Hi everyone…
Well, today (Sunday–Mother’s Day) we actually had one more small session for Cars 2… so now the scoring for the movie is finally finished! The orchestra actually spent most of the day today working on Super 8 for JJ Abrams… but then at 5:00pm, we took a short break, “switched gears” as it were… (heh) and then had one small session to finish up Cars 2. The Pixar gang flew down for it, and actually, there was very little to do – only two small cues near the end of the movie with changes, and we were done in under an hour. In fact, at the end when John got up to the podium to thank us, he not only said once again what a great score it was, but that it was the fewest fixes they’ve ever had to do on one of their movies.
As far as the status of the film goes, they just finished all of the visuals on Friday, and are now working on the final mix up at Skywalker Sound, where they’ll be done by the end of the month. Unlike the other sessions for Cars 2 (which were held at Warner Bros), this one was held at Fox (since everyone was already there for Super 8). Short as it was, everyone once again seemed to have a great time, with John walking around filming us as we finished up the movie.
So all in all, we recorded the entire score – as well as a short called La Luna for next year (I can reveal its name now that it’s been officially announced) – in just a little over five days. I’m glad to see there will be a CD release offered of the score, and I can’t wait to see the movie complete (and in proper sequence!) in theatres next month. It’s just about six weeks away…
First of all, if anyone’s interested, here’s a picture of John Lasseter, Michael Giacchino, and Tim Simonec up on the podium at the end of the final Cars 2 session yesterday at the Fox scoring stage, courtesy of a colleague: photomisc.webs.com/index.htm
So how’s the Super 8 soundtrack, if I may ask?
Really good – and a totally different mood and style than Cars 2 (as it should be). I know it sounds contrived from someone who worked on it to say that it was really good… but I honestly really did like it (and I’ve played enough bad scores in my time as well, believe me). No word yet on if there will be a CD release of it, but it’s definitely deserving of one.
As someone pointed out on the main page of Pixar Planet:
No Car-edits (Credits)? Oh well, sounds like a great collection anyway!
Yeah, what a waste of a perfectly good pun! Well, we didn’t record any end credit music for the film because the end credits will have a pop song (like Wall-E). By the way, missing from the included tracks on the CD is one cue we did that (title-wise) was a new version of an old favorite – one called Rooftop Dash. Oh well. You’ll hear it in the movie at least.
will there be a crew/cast soundtrack for Cars 2? Pixar usually tends to do that
Don’t know. Just to be clear, we musicians never get those Cast & Crew CDs. Doesn’t quite make sense, but we have to buy the official CDs from the store just like everyone else (I guess those CDs are for those who are actual Pixar employees). But at least we got free Cars 2 hats. And if a Cast & Crew CD is ever made for Cars 2, please let me know. I’d be interested to see which tracks were included that aren’t on the official CD release (as is usually the case with previous Cast & Crew CDs).
How much sleep did you guys actually get?
Well… at least more than the composer and orchestrators did, I’m sure…
Finally, I’ll make a comment on something that’s just a minor spoiler (a visual gag) in Cars 2 – only because its existance has now already been revealed in a post on the Pixar Blog a couple of days ago. It’s very minor, but I’ll put it in spoiler tags anyway (click SHOW to see):
A few days ago, the Pixar Blog revealed that… among the celebrities that will be “Carsified” is John Lasseter – as “John Lassetire.” That’s correct. While working on the film, I noticed a sign that read “John Lassetyre” – a funny pun, that also used the British spelling for tire (“tyre”). I can’t remember at what point in the film this occured (what country the characters were in at the time), so either we were using prints meant for Europe, or (most likely), it occurred when the characters were in Britain or Italy. But I thought it was a cute gag – and was happy to see that they got the small detail right to have it spelled (spelt) the British way…
sounds great mia! thanks for the info. and yeah i will certainly let you know if there is. and btw, i have a quick question that could be a spoiler but if u want, put it in spoiler bc i just need to knw this: does professor z make a good villain, or he is the type thats not rly serious…? is he like lotso? im always wondering about the villains in films. i’;m hoping he’ll make a good villain.
The horrible amount of pop songs again! At least a couple of them are related to the countries.
As for the true score, it seems at least fitting. I love how a couple of the tracks sound kind of Herrmannesque.
I still can’t form an opinion on it as I didn’t carefully listen them more than once, as I don’t wanna read the names of the tracks in case they contain spoilers.
I don’t know what kind of review was that, probably the one from a hater,
It sounds good and I like all the tracklist, what I found in some of the tracks is a mixture between ratatouille and the incredible themes, some sound very mysterious, and are recycled,
after a few listenings, I guess I now know what will be Cars 2 main theme
i agree! that review was wrong in my opinion, because i like what im hearing. and yea a lot of creepy, dark mysterious tones…but then again it is a spy movie, and spy movies have to have good villain music! and ya the theme is great. thats the thing i love about mikey. he always comes up with the movies own theme, you know? btw the soundtrack’s running time is 57:00. i cant wait till it comes out.
me too, and I am not disppointed, I’ve heard it for a while and I am in love with it, I wonder listen to it completely, remember that these music samples are just showing us a little part of the tracks, maybe the core of the score is still hidden, I mean the catchy parts,
VIVA Giacchino!!!
once again: You Might Think I’m Crazy is a MASTERPIECE… imo
some of the catchy soundtracks so far in my opinion are mater’s getaway and historys biggest loser cars
and you know that “you might think” wasn;t made originally by wheezer? it was made by the cars in the 1980s…lol im only saying that because it sounds like youve never heard that song. but yea i like their version of it
I can see where the reviewer was coming from about it being repetitive, but even if it can be considered repetitive, at least they used such a cool sounding theme to repeat. So it sounds pretty good so far.
By the way, that cover art is a lot better than the other one that’s been floating around.
Giacchino’s score is frequently repetitive though. We can hear the melody from La Festin throughout Ratatouille. Cars 2 main theme goes a step further, by applying the same melody to different tempo, gives it a very different feel to each track. I like it.
And if a Cast & Crew CD is ever made for 
So it sounds pretty good so far.