Customer Reviews

The Simpsons Movie: The Music

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The soundtrack genre of music is actually two sub-genres. There are soundtrack releases that contain the pop/rock/vocal singles from the movie, and then there are those that feature a composer's actual scoring of the film -- usually instrumental and symphonic in orchestration. Some CD's contain both kinds of works, but there are cases where there's a clear divide. There are, for example, two different releases of the Shrek soundtrack: one subtitled "Music from the Original Motion Picture" and another subtitled "Original Motion Picture Score".

Those who complain that the Green Day tracks or Homer's interlude are not on this CD simply aren't in touch with instrumental film scores. And that's fine as a matter of personal preference, but that's no reason to dismiss the album as a whole.

If you like film scores written in a late Romantic idiom (or most of Hans Zimmer's other work for that matter), you'll probably also like this CD. It showcases how Zimmer can aptly score all kinds of films, like Spanglish , Gladiator, and everything in between.

this soundtrack is very good but more fom for danny elfman fans than hans zimmer fans.the first track opens with the simpsons theme with a real orchestal feel wich is nice.release the hounds is fun its almost out of a tarintino movie kinda feel.the best tracks on the album are (clap for alaska) and (spider pig) the last track they could have done without.overall its a good sountrack from one of hollywoods finest.

Even though parts of the score to The Simpsons Movie do get big, such as the opening orchestral version of Danny Elfman's theme, mostly it's kept much smaller in scale. This is nice to see both because of its contrast to other recent Zimmer scores, but also because it's very tastefully done in terms of telling the film's story in a more quirky and clever way.

In regards to other reviewers' complaints that there is no Homer singing Spiderpig on the CD, I found the CD version funnier. In the theater where I saw the film, everyone laughed at the version of Homer singing it, but not nearly as much as they laughed at the end credits CD version, which was longer and more unexpected.

If you are planning to Buy this CD expecting it to be Funny like Songs key to Springfield, or The simpson's go Symphonic, Sorry, this is just the ochestral motion picture soundtrack, no funny one liners, no familiar skits or sing-a-longs, just symphony. So, yes, I love the simpsons, but am so dissapointed in this CD. And The Donut package edition (I have seen) is pretty cheep, and has absolutely no advantage or special contents over the Jewel case version, which averages 8-10 dollars cheeper. So Sorry simpsons fans, this is just music. Not a must have.

So, after nearly 20 years, the Simpsons finally made it to the big screen, didn't they? And nobody really expected them to fail, or did you? The current hype around animated movies certainly helped the project come to life, but there's no harm in that.
Now for the score ... neither Danny Elfman, nor Alf Clausen, who did almost all of the TV shows, return to this musical project. And the answer, I suppose, is quite simple: the producers wanted a name to sell. Too harsh?
The reviews on this page raging about the absence of some rock and pop rubbish clearly show what demographics the company aims at.
Otherwise you can't explain why Alf Clausen, who built this house, wasn't allowed to crown his achievement with scoring this film.

But on to the actual score. We start with Danny Elfman's original title theme, which Hans Zimmer makes sound, orchestrally, unbalanced and all over the place. Bongos, Drums and Violin runs bounce off each other in desperate tries to emulate Danny Elfman's style.
In the subsequent tracks, this pattern is followed, and Zimmer even uses some typical Elfman "La-La" choir, but ultimately, the album runs by without leaving the impression of having heard anything but random tries at Danny Elfman music.
That doesn't mean Hans Zimmer wasn't able to leave some of his fingerprints on the music; that would obviously be impossible. But you can clearly hear that he isn't at all comfortable with having to juggle a musical style that is alot more complex and stylistically demanding than his own.

"Basically, I see myself as Danny's orchestrator" he said in a recent interview. Well, but it needs more than throwing together some Elfman-isms to do him justice.
To break the never-stopping flood of quirky, mischievous underscore, Hans Zimmer included some of his well-known, and well-feared by some, "experiments"; "Release The Hounds" and "Recklessly Impulsive" feature a rock/trance vibe that, while not particulary listenable, at least works somewhat in the film. For one horrible moment, though, you wonder whether the record company accidentally pressed the dreadful, dreadful TJ Tiesto Remix of "He's A Pirate" onto the Simpsons soundtrack.

All taken into account, it is an unusual score for Hans Zimmer, it shows some orchestral colour and range, and that is alot more than you can say about the last few years of Zimmer's work, even if this score just sounds like a failed attempt at Elfman music in the end.

By the way, is Hans Zimmer so proud of having produced a (almost) purely orchestral score that the "Simpsons Theme" needs to be labelled as "orchestral version"? Any version of the Simpsons Theme, in the shows and the film, was orchestral.

Okay, so it isn't Danny Elfman. *cry* But it's still an awesome sountrack. "Spiderpig" is indeed the best song on the album, but all the rest shine through as well. Hans Zimmer almost as amazing as Danny Elfman. Almost.

Please DO NOT buy this album unless you KNOW what a MOVIE SOUNDTRACK is. And take it for what it is. Anyone who was disappointed by it obviously doesn't understand what a movie soundtrack is.

-The long awaited Simpsons movie finally arrived, and it got a very enjoyable score to boot. Despite Zimmer's name being on the album, this is a very Danny Elfman score with a dash of John Debney and John Powell thrown in there. It's rather refreshing to hear pretty woodwinds and harp in a Zimmer score. *cheap shot* I didn't even know he knew they existed */cheap shot*

-"Clap For Alaska" is a great piece of music that makes the whole album a great purchase for me. It starts off very noble then builds into this beautiful and silly choral piece. I wish I could explain why I've become so addicted to that track but I just can't stop listening to it. It's just one of those things that makes you glad you have ears. I think most people though will probably find their highlight in "Spider-Pig". It's a cute little moment but I don't really care for it that much.

-The one track that I can't figure out why it's on the album is "Recklessly Impulsive", which is 5 minutes of club music. I can't even remember hearing that in the movie. It's a terrible track that's more noise than music. I just delete that from my playlist on iTunes so I don't have to waste a second listening to that nonsense. Other than that abysmal blunder everything else is peachy on the album.

-Cheers to Zimmer and his countless assistants and orchestrators for providing a very pleasing score to a very satisfying movie.

Recommended

I enjoyed this soundtrack very much. Hans Zimmer, in my opinion, did a fantastic job. I know there are many people out there giving the soundtrack a bad rating because they thought it would be more of a "traditional" Simpsons soundtrack, and I think that's unfair. I guess in the soundtrack's description they should have indicated that it was more of a movie score, but then again it is a movie soundtrack so people should have expected it to be more of a movie score. Also, people probably should have listened to the samples before they bought the soundtrack.

If you enjoy movie soundtracks/scores you're going to enjoy this one. I actually enjoyed a choir singing the Spider Pig song - it was rather amusing to me. If you don't feel like spending $16 on it, you can just download it off of Amazon for half the price.

A very disappointing purchase. Not what you'd expect from a Simpsons soundtrack. No dialogue clips, none of the vocals from the movie (no Greenday, no Homer singing "Spider-Pig", no Springfield Theme Song from the closing credits). With all respect to Hans Zimmer who wrote a wonderful soundtrack for the movie, its not something I want to sit around and listen to.

Very funny music makes you laugh with each track. "Spiderpig spiderpig does whatever a spiderpig does"