchino and director Agnus MacLane was the total abandonment of any Newman material, citing a lack of connectivity between the two parts of the concept.

While Newman did provide the Buzz toy with his own soaring motif when he "flies" in the Toy Story films, nothing of that music survives in Lightyear. The lack of a creative or even subtle allusion to that music in this score is a disappointment, because the audience knows the connection already. The personality of Giacchino's score is otherwise predictable, playing to genre stereotypes and offering no surprises. With an orchestral ensemble of upwards of 90 players and around 40 singers, the composer adds occasional electronic elements for hints of coolness. A slight electric bass presence at times is a good choice, giving the score a touch of Danny Elfman in a few places, but Giacchino saves outright electric guitar coolness for the conclusive highlight of the work, "Infinite MOEtion." The themes of Lightyear are fairly static, and the action material is extremely generic despite being very well executed, striving at times to access John Williams' Star Wars music more often than expected, the "Oh, Hover" cue throwing a few Jerry Goldsmith nuggets in with that Williams inspiration. That cue arguably contains the score's best action rhythms and unique motifs of the moment. The rest of the heightened material isn't quite as engaging, pure filler action completely devoid of thematic material heard in "Initial Greetings" and "Afternoon Delight Speed" offering a non-descript, long, rhythmic crescendo without much appeal. Some of these passages are quite decent in their rhythmic ruckus, including "Light Speed at the End of the Tunnel" and "Relative Success." Interestingly, parts of "A Good Day to Not Die" sound like leftovers from Michael Kamen's The Iron Giant. These cues don't allow Giacchino's set of themes for the film to breathe, leaving them in generally static development that neglects to push them to any direct conflict or adversity. The emotional posture of a theme in its first performance generally dictates how it will be incorporated in each instance thereafter. You don't hear the serial adaptations of these ideas into interesting variations as often as expected, with adversity or suspense often tackled instead with generic devices not related to the themes.

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The composer provides Lightyear himself with a fanfare identity that understandably disappears in the middle of the story to coincide with the character's lack of victorious heroics in that third. He then devises separate themes for Lightyear's sadness and romanticism, leaving the only other major idea for the villain, Emperor Zurg, whose presence is restricted to the second half of the story. The main theme for Buzz Lightyear is a basic set of two climbing, four-note, major-key phrases after a militaristic march provides introductory rhythmic anticipation. The rhythms sometimes occur on their own early in Lightyear. Giacchino begins the score in "Mission Log" with the theme on solo horn, light snare, and synthetic rhythm, developing it into mild suspense in the latter half of the cue. The theme receives a slower, pompous performance to start "Lightyear," with somewhat humorous woodwind and light percussion accompaniment to the theme and rhythm later on. The idea occupies all of "The Best Laid Flight Plans of Space and Men" with gusto, shifts to a pounding minor mode for heightened conflict in "Blown on Course," and is tentative on flute at the outset of "Mission Perpetual" before building to confident renditions. The theme struggles to maintain its personality at that point, being danced around in the exuberant "Operation Surprise Party" and trying to emerge with flight late in "Zurg-onomics" but only stuttering. It finally returns after a long break at 0:35 into "Improv-Izzy-tion" and is layered with the rhythmic flourishes at 1:25 into "Back to Buzzness." Its original noble form dominates throughout all of "Home on Space Range," and the theme receives a somewhat corny, television series-like rendition in the cool "Infinite MOEtion." The composer's standard suite format follows in "One Suite Buzz;" the Lightyear fanfare opens that recording on piano, building to several heroic statements for four minutes. The theme's lack of an interlude sequence really inhibits this longer presentation. Essentially, those four minutes have to be anchored by the same eight notes over and over again without any deviation to a different melody. The tiring nature of this repetition isn't as obnoxious as Giacchino's handling of his main theme in The Batman earlier in 2022, but it may still leave the listener somewhat dissatisfied.

The lengthy "One Suite Buzz" track does return to the main fanfare at 8:14 to close out the score with Star Trek-informed flair. While the repetitive fanfare may be devoid of any intellectual prowess for tired listeners, it does serve its purpose of memorability, being extremely simple to recall for even the most detached movie-goer. In this respect, it anchors the film well and maintains the right personality even if it fails to impress beyond that purpose. The most interesting thematic explorations in Lightyear are the character's two secondary ideas, but they are sparsely applied. The composer frustratingly refuses to apply these themes in some situations that could call for them, negating some of their purpose and prominence in the closing suite. Lightyear's romantic theme is exactly the interlude that Giacchino needed for the main fanfare, but he only uses it as such in "Infinite MOEtion." Its ascending, hopeful tone debuts at 1:34 into "Mission Perpetual" over rollicking snare rhythms; there is a bit of John Barry influence here, even down to the repeated phrases. But that idea doesn't return until 0:26 into "Infinite MOEtion," with enhanced confidence over guitars and electric bass reprised with great choral and guitar layers at 1:21. The idea is revisited twice (6:38 and 7:46) in "One Suite Buzz" with cooing choir. In that suite, Giacchino mingles the romantic theme with Lightyear's sadness identity, which consists of repeating three-note phrases, mostly descending. It's heard slowly at 1:04 into "Lightyear's Behind" on solemn piano and with even more deliberation during all of "The Lone Space Ranger" on that very contemplative instrument. The sadness theme tries but fails to take hold in the middle of "Mistake It All In" and is replaced by a different identity with the same purpose in "To Infinity and Be Gone." Its overstated place in "One Suite Buzz" comes at 5:59 and, with a heroic tilt, at 7:17. The theme for Zurg is a truly cartoonish villain tune, always overblown and with little variance. It stews at 0:59 into "Zurg Awakens" with deep male choral tones and explodes in all of "Zurg's Displeasure," accompanied by a formal, bloated introduction on brass and chanting choir. The idea stomps suddenly at 2:46 into "Space Afraiders," enjoys explosive bursts for choir at 0:16 and 1:44 into "Zurg-onomics," and takes on Godzilla-like proportions, even with banging gong, in "Buzz, Meet Zurg."

The Zurg theme briefly interrupts the fluffy military rhythms of "World's Worst Self-Destruct Sequence," reprises the same old bloviating at 0:19 into "Time to Space Your Fears," blurts on brass in the middle of "Hiding from Yourself" with a massive choral conclusion, and interjects for a moment at 0:12 in "Improv-Izzy-tion." The theme's tone thrashes around at times in "Back to Buzzness" and stomps as a stately march on brazen brass at 4:42 into "One Suite Buzz." That end credits suite once again shows Giacchino's inability to write good bridge sequences between his ideas in those long recordings, each major theme existing separately after a fade to near silence. (This issue has gotten worse for the composer in the 2020's; while these suites are a great throwback in concept, their execution isn't up to Williams or Goldsmith standards.) Likewise, as in the concurrent Jurassic World: Dominion, Giacchino offers his softer themes in more developed forms during the suite than in the score proper, which begs for explanations as to why they existed at all. If a theme doesn't really have any significant impact on a score, why give it minutes of air time in the suite? In the end, Lightyear is totally sufficient for its purpose and wears its heart in plain sight. The recording is average for Giacchino, with a relative absence of interesting percussive layers compared to his norm. The album experience, at 76 minutes, seems longer than it actually is. There is a lack of dynamic spirit and excitement in the orchestration and performances of this score that saps much of its potential appeal. This "anonymous music effect" happens to Giacchino at times, and it causes an otherwise proficient adventure score to oddly neglect the fun factor. As a composer (and crew), if your performers don't sound like they are having fun performing the score... if they simply sound as though they're earning their studio musician pay for the day and nothing more, then that lack of enthusiasm will be conveyed in the end result. That's the biggest issue with Lightyear. There's nothing technically wrong with it, but it still fails to endear itself to you. Part of the issue here may be that Giacchino's somewhat retro orchestral stylings alone are struggling to hold interest. As the lone standout cue in the work, "Infinite MOEtion" has more contemporary spirit and some semblance of suave coolness and enjoyment, and that style works better than anything in the rest of the score. That remainder is truly fine, but it falls one dead battery short of infinity and beyond. @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Music as Written for the Film: ****
Music as Heard on Album: ***
Overall: ***

Bias Check:

For Michael Giacchino reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.46 (in 43 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.21 (in 23,476 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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