Personal quote When you look at Danny Elfman's continuing career, you have to say that it is merely odd, and sort of bumpy. In the late 80' he was the inventor of the really dark film music, with Batman and his rather fairy tale approach with Edward Scissorhands. Then we got his more emotional and supreme qualities and to many people his best period. Black Beauty and Sommersby are still treasured by any fan as his finest achievements. But this changed rather quickly into a bouncy career with psychological thrillers, bouncy B-flicks, dark comedies and subdued drama's. Elfman fans cried out and with the latest projects we seem to have our latest style associated with Elfman, the big comic and remake style. Only to hope if we can re discover the old Elfman, because his bouncy career keeps him out of the top list of film music composers, even if he did score some of the best of the decade. Biography Daniel Richard Elfman was born on May 29th, in Amarillo, Texas. When getting tired of the scenery of Los Angeles he moved to France and started along with his brother the band "Mystic Knights of Oingo-Boingo". Elfman's first movie gig was Forbidden Zone, though it took five years before he scored another movie. That movie was Pee Wee's Big Adventure of Tim Burton. Today both are one of the strongest collaborators of movie making Hollywood. Yet it were the darker scores that turned the attention towards Danny Elfman, Scrooged and especially Beetlejuice are prime examples of Danny Elfman's dark side. The next year delivered one of the strongest scores thus far, Batman became the ultimate star of Elfman's collection. His theme is known today all over the world and received a Grammy award, sadly that was the only price it received. And our beloved dark composer maintained in its quirky mood, he scored Nightbreed, Darkman, Dick Tracy and one of his best emotional scores Edward Scissorhands, still treasured by many to bring the best out of Elfman's emotional side of film scoring. At that point Elfman was embraced by many, because he delivered that something called "pure Elfmanesque". The next years offered dark fantasy and dramatic emotion, Batman Returns, The Nightmare before Christmas (received a Golden Globe nomination) and the two melodic highlights Sommersby and Black Beauty. Other projects include To Die For, Mars Attacks, Mission: Impossible, the two Oscar nominated scores Men in Black and Good Will Hunting, A Simple Plan, A Civil Action, Sleepy Hollow and Instinct. More pictures Elfman scored are The Family Man, Proof of Life and Planet of the Apes. Recently he picked up again the comic book scoring with Spider-Man, The Hulk and Spider-Man 2. Big Fish was a lovely entry and received an Oscar nomination and more Elfman material came for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Corpse Bride, Nacho Libre and Charlotte's Web. With the animation for Meet the Robinsons, the thriller The Kingdom and the upcoming Hellboy 2 (where he replaces Marco Beltrami) Elfman is continuing to expand the bar in any genre.
(on getting into moviescoring) June 4, 1997 You know, when I'm scoring Tim's films it kind of doesn't feel like work in a weird way. I sit here going, "God, I'm getting paid for this? It's so much fun!" It's like too much fun to be considered work. (on scoring Tim Burton's films) June 4, 1997 In any unusual film, finding the tone makes such a big difference. In Tim's films, more than most, if you miss the tone, you don't get the film. (overall impression) June 24, 2003 Danna's original score had more ethereal, world music elements, it was a beautiful score, but not to this movie. (on the rejected score of Michael Danna) June 24, 2003 We ended up getting along great, but Ang would still call me. He'd say, 'That's a 'Danny.' And even though I wanted to say, 'No, that's a Bernard Herrmann, my true hero,' I knew he was right. It was hard because it takes time to reinvent yourself, and we didn't have much time. (on The Hulk) 
 
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Highlight
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The Works ллллл ллллл лллл Good Will Hunting / Black Beauty лллл The Nightmare before Christmas ллл ллл лл |
