Rating  - Thomas Newman Takes Us to the Stars
Thomas Newman is a film composer to pay attention to. His scores all carry his unmistakable style, but they're all different somehow. His score for "WALL-E" is similar to his score for "Finding Nemo" in the way that it captures a somewhat bittersweet feeling, and creates emotional moments in the film without getting sappy. This is a fun score.
Rating  - Great music, but bad packaging
OK, the music is great, if you liked the score to Finding Nemo, you'll find more of the same here. The lonesome, haunting melodies that begin the story are great, and there's some fun adventure music and audio clips from the movie.
BUT
Disney decided to package this in a 100% recycled cardboard sleeve case, which essentially means that every time you take your CD in or out of the sleeve, you are scratching the CD against cardboard. So while they're supposedly being environmentally-conscious with the packaging, they're quickly destroying a CD disc which will need to be trashed in a landfill somewhere once it gets too scratched to perform. My suggestion if you like this score: buy the mp3 download, or buy the disc and make a copy of it--or put the CD into a less destructive jewel case.
Rating - Heartwarming and fantastic
When I saw that Thomas Newman was composing the music for this movie, I was ecstatic. Finding Nemo has one of the best scores ever, so I had high expectations for Wall E. I wasn't disappointed. The music spreads over many different emotions present in the movie, from the haunting melody of "2815 AD" to the beautiful and heartwearming "Define Dancing," two of my favorites on the CD. The score keeps the futuristic setting in mind while still keeping the emotion. This is a fantastic soundtrack, made all the more endearing by the addition of "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" and "It Only Takes a Moment" from Hello, Dolly, Wall E's favorite movie.
Rating - One third of this album is just wonderful
There are many instruments on this CD, and many that I've never even heard of... from unusual medieval instruments to the 'Musical Telegraph' (perhaps the first ever electronic instrument), the EWI (a kind of electronic saxophone), to Windharp, 'Granulated' Synthesizers (something usually only used in Noise Music), Marimba, Flapamba (??, and btw, can someone please tell me what a Floating Backward is?????)... 'Rendered' Harp, 'Dompteur Xylophone' etc...... an amazing mix of traditional and electronic arrangements.... the effect is as hauntingly complex and stunning as the film itself... almost unbearable in the beauty that's being created, for example the amazing tenderness of sounds at the beginning of Fixing Wall-E or the deep happiness as expressed in the last track, Horizon 12.2 (a happiness that seems to arise from a lot of unhappiness, like a lotus flower rising from a pond of tears)... or the loneliness of 2815 A.D....the amazing spaceyness of it all... i really love all these tracks with the orchestra.... but the other material.... i certainly don't like Hello Dolly, it works well in the movie, but by itself, it is just not really that good, actually I don't like any of these old songs that appear on the soundtrack.. they had their place in the movie and of course need to be on this cd.... to be honest, i can't stand that Peter Gabriel song, it is so totally middle of the road and unspectacular... i was pretty shocked that they would use something like that in such a special film.... thank Heaven the last two minutes of the credits had the wonderful Horizon 12.2... so the movie could end with sounds of beauty... it would have been wonderful if they had asked somebody like Kate Bush to write a song to be used for the credits.... something really special and with more depth, more mystery than the uninspiring Gabriel ditty....
well, to sum it up.... just for the orchestra tracks, it is an absolute must-have... the rest is very much a question of taste...
the artwork is lovely.....
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Customer Reviews for Walt Disney Records,050087119508,0050087119508,B0017LFKMY, |
