A few days ago I went with my friend Angie to go see Wall-E. As a movie I must say it was freaking adorable. It really managed to put love and affection into a new light seeing as it was two robots (which I'm sure the Catholic Church has a problem with). The real key to this as a film, for me anyway, was the lack of major dialogue. It seemed that the brunt of this film was translated to the audience via sounds and an incredible soundtrack. Throughout the film, Wall-E has a fascination with Hello Dolly, which is a fantastic musical in and of itself, but through all the beeps and grinding sprokets, shines another Newman gem in the Pantheon of Pixar films.
This itme it's cousin Thomas (who also did Finding Nemo) who carried the musical load for the family Newman, after more famous Randy wrote some wicked tunes for the likes of Toy Story and Monsters Inc.
The wonderous and enticing thing about this score is that Newman layered melodies in such a way that he could hold a sweeping chord in the strings in a minor key - almost unsettling - while quietly running a piano melody underneath in a major key to represent our hero and his eventual triumphs over evil. Add in some assistance from one of my songwriting idols in Peter Gabriel and you have a sure fire success. And what a success it came to be. By far my favourite highlight in this soundtrack comes at the end in a new Gabriel original Down To Earth. One can really hear Gabriel's age in pieces like this and his cover of Stephen Merritt's Book of Love (also from a soundtrack, see Shall We Dance).
Really, as a soundtrack there isn't too much to review, but I can say that Wall-E is a little different. In a film where the music and sounds have to do the talking, Thomas Newman (with a little help from Peter Gabriel) has decently been able to speak the words that Eve and Wall-E may not have been able to.
And it was a really cute movie, too.
-hb.
