The centerpiece of the score is "Married Life," a
heart-breaking four minutes depicting the majority of Carl and Ellie's
lives and her death; Giacchino's manipulation of the theme's pacing and
instrumentation in this cue so well matches the tone of the scene that
it alone likely merited much of the recognition given to the entire
score. In "Carl Goes Up," Giacchino completes the translation of the
theme into a fully symphonic variation with harps waving and flutes
chirping. Later scenes revisit the theme frequently as Carl focuses on
his nearing goal of realizing the adventure they never had, "Paradise
Found" and "Stuff We Did" solemn reminders of better days. The latter
cue is another tear-jerking point at which the score is not layered with
any other sounds in the film. The pair of "It's Just a House" and "The
Ellie Badge" amplifies the bittersweet application of the theme with
contrasting sensibilities, ultimately returning the theme once again to
the solo piano from which it originated. The final theme in
Up
belongs to the adventurer Muntz and his blimp; the film's opening
newsreel scene applies this theme with heavy, vintage jazz (in song
form) and it disappears until an enthusiastic, light-hearted ensemble
performance in "The Nickel Tour." Giacchino then adapts the theme into a
dark, minor-key variant in "The Explorer Motel" as Carl and the boy
realize that Muntz is an insane killer, and thereafter the menacing
version of Muntz's theme and heroic bursts of Ellie's theme do sonic
battle (as in "Escape From Muntz Mountain" and "Seizing the Spirit of
Adventure"). A few other general motifs meander through the score,
though none is of particular note. The wacky dogs of Muntz are afforded
a primordial march of low woodwinds and varied drums that seems like a
holdover from
Land of the Lost. Forcefully enunciated in "Giving
Muntz the Bird" and "Seizing the Spirit of Adventure" is a bold
ascending and descending brass motif that joins Muntz's theme as a
probable representation of the airship. Cues specifically for the boy
and an exotic bird at the center of the story are usually treated with
loungey variations on Ellie's theme, as in "Kevin Beak'n" (indeed, the
composer once again can't contain himself with his cue titles). The
muted brass and layered solo woodwinds running throughout these ideas
solidify
Up as tribute to yesteryear.
In general, the vintage jazz and waltz combination is
effective in raising the spirit of adventure specifically from the
perspective of an elderly man, but this material could potentially sound
geriatric to some listeners seeking only loftier fantasy elements. The
straight action cues, such as "52 Chachki Pickup," adhere to typical
animated action, even down to prominent xylophone runs. Together, the
totality of
Up is effectively likeable and addresses well the age
of the primary character. It has just enough whimsy and action to hold
the faster scenes while Ellie's theme steals the show in its solo piano
renditions. The score was never released by Disney on CD at the time of
its hype, only available as a download with the source-like newsreel cue
and three sound effects tracks tacked onto the end. Unfortunately, with
a score as dynamic in instrumental range as
Up, hearing it in
compressed MP3 form is simply unacceptable. This format may work for
headphones, but its presentation of the recording sounds dull and flat
on any sizable stereo system. It renders the sound effects especially
pointless as well. Disney, which has oscillated on its 2009 decision to
never again release its soundtracks on physical media, did
Up a
significant disservice with the MP3-only release, causing the subsequent
CD promo releases of two expanded selections of cues to fetch outrageous
prices in auctions and be extensively distributed illegally online.
Pressed in a short period at the end of 2009 and start of 2010, the
"Cast and Crew" and "For Your Consideration" promotional CDs for
Up both clock in at over 70 minutes in length, spread over 50+
tracks, though they do differ in contents and arrangements. The "Cast
and Crew" version is generally considered the complete presentation of
the score in lossless sound. The "For Your Consideration" album,
however, does have longer versions of four or five cues that were
condensed together on the other CD. Enthusiasts of the score are
unfortunately left with a search for both versions if seeking absolutely
every moment of the score, though the "Cast and Crew" CD contains the
most raw material. In either case, the presentation is extremely choppy
because of its segregation into such a large number of very short cues.
The additional music, despite really filling in the sequences before the
house ascends into the sky, is not spectacular and certainly won't merit
the hundreds of dollars that either CD has demanded on the secondary
market.
Disney's decision to avoid commercial CDs clearly
backfired when the score won so many awards, and the studio finally
rectified the MP3 situation for most listeners when it decided to allow
Intrada Records to distribute a CD version of the previously available
MP3 contents in 2011. The physical product was celebrated with great
enthusiasm at Intrada, for it represented the first in a line of highly
anticipated collaborations between the massive studio and the specialty
soundtrack label that promised to deliver several Disney scores highly
desired by fans. That said, the album is primarily a Walt Disney Records
product, and with Intrada not credited anywhere on the packaging except
for the marginalized use of its logo, it seems that the smaller label is
only a distributor of what is essentially an in-house Disney endeavor.
There was some understandable grumbling about the fact that the
Disney/Intrada pairing did not yield a CD release with an expanded
presentation of the score, especially considering Intrada's usual
tendency to press outstanding expanded presentations of properly aged
scores. As the CD is only a mirror of the MP3 contents, it's difficult
to imagine that Intrada will hit its ceiling of 10,000 pressed copies of
the product very quickly, if at all. Sound quality is the primary
benefit of that CD for those not interested in the promos, the
soundscape finally realized in its fullest domain on a commercial
product. Keep in mind, however, that Giacchino's major recordings of
theatrical scores have almost always tended to be overly dry and shallow
in the mix, a truly unfortunate and perpetual point of concern for fans
of a man with so much inspiration in the fantasy genre. One would hope
for at least a minimal amount of tastefully applied, genre-acceptable
reverb in these scores, and
Up in particular suffered especially
in its compressed MP3 presentation because of this additional loss of
some of the dynamic range of the recording. The 2011 CD will still sound
highly constricted to some listeners; don't expect this score to bounce
off the walls with vibrant ambience, because not only is the mixing
unsatisfactorily flat as usual, but the score's intimate design
exacerbates this situation to an extent. Regardless of the issues with
its mixing and release on album,
Up is still a fine score. It
never deserved all the awards it received (even
Schindler's List
and
Titanic didn't achieve the same number of wins), for it is
not substantially competitive with its most robust peers in 2009, but it
breaks your heart when it needs to.
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