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1. Music in the Films of Pixar Animation Studios
- Baylor University Press
- Chapter
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13 muSic in The FilmS oF pixar animaTion STudioS 1 In order to demonstrate the rich interpretive potential of film music analyses and to identify the principal concerns that will drive the remainder of our discussion, we begin with an extended illustration. While subsequent chapters will attend more fully to those lingering methodological and interpretive questions that this initial examination raises, here we are opting for the kind of heuristic insight that can only ever emerge when we allow ourselves simply to listen and receive, dancing in step with the music that we hear in the midst of our filmgoing. In particular, we take up in the first two chapters an analysis of the music in the films produced by Pixar Animation Studios. Our interaction with these films and their music necessarily involves both celebration and critique, for our goal is to engage in a kind of dialogue that is both mutually enriching and mutually critical —one that offers a more robust understanding, not only of film music’s power and meaning, but of theology as well. That is, while we are concerned with the ways in which theology might inform and, in some cases, expand our understanding of these films, we are equally concerned with the ways in which these films grant us new insight into our basic humanity, the world in which we live, and the presence of the Creator in the cultural forms we humans create. 14 Scoring TranScendence PixAr A “common narrative” from a “collective Auteur” Given the broader focus of the book and the selection of films that we will consider in the chapters that follow, it may be necessary to offer a rationale for why I have allowed the films of Pixar Animation Studios to have the opening word in our discussion . Indeed, the larger argument I am making is not first and foremost about Pixar films or even animated film, and as our discussion progresses, we will increasingly attend to the music in “live-action” films. Yet, as the studio name suggests, each of Pixar’s feature-length films is in fact animated. As such, these movies not only trade upon the expectations and conventions of the genre of animated film, but they also exemplify a particular form of filmmaking—one in which there are no “givens” whatsoever. That is, no “natural” filming environment exists that might serve as a starting point for the creation of the film’s narrative world. In contradistinction to live-action films, the world that exists within an animated film is wholly constructed; every sound, every shadow, and every movement is the direct product of the filmmakers’ intentional, shaping influence. Consequently, music is frequently called upon to invest this wholly constructed world with a modicum of “life.” Music functions in these films to “animate” the animation; it inspirits and breathes life (or anima) into images that are patently artificial and entirely virtual. For this reason, Andrew Stanton—a writer, director , and executive producer for the great majority of Pixar’s films—suggests that, within the context of an animated film, “the music has to raise its game. If you turn the sound off, you will see us struggling to convey the story with the visuals , the actions, and the posing.”1 Thus, Pixar’s films provide a particularly salient example of the irreducible contribution that music makes to film, for, in relation to live-action films, animated movies are far more dependent upon music’s [3.235.199.19] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 13:25 GMT) muSic in The FilmS oF pixar 15 signifying capacities (and sound more generally) to tell their story convincingly. Second, due to the narrative burden that it shoulders in the context of an animated film, music works to shape both the form and the style of these movies (i.e., both the structural components of the film and how the film is delivered to an audience) far more explicitly than it does in live-action films.2 Although many filmmakers begin with a general “soundscape ” in mind, the dynamics of the music/image relationship play an even greater role in the original conception and development of animated films. For example, one of the original creative “visions” for WALL-E centered upon the unique interplay between music and image. Stanton, the film’s writer and director, states, “I always loved the idea of putting an oldfashioned song against space. I always loved the idea of the future against the past juxtaposed, and I...